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Design becomes a strategic tool when it reduces customer uncertainty and makes the shopping experience clearer.
The article links the designers’ discussion following the referendum to practical decisions regarding e-shops and digital marketing: clearer information, less uncertainty at checkout, and design that helps customers trust the purchase.
The Design Week discussion featuring ten designers, ten years after the Brexit referendum, is not just about political memory. For an e-commerce brand, it serves as a reminder that design becomes more valuable when the public feels uncertainty, pressure, and fatigue from messages that all seem the same. See also: Digital Marketing & SEO.
In an online store, uncertainty manifests itself in very practical ways: in an abandoned shopping cart, on a product page that doesn’t answer critical questions, or at a checkout that asks for too much and explains too little. That’s why design isn’t just decoration. It’s a way to structure trust, information, and the purchasing decision.
The Design Week article, The Other Side: Ten Years After the Referendum, Ten Designers Respond, asks creators to respond to an event that continues to shape identities, attitudes, and public discourse. Its value for businesses lies not in the political event itself, but in the way designers translate a complex context into a clear visual and communicative stance.
This is particularly useful for brands that sell online. Customers don’t enter an e-shop as neutral visitors. They’ve already compared prices, checked out marketplaces, are concerned about shipping and returns, have limited time, and often have little tolerance for ambiguity. A brand that understands this context designs differently: it presents critical information early on, makes its message more specific, and turns the user experience into proof of credibility.
Practical takeaway: The design of an e-shop must address the customer’s uncertainty before it leads to cart abandonment or a search for a competitor.
The same logic explains why a brand shouldn’t mechanically copy visual trends. In times of stress, users look for signs of consistency: if the message of the ad, the landing page, the shipping policy, and the confirmation email all seem to be part of the same system, the experience becomes more convincing. If each touchpoint has a different style, the user feels that behind the attractive facade, there is no clear operational structure.
That is why the strategic value of design lies in consistency. Brand strategy defines the promise, UX turns it into a journey, and content explains the details the customer needs to move forward. When these elements work together, the e-shop relies not only on discounts or campaign pressure, but on an experience that makes the choice easier.
The link between design and business performance is not merely theoretical. McKinsey, in its study The Business Value of Design, found that companies with high scores on the McKinsey Design Index had significantly better financial results over a five-year period. What’s important for e-commerce businesses is that the study doesn’t limit design to the aesthetic level. It links design to decisions regarding product, user experience, metrics, and management.
For an e-shop owner, this means that design must be evaluated just as carefully as SEO, advertising, or product availability. If the product page doesn’t alleviate doubts, if the category doesn’t help with comparisons, or if the checkout process causes stress, then the problem is commercial—not just visual.
Outperforming companies with strong design
Source: McKinsey, The Business Value of Design
The bottom line is that design leadership needs to be incorporated into the strategy early on. A new template isn’t enough if the brand doesn’t know what it’s promising, who it’s targeting, and which part of the experience is holding the user back. The most useful question isn’t «How can we make it look better?» but «Which customer decision are we making easier?».
In practice, the economic value of design becomes apparent when the team stops discussing only personal preferences and begins to link every change to a measurable obstacle. A new layout on a product page makes sense when it facilitates comparison, clarifies availability, or reduces support inquiries. A new visual identity makes sense when it makes the brand more recognizable and more trustworthy across the channels where customers make their decisions.
This approach also helps with the budget. Instead of treating design as an expense that only comes up during a redesign, it becomes a continuous improvement process that supports marketing, SEO, customer support, and sales. This way, a business can decide which change is worth prioritizing: a better category page, clearer filters, more compelling product content, or a simpler checkout process.
The concept of «the other side» can be applied to e-commerce as a business’s ability to view the experience from the customer’s perspective. Many brands design their strategies around what they want to convey: quality, deals, a premium image, speed. But customers often ask something different: Can I trust you? What if I don’t like it? When will I receive it? Why should I buy here and not on a marketplace?;
The answers to these questions should be incorporated into the UX, microcopy, photos, return policies, filters, and checkout process. When information is hidden or appears slowly, users fill in the gaps with uncertainty. When the experience is consistent, brand trust is built without the need for exaggerated claims.
Average cart abandonment rate
Source: Baymard Institute, Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics
This percentage doesn’t mean that every shopping cart can be saved. However, it does show just how costly it is to treat UX as a mere finishing touch. The shopping experience needs to be built around real concerns: cost, time, security, returns, availability, and clear comparisons of options.
A practical example is shipping information. If it appears only in the final step, the user has already invested time and may feel that the brand was hiding part of the decision. If it appears on the product page, in the shopping cart, and at checkout using the same language, it serves as a trust signal. The same applies to returns, warranties, real photos, and reviews.
The «other side» is also the customer who doesn’t buy right away. They may need to compare options, get approval from a team, take some time, or get more information. A mature e-commerce experience provides pathways for all of these: wish lists, clear share links, helpful emails, comparison content, and the ability to communicate without interrupting the experience.
Baymard consistently identifies reasons for checkout abandonment that are directly related to trust and clarity. High additional costs, mandatory account creation, slow delivery, a lack of trust in the payment process, and a complicated checkout process are not merely technical details. They are points where the customer feels that the brand does not fully respect their time, control, or risk tolerance.
Main reasons for checkout abandonment
Source: Baymard Institute, Reasons for Abandonments During Checkout
Corrections must be specific. Offer shipping options early on, guest checkout, fewer required fields, a clear return policy, visible payment methods, and fast loading times are more valuable than a superficial color change. Good design makes commercial promises verifiable within the purchasing process.
The biggest pitfall is treating these points as a checklist without prioritizing them. For a tech store, feature comparisons, availability, and the reliability of after-sales service may have a greater impact. For fashion, sizes, returns, and product photos are often critical. For B2B products, transparent pricing, the ability to provide quotes, and technical support carry greater weight.
So the design must be based on data specific to that store. Where do users drop off? What questions does customer service keep asking? Which products have high traffic but low sales? These answers reveal where better information is needed—not just a more prominent button.
The strategic implementation of design doesn’t have to start with a major redesign. It can begin with a systematic mapping of the points where the user seeks more certainty. The framework below helps a team work in a practical way, with priorities tied to sales.
The lesson to be learned from Design Week’s approach is not that every brand must comment on every social issue. It is that every brand operates within an environment that influences people’s psychology and decisions. When customers feel uncertain, clarity becomes a competitive advantage.
For e-commerce businesses, design should be viewed as a language of trust—not just a logo, not just a user interface, but the way in which a brand demonstrates that it understands its customers. That is the difference between a presence that merely looks modern and an experience that leads to a relationship, repeat purchases, and long-term value.
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Because it influences how customers perceive value, trust the brand, and complete a purchase. It’s not just about image, but about clarity and reducing uncertainty.
Product pages, filters, shipping information, the return policy, the shopping cart, and checkout are usually the areas where improvements to the UX have an immediate impact on conversions.
With transparent pricing from the start, guest checkout, fewer fields, clearly displayed payment methods, clear return policies, and microcopy that addresses user concerns at just the right moment.
No. Targeted improvements to the checkout process, product pages, internal search, and trust signals often yield greater value, provided they are measured before and after.
Branding provides consistency and sets expectations, while UX delivers on that promise throughout the customer journey. When the two align, the user makes a decision with less friction.
Useful metrics include conversion rate, add-to-cart rate, checkout completion, abandonment rate by step, scroll depth, internal search, support inquiries, and repeat purchases.
