I recently had a client tell me their business has grown over 220% in one year after we built their new website, and they're on track to do 8 figures this year. As much as I'd like to claim full responsibility and post these stats on LinkedIn, I won't.
Because obviously our design/development work isn't the sole reason these guys are doing so well. This business is grinding very hard, doing all the right things, and they have great marketing strategies, great products, and an outstanding work rate.
So why am I saying all of this when my business is literally to sell people ecommerce sites? Because it's the truth. But it's also true that we helped them on their trajectory.
The Real Value of Good Agency Partnership
Although it's very hard to quantify, we've helped increase their revenue and decrease their operational headaches. We've provided creative ecommerce solutions both on the front end and operationally. Because we've been a good agency partner, they don't have a headache when it comes to ecommerce.
They don't need to invest time or even a lot of money because we support them in a way where they can lean on our extensive knowledge and consulting. They don't need to go down a ChatGPT/Google rabbit hole reading Reddit forum posts from 6 years ago every time they need to do something new with Shopify.
This is how we provide value.
The Hidden Cost of Bad UX
We also help reduce lost revenue. You know, if you have a bad site, people may get confused and leave. Sometimes we even forget how important basic UX is because it's just a day-to-day standard for us and we see it so much. But it's true - a lot of ecommerce stores are bleeding cash for their owners because of bad UX or just basic issues.
Consider the Theater of Luxury Retail
Walk into a Hermès boutique and you'll find leather craftspeople working behind glass, demonstrating the centuries-old techniques used to create their handbags. Hermès offers a more personalized shopping experience, often catering to high-end customers who expect exclusivity. Their stores are designed to make you feel special, with a more intimate shopping experience. At Louis Vuitton's flagship stores, they now offer myriad services for their clients to ensure a unique experience that they keep coming back for. Louis Vuitton's luxury stores now feature digitally integrative and highly immersive in-store experiences to boost in-store sales.
These brands understand something fundamental: in luxury retail, these experiences are not just about transactions but about fostering a deep, personal connection between the brand and the customer. They're selling aspiration, exclusivity, and identity - not just products. The marble floors, personal stylists, champagne service, and VIP lounges aren't overhead costs; they're the product itself.
The Digital Translation
Your website functions exactly the same way. When someone lands on your ecommerce store, they're not just evaluating your product - they're evaluating whether your brand aligns with how they see themselves or want to be seen. Luxury purchases are often driven by emotions and aspirations.
Just as luxury brands create physical environments that make customers feel sophisticated and exclusive, your website design needs to create that same psychological state. Poor navigation is like having a messy store floor. Cheap-looking graphics are like fluorescent lighting. Generic product photos are like having no sales staff to guide the experience.
The stakes are identical whether someone is standing in your store or scrolling through your site - you have seconds to establish credibility and create the emotional context for a purchase decision.
Everything is By Design
Even sites like Balenciaga that look simple? That's just because it's minimalistic. This has no doubt been carefully cultivated to look exactly like this because that is their brand identity. This site no doubt had a very extensive UI/UX design process with many revisions and creatives inputting to achieve that exact brand identity and brand vision.
There's a site called Online Ceramics that basically has a raw HTML site. But guess what? That is actually the brand image they want to represent. So minimal it's crazy, and like no one else does that - it's so edgy. Everything needs to be by design.
The Psychology of Shopping
Your website is an opportunity to showcase your brand identity and feeling. Shopping is very much a psychological experience. People don't just want a website where they can click "add to cart" and buy.
They first need to be inspired by the brand and aspire to be like the archetype you're selling to them. Are you presenting an image that they want to be? Because they need to buy your product to be like that. This is all done through web design.
Studies show that emotional response to an ad has 3 times more influence on buying intention than the ad's content. The same principle applies to your website - the emotional response triggered by your design often matters more than your product descriptions.
The Bottom Line
Custom design isn't magic. It won't fix a bad product, poor marketing, or lazy execution. But when you're already doing the fundamentals right, it becomes the multiplier that helps you capture more of the revenue you're already driving to your site.
It reduces friction, builds trust, reinforces your brand positioning, and creates the psychological environment where customers feel good about spending money with you. Whether that's worth the investment depends on how serious you are about maximizing every opportunity that walks through your digital door.