WebsiteDesign

Best Online Store Option For YOU?
I've used Magento Go and Shopify. I've also used other Content Management Systems when I managed an Ecom team (for 7 years) including home grown and Magento enterprise.

If you want to start an online store which platform should you use? Let's look at a feature by feature comparison:

Easy To Use - Winner Shopify

Plugin / Add On Development - Winner Magento Go 

Email Integration - Tie (both work well with MailChip et al)

SEO - Magento Go if you KNOW SEO, Shopify if you don't

Promotion - Magento Go if you KNOW ecom, Shopify if you don't

Manage SKUs - Tie
up to about 50,000 after than NEITHER (you've outgrown OPP Other People's Platform if you have more than 50,000 unique stock keeping units SKUs). 

Cart - backend Magento Go
(can do more with logic so ASSUMES you know how to create business rule promotions) frontend (what customer sees) Shopify.

Templates - Tie 

Pretzel Logic - Magento Go
(winning this is not a good thing since it means the platform has its own language YOU must learn or things go bump in the night. Magento Go is willing to be confusing and a pain to add POWER, but 95% will never use that power so if you have a small, fun store steer clear). 

Cross Sale / UpSale
Slight nod to Magento Go again assumes you know ECOM well and cross merchandising is not intuitive but is powerful. 

Overall Winner - Shopify
For most readers of this post Shopify is the best choice.

Magento Go honorable mention
for a specialized niche group that need powerful business rule based promotion, have between 30k to 50k SKUs and don't mind learning a new language to get the backend power they need. If you don't know your crosssale (what you do on a product page to move customers to more profitable or popular choices) or upsale (what you do in the car to build Average Order Value (AOV) then use SHOPIFY. 

Via Martin (Marty) Smith

You probably heard about the modern web design term at least once, but how can be used correctly with an online shop? What are the requirements?

Marty Note (here is how I shake out on each of these recs)

Big Hero Or Sliders Agree With Caveat!
Depends on what you do immediately to the right or under your large hero. Hero's create HOT SPOTS on the right and immediately below, hot spots that convert and hot spots NO ONE uses (goofystupid). If you are running an ecommerce site you aren't selling the picture, but you do need the attention it can grab. Make sure you put a Call-To-Action to the right or immediately below. People don't like to click within a hero (especially a big one), so CTA below even if it is a restatement.

http://www.charitywater.org/
Does a good job with a large static hero and a "can't miss" CTA with 3 critical links almost directly below the hero. & I DO NOT like sliders.

Warmer Colors - AGREE!
Websites are inherently COLD so warming them up with strong accent colors is a must. Remember to figure in the images you like to include. You can use more warm color if your images always have white backgrounds. If not, you may achieve "warmer" with images instead of needing to modify your design.

Interesting Grids - AGREE!
Thanks to Pinterest the GRID is getting creative. Grids are a great way to share a lot of information fast.

Flat Design - Agree!
The web doesn't do 3D well (yet), so flattening out your design can help make buying decisions easier. Include zooms if applicable and remember to ask your customers to share pics of your products on them or in their homes (great User Generated Content).

Animation
Vine has me convinced there are ways to create animations that help and don't hurt, but be careful. An animation that doesn't stop (like Vine videos) can be obnoxious. I prefer giving control of animations to the click over auto-play. If someone ASKED to see the animation its different than if you just start playing it and it doesn't stop.

Mobile Friendly UI - Agree!
Your responsive design must master the swipe, spin and scroll of the mobile experience. If your site isn't FUN and easy to spin, snip and buy from your customers won't. Spoke with a friend at lunch in the craft space today and her traffic is now HALF mobile, so make sure your content is FUN to use on a phone or pad and takes advantage of the mobile UI.

Via Martin (Marty) Smith