How to Create a Website without Coding

Building a polished, high-performing website used to mean wrestling with code, hiring expensive developers or struggling against limited design tools that don’t have full customization. 

Today, though, anyone can bring their online vision to life, no technical skills required. By combining strategic planning, ready made templates and AI driven customization, you’ll be able to craft an ecommerce site that reflects your brand, delights customers and converts visitors into buyers. 

Laying the groundwork: concepting your ecommerce site

The concepting stage is all about clarity and strategy. Before you even think about layouts or color palettes, you need to understand the why and the what of your online store. Even if you’ve been selling online for years, a redesign is the perfect time to also realign on the intended experience of your site.

1. Define your brand and niche

What makes your business unique? What products or services will you be selling? Who is your ideal customer?

Dig deep here. Understanding your brand identity—its values, voice and aesthetic—will inform every design decision. Clearly defining your niche helps you target your marketing efforts and tailor your website to your specific audience’s needs and preferences.

2. Get to know your target audience

Who are you trying to reach? What are their pain points, desires and online shopping habits? 

Creating or updating your buyer personas—fictional representations of your ideal customers—will be helpful at this stage. Consider their demographics, psychographics and technological savviness. Knowing your audience will guide your design choices to create a user experience that resonates with them.

3. Map out your customer journey

Think about the path a customer will take from discovering your store to making a purchase. What pages will they need to visit? What information will they be looking for at each stage? Consider what you would be looking for when buying similar products online. 

Visualizing this journey helps you identify essential website sections and ensure a smooth and intuitive flow for your customers. Consider stages like product discovery, browsing, adding to cart, checkout and post-purchase support. 

4. Determine your core website structure and pages

Based on your customer journey, outline the essential pages your ecommerce site will need. 

This typically includes:

• Homepage: your digital storefront, the first impression.
• Product pages: detailed information, images and pricing for each item.
• Category pages: these help with organizing your products for easy browsing.
• Shopping cart: where customers review their selected items.
• Checkout process: securely collecting payment and shipping information.
• About us: telling your brand story and building trust.
• Contact us: providing channels for customer inquiries.
• Privacy policy and terms of service: essential for legal compliance and customer trust.
• Blog: for sharing valuable content and attracting organic traffic.
• FAQ: answering common questions to improve customer support.

5. Consider your content and SEO strategy

What kind of content will you need for each page? What tools will you use for SEO research? This includes product descriptions, images, videos, blog posts (if applicable) and any other text or visuals that will engage your audience and provide necessary information. 

6. Research your competitors

Take a look at what your competitors are doing well (and not so well). What kind of design aesthetics are common in your industry? What features do their websites offer? 

Also, look beyond your direct competitors for design inspiration. Explore websites in different industries that you find visually appealing and user-friendly. Note down elements you like and why they resonate with you.

How to create a website without coding

Once you have your concept finalized, you’re ready to design—or redesign—your website, even if you don’t have a web developer on the team. Numerous powerful tools have emerged that allow anyone to build a professional and functional online store without writing a single line of code.

Use professional website templates

One of the most accessible and efficient ways to create an ecommerce website without coding is by utilizing pre-designed templates. These ready-made structures provide a solid foundation for your online store, allowing you to focus on customizing the look and feel with your unique branding and products.

Templates provide a basic framework for all the essential ecommerce functionalities, such as product listings, shopping carts and checkout processes. This means you don’t have to build these core elements from scratch. Templates are also generally designed with user experience (UX) best practices in mind, ensuring a logical flow and intuitive navigation for your customers. 

Lightspeed eCom’s Instant Site, for example, features professionally designed templates that are automatically mobile responsive, so you know your site will look good on any device. 

Pros of using a template for web design:

• Speed and efficiency: significantly faster than building a website from scratch.
• Cost effective: often included in platform subscriptions or available at a lower cost than custom development.
• Professionally designed: many templates are created by experienced designers, ensuring a polished look.
• Responsive design: most modern templates are mobile-friendly.

Cons of using a template to build your site:

• Limited customization: while most platforms offer customization options, you might encounter limitations if you have very specific design requirements.
• Potential for generic look: if you don’t customize extensively, your site might look similar to others using the same template.

Customize your ecommerce site with AI coding tools

While templates offer a starting point, you might find yourself wanting to tweak certain aspects beyond the standard customization options provided by your chosen platform. This is where the exciting emergence of AI-powered coding tools can bridge the gap between pre-made templates and totally custom design.

Lightspeed eCom’s AI coding tool works by allowing you to describe the website section you want in plain language. The AI then generates the necessary code snippets to create that website section. This means you can achieve a higher degree of customization without needing to learn the intricacies of coding yourself.

Best prompts for coding a website with AI

To get the best results from our AI coding tool, clear and specific prompts are key. 

• Be specific: instead of saying you want “a nice section about our team,” try “a section with three circular images of our team members, their names below in bold and a short one-sentence bio that appears on hover.”
• Describe the layout: specify how you want elements arranged. For example, “a two-column layout with an image on the left and text on the right. The text should have a main heading, a paragraph and a button below.”
• Specify styling: while you can further customize within the site builder, including basic styling requests in your prompt can get you closer to your desired look. For example, “a dark background with white text and a bright blue call-to-action button.”
• Use image examples: uploading an image of a section you like can be incredibly helpful for the AI to understand your visual preferences. You can say something like, “Create a section similar to the layout in this image, but with our product categories instead of services.”

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different prompts and refine your requests based on the initial results. You can always make further adjustments within the Lightspeed eCom site builder.

Here are some prompts you can use (and modify) to start generating custom code:

• Create a section showcasing customer testimonials. Display three quotes in rounded boxes with the customer’s name and a star rating below each. Use a light gray background for the section.
• Generate a grid of four products. Each product should have its image, name, price and an “Add to Cart” button. The grid should be responsive and adapt to different screen sizes.
• Design a promo banner section. Include a header and two sub headers, with the sub headers side by side, and a “Shop now” button. Use a dark grey background for the section and bold the header text.

Custom code in seconds

Creating and maintaining a standout website doesn’t have to be a coding marathon. Lightspeed eCom’s AI coding tool can create bespoke website sections for you instantly, empowering you to showcase your unique brand.

Ready to start designing your new website? Get Lightspeed eCom and start building in minutes.