Website design is very important for any online business in ensuring that the customer’s attention is captured and you can persuade them to purchase your product or service. For online clothing retail brands, this is even more vital as the way they portray their products on their website can make a huge difference in how it’s perceived by customers who access the website.

The eCommerce landscape has been fast-evolving and continuously growing with part of the reason for this being due to web design being more advanced than ever before. There are a greater number of tools and technologies that can now be utilsied by online clothing retailers to help them create an engaging and attractive website effortlessly. This has allowed businesses to grow like never before and thrive in a largely competitive industry.
This guide will delve deeper into the psychology behind web design visuals and how it’s used as a catalyst for brand growth by online clothing retailers. Continue reading to find out more.
Web Design Psychology
Colour
Colour choice can play a very important role in the success of an online clothing retailer, as certain colours can evoke specific emotions in users. Users will form opinions about a website within milliseconds and colours can shape their opinions to make them think a certain way. This makes the colour scheme very integral to web design. Here’s how colour can change perception:
- Red, orange and yellow: Often associated with energy, excitement and passion.
- Blue and green: Evoke calmness and tranquility, perfect for a trusting environment.
- Black: Conveys sophistication, luxury or even mystery.
- Neutral colours: create a sense of purity, simplicity or elegance.
For an online clothing retailer, you will see a range of these colours depending on the selection of products they sell and the customers they want to attract. Sports clothing brands will usually use neutral colours like white for the simplicity factor with blue and green hints to generate trust with customers. Whereas clothing brands that sell stylish suits will use black tones to show their products as luxury.
Cognitive
The way users perceive, learn and make decisions online should always be taken into consideration by online clothing retailers, as it can allow them to create effective user-friendly websites that positively impact customers’ mindsets. This is all part of cognitive psychology with the users focus often going to specific parts of a page so they can process information a certain way. For example, website users tend to scan information in patterns that make them pay more attention to information at the top and left side of the screen. Therefore, placing the products in these areas could be considered the best for improved conversion rates.
Online clothing retailers can incorporate specific elements into their websites to direct user’s emotions a certain way. Attractive images, relatable stories and high-quality graphics can all make a huge difference to user emotions and it can help with driving higher sales and conversions.
Page Layout
User experience is so important in having a successful online business as a clothing retailer, as if a user has a poor experience on a website they will leave it within seconds. This makes good page layouts vital in retaining your audience and growing your business. The page layout can be improved in several ways with one major way being to ensure that your products come access as if they’re part of a collective rather than all scattered individual pieces of clothing.
For example, Closure’s smart men’s trainers are automatically recognised as a collective range of footwear for men and can be instantly related to the brand. This helps with growing a loyal customer base and ensuring that they revisit your site in the future.
Storytelling
Humans are hardwired for captivating stories that evoke emotions and this can be used by online clothing retailers to make their products more appealing to users. It can make your products seem more memorable to customers, so it will be instantly recognisable again if they see them online.
Your website story becomes the structure upon which your customers write their own opinions on your products. If they see themselves in your journey, you’ve cast them a role in the center of your brand’s story. This can be perfect if you grew your business from a small startup to what it’s become today.
Emotional Triggers
Understanding what triggers the emotions of your audience is important to business success, as it can help drive their purchasing decisions and make them more inclined to add to their online cart. Website design can play a big factor in this, as you can implement elements that make your page easier to navigate which can improve user experience and give them a positive perspective on your brand.
Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a very real thing and it’s when you join in with something to avoid being left behind in a trend or activity. Making your brand seem as though it’s the hottest thing on the market through web design can trigger the FOMO emotion and make customers more willing to shop with your brand.