Six of the best image-led ecommerce sites

Not everybody loves a hero image or a carousel. But imagery is a continuing trend in ecommerce.

Whilst brands don’t want to compromise load times, the increasing uptake of tablets and their use for shopping means that images can help a site stand out.

A browsing experience is a lot more fun, and arguably realistic, with some big imagery thrown in.

Here are six websites that hit those retina-popping notes of colour on their homepages and beyond.

By Ben Davis May 20th 2014 15:50

Apple

Apple has to be included as one of the pioneers of the hero image. Nowadays it seems more, as Chris Lake puts it, hero content. The homepage pushes you a big image about the new iPhone and feels more like a product landing page.

The image now text links to a hero video, which is even more compelling and easily got rid of if needs be.

What’s nice is that exiting the video actually leaves you on what feels again like the homepage, but is a separate URL with the same hero image but followed by lots of nice pictures showcasing the apps demoed in the film (see below).

It’s powerful stuff.

This feels like Apple is taking the concept of a hero image homepage further still.

Le Coq Sportif

Five big images cycle slowly in a slideshow on the Le Coq Sportif website. The white text is echoed nicely in each photograph, either by a shoe colour, a tennis court tramline, a snowy alp or a t-shirt.

Greats

Talk about a pared-down experience. Even the top menu has been done away with, revealed by hitting the button at top left.

I would say this is an unnecessary extra step for the user, but it’s clearly designed mobile-first, where it makes sense to hide the menu to declutter the page.

In fact, when you visit on mobile, the site isn’t much different. The two images narrow down to one but not much else.

Product pages on desktop and mobile have a very snazzy product display where the user can spin the shoes on their laces to look from all angles (either with click and drag on desktop, prompted by a change in cursor style, or by swiping on mobile).

Arguably this isn’t that intuitive on mobile, as it looks like a static image, but it still made me smile.

There are lots of nice features on these product pages. Select a size that’s out of stock and you’ll see a popup asking if you want to receive an email when this size is available.

There’s a great zoom functionality which opens a new gallery of crisp images, albeit one I wasn;t expecting. Go and check it out.

The Conran Shop

Perhaps not quite big enough to be hero images, I’ve included this site anyway as the cumulative effect is very good indeed.

Taking the Pinterest aesthetic and delivering lots of colour, Conran effectively differentiates itself from much of the competition. As with all good designers, I’m left with the impression that each piece is special, from egg cup to wardrobe.

Here’s the page in full.