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How to Prepare for Your New Website Request

Before our design team gets started, you’ll need to complete our New Website Set-Up Form. This form gives our team the information, branding, imagery, and creative direction we need to design a website that feels like your store.

How to Prepare for Your New Website Request

We’re excited to build your new website!

Before our design team gets started, you’ll need to complete our New Website Set-Up Form. This form gives our team the information, branding, imagery, and creative direction we need to design a website that feels like your store.

Please gather all required information and images before submitting the form.

What You’ll Need

Before opening the form, we recommend gathering:

  • Your store name, address, website, and social media links
  • Your logo
  • Photos of your physical store
  • Additional lifestyle or product photography you’d like us to use
  • A short About Us description
  • Any existing brand or style guides
  • Preferred fonts and brand colors
  • 2–3 websites you like for inspiration
  • A basic description of your target customer
  • Any additional requests or information our designers should know
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Don’t have a formal brand guide or know your exact fonts or color codes? That’s okay! Give us as much information as you can.

Your Logo

Please upload the highest-quality version of your logo you have available.

Whenever possible, we recommend providing a:

  • PNG with a transparent background
  • SVG
  • EPS
  • Other high-resolution logo file

If you have multiple versions of your logo, such as a primary logo, secondary logo, icon, or alternate colorways, feel free to include them in your branding documents.

Please avoid: screenshots of your logo, photos of signage, very small or blurry logo files, or logos downloaded from social media.


Choosing Images for Your Website

Photography has a major impact on how your finished website looks. High-quality images give our designers more flexibility when creating homepage banners, collection features, promotional sections, and other visual elements.

Whenever possible, upload the original image file rather than a screenshot or an image saved from social media.

Photos of Your Store

The form requires you to upload at least one image of your physical store. These photos help our designers understand your brand’s personality, merchandising, colors, and overall aesthetic.

Photos taken on your phone are completely fine! Just make sure they are clear, well-lit, and uploaded as the original photo whenever possible.

Helpful photos can include:

  • Your storefront
  • Store interior
  • Product displays
  • Merchandising
  • Fitting rooms
  • Signage
  • Unique details that represent your store

Additional Website Images

You’ll also have the option to upload additional lifestyle, product, or brand photography you’d like incorporated into your website.

✓ Images That Work Well

High-resolution images

Large, clear images give our designers more flexibility when cropping for different screen sizes.

Well-lit and in-focus photos

Natural light or professionally lit photography works best.

Original image files

Upload the actual photo whenever possible instead of a screenshot or image saved from Instagram or Facebook.

Clean images without text

Photos without text, stickers, buttons, or graphics allow our designers to add website content without competing with what's already in the image.

A mix of horizontal and vertical photography

Wide images work especially well for homepage banners, while vertical and square images are great for collection and content sections.

Images with room around the subject

Photos with some open space give our designers more flexibility when cropping the image for desktop, tablet, and mobile.


✓ Examples of Good Website Images

Homepage / Hero Imagesf

✓ Wide, high-resolution lifestyle photo

✓ Subject has some space around them

✓ Image can be cropped without cutting off the product or model

✓ No text or graphics already added

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Collection Images

✓ Clear vertical or square lifestyle image

✓ Product is easy to see

✓ Consistent lighting and styling

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Store Images

✓ Well-lit photo of the store or display

✓ Straight, clear composition

✓ Original photo from your camera

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✕ Images to Avoid

Screenshots

Screenshots are often too small to use for large website sections.

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Images Saved From Social Media

Instagram and Facebook compress images, which can make them appear blurry when enlarged.

Whenever possible, send us the original photo instead.

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Blurry or Pixelated Images

If an image already looks blurry on your phone or computer, it will likely look even blurrier when displayed as a large website banner.

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Images With Text or Graphics

Whenever possible, send us the original photo without text, buttons, stickers, sale messaging, or other graphics already added.

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Extremely Cropped Images

If a model, product, or other important subject is already touching the edges of the image, we may not be able to crop it properly for both desktop and mobile.

Dark or Poorly Lit Photos

Images should clearly show the product, person, or space being featured.

Collages

Send us the individual photos instead so our designers have more flexibility.

Watermarked or Unauthorized Images

Only provide imagery that your store has permission to use on its website.

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Tip: If you’re choosing between sending us too few images and too many good-quality images, send more! Having several options gives our designers greater flexibility when building your site.


Writing Your About Us

You’ll be asked to provide a short background about your store.

Don’t worry about making it sound like finished website copy. Give us the information and we’ll use it to help tell your story.

Consider including:

  • When your store was founded
  • Why you started your business
  • What you sell
  • What makes your store different
  • What your customers know you for
  • Your location or community
  • Anything meaningful about your store’s story or name

Example

Willow & Main is a women’s boutique located in Charleston, South Carolina. We opened in 2018 with the goal of making everyday style feel effortless and approachable. We’re known for feminine clothing, easy-to-wear basics, accessories, and helping our customers find pieces they feel confident in.

That’s plenty for our team to work with!


Branding & Creative Direction

If you already have a brand guide or style guide, you’ll have the option to upload it.

You’ll also be asked about your preferred fonts and colors.

If you know your exact fonts or HEX codes, please include them.

Example

Fonts: Playfair Display + Montserrat

Colors: Burgundy #7B2639, Cream #F7F2E9, Black #111111

If you don’t know the exact names or codes, descriptions are helpful too.

Example

We typically use dark green, cream, black, and touches of gold.

You can also describe the overall feeling you want your website to have.

We’d like the website to feel feminine and elevated, but not overly girly.

Website Inspiration

The form gives you the option to provide examples of other websites you like. We highly recommend taking advantage of this section!

Try to share 2–3 websites that represent the style or experience you’re looking for. They don’t have to sell the same products as your store.

More importantly, tell us what you like about them.

Instead of:

I like this website.

Try:

I love the large photography, simple navigation, and how clean the homepage feels.

Or:

I like the fonts and editorial style of this site, but I’d like ours to use more color.

This helps our designers understand why you’re drawn to a particular website rather than simply trying to recreate it.


Who Is Your Customer?

You’ll have the option to tell us about your target customer.

You don’t need formal marketing research. Just describe the person who typically shops with you.

Think about:

  • Approximate age range
  • Location
  • Personal style
  • What they typically shop for
  • What brings them to your store

Example

Our core customer is primarily women ages 30–55. Most are local or live in the surrounding area. They want stylish, wearable clothing and appreciate being able to find something unique that they won’t see everywhere else.

Additional Notes

The final section is your opportunity to tell our designers anything else we should know before we begin.

This is a great place to mention things like:

“Denim is one of our biggest categories and we’d like it prominently featured.”
“Our current website feels too busy. We’d like the new website to feel cleaner and more modern.”
“We host a lot of in-store events and would like customers to easily find information about them.”
“New arrivals are the biggest driver of our online sales, so we’d like them to be a major focus.”

You don’t need to tell us exactly where every image or section should go. Focus on what is important to your business and how you want your website to feel, and our design team will take it from there.


Before You Submit

Before submitting your request, double-check that you’ve included:

  • ✓ Your logo
  • ✓ Photos of your store
  • ✓ Any additional website imagery
  • ✓ Your About Us information
  • ✓ Branding and color preferences
  • ✓ Website inspiration
  • ✓ Information about your target customer
  • ✓ Any special requests or additional notes

The more context and high-quality imagery you provide, the better equipped our design team will be to create a website that represents your store.

Ready to get started?

 
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