Create an inspiration board without copying another store

An inspiration board should help you explain a direction, not supply a store to reproduce. Save references because they demonstrate a useful decision: readable product information, a clear category structure or a calm way to present a large photograph.

Then translate that decision into your own content and customer journey. Changing a logo on someone else's composition is not a substitute for that work.

Begin with the problem

Write down three things your current store makes difficult. Perhaps shoppers cannot compare sizes, categories feel indistinguishable or the homepage hides available products.

Look for references that address those problems. A spectacular animation is less relevant if the urgent task is helping a customer choose the correct option.

Keep the board focused enough that another person can understand why each reference belongs.

Annotate every reference

For each saved page, record its source, the date viewed and the specific feature you noticed. Separate observation from inference.

You can observe that a product title appears above the price. You cannot infer that the arrangement increased sales without evidence.

An annotation such as “the category label stays readable over different photographs” gives the designer something useful to investigate. “Make ours like this” leaves too much unexplained.

Separate principles from assets

A reference may illustrate generous spacing, but that does not make its photographs, illustrations or wording available for your use.

Use your own materials or assets with suitable permission. Keep licence and attribution requirements with the files rather than relying on the fact that an image was publicly accessible.

If rights are uncertain, use a clearly labelled internal placeholder during exploration and resolve the asset before publication.

Compare several approaches

Collect different solutions to the same problem. One store may use a compact category list; another may use photographed tiles.

Compare what each requires. Tiles need useful images and space. A list can accommodate longer names but may provide less visual context.

Do not assemble every attractive feature into one page. A board is valuable when it helps you choose between alternatives, not when it encourages an overloaded layout.

Test against your own catalogue

Put three real products beside the references: a short name, a long name and an item with several choices. Include genuine prices and ordinary photographs.

Ask whether the admired layout can handle them without hiding important information.

A design that depends on uniformly short names and studio photography may need substantial adaptation for a handmade catalogue. Identify that early instead of discovering it after the homepage is approved.

Define what should feel different

Describe your own direction in concrete terms. For example, a crochet shop might want close-up material detail, visible preparation times and space for colour choices.

Those requirements are more actionable than borrowing another brand's personality.

Keep the business's real identity in the brief. Do not invent a heritage story or luxury claim simply because the references use them.

Sketch before polishing

Make a simple arrangement of sections using your own labels and content. It can be a rough drawing or plain boxes.

Explain what each section helps a shopper do and where its main link goes. Remove a section that exists only because it appeared in a reference.

This step exposes dependence on someone else's page order before time is spent on polished graphics.

Add constraints to the board

Record mobile needs, available assets, editing responsibilities and important commerce states. Include sold-out products, missing photographs and longer delivery explanations.

If the team cannot maintain a weekly editorial feature, do not make it the centre of the design.

Constraints are not a reduction in ambition. They help produce a design that remains useful after launch.

End with decisions, not a collage

Create a short summary of what to adopt, what to adapt and what to avoid. Link each decision to a customer task or content requirement.

Keep the source references for internal traceability, but write the final brief in original language.

The finished board should enable an independent design. Someone should be able to explain the resulting store through its own products, information and buying journey without pointing to a competitor as the reason for every choice.

Use a final independence check

Hide the reference screenshots and review your sketch with the merchant's actual content. Can the team explain every major section without reconstructing the reference from memory? If not, return to the customer task and explore another arrangement. The aim is not to make borrowed work harder to recognise. It is to create a genuinely appropriate solution whose assets, copy and decisions belong to this business.