Yesterday, Freshly Launched published the beginnings of its Shopify website inspiration gallery, a place to share what some of the best brands in ecommerce are creating.

Every week, I'm combing through new ecommerce and DTC sites, constantly asking "why does this work?" and "what would I change?" I'm already doing the research — the gallery just makes that process public instead of keeping it in my bookmarks.

Why we're building this

For many stores, the search starts with a template. Shopify's theme store has over 1,000 Shopify themes, all of them built on the Dawn framework. The problem is that for a lot of store owners, they'll still look like templates when you're ready to launch.

Most inspiration galleries don't help much here either. You get a wall of screenshots with zero context, or the good stuff is gated behind a login. They're also pretty pictures, with no why.

This gallery is meant to close that gap with real, ungated examples, plus the reasoning behind them, so you can build something unusual enough to actually stand out. Because, as I always say, boring doesn't convert.

Who's this for

This gallery is for:

• Business owners and founders who are about to redesign their site and want to see real examples of what good looks like — not just for their industry, but adjacent to it

• Fellow designers who want a faster way to study current trends without digging through ten different sites

• Anyone prepping for a rebrand who needs a shared reference point to point to and say "something like this"

Basically: if you've ever sent someone a screenshot and said "I want something like this," this gallery is built for you.

What you'll find

Right now I'm filling the gallery with some of my favorites brands who aren't afraid to lean into their positioning to own their markets. Brands who aren't following the status quo, but who are defining it.

Some are story-focused. Others are all conversion. You'll see a lot of different approaches to the same problems, showing you that there's no one right answer, but a lot of paths to the same goals: more customers, better conversions, and ongoing retention. A successful brand.

How to use the gallery

Look and learn, but don't copy. This is an inspiration gallery, not a copy-paste solution.

What works for one brand won't necessarily carry another — and we have enough copycats out there already. That's not good for anyone's long-term growth. The goal is to take inspiration and forge your own path. Let's respect each other and be good humans, k?

What's next

As the gallery grows, I'll bring in more staples, more analysis, and more features to make it easy to find what you're looking for.

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