25 E-Commerce Websites for Your Design Inspiration

The success of an e-commerce website is defined by sales, not by design. However, that doesn’t mean that design does not matter. In this post we’ll showcase 25 well-designed e-commerce sites from a wide variety of industries. For more on e-commerce sites please see these posts from the archives:

• 50 Inspirational E-Commerce Website Designs
• 25 Inspirational E-Commerce Website Designs – Part Two
• 35 Excellent E-Commerce User Interface Designs
• 25 Creative E-Commerce Website Designs
• WordPress E-Commerce: 30+ Resources
• 37 Shopping Cart Options for Developers
• 9 Characteristics of Well-Designed E-Commerce Websites

Best Buy

Effective Tour Pages: Trends and Showcase

I was recently working on the tour page for Vandelay Premier and doing some research on other tour pages to gather inspiration. I decided to put this post together because it is a topic that can have a great deal of impact on the success of a web app or web business.

Looking at the analytics data shortly after launching Vandelay Premier it was obvious that the tour page will have an incredibly significant impact on the success of the site. When visitors arrive at a site that they are not familiar with the tour page is very inviting since it promises to help them get acquainted with the site very quickly. Many sites and apps place a link or a button for the tour in a very prominent location, so it provides a very valuable opportunity to sell.

By looking at the trends and examples of well-designed tour pages you can pick up some ideas for use in your own work. Here we will cover some of the most common trends of tour pages and we’ll include a showcase of pages for your own inspiration.

Trends of Tour Pages:

1. Lists of Features and/or Benefits

The most important job of a tour page is to show a visitor why they should care about the site or product, and what it can do for them. Effective tour pages break down the main features, benefits, or selling points in a way that shows visitors how useful it can be to them. The screenshot below shows how Basecamp quickly lists the benefits, and visitors can click on any of them for more information.

Web Design Trends: Skylines and Cityscapes

One common trend that a number of web designers are using is to include skylines and cityscapes in their designs. In some cases it is a silhouette in the background, in other cases it may be a more significant part of the design. In this post we’ll showcase 25 examples, and at the end of the post you’ll find links to some Photoshop brush sets that will allow you to add this to your own work.

Ghostown Studios

25 Flash Portfolios for Your Inspiration

Although HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery are able to accomplish a lot of exciting results and gaining popularity, Flash is still used by a number of impressive websites. In this post we’ll showcase 25 Flash portfolio sites. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next year or two with the future of Flash. For now, here is some Flash inspiration.

John Wright

Beautiful Vintage Design: Showcase and Resources

The vintage style is very popular in web design right now and has been mastered by many designers. Vintage-style designs typically include textures, colors and some items that give it that vintage feel. In this post we’ll showcase some excellent examples for your inspiration, and we’ll also feature some resources, like textures and Photoshop brushes, to help in your own vintage-style design.

Showcase of Vintage Inspired Design:

If you’re looking for inspiration for some of the best vintage-styled web designs, here is our collection of more than 25 of them. You’ll see that the vintage approach to design is used in a wide variety of industries and for all different types of websites.

Heartbreaker Fashion

25 Beautiful Travel and Tourism Websites

Websites in the travel industry often place an emphasis on the design and appearance because a good-looking site will hopefully draw more interest and excitement for the destination. Many of them also use nature-inspired designs (see last week’s post 35 Beautiful Web Designs Inspired by Nature for more examples). Here you’ll find some of the best websites from the travel and tourism industry.

Roadside Heritage

35 Beautiful Web Designs Inspired by Nature

When creating a beautiful and memorable web design, many designers turn to nature to be inspired by the beauty of what surrounds us. Nature-inspired web design has become more common in recent years as large backgrounds and extensive use of images are being used. In this post we’ll take a look at some amazing examples of designs that can be created to incorporate various aspects of nature into a website.

Ecoki iPhone App

25 Beautiful Minimalist Websites – Part VIII

Throughout the existence of this blog our readers have appreciated posts on minimalism more than just about any other topic. Here we will continue our series of showcasing exceptional examples of minimalism in web design.

Clean, Simple, Clear

Design Inspiration: Graffiti Art Showcase

Design inspiration can come from just about anywhere. In this post we’ll feature examples of graffiti art that can serve as inspiration. Here you’ll find 30 pieces of graffiti art that display text effects, character illustrations, beautiful color schemes, and more.

30 Vibrant and Colorful Website Designs

Deciding on a color scheme can often be one of the most difficult parts of the web design process. There are a lot of different approaches that you can take with a color scheme, and in this post we’ll be showcasing 30 sites that feature vibrant color schemes.

Visual Recipes