How beautiful commercial websites appeal to affluent women consumers

• Reduce text size
• Print this text

CONTENTS
Statistics | Affluent American consumers are online in large numbers
Key factors | Marketing to affluent women with simple, sophisticated web design
Practical tips | Essential elements of mass affluent web design
Affluent website sample 1 | Vera Wang on Weddings
Affluent website sample 2 | Joan's on Third
Affluent website sample 3 | Tiffany & Co.
Affluent website sample 4 | Maine Cottage
Affluent website sample 5 | White Provision Atlanta
Affluent website sample 6 | Gucci
Affluent website sample 7 | Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
Affluent website sample 8 | Mackenzie Image Consulting

Affluent American consumers are online... and there are plenty of them

In July 2008, the Luxury Institute announced the results of a poll of affluent Americans with annual incomes of $150,000 or more. A full 64% of these well-to-do consumers said they go to company websites for information on luxury goods and services—a higher ranking than those who rely on recommendations of friends and family (57% of respondents).

Slightly less affluent consumers are online, too... and there are more of them than you might think. In 2005 Gallup reported households earning more than $75,000 per year had come to represent 15% of the US population, with one quarter of US women living in such a household. Internet research publisher eMarketer has projected the number of affluent Internet users will grow to 57.1 million by 2011.

Marketing to affluent women with simple, sophisticated web design

The affluent female consumer is ready to be impressed and convinced to buy... but she has increasingly discerning taste. The early days of the internet, when simply having a web presence was enough, are long gone. Today, high design is everywhere, from Target to TV reality shows, and the web is no exception.

The typical well-to-do woman is also busy—very busy. According to Gallup, 75% of mass affluent women juggle multiple major responsibilities, including work (67% of mass affluent women work), marriage, and/or children.

This schedule overload directly affects businesses marketing to affluent shoppers online. With less time available, well-to-do women are less likely to wade through websites looking for what they need... and faced with cluttered webpages, many will leave, never to return.

"People don't typically react well to rooms full of clutter, so why would they with a web page?" notes Peter Prestipino in Website Magazine's The Psychology of Web Design. "Part of this sort of response has to do with how we associate open space with emotional or physical comfort, and our basic survival instincts—when we feel spatially constricted, our primary concern is finding a way out. Often referred to as fight-or-flight, this response comes down to one result on the web: leaving the website. And once a user leaves with a bad impression, they won't likely return."

So what are the principles of the simple, sophisticated design that will attract such affluent women customers?

Essential elements of mass affluent web design

1 } Space to breathe. White space (the "empty" space on a website) actually plays one of the most important roles in web design for affluent audiences. "Ample white space ... lends websites a light and airy feel, making them uncongested and easy on the eyes," writes Patrick McNeil in The Web Designer's Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide to Themes, Trends, and Styles in Website Design. "White sets the mood. Its clean, professional, high-end connotations present the company in a positive light." White space does not actually have to be pure white, but when it's not, it's typically quite pale. In the Mackenzie Image Consulting website below, each webpage hovers above a pale background, relaxing the viewer's eye and drawing it to the site's content.

2 } High-end photography. Websites that can pull off this kind of affluent appeal feature professionally shot photography of amazing quality. At this level, snapping away with the business owner's digital camera will not do the trick, no matter how much natural talent you have. A simple test: if you took just one photograph from a website design, printed it, and framed it in a white matte and simple, narrow black frame, would it look like art? The images on the Vera Wang on Weddings website below certainly meet this test.

3 } Simple navigation. Navigation—the links on a webpage leading to other areas of a website—must be intuitive and easy. Make the name and purpose of each link crystal clear. If you have more than a handful of menu links, consider grouping them in smaller sections, with more essential links along the top or left side of the page, where visitors look first. (The Joan's on Third website below does this nicely.) Save buttons for calls to action: use a simple web font or elegantly stylized text for each menu.

4 } Clean lines. The more upscale the website, the cleaner the lines, sometimes to the point of being almost spare. Lines are generally fine—one point or less—and sections of the website are clearly partitioned, naturally guiding the eye. On the Gucci website below, nothing distracts the viewer from the center of attention (the products); the understated design elements surrounding each product shot enhance rather than detract.

5 } Few colors. A restrained color palette allows the product or site photography to be the star of the show. Web designers experienced in designing for affluent consumers typically restrain themselves to two to three colors on each webpage. The Tiffany & Co website below is a classic example: aside from white, only shades of the famous Tiffany robin's egg blue, black, and gray grace each page, allowing Tiffany's timeless jewelry and stunning product photography to shine.

6 } A clean site background. We're always astounded when we visit the websites of high-end hotels only to greeted by a loud, busy wallpaper background plastered across our screens. If you've watched home staging shows, you've seen the reactions of home shoppers encountering wallpaper on real walls: they grimace and physically pull back. Why expect anything different on the web? Well-designed websites keep it simple: only pure white, or perhaps a pale shade or gradient, surrounds the webpage, providing breathing space for the page design and products. The web designers of Maine Cottage's site below made wise use of white space; a wallpaper background would have competed badly with the images showcased online.

7 } A clear visual hierarchy. The eye should always know where to fall. If you've ever visited a website and immediately felt confused or uneasy, it was likely because like you didn't know where to look first: many visual elements were competing for your attention at once. The web designers of the White Provision Atlanta website below have done well: our eyes are drawn first to the content area containing each page's text and images, then to the photo next to the content, then to the header, then to the left column, and finally to the footer in an easy, natural spiral.

8 } Transparency. A tool employed by some affluent websites, a deftly placed transparency overlay can add a certain serene silkiness to a website. The effect can be subtle or bring to mind pure, sheer curtains billowing softly in a breeze. The use of overlapping, transparent panels along the edges of the Four Seasons website below conveys a soft, sophisticated restraint that instantly relaxes the viewer: perfect for a resort chain that wants to welcome busy affluent women as hotel guests.

Samples of elegant business websites

The websites below are among the best of the best in affluent web design. (In the interest of fairness, only the last website shown was designed by us; the rest were selected without regard to the company or web design team.)

Click on the links below each website shown to see a larger view. (Because websites change, we've elected to display larger screenshots in this way, but we've also included links to the live sites if you'd like to visit them.) All screenshots below were taken on Aio Design founder Tiffany Jonas' wide-screen monitor.

Vera Wang on Weddings: the wedding and website as art

{ View larger Vera Wang on Weddings home page }

In an era of bridal excess featuring baroque, bead-encrusted wedding gowns, Vera Wang's first designs set the standard for refined simplicity. Her Vera Wang on Weddings website builds on this tradition of excellent taste.

Understated and sublime, the home page delights visitors with unexpected imagery. (Other home page images at the time of this writing included a bride hiding her face behind a china dish plastered with real lipstick kisses, a ponytailed bride tossing silver spoons over her shoulder in lieu of a bouquet, and an elegantly sandaled woman standing on her toes to stack a white-wrapped gift atop two other gifts shown ten times to scale.)

Beyond the high-end photography, this website meets every standard of affluent web design: volumes of white space, simple navigation, elegantly delineated "ad" boxes inviting visitors to create a bridal registry or shop a white sale, fine lines, a very spare color palette... and the visitor's eye always knows where to rush next.

{ View larger Vera Wang on Weddings subpage }

Unlike many websites, where design funds are lavished on the home page and little is left for the rest of the site, Wang's subpages carry on the theme. Though the images become more traditional, they're shot with a definite artist's eye and placed snazzily on the page.

Joan's on Third: high style on the web

{ View larger Joan's on Third home page }

One might not expect overly sophisticated design from a family-owned market and café. Joan's on Third is much more than that, though (in addition to its gourmet marketplace and café, it's a catering and event planning company), and so is its website.

The home page rotates through a series of elegantly shot photos, from the high-contrast shopfront above to silver-beaded cupcakes and stacks of artisan cheeses, all subtly framed and set against the site's clean white background. A glossy chocolate cupcake draws the eye downward toward the page's only text, consisting simply of four lines in a restrained gray.

Aside from the gorgeous photography, the website meets the standards of affluent web design: ample white space, simple navigation just where the viewer expects to find it, clearly delineated sections, very clean lines, and a spare and sophisicated color palette of blacks, grays, and taupes. The home page also benefits from a small shot of transparency in the image frame's subtle drop shadow.

{ View larger Joan's on Third subpage }

The subpages expand the navigation without overwhelming; a handful of new links unique to each subpage appear in a new left column atop more eye candy: a photo connected to the subject matter of the header image at the top of the page.

Tiffany & Co.: timeless perfection online and off

{ View larger Tiffany & Co. home page }

Departing from the strict definition of white space, Tiffany & Co. has capitalized on its signature robin's egg blue while still giving the visitor visual room to breathe... if she can. (The product photography tends to take the breath away.)

The elements of affluent web design are all here: simple navigation above and below, clearly partitioned "ad" boxes inviting each visitor to discover why a Tiffany diamond is the best in the world or find her perfect engagement ring, simple lines, and a restrained color palette involving little more than the addition of blacks and grays to the signature blue.

Note the restraint in the use of the logo, too. We often receive requests from business owners to increase the size of their logo in a marketing piece or on a website, sometimes to an extreme extent. True power, though, does not exist in brute force; if you have to shout an order at the top of your lungs, you're not very powerful. The marketing prowess of Tiffany & Co. is unparalleled in the world of jewelry; that they choose not to "shout" with their logo is actually a bold statement, the equivalent of a monarch whispering, "Off with his head." (Oh, that head will still come off.)

{ View larger Tiffany & Co. subpage }

The subpages expand the navigation below the header, and more importantly, expand the selection of choices, all elegantly shot against a pure white backdrop.

Maine Cottage: coastal living on the web

{ View larger Maine Cottage home page }

Maine Cottage's furniture and accessories are known for their bright, zesty colors and spunkily casual approach to coastal life... a far cry from the shimmering sophistication of Tiffany & Co. But make no mistake; its website successfully appeals to mass affluent woman, too.

In this case, there are a few elements missing: the website is inexplicably left-justified, which is made all the more akwardly obvious on wide-screen monitors—which are quickly proliferating through the marketplace—and the second tier of images might benefit from some clearer delineation, but the other elements are there: a deliberately self-controlled color palette (black paired with a peppy blue and fashionable avocado green), high quality photography, simple navigation groupings, a clean white background that makes all other colors pop, and a well-organized visual hierarchy.

{ View larger Maine Cottage subpage }

The website's subpages delineate the various content categories more cleanly, and though you have to drill down to the individual product pages to receive an invitation to buy, once you're there, your next step is very clear... it leads directly to the shopping bag and through a carefully guided checkout process. Chalk up one more affluent customer purchase!

White Provision Atlanta: luxury at your fingertips

{ View larger White Provision Atlanta home page }

You don't have to be an international powerhouse to do a fantastic job of marketing to affluent consumers online; well-to-do women consumers are just as open to local firms. Case in point: the White Provision development in Westside Atlanta combines residential condominiums with boutique retail, showroom, restaurant, and Class A office space... and its creators pride themselves on style, which this simple website has in spades.

The elements of affluent web design are ever-present. The navigation is almost deceptively simple; it remains the same on every page, but the visitor will rapidly find that she can drill down into ever greater detail. The photography is professional, the color palette is refined, the website design's lines are very clean, the visual hierarchy guides the eye through every section of the webpage in an effortless spiral, and there's a bit of transparency in the quote superimposed over the dictionary image in the header.

{ View larger White Provision Atlanta subpage }

This website appeals to affluent women consumers in particular by providing plenty of information in an easy-to-find format. Click on the "live here: floor plans" link and you'll find three-dimensional floor plans of a dozen different units; click on the lighting link on the "finish options" page and you can view enlargable photos of the Aspen Iron Ceiling Light, Grosvenor Pendant, Metropolitan Sconce, and Randolph Pendant.

Gucci: its website will make your mouth water

{ View larger Gucci home page }

The dramatic use of a liquid chocolate brown paired with all the right affluent web design elements secured a spot for Gucci on our list. It's pure drama, and it makes our mouths water even though the website has nothing to do with truffles or moist chocolate cake.

True, moving throughout the site is not as intuitive to many consumers as the others on this list, and the website suffers from a somewhat buggy execution (the page sections don't slide smoothly in Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox, and sometimes didn't slide at all in Internet Explorer 7)... but it's creative.

What Gucci has done right is to provide plenty of space to breathe, simple and striking product photography set against pure white, clean lines, very few colors outside the product photography (shades of brown and black), and a clean site background—though we wouldn't recommend trying this on your own; it took a very sophisticated eye to choose a rich color that attracts rather than overwhelms. The subtle gradient in the left column adds just the right amount of dimension. And again, notice the restrained use of the logo. (See our comments above regarding the Tiffany & Co. logo.)

{ View larger Gucci subpage }

The subpages carry the theme forward, adding pale gradients to the photo backdrops. The amount of text even on individual product pages is expensively spare... again, something the likes of Gucci can afford, but others may not want to try at home.

Four Seasons: a serenely simple hideaway

{ View larger Four Seasons home page }

Too many of the hotel websites we've run across—even the four- and five-star variety—seem to be built on a template used by nearly everyone else in the industry. It goes something like this: logo, header links, huge gorgeous photo, and a clunky left column or content area beneath the photo containing a hapharzard crowd of form fields, calendar icons, arrows, links, and buttons, and at last a myriad of text links and sometimes a motley selection of non-hotel logos that don't match. If you can ignore the eyesore form section, at first the website still looks attractive... but take away the glossy photo, and it's downright ugly.

The Four Seasons website was quite a refreshing change. There's nary a form field or calendar icon until you're ready to book and are well into the reservations section of the site. The navigation choices on each page are clear and usually few in number. Rather than overwhelm the visitor with special offers, the web designers used restraint; the accommodations page, for instance, features a single special offer set apart using two simple horizontal lines and containing four spare lines of text.

Images like the one above are where Four Seasons really shines in appealing to affluent women consumers. The scene, of a pajama-clad mother smiling at her two young children while paging through a magazine in a serenely clean room, a cup of coffee at her side, engages all the right emotions: love for family and a sense of relaxation and order. For this mother and her children, all is right in the world.

{ View larger Four Seasons subpage image }

The subpages continue the tradition; on the "find a hotel or resort" page, a simple, streamlined map loads fairly quickly, enlarges with a single click, and zooms in a desired region with another. For the busy affluent woman, this website is very clean, smoothly functional, and inviting.

Mackenzie Image Consulting: image is everything

{ View larger Mackenzie Image Consulting home page }

A polished image and excellent taste are two critical elements in Shauna Mackenzie Heathman's line of business. The certified image consultant, whose target market includes both mass affluent men and women, displays both qualities in person, and her website does too.

In this case, stock photography was selected to be friendlier to the company's website redesign budget, and each photo was chosen with care. The website otherwise perfectly meets the standards of affluent web design: very clean lines, plenty of breathing room for the eye, simple navigation, two subtly designed buttons, and a restrained color palette on each page. As with the Four Seasons website, transparency is a key design element.

{ View larger Mackenzie Image Consulting subpage }

The subpages carry the theme through the rest of the website, with consistent navigation throughout the site. Given the industry, there's plenty of eye candy in terms of the photography and site background colors, which change to compliment the photo used.

We'd love to hear from you

We hope this page has been helpful to you; if it has (or even if you feel it could use some additions), feel free to drop us a note letting us know!

What would you like to know?

• If you‘re interested in a custom web design or redesign, visit our web design page
• If you’d like to find out more about us or our pricing, start with our about Aio Design page
• If affluent women are your target market, visit our marketing to women page
• If you’re a woman entrepreneur, visit our page for women business owners
• If you’re looking for information to help you, start with our helpful articles page
• If you're looking for practical ways to improve your existing website, order our website analysis