Vidur and Nik from the Bronte team working at a coffee table

Retail web design for physical stores

Retail Web Design

A customer checks the range, finds the nearest store and looks for the practical detail that makes the visit worthwhile. If the website cannot answer those questions quickly, the trip is easy to postpone.

We build retail websites for shops, showrooms and branch networks. The work connects catalogue content, store information, trade enquiries and clear reasons to visit without turning every page into an online checkout.

Tell us about your project See our retail work

What retail web design actually needs to do

Retail web design is website design for businesses that sell through physical shops, showrooms or branches. It helps customers browse the range, find the right location, confirm opening hours and practical details, and decide whether the trip is worth making before they leave home.

A customer may know the item, the problem it solves or only the room it is for. The website has to let them browse in those terms, then connect the range to a useful location, opening hours and a reason to visit.

We build that structure on WordPress so products, ranges and stores stay manageable as they change. If checkout is the main job, see our WooCommerce website design service.

Four jobs before a store visit

Browse the range Categories and detail built around customer questions
Find a store Locations, directions and branch-specific detail
Plan the visit Hours, parking, services and reasons to come in
Reach the right team Product, branch and trade enquiries with context

What physical retailers need from the site

The site has two connected jobs. It should make a shop easy to visit, and make a large or changing range useful before the customer arrives.

Plan the visit

Store pages with the practical answers

Opening hours, address, phone number, parking, accessibility and the services available at that branch belong together. A repeatable store page keeps the answers consistent and gives each location a useful page in search.

A locator built around the nearest store

A store locator should do more than drop pins on a map. It should help someone find the nearest useful branch, understand what is available there and move directly to directions, contact details or a visit.

Reasons to make the trip

A showroom, fitting service, product advice, appointment or in-store range may be the real reason to visit. We bring those details into the browsing journey instead of hiding them on a generic About page.

Browse the range

A catalogue organised how customers browse

Internal product codes rarely make good navigation. We group ranges by the questions, rooms, uses or categories customers recognise, then give each item enough detail to narrow the choice before they visit.

Availability enquiries sent to the right store

If stock differs by location, the site should say so honestly. A product or range enquiry can carry the item and preferred store through to the team, without pretending the public website is a live inventory system.

A clear path for trade customers

Trade customers need different information from a weekend shopper. Account applications, branch contacts, range detail and quote requests can have a direct route without turning the whole public site into a customer portal.

Featured website

Thomsons
ITM

Building supplies are local. Someone needs to know which branch carries the range, when the yard opens, and who can help with a trade or project question. The website brings branch pages, product categories and practical contact paths together around that visit.

Trade customers can find account information and reach the right team, while homeowners can browse before travelling. It is a useful example of a retailer website doing the work before someone reaches the counter.

Check out the site Tell us about your project

ThomsonsITM website showing building supplies and branch information

Catalogue site or online store?

Most physical retailers need the first. The second is a different project with payments, freight and orders sitting behind it.

Catalogue site or online store?
What to compare	Catalogue site	Online store
What it does	Helps someone choose before they visit the shop, ring the branch or open a trade account.	Takes the whole order on the website, from choosing a product through to payment.
How the range works	Products are grouped so people can narrow down and arrive knowing what to ask for.	Every product carries a price, stock, variants and a route to the checkout.
Where the sale happens	In the shop, at the trade counter or over the phone.	Online, with payment and delivery handled on the site.
What your team maintains	The range, store details and opening hours.	All of that, plus pricing, stock levels, freight rules and orders.
Usually right for	Showrooms, trade counters and branch networks.	Retailers whose main sales channel is the website.

Retail websites that help people choose where to visit

The Care Fillery

The Carefillery sell bulk food, and people buy it in a shop rather than online. The site carries the range and the recipes that go with it, then points someone to their nearest stockist.

Check out the project

Love the Centre

Love the Centre liked how their site looked, but the platform underneath it could not do much and the team could not maintain it themselves. We kept the look, built the features that were missing and moved them onto WordPress so they can run it.

Check out the project

WestCity

WestCity’s old website was not keeping up with the centre, so they came to us for something more modern. The rebuild leads with what people actually turn up for: the stores, the opening hours and how to get there.

Check out the project

Johnson Tiles

Over 120 years of tiles and a catalogue to match. We made that huge range easy to browse, sample and order online.

Check out the project

ThomsonsITM

ThomsonsITM were gearing up their marketing efforts in 2023 and reached out to us to lend them a hand.

Check out the project

Is this the right fit for your retail business?

The useful dividing line is whether the website supports a physical place and a customer decision before the visit.

Worth a conversation

You run a shop, showroom or branch network Customers need the range, location and practical information in one journey before they decide to visit.
The catalogue is useful even without checkout Products, ranges or specifications help people narrow a choice, ask a better question or arrive knowing what to look for.
Each store needs accurate local detail Hours, services, directions and contacts can use one repeatable pattern without making every branch page identical.
Trade and public customers need different paths Account applications, quote requests and branch contacts can sit beside the public catalogue without taking it over.

Better handled by another scope

Checkout is the main purpose of the website That is an online-store project. It needs product, payment and fulfilment decisions beyond this physical-retail scope.
You need a custom stock or point-of-sale platform We can connect an established system, but we do not replace the operational system that runs the business.
The website must be built on another CMS We build on WordPress. If another platform is fixed in the brief, we are not the right implementation team.
The existing site only needs a contained repair A rebuild may be unnecessary. A website health check can show whether structure, content or a smaller technical fix is the real need.

Somewhere in the middle, or not sure? That is the normal answer. Tell us what you sell and who buys it, and we will tell you which one you are.

Tell us what you sell

Retail website design pricing

These starting points reflect the number of ranges, stores, audiences and connected systems involved. We confirm the structure and content before quoting.

Investment	Common fit	Typical timeframe
Single shop and catalogue From $3,000	One shop or showroom A focused range or service catalogue Store details and clear enquiries	4 to 8 weeks
Stores, ranges and locator From $8,000	Several locations or substantial ranges Reusable store and catalogue content Locator and branch enquiry routing	8 to 12 weeks
Retail network and trade paths From $15,000	A branch network or complex catalogue Trade, stock or customer-system connections Several audiences or access levels	12 weeks and up

Not sure where your project sits?

Tell us about the stores, ranges and systems involved and we will place it in the right range.

Get a price for your build

Planning a website for physical retail?

Tell us what customers need to browse, which locations they can visit and what the store team needs to receive. We will map the first scope around those jobs.

Tell us about your project

Retail businesses we work with

Shops, showrooms and product-led businesses with real places, ranges and customer questions to organise.

Our approach to retail website design

We start with how a customer describes the range, what they need to know before travelling and which store can help. Products, categories and locations become reusable content rather than a pile of one-off pages, so a new range or branch follows the same useful structure.

The build gets responsive images, accessible controls, local search foundations and enquiry forms that carry useful context. If the current site may only need targeted work, start with a website health check. After launch, our managed WordPress hosting keeps backups, monitoring and scheduled updates in one place.

How we work

Our cheerleaders

Why believe us? Here is what our clients say, retail and otherwise.

A pleasure to deal with Vidur. He provides great solutions, excellent suggestions and always responds promptly. I wouldn ...

't hesitate to recommend him to anyone.

- Jane Warren

Bronte provides us with essential support for our website both in terms of the technical stuff and the look and feel. We ...

couldn't do it without them.

- Philip van Dyk

It has been great working with Bronte and especially with Vidur who is always there to help us out and highly patient. P ...

leasure to have worked with Bronte to create our new website and so very happy with it - receive compliments from our customers as to the design and how easy it is to navigate - all the time!

- Farida Cooper

Really enjoy having Bronte as one of our vendors who manage our websites. Our websites are also secure, fully functional ...

and optimised with Bronte's management

- Anonymous

Looking for a trustworthy partner for your WordPress needs or to develop a new website project? Look no further than Bro ...

nte! Their team is dedicated to finding the perfect solution tailored to your needs. After trying various providers, we're thrilled to have found Bronte, offering top-notch reliability and performance, earning a perfect 10 out of 10 from us. It's been a pleasure working with them!

- Orlando Tovar

I love working with the team at Bronte who give us at SmartGrass a brilliant level of support for our website. Their lev ...

el of service and communication was truly exceptional.

Sam, and when needed, Vidur, are incredibly responsive, addressing all of my queries promptly and efficiently. They make the entire process smooth and hassle-free, which is just what is needed in our busy world.

Not only are they responsive, but they are also so easy to deal with. They are friendly very helpful so I always feel valued as a client they make time for. Overall, I highly recommend the team at Bronte!

- John McKenzie

Have used Bronte for multiple website projects for the last few years - from simple updates to entire builds. Jamie is g ...

reat to deal with, making the process easy and straight forward. Sites are fast to load and easy for clients to complete day-to-day updates inhouse. Pricing is competitive for the high-quality build and service received. Look forward to working with Jamie and the team at Bronte again.

- Anonymous

Jamie was very helpful when I locked myself out of my website. He was easy to deal with and very prompt in all communica ...

tions. I felt he did his honest best at all times.

- Gary Adcock

I've had the pleasure of having Bronte support me with my work on a work Wordpress website. Any problems I've had so far ...

(and there have been more than a couple) the team at Bronte, specifically Vidur, have had the solution to and have sorted them out in no time at all. Communication with their team is always prompt and succinct which I appreciate very much. Highly recommend them if you need anything done with a Wordpress site.

- Jaepeth Tiakia

Working with Bronte has been an absolute breeze! The comms are amazing (seriously, they might have telepathy because the ...

y just get it), and the service? Impeccable. They’re always on top of things and somehow make even the most complicated web jargon sound like a piece of cake. 🍰

Every question I had was met with confidence and an explanation that made sense, even for a non-techie

They listened to all my concerns, broke down the tech talk into plain English, and got the job done without a hitch. Honestly, they made the whole process a breeze. Highly recommend!

- Briar Jessica McGregor

Excellent company to deal with. They manage you website hassle free and always ready to make any changes.

- Bhavik Vashi

Vidur is knowledgeable and personable - no question goes unanswered and all tasks are completed to the highest standard

- Deirdre Moran

I have worked with Bronte for a number of years and they have consistently delivered an excellent and responsive service ...

. It's very reassuring to have our website in professional hands, enabling me to get on with other marketing initiatives. I highly recommend the team at Bronte.

- Chris Liew

Bronte has been looking after many of our sites for a few years and we couldn't be happier with the work they have done. ...

The team are always very fast to respond to requests and are great at communicating. Highly recommended!

- Sarah Hagan

Bronte have really come to the party, super responsive and going above and beyond to deliver a site our client is really ...

happy with :)

- Rebekah Hasloch

Great service. Got things done quickly.

- Anonymous

Where retail websites lose the visit

Retail websites fail in small practical ways. The catalogue is organised by internal product codes. The store page leaves out parking or opening hours. Every branch looks identical even when the services and ranges differ. We have built WordPress websites since 2010, and the useful work is connecting products, places and enquiries so a customer can decide whether to make the trip.

800 +

Websites built

215 +

Happy clients

15 +

Years of experience

101 %

Kiwi owned