HexvorShops and online stores
A website for your shop
A shop page has one job before it has any others: make the product understandable and the price visible. A price somebody has to click to see is a price they assume is bad.
Describe your siteTry something like this
A site for a small ceramics studio that sells online. The pieces with real prices, how they are made, shipping and returns, and how to get in touch. Quiet and photographic.
The more of it that is true of your business, the less of the result you will have to change. Hexvor never invents a phone number, an address, a price or a review — anything you leave out comes back as an obvious placeholder rather than as a plausible lie.
30 rules the engine applies to this kind of site
Not a feature list. These are the actual instructions sent with your request when Hexvor recognises the trade, on top of the 637 that apply to every site.
Product first
The product is the visual focus of its own page. Everything else supports it.
Purchase is obvious
Somebody must understand how to buy within a second of arriving.
Never hide the price
The primary price is never visually subordinate to anything else.
Variants are legible
Size, colour and material are clearly distinguished, not a row of identical swatches.
One image ratio
Product photographs share proportions across a collection, or the grid reads as broken.
Galleries work by touch
Product galleries must be navigable with a thumb as well as a mouse.
Zoom where detail decides
Provide zoom when the detail of the product is what somebody is buying.
Say what is in stock
Communicate availability plainly. Never display a stock figure you do not have.
Shipping near the decision
Cost and time surfaced beside the purchase, not only in a policy page.
Returns are findable
Link the returns policy from the product page and the footer.
Add to cart dominates
The primary purchase action stays the loudest thing on the page.
Secondary buying is quieter
A buy-now beside add-to-cart must not compete with it.
Benefits before specification
Say what it does for somebody before the paragraph about materials.
Specifications are scannable
A table or a list, never prose.
Reviews that help
Emphasise rating, how many, and the detail that answers a real question.
Confirm the cart
Say clearly when something was added. Silence reads as a failure and produces a second click.
Editing the cart is easy
Changing quantity or removing an item must take one action.
Checkout has no exits
Remove navigation that invites somebody to leave halfway through paying.
Show checkout progress
When it has stages, say which one this is.
The buy button is reachable
On a phone the purchase action stays within a thumb's reach.
Search finds things
Product search prioritises useful results over a clever interface.
Filters match real decisions
Filter by what somebody actually chooses on, not by every field in the database.
Useful sorting, not all sorting
Offer the two or three orders people use.
Categories say why
A category page explains what the category is for rather than listing everything in it.
Recommend towards the goal
Cross-sell must support the purchase in progress, not interrupt it.
Never invent reviews
No fabricated ratings, counts or quotes. They are words put in the mouths of people who did not speak.
Never invent a discount
No struck-through prices that were never charged. In most countries this is illegal as well as dishonest.
Wishlist only if it helps
Add one when browsing genuinely spans visits, not as a default feature.
Reassurance beside payment
Payment and security information where the card details are entered.
Reduce uncertainty
A product page's job is to remove the reasons not to buy.
Describe yours
Free to start, no card. Publish when it looks right.
Build a site