Color is one of the most powerful tools in a web designer’s toolbox. It can draw attention, convey meaning, and spark desire—all while driving conversions and building customer loyalty.
A good color scheme is especially important in ecommerce website design, where you must communicate information quickly and expressively to turn casual browsers into committed buyers.
Ahead, discover 15 ecommerce website color schemes and tips for choosing a palette for your website.
What is a website color scheme?
Website color schemes are carefully chosen palettes that define a site’s visual identity. Typically featuring three to five main colors, schemes are applied across all elements, from backgrounds to buttons. Designers select these combinations to evoke specific moods, create visual harmony, and reinforce branding.
Business owners, designers, and developers collaborate on color selection, considering factors like industry norms, target audience preferences, and color psychology. When done right, a color scheme becomes integral to a website’s success, communicating the brand’s essence and enhancing the overall user experience.
Why is your website color scheme important?
In most cases, a well-developed website color scheme will accomplish two goals: creating a strong brand identity and driving conversion.
Builds brand identity through color
Colors convey meaning and information about the brand while creating uniformity across different products on the website. Research shows that color can increase brand recognition by up to 80%.
Based on color theory, designers combine hues that evoke the right emotions for a brand. The result is an appealing combination that communicates the brand’s identity to browsers.
Drives conversions with strategic color choices
Accent colors most easily drive conversion. Data from 2024 shows that 85% of people claim color significantly influences what they buy.
Accent colors use contrast to highlight specific products and give strong directional cues—such as pointing toward a page’s CTAs and Buy buttons. Find accent colors using a color wheel. The complementary color directly across a color wheel from your primary color stands out on a web page and draws the user’s eye.
15 beautiful ecommerce website color schemes
- Autumnal
- Vibrant neon
- Festive yet modern
- Vintage neutral
- Cool-toned and retro
- Slate and ivory
- Soft and warm
- Lively mint
- Cozy complementary
- Subtle white
- Urban neutral
- Bold black and gold
- Playful pastel
- Coastal
- Bold and grounded
Here are 15 real-world website color schemes to inspire your brand’s unique color palette:
1. Autumnal
This autumnal theme mixes deep plum with forest green to create a connection to nature, which reflects tentree’s brand. Combined with warm beige and soft olive green colors, it feels calming yet ready for adventure.
2. Vibrant neon
Magic Spoon’s color palette emphasizes high energy, boldness, and fun, aligning with its playful childhood cereal theme. The deep purple sets a bold and vibrant tone, with neon pink, bright yellow, and lime greens that create excitement and give off a youthful vibe.
3. Festive yet modern
The Outrage’s color palette blends a strong, modern feel with festive, holiday warmth. The bold blues and greens pair well with the cheerful reds and whites, delivering a lively, celebratory aesthetic rooted in activism and community engagement.
4. Vintage neutral
This website color scheme sports muted tones and natural hues to create a serene, vintage-inspired atmosphere for shoppers. Adorned Vintage’s brand, which focuses on feminine, timeless fashion, aligns perfectly with earthy tones set by soft cream, pastel beige, and light green.
5. Cool-toned and retro
Beefcake Swimwear’s website color scheme nails the blend of outdoor fun and nostalgic elegance. Deep forest green and muted dark blues accented with rust red and neutral sand capture the essence of vintage swimwear in a natural setting.
6. Slate and ivory
Silk & Willow’s website colors express a high-end, vintage-inspired aesthetic. They blend dark, dramatic tones like charcoal slate with soft ivory to create a dramatic, high-contrast, and luxurious palette. Creamy whites and earthy tones also lend a natural and grounded feel that is timeless and inviting.
7. Soft and warm
The soft, warm palette that Kulala uses combines soft amber yellow and deep night red to create a calming ambiance. Muted lavender and dark navy blue add a soothing tone, while vibrant orange accents draw the viewer’s attention.
8. Lively mint
Cocofloss’s color scheme strikes a balance between freshness and fun. The refreshing mint green and calming aqua blue provides a clean, spa-like feel. Playful pops of bright yellow and soft peach add warmth and energy.
9. Cozy complementary
The use of warm tones like blush pink and deep forest green creates a cozy, inviting atmosphere for this apparel collection. The soft pink backdrop keeps the focus on the clothing, while the bold pops of red and yellow add playful energy to the imagery. The color combination of muted neutrals and vibrant accents provides a balanced yet eye-catching aesthetic that reflects Sundry’s approach to casual, comfortable style.
10. Subtle white
Truvelle Bridal is all about simple, clean, elegant wedding dresses, and its color scheme of whites, taupes, and grays reflects that. With muted neutrals and soft tones, this color palette lets the brand story and products shine.
11. Urban neutral
Velasca’s palette is defined by warm, neutral tones and deep, sophisticated hues. The architecture features soft terracotta and beige walls, creating an inviting, classic European backdrop of elegance. The model’s olive green jacket and navy sweater add a muted, earthy contrast that complements the surrounding colors.
12. Bold black and gold
A bold color scheme for a bold product. BLK & Bold’s use of black conveys sophistication and authority, with vibrant gold accents that add a sense of luxury. Clean whites and subtle grays provide a crisp, soft, minimalist feel that helps the website elements stand out.
13. Playful pastel
This website color palette blends fresh pastels with hints of glamor, creating an inviting and feminine feel. Mint green, blush pink, and golden champagne give a playful, yet luxurious energy that captures Beauty Bakerie’s focus on beauty and fun.
14. Coastal
The Tofino Soap Company website sports soft, beach-inspired hues with natural, earthy tones. Sky blue, warm beige, and earthy brown interplay to evoke calmness, purity, and a connection to nature. These colors perfectly complement the product’s focus on natural, eco-friendly skincare.
15. Bold and grounded
Fly by Jing brings together bold, electric hues with earthy, grounding tones that reflect its flavorful products. Vibrant magenta and orange lend a playful energy, while deep greens and purples add richness and depth. The palette is designed to instill a sense of excitement and urgency to try the brand’s famous chili sauces.
How to choose the right website color scheme
- Reflect on your brand identity
- Choose a primary color
- Select secondary colors
- Determine your background color
- Choose a typeface color
Building a color scheme requires a methodical approach. Here are the steps to follow to build out your website’s color scheme:
1. Reflect on your brand identity
Before choosing any colors, first consider your brand and offerings and how colors might reflect your mission or value proposition.
For example, a fitness brand might identify its core values as energetic, health-focused, and motivational. To appease a target audience of health-conscious millennials, a color scheme could involve trendy, vibrant, high-energy colors like yellow, orange, or green.
Ask these questions to interrogate the core of your brand::
- What three to five adjectives best describe your brand? Is it innovative, traditional, eco-friendly, luxury-oriented, or family-focused?
- Who are you trying to reach? What colors do they tend to respond to? What colors might turn them off?
- What emotions do you want people to feel when they think about your brand?
📚 Learn: What Is Brand Identity? 6 Key Elements
2. Choose a primary color
Research the emotions associated with different colors, or the theory of color psychology. For example, warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows) are energetic and attention-grabbing, while cool colors (blues, greens, purples) are often more calming and professional.
Analyze what colors your competitors use. You might want to align with industry standards or deliberately stand out. Once you’ve chosen a color, experiment with different shades and tints to find the perfect match for your brand. For example, you may decide on blue as your primary color, but your color palette will differ wildly depending on whether you choose a light, icy blue or a deep indigo.
3. Select secondary colors
Secondary colors work in harmony with your primary color to complete the color scheme. There are a few color harmony rules that can guide your choice if you’re not working with a designer who already knows them:
- Complementary colors. Colors opposite each other on the color wheel (e.g., blue and orange).
- Analogous colors. Colors next to each other on the color wheel (e.g., blue, blue-green, and green).
- Triadic colors. Three colors equally spaced on the color wheel (e.g., red, yellow, and blue).
Stick to one or two secondary colors. You can use up to five colors max, but be cautious, as too many colors can be overwhelming.
💡 Tip: Use a color palette generator like Adobe Color to create a website color scheme for your brand.
4. Determine your background color
Your background color sets the stage for all other elements on your website. The goal is to highlight your content without overwhelming it.
Many brands use light background colors to express cleanliness and ease of browsing. Softer, toned-down backgrounds tend to be easier on the eyes, too, but that’s not a hard-and-fast rule. Some brands use darker backgrounds because it creates a better experience for their particular buyers.
Place sample content on your background to ensure it doesn’t overshadow your actual information.
5. Choose a typeface color
Last but not least, choose your text color. This color should be highly contrasted with your background color for readability purposes. Check your options with WebAIM’s Contrast Checker to ensure you’re meeting web accessibility standards.
Use the same text color throughout your site for body text. You can use different colors for headings or special text, but be consistent with these as well.
Create better browsing experiences with the right color scheme
Choosing your website is an ongoing process. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different combinations and get customer feedback to find the right fit. Your colors should work together to create a cohesive and appealing website that represents your brand on the internet.
Website color scheme FAQ
What is the most eye-catching color?
Bright, saturated hues like red, yellow, and orange typically catch the eye most effectively. However, a color’s ability to stand out depends largely on its contrast with surrounding elements and the overall visual context.
What is the best color scheme for a website?
The best color scheme for a website depends on its purpose, the target audience, and the overall design aesthetic. Generally, lighter and softer colors (like a light blue background) are calming and inviting, while darker and vibrant colors (like royal blue and lime green) provide more energy and excitement. It is also important to consider how colors interact with one another and how they will appear on different devices.
What are the seven major color schemes?
- Monochromatic. Tonal variations of a single color.
- Analogous. Colors next to each other on the color wheel.
- Complementary. Colors opposite each other on the color wheel.
- Split Complementary. A base color complemented by the colors next to its complementary color on the color wheel.
- Triadic. Three colors equally spaced around the color wheel.
- Tetradic. Complementary pairs of colors.
- Square. Four colors equally spaced around the color wheel.
What is a website color scheme?
A website color scheme is the combination of colors used on a website. The color combinations are usually chosen to reflect the brand or company and create a unified look and feel. They are typically chosen for their contrast, vibrancy, and ability to work together to create a cohesive look.
Which is the best background color for a website?
The best background color for a website will depend on its purpose and design. Generally, a neutral color such as white or light gray is a good option, as it can create a clean and modern look. If a more dynamic background color is desired, blues, greens, and other softer colors can provide a more inviting feel.
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