Today (in 2025), designing great e-commerce experiences is both more challenging and more exciting than ever. Why? Because we now have more tools at our disposal — AI-powered chatbots, recommendation engines, immersive video, and more. But technology alone isn’t enough. It takes smart experience design to turn these tools into something customers truly value.

Dior — Recovering from “Out of Stock” with Grace
When a friend of mine rushed to Dior’s website after seeing their new foundation stick on TikTok, it was already sold out. Instead of a dead end, the site invited her to leave her email for a restock alert. The next day, she received an email with a direct link to her shade, picked “pick up in store,” and shortly after, got a personalized WhatsApp message from a Beauty Advisor. Dior turned a moment of friction into an orchestrated omnichannel success story — from anonymous browser to known customer (capturing someone’s email on your site should be one of your key objectives).

Oysho — Communicating Lifestyle & Quality
Oysho is a masterclass in how to blend emotional connection with functional UX. The website immerses you in a world of wellness, movement, and slow fashion. It’s not just about the products; it’s about how you’ll feel wearing them. Their art direction — light-filled photography, calm color palettes, and minimal design — reinforces a brand identity centered on mindful living.

From a UX perspective, the site is quietly brilliant. Returning users immediately see their order status, creating a sense of continuity (and reducing anxiety). Gift-wrapping flows and personalized messages add thoughtful delight, while back-in-stock alerts close the loop with zero friction.

The site does an excellent job of communicating the functional benefits of their clothing — like breathable or high-resistance fabrics — using clean, unobtrusive icons. These subtle visual cues enhance decision-making without adding friction, creating a sense of trust and product clarity. It’s a design tactic Uniqlo also uses effectively, especially for their tech-enhanced basics, where innovation needs to be conveyed clearly but without overwhelming the shopper.

In doing so, Oysho taps into the Aesthetic-Usability Effect — the perception that beautiful interfaces are more usable, which increases patience and satisfaction even when minor issues arise.

Uniqlo — The Online/Offline Queen
Uniqlo continues to quietly disrupt the fashion world with a digital ecosystem that just works. The brilliance lies not in bells and whistles, but in a frictionless, service-oriented approach that integrates online convenience with in-store immediacy.

Here’s what sets Uniqlo apart:

• Check store inventory in real-time, down to color and size — even when you’re in-store. Using the app, you can scan a product tag to instantly see which sizes or colors are available nearby.
• Reserve online, pick up in store the same day — a perfect blend of impulse and instant gratification.
• RFID self-checkout in physical stores is almost magical: just drop your clothes into the checkout tray, and everything is automatically scanned. No barcodes. No awkward folding. Just out.
• Membership benefits are effortlessly cross-channel — simply scan your member code from the app, and you’re recognized whether shopping online or in person. It’s a seamless loyalty experience that doesn’t ask customers to jump through hoops.

Behind all this is a Uniqlo does this beautifully, absorbing backend complexity to offer a surprisingly intuitive customer journey.

Starbucks — Best-Value Membership Experience
Starbucks has created a digital flywheel powered by simplicity and consistency. Everything revolves around one app. It’s your loyalty card, your payment tool, your order-ahead assistant, your offer inbox — and your direct line to perks. It all feels effortless, but that’s precisely the point. Compare that to other retailers who force you to log into a website just to check your points — assuming you even remember your password. Starbucks eliminates those micro-frustrations entirely.

And because it’s a native app, it taps into core mobile capabilities — like GPS for finding nearby stores, integrated payment, and real-time push notifications — without ever feeling like it’s trying too hard. This kind of thoughtful integration is exactly what makes omnichannel UX feel natural, fluid, and genuinely useful.

The loyalty system is brilliantly simple: earn one star per dollar, unlock rewards. That’s no accident — it’s the Endowed Progress Effect at play. By giving users visible progress toward a reward, they’re far more likely to stay engaged and repeat behavior.

Even better, the app is context-aware. It remembers your preferences, tailors offers, and knows your go-to store. It’s a prime example of personalization that empowers, not overwhelms.

Nike — Personalization at Scale
Nike has been one of the standout players in making personalization feel purposeful. Their site and emails adapt to your browsing and buying habits, surfacing just the right styles, sizes, and drops at the right time.

This isn’t just smart targeting, Nike speeds up decision-making and makes the experience feel curated rather than crowded.

Movie Theatres — What Not to Do
To truly appreciate great digital experiences, sometimes it helps to look at the frustrating ones. Buying a movie ticket online can still feel like dropdown-menu bingo: toggle between times, dates, locations, screen sizes, and seat availability until you’ve clicked yourself into submission. Then brace for upsells, fees, and a confusing confirmation page.

And yet — movies are all about emotion, immersion, and excitement. Why doesn’t the digital journey reflect any of that? Imagine a platform that knows your favorite genres and actors, recommends the perfect showtimes, remembers your seat preferences, and rewards you with season passes or early access to premieres. Why not offer family bundles, VIP red carpet nights, or mood-based movie suggestions?

There’s so much opportunity here to create something magical. Instead, most theatre sites treat ticketing like a utility — transactional, impersonal, and joyless. It’s a missed chance to design for passion.

While we now have more advanced tools than ever — from AI and real-time data to responsive frameworks — great customer experiences still don’t happen automatically. It takes skilled UX and CX designers to ask the right questions, map the right journeys, and infuse every digital touchpoint with brand identity and human insight.

The best e-commerce experiences today don’t just convert. They connect. They inspire. They make people feel something. And that’s where design makes all the difference.

Great CX isn’t just built. It’s designed — thoughtfully, intentionally, and with the end user at heart.

Here a couple of resources that are worth exploring.