What makes a great coffee shop website? For that matter, what makes any eCommerce website great?
Companies and great e-commerce merchants like Amazon, eBay, Shopify, and Alibaba set the standard for great online sales effectiveness, and there's much you can learn from them.
There's all kinds of examples of brands that have harnessed Web development, User experience (UX or UE), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and Web Design to drive online sales.
Their successes and best practices can be learned from and replicated by cafe owners who want to build websites for their coffee shops.
Web designers and web developers might have their own criteria for what makes a great website, but a successful coffee shop website is one that achieves the objectives it was built for.
Typically, the foremost objective is to sell coffee. In our view, those who do that specifically well are great sources of inspiration.
This page (recently updated for 2021) will review and showcase coffee shop websites that, for different reasons, do a great job of selling coffee online. We'll surface some of the more useful and inspirational websites you can learn from when undertaking any kind of coffee shop web design project.
THE BEST COFFEE SHOP WEBSITES (2022)
First the Context: Coffee & Online Shopping
Customer's willingness to purchase online has quite literally never been higher and is still projected to grow. Online coffee sales are trending in the same direction.
Online payment processing continues to grow safer and easier. There's less friction as payment processors like Stripe, Google Pay, and others become more ubiquitious.
However..
Trust is still one of the biggest factors working for or against e-Commerce websits.
Online reviews from customers can and almost always impact conversions and sales.
Other factors impacting sales and success include social media "signals" (comments, likes, and general sentiment around the business and website) and competition.
Finally, customer service is essential to building and maintaining a growing business, and that's especially true of e-Commerce.
So when we review the "best websites' we don't look at them purely from a web design, development, or "aesthetic" perspective (although we do that as well). It's critical to take the larger context into account when looking at coffee websites that do their job well enough to serve as useful inspiration.
INSPIRATIONAL COFFEE WEBSITES
1. Javy Coffee
Javy Coffee is perhaps our favourite coffee website on the list.
This is an incredibly sophisticated website. It makes use of very high quality product photography, a deliberately chosen color palette, and some very cleverly implemented animations.
For instance behold the Java concentrate bottle floating next to the coffee bean on the home page:
As you'll see when browsing the website Javy Coffee relies heavily on trust signals, highlighting press mentions and reviews wherever possible.
Moreover the product pages are particularly impressive as they have sections that are built our as you scroll that not only highlight product features but also include videos and testimonials related to the product.
Not surprisingly the website had an entire page dedicated to publishing reviews and testimonials. All pages use a distinct template but are built with pleasing and soft color pallettes. The layouts use a lot of borders that are subtle but consistently applied.
2. Hot and Cool Cafe
There's a lot to like about Hot and Cool Cafe's website.
The layout is impactful, with large images and clear calls to action.
There's a lot of white space and some fun animations that really illustrate how far you can push the design part of a coffee website.
What's really impressive about the website is it only functions as a channel for their in person location (although they offer pickup and delivery) vs a fully functional eCommerce website.
Given the purpose of the website they do a great job using their image assets, fonts, and animations to stand out.
3. Onyx Coffee Lab
Onyx Coffee Lab appears to offer something very different.
The full page video background tends to have a negative impact on performance but the advantage it definitely jumps out and set their website apart from many others.
This design is a good illustration of one in which a website is less concerned about using their website to sell coffee with high conversion rates and low friction and more looking to use the website to make a lasting and memorable impact on the end customer.
When you do look to buy coffee or a coffee related product from the website even the product page is designed with the intent of catching your eye:
There are, of course, some trade offs to this choice. The product page design can actually be a bit distracting when you consider that customers are looking for information that will make them feel good about making a purchase at this stage of their customer journey.
On the other hand, the design still keeps that "wow" factor and leaves a lasting impression on anyone who uses the website as a result.
4. Roaster's Pack
What's most interesting about Roaster's Pack coffee's website is that it is built like many other eCommerce stores vs looking like a coffee shop website.
Everything from their font choicses to the overall flow of their website seems to communicate value. While not necessarily a "premium" coffee offering the features they list make it clear they are selling a high quality product with a customer centric mindset.
For instance they also offer a step by step wizard to help customers who aren't sure what coffee to purchase:
The page will walk you through selecting your roast type, grind type and quantity to you can feel good about making a purchase or subscribing on an ongoing basis.
5. Fried Hats Coffee
Fried Hats website is certainly unique.
The shopping page makes use of specific font types and each component on the website is marked with thick borders, which is a design choice you don't often see.
They make use of animations sparingly but when they do it is to important effect (for instance mousing over the logo).
The website is built with relatively simple features and functions but it also has the advantage of loading very fast.
Overall the design of the website might not work for every brand, but as long as it's supportive of a consistent theme in how the brand presents itself it works well enough.
6. Oren's Coffee
Oren's Coffee website uses layouts and imagery in a way that communicate the "premium" nature of the brand.
Everything from the typography, the images, and the modular nature of the homepage and other pages suggests an elegant and distinct brand.
The copy is really written with the true coffee aficiando in mind, and the interfact is sleek and user friendly. For instance you can browse the coffee products and get a "quick view" of each which allows you to order the coffee directly from the homepage - reducing friction and boosting conversion rates.
The subscription box page is built gradually as you scroll, using a lot of white space and large font size to keep the process simple and easy to understand / move through.
This is an excellent example of a marketing first website, which is clearly built to sell the coffee while making the end user feel like their are buying something of high quality.
7. Adore
Adore Coffee's website is a great case study in highly memorable and impactful design.
The website is highly functional without much fluff or creative elements interfering with the user experience, but where design elements like buttons, review stars, or menu items are chosen they are decidely bold.
While the website design lacks some subtlety they also employ a good deal of white space so the experience in browsing the website is never overwhelming or confusing.
8. Merlo
What we like about Merlo is the design and theme looks just different enough from most coffee websites to really set it apart.
Not suprisingly the use of white space and colours creates an effect that mirrros that of their packaging and branding elsewhere. It is to some degree ornate looking but still very warm and welcoming (both the website and the coffee packaging).
The use of animations is clever as well. For instance when you move your mouse over some of the products they background of the product photo changes from transparent / white to a very calming light blue. The effect is both subtle and calming but adds an extra layer of polish to the overall user experience.
9. Eight Ounce Coffee
Eight Ounce Coffee's website is as inspirational as it gets.
Everything about the website is distinctive.
Crisp product photography.
Delierate and unique use of typography and colours.
Although their product pages seem pretty standard they actually include more interesting information than you might find elsewhere. For instance some coffee bags are "barista approved" and they do a good job calling out points like "hassle free" return policies and loyalty program points.
Even the review and product description sections use a unique colour scheme really adding to the distinctive feel of the website.
10. Pilot Coffee Roasters
At first glance Pilot Coffee Roasters appear to keep thing simple, but as you dig deeper into the website you'll see that their different layours and design elements tailored to many different types of pages.
They include in depth edudcational material like brewing guides that make us of minimal and elegant imagery to illustrate the concepts they write about.
Their website is also very much geared to selling coffee, with newsletter signup prompts, loyalty programs, subscription offerings and free shipping callouts.
11. Hello De Mello
Hello De Mello is clearly looking to impress with some very strong visuals and a slideshow / banner on the homepage with animated snow.
They use a strong colour pallet and a lot of animations to build out their website layout and navigation.
The copy they use is consistent with the playful and whimsical design of the website as well.
Speaking of playful.. their product pages include the standard elements you would expect to find but they employ a particularly distinctive typography which again underscore the image and brand they are trying to get across.
12. Matchstick Coffee
Matchstick Coffee does a great job building an interface and navigation elements that allow you to choose between the many different types of offerings they provide.
The website acts as a central hub for their locations, kitchen information, roastery information, and of course their ecommerce portion of their website.
There's a consistent theme across all these different "sections" with bold use of colours seen throughout the website "experience".
Their shop page is relatively straight forward but in terms of design one very cool thing to callout is how their coffee product packaging is actually mirrored by the colours and theme of their website design.
13. Indy Coffee Box & Conversion Rate Optimization
Indy Coffee Box has a few obvious things going for it.
First, their top left call out saying "Never Have a Bad Coffee Again" quickly and concisely articulates their value proposition to the visitor.
They operate a monthly subscription model primarily, so this callout speaks effectively to what you get out of a subscription: no risk of having to drink bad coffee. Reliability and consistency is their bread and butter, and the solution they offer to customers.
They are also using "Hotjar" which is a website analytics tool used to create heatmaps and user behavior insights that can be used by marketers and UX Designers. It's likely their simplified layout and checkout process is a direct result of the behavior insights they were able to surface and apply to their user experience and website design best practices.
See more examples of coffee subscription websites.
14. Blue Coffee Box & Web Design
Blue Coffee box prides itself on its ethical and sustainable business model, and they do a great job calling attention to that fact directly on the home page. This is a pretty good example of where you can use web design to better reflect your brand and values.
They go out of their way to mention that not only is their coffee ethically sourced, but their packaging is 100% plastic free compostable. All this is immediately communicated on the home page in short and easy to digest bullet points.
Their website, an extension of their marketing strategy, is a great demonstration of how internal business decisions can and should be highlighted where they speak to the things your customers care about.
15. Drink Trade & User Experience
Drink Trade has clearly mastered the art of the coffee product page.
They include simple visuals to interact with in choosing your quantity and grind style when selecting a product.
They also include details about the roasting schedule (for each product) as well as a quick and easy to understand illustration of the taste and roast level of each.
The impact of the roast schedule can't be overstated, this is an elegant and effective way of communicating to customers that their coffee will be fresh while also setting expectations about the logistics and time they can expect to receive the coffee.
This doesn't happen by accident. This is almost definitely the result of a robust and well executed User Experience (U/X) process.
16. Yes Plz Coffee & Web Development
Ok, now Yes Plz Coffee is clearly about making a statement.
Even their domain name, yesplz.coffee (instead of .com) is clearly exploring off the beaten path.
With coffee blend names like "vibe check" and a website where every page is prettier than the last, Yes Plz Coffee obviously isn't afraid to take bold risks in the name of creating a unique and authentic experience.
The most useful thing you can learn from this website, is that when all the different elements work together, a bigger and more impactful impression is made. In this case, the website name, the domain, the language they use, the imagery, animation, fonts, and colors are all marching forward in the same coherent and consistent direction.
You know what else is impressive about https://www.yesplz.coffee/ ? Their home page also has a GTMetrix grade of "B" which means the website is developed well enough to load very fast.
17. Chamberlain Coffee & The importance of a good "About Us" page
Chamberlain Coffee deserves a nod here specifically because of their / her compelling "about us" page.
The page reads "No boojie bullshit. No wasteful packaging. Just straight up coffee that tastes good and travels well."
If anyone visits your about page, it's because they want to learn something about the people behind the product.
Promising "Good Vibes. Great Coffee." Chamberlain coffee presents a combination of copy, imagery and above all tone that communicates a lot about the company and even more about what they imagine their target customer to be like.
18. Life Boost Coffee
Life Boost doesn't represent the typical example, but we wanted to include them here for the sake of variety.
The image and link aren't to their homepage, but are actually pointing to a specific landing page they developed to support their marketing campaigns and drive traffic to.
As you'll see, the page demonstrates there's more than one way to sell coffee online, with this page following a completely different kind of template than what you would expect.
19. Crema
Crema.co believes "you know what you like best".
Their website supports that belief in providing visitors with a visually compelling and pretty thorough "quiz" that let's you specify the exact kind of coffee you'd like to get from them.
Crema.co is a perfect example of building a website with a customer first mindset, where the functionality and the design is intended to target and guide different types of customers (likely developed through research and segmentation) down the funnel.
20. Press House Coffee
Press House Coffee has managed to make most other coffee websites, even the great ones, look dull and and boring in comparison.
They serve as an extraordinary example of how great a coffee website can look, while still being built around an acquisiton focused user experience.
21. Necessary Coffee
It might not be the most obviously dazzling website, but aside from having a great name Necessary Coffee also offers a deceptviely simple and stunning online experience.
What's most useful to understand about their website, is that despite the fact they actually have a lot of features and functionality (some breathtaking imagery, a blog, a lively and integrated instagram account, and a chat function) they are careful to tuck all that stuff out of sight so as not to distract the customer.
Basically, the website and user experience are designed in such a way as to allow customer to convert without friction or distraction, while also offering potential customer additional context, information, or support if they need it.
22. Got Your Six Coffee
Like many veteran owned coffee businesses, Got Your Six Coffee makes no apologies for their lack of subtely and focuses on differentiation.
Their website puts their target audience of first responders and military personel front and center.
The website imagery, including many photos of first responders, does a great job of signaling the purpose behind the business and the coffee.
23. Cielito Querido Cafe
The imagery on the Cielito Querido Cafe website is just stunning.
This website is not made with the typical template or style, but the use of imagery and mosaic styling is instructive. It's consistent, it's cleary deliberate and thought through, and it shows how a website can be a powerful resource for communicating something about the brand.
24. Equator Coffees
Equator Coffees is legitamtely breathtaking in its imagery.
But it's most useful to understand the website in the context of presenting a premium coffee brand.
The website specifically calls out "Great Chefs", "Great Coffee", "Great Cause" and is always careful to write about the *craft* that is so intrinsic to their product and positioning.
They've positioned themselves as expert craftsmen in the coffee vertical, and goes as far as to tell website visitors that they are commited to excellence.
If that's the way you present your coffee, than it follows every single brand or product image on the website will be carefully orchestrated and (probably) expensively executed.
Do you want to learn how to build your own coffee website?
We've built a complete guide on how to go from zero to one hundred pretty quickly using Shopify, so if you're interested check out the guide on building a coffee website.