Shopify Web Design

Our web design agency London designed and built the original website for Bitter Lemon Press way back in 2006 when HTML was the coding of choice!  And the site stood them in good stead for many, many years but eventually was overtaken by a new design. The simple CMS interface could no longer cope and was unwieldy for the user.

We needed a user-friendly interface to provide easy client editing whilst being a cost effective, reliable solution.  As a London publisher, Bitter Lemon Press needed to showcase their library of books although did not require a full e-commerce package.

BLP launched in 2003 as an independent publisher of quality thrillers and crime fiction from abroad. In 2014, a new imprint was added called Wilmington Square Books.  This was just the time to redesign their web site to incorporate the new offering.  Shopify Atlantic theme provided the perfect responsive web design, and economic platform to provide users with a clean page look and cross-catalogue searching.  With an updated navigation, WSB catalogues added and the design given a classy, clean refresh, the bookshop re-opened!

Strong imagery for visual impact was the outcome of this new Shopify web design – users can now search by country, book or author.  Reviews/author details are now provided along with offering other books by the same author.  The purchase options are now clear and simple, linking through to sellers.

We added custom fields for various affiliate sellers, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iBooks with the ability to sell paperback and ebooks online.

In 2024, we were also asked to upgrade the Shopify store from Version 1 to Version 2 of the Shopify theme, incorporating new features such as the block editor. Alongside this upgrade, we optimised the templates for better page speed and SEO performance, ensuring the site runs smoothly and ranks well. Additionally, we provided user training to help the team get comfortable with the new editing features. Google Analytics shows user engagement is on the up and the site works well for our independent publishers – on to the next chapter! If you are interested in a new ecommerce Shopify web design, please get in touch.