How to Design a Luxury Website

A luxury website design starts with a luxury product and luxury service.

Understand the expectations of the luxury customer.

It is crucial to understand the core desires of the luxury buyer and the unspoken expectations placed on any company the luxury buyer does business with. Knowing this will help the company understand how to create products, design service, and how to market a luxury product to the luxury buyer.

When the luxury consumer makes a purchase from a company that charges more than their competitors, this demographic rarely ever questions the price, but the luxury buyer does think about what they get in exchange for the price they paid. High quality leather, expert craftsmanship, a seamless, no-hassle service are all the standard of excellence that is expected.

Here are a list of some of the core expectations of the customer:

• High quality product and materials

• Seamless, high quality, service with minimal hitches

• Respect for their time- no time delays, back up plans in place for the what if situations

• Fine attention to detail

• Full functionality and aesthetic appearance both need to be present

Most luxury consumers are extremely successful in businesses and in life. As a result, this kind of buyer expects the same high level attention to detail and service from you. This buyer appreciates their time, tends to desire to spend time with their family and loved ones, and genuinely appreciates companies that can deliver on time and without problems. The luxury buyer doesn't typically question the price, but do want to know what kind of exchange is received for it. A great return on investment is expected in every case. Without a high level of care and attention to detail, you can lose interest quickly. High end consumers tend to be well educated and have refined taste.

When designing a luxury website, you'll need to keep the following in mind:

• Pay attention to the small details. High quality means high attention to small details. Every part of your website needs to have purpose and a reason for being there.

• Premium consumers are technologically savvy and will see through any negligence in terms of your website's design and usability.

• Deliver more than just a great product: you have to design a complete experience. Think about every path the consumer will take on each page and page transition.

• Superior user experience is highly intuitive. It should be carefully planned ahead of time and answers any subconscious questions that may arise

• Simplicity. When you visit a luxury website, you'll notice a lot of "white space". Most luxury websites are amazingly simple.

• Personalization- create a new and personalized experience for your customers. Offer a tailor made service, tailor made products, or tailor made experience on your website.

• Keep it: Minimalistic, clean, simple, artistic

• Luxury consumers can base decisions on emotions and intangible expectations, not price. Abstract elements and values can mean more than you realize. Art and design, incorporated in complex concepts and higher ideals can go a long way with a demographic that takes the time to explore it.

Websites are reflections of how a company does business, its core values, and is a visual representation of what to expect when doing business with a company.

When the core values of your product and service are in place, then, the website design team and development team can truly design something that captures the heart and soul of your company to explain it in a way that resonates with your customer.

It is about more than just using the psychological colors that imply luxury, it is about understanding what your customer wants and ensuring you can provide it to your target customer in every facet of the website and of the experience.