People say my store looks fake and low effort. What makes a store look premium?
By Dan BartleyUpdated 3 minute read
The short answer
Mostly the photos, and how consistent the store is from page to page. A store looks premium when every product is photographed the same way, the photos show the actual product in believable settings, the design is restrained and the copy is specific. It looks fake when photos are borrowed or mismatched, the pages are crowded and the claims are vague.
Why does my store look fake or low effort?
Usually because the parts do not match. Photos from different sources, several fonts and colours, stock images beside product shots and generic copy each suggest a store put together in a hurry.
| What visitors see | What it suggests | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier photos, each in a different style | A reseller with no stock of its own | Photograph or remake every product in one style |
| Photos of different shapes on collection pages | An uneven grid nobody finished | One aspect ratio for every main image |
| Several fonts, colours and button styles | Nobody designed it | One or two typefaces, a small palette and one button style |
| Pop-ups, countdown timers and flashing badges | Pressure, the way a discount or scam site works | One offer, shown calmly |
| Copy such as high quality and premium materials | Nothing specific to believe | Name the material, the size, the maker and the care |
| Spelling mistakes and placeholder text | Nobody checked | Read every page on a phone before it goes live |
How much do product photos decide whether a store looks premium?
A great deal, because they are what most visitors look at first. Large, sharp photos of the actual product, in the same style across the store, do more for perceived quality than any theme.
Baymard Institute found that 56% of users began by exploring the product images as soon as they arrived on a product page, and that low-quality images lowered how users saw the products themselves.
- The same light, angle and background for every product on a collection page
- The product in a setting that suits its price: a room, a table, a person
- Close-ups that show the material and the finish
- Files large and sharp enough to hold up when a buyer zooms in
Which design choices make a store look premium?
Restraint: fewer fonts, a small colour palette, plenty of space around the products and one clear button style, so the photos carry the page. Crowding every offer and badge onto the first screen does the opposite.
- One typeface for headings and one for body text, at most
- Two or three colours used the same way on every page
- Large product images with space around them
- One button style for the main action on every page
- Short lines of copy, with the detail behind a disclosure row
Can the copy make a store look cheap?
It can, when it is vague, copied or careless. Phrases such as premium quality, spelling mistakes and descriptions pasted from a supplier tell visitors that nobody who knows the product wrote them; specific details, such as the timber, the weave or where it was made, do the opposite.
How do I make the whole store look consistent?
Set rules and apply them to every product: one photo style, one aspect ratio, the same set of angles and the same order in every gallery. Then check the collection pages, where any inconsistency shows first.
There is more on this in how to keep product photos consistent across a catalogue, and on uneven grids in fixing a collection page with images of different sizes.
Where should I start making my store look premium?
With the photos on your best sellers and your collection pages, because they are what most visitors see first. A new theme on top of mismatched photos still looks mismatched.
Bartley Studio makes full, consistent sets of product images from a couple of phone photos of each product, made with AI and finished by hand. Ten products with eight images each comes to $2,040 plus GST. When the store itself needs redesigning, Bartley Studio also builds Shopify themes and product pages, quoted per project after a short brief.
Other questions people ask about this
Do I need a paid theme to look premium?
No. A free Shopify theme can look premium with consistent photos, restrained type and colour, and careful copy, and a paid theme cannot rescue mismatched photos.
Will AI images make my store look fake?
They will if they change the product or look generated. Used to place the real product in a believable setting, checked against the product and finished by hand, they make a store more consistent, not less.
Read the full answerShould I copy the look of a premium brand I admire?
Borrow the structure, not the look. Notice how they order the gallery and where they put delivery and returns, then apply that with your own photos and brand.
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