Web Designer in Brooklyn: Brooklyn Web Design, Written One Commercial Corridor at a Time

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

Before you hire a web designer in Brooklyn, read what the City found on your own avenue. This notebook takes five commercial districts in turn: Sunset Park, Flatbush, Borough Park, Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge. Each entry draws on the City’s needs assessment for that place: who shops there, which languages they use, how many merchants have a website, and what that means for the site you build. It is written for owners, merchant associations and BID staff. Progression’s team is based in New York, works with Brooklyn businesses, and offers on-site sessions on request.

Five Brooklyn districts, from the City’s own reports

The list below gives each entry and its main avenue. A sixth entry covers makers, who are not a corridor and are read differently.

• Sunset Park: Fifth Avenue and the Chinatown on Seventh and Eighth.
• Flatbush: Nostrand Avenue, Church Avenue and the Junction.
• Borough Park: Thirteenth Avenue.
• Bensonhurst: 86th Street, 18th Avenue and Bath Avenue.
• Bay Ridge: Third Avenue, 86th Street and Fifth Avenue.
• Makers: the Navy Yard and Third Avenue.

What a web designer in Brooklyn should read first

The needs assessments are reports by the New York City Department of Small Business Services under its Avenue NYC program, which the reports describe as a competitive grant program funded through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program. Each was prepared with local organizations, which survey merchants and shoppers. Owners who hire web designers in Brooklyn can start from them for free.

The surveys ran in different years with different sample sizes, so do not compare them as a ranking. The cards repeat the figures with their dates. Brooklyn web designers who cite one of them should say which year.

Why do the surveys come from so many different years?

Because each district was assessed when its grant partners ran the work. The year is part of every figure, and a brief should carry it.

Sunset Park: Fifth Avenue and the Chinatown on Seventh and Eighth

Two audiences live on two avenues. The assessment, prepared with Asian Americans for Equality, the Brooklyn Chinese-American Association and the Sunset Park BID, says 5th Avenue from 39th to 65th Street has a high concentration of Latinx businesses and is home to the neighborhood’s only Business Improvement District, while 7th and 8th avenues feature Brooklyn’s Chinatown, where residents and visitors can shop, dine and use professional services in Chinese and other languages.

Of the merchants surveyed, 18% have a website and 82% do not; of those with one, 33% sell online, and 32% use social media. The report’s challenges include that language barriers prevent some entrepreneurs from reaching resources, and that cash-only businesses and the limited English of some merchants may hinder growth beyond a core clientele. It names new marketing channels as an opportunity.

The site job follows the avenue. Chinese-language service pages suit health and professional services on 7th and 8th, and Spanish suits 5th Avenue shops where owners want it. Do not assume a language for any one business; ask. Our multilingual website design page covers the build.

Which language belongs on a Sunset Park page?

The one your customers read. The report names Chinese and other languages on 7th and 8th avenues and does not assign a language to any business.

• Ask a sample of customers which language they read.
• Write the pages in that language, not a translated menu over English copy.
• Add a second language only when someone can answer in it.

A first site for a cash-only storefront

When 82% of surveyed merchants have no website, a first site can be small. The cards give the four things to publish, in the customer’s language, with no push to sell online.

The 33% of site owners who sell online is a fact about those merchants, not a recommendation.

Flatbush: Nostrand, Church and the Junction

The Flatbush assessment, prepared with the Church Avenue BID, Deh Abroad Village, the Flatbush Nostrand Junction BID and HABNET, says parts of the neighborhood are known as Little Caribbean and Little Haiti, and that its retail mix draws visitors from near and far for affordability and Caribbean cultural offerings. It also says: “Lack of online presence combined with unclear storefront signage make some businesses more difficult to find.”

Of the merchants surveyed, 40% have a website and 56% do not, and 53% use social media while 41% do not. The report says 30% of residents speak a language other than English at home, most commonly Haitian Creole, Spanish and Arabic.

The site job is to be findable: match the sign on the door to the listing name, show photos of the entrance and use a name a visitor can search. Because over half use social media, a site should not contradict a page that is already running.

How do you make a storefront findable?

The report’s challenge is that a lack of online presence and unclear signage make some businesses hard to find. Fix both.

• Match the name on the sign to the name in the listing.
• Put a photo of the door and the cross street on the site.
• Use a name a visitor can search, spelled the same everywhere.
• Keep hours and phone current on every page that mentions them.

Salons and food on Nostrand Avenue

The report names limited service restaurants among the top business categories on each corridor, and hair, nail and beauty salons and barbershops along Nostrand Avenue and the Junction. A booking link or a menu beats a long site. See service website design.

Borough Park: Thirteenth Avenue

The Borough Park assessment, prepared with the Boro Park Jewish Community Council, describes 13th Avenue as a hub for residents and visitors from Orthodox Jewish communities and says Yiddish is the predominant language for the 80% of residents who speak a language other than English at home. We state nothing about observance beyond what the document says.

Of the merchants surveyed, 49% have a website and 50% do not, and marketing support is the top requested resource at 51%. The document says only 59% of households have a broadband internet connection, well below the city average of 89%. Survey quotes mention access to kosher food and signs in Yiddish.

As reasoning, phone and print may still carry weight, so the site should be light and the phone number should be the first thing on it. Ask the merchant what its customers use.

What goes first on a Borough Park page?

The phone number, as reasoning. Everything else follows it.

• The phone number, tappable.
• Hours and the address on 13th Avenue or the cross street.
• A short list of what you sell, with signs and names as customers use them.

Pages that load on a modest connection

Image weight, scripts and apps decide how a page loads on a modest connection. The cards give the rules, and our retail store website design page covers the build.

Bensonhurst: 86th Street, 18th Avenue and Bath Avenue

Three streets carry three clienteles, according to the assessment prepared with the Brooklyn Chinese-American Association and the Federation of Italian-American Organizations. Chinese restaurants, clothing stores and supermarkets line 86th Street, 18th Avenue and Bay Parkway. 18th Avenue, also known as Cristoforo Colombo Boulevard, is still lined with small multigenerational Italian businesses, and Bath Avenue is becoming a hub for Southeast Asian, Latin American and Eastern European businesses. The neighborhood is referred to as Brooklyn’s largest Chinatown and Little Italy.

Of the merchants surveyed, 21% have a website and 79% do not; of those with one, 40% sell online, and 30% use social media.

A family firm with history should get an About page written by the family. A new shop needs a one-pager. Web design in Brooklyn for a street like this one is a set of small, true pages; see web design for small business.

What does a family firm put on its About page?

The family’s own account: when it opened, who runs it now and what has stayed the same. A new shop skips the history and says what it sells.

• The year the shop opened and the name it opened under.
• Who works behind the counter today.
• What customers ask for most.

Bay Ridge: Third Avenue, 86th Street and Fifth Avenue

The Bay Ridge assessment dates from 2019: the merchant surveys ran from July to December 2019, in partnership with the Bay Ridge 5th Avenue BID. It describes 3rd Avenue as dubbed restaurant row, 86th Street as a first BID and a strip considered an outdoor shopping mall, and 5th Avenue as moving toward personal care and professional services.

Marketing support was the top requested resource, at 30%. The report says: “Minimal online presence indicates many businesses are unfamiliar with digital marketing tools and unprepared to compete in an online environment.” It gives no website percentage, so we give none. It says 52% of residents speak a language other than English at home, including Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian and Spanish, and that the neighborhood is home to the largest Arab community in New York City, 10% of the population.

The site job differs by avenue: a menu and reservations on 3rd Avenue and appointments on 5th Avenue. See websites for restaurants.

Why a 2019 finding still belongs in your brief

The report is from 2019, and we state nothing about current conditions. Ask whether it still holds on your block. A finding from 2019 is a question to put to your own customers, not an answer.

Makers behind the storefronts: the Navy Yard and Third Avenue

Makers are not a corridor. The City’s Green Book listing for the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, which carries no date, says the Yard is currently home to nearly 400 businesses providing over 11,000 jobs and operates at 99% capacity. Sunset Park’s assessment calls 3rd Avenue an industrial hub. We name no tenant.

The buyer is a purchaser or an architect, not a passerby. Capability pages and a request form do the work. See manufacturing website design and distributor website design.

When the job needs logic, such as quotes, catalogs or portals, website development in Brooklyn becomes web development. Our web development services page covers it, and a Brooklyn web development agency should price that part on its own.

What does a purchaser need to see?

A scope the maker can do, the materials and sizes, and a way to ask for a quote.

• Capabilities, written in the buyer’s terms.
• Materials, tolerances and sizes where they matter.
• Certificates the maker actually holds.
• A request form that reaches a person.

Website design in Brooklyn when your avenue is missing here

Not every avenue is in this notebook. The documents for Bedford-Stuyvesant and several other districts could not be read for this page, and Bushwick’s figures date from 2014 to 2017, too old to use. Your avenue may still have a report.

Find the report on the Department of Small Business Services site under its neighborhood assessments. If there is none, walk the block and ask ten customers. Brooklyn website design that starts from ten real answers beats one that starts from a template.

Website design Brooklyn owners commission for a block with no report should still name its sources. For Queens, see our web design in Queens page, and for builds on WordPress, WordPress developers in NYC.

Web design in Brooklyn at a storefront budget

Web design in Brooklyn, NY gets judged on the block, by people who already know the store next door. The budget follows the job, and no corridor price is published.

Web designers in Brooklyn, NY should be able to tell you which report covers your avenue.

Brooklyn web design is easiest to price in stages: a first page, a brochure site, then a store if you ship.

Ask a Brooklyn web design company which report covers your avenue and what it would change.

A Brooklyn web design agency should answer the same way, and we name none.

Other Brooklyn web design companies you weigh should be able to quote each stage.

Published bands for a corridor site

The bands come from other providers’ published pages and run from the typical low to the published high. None is a Progression quote and none is specific to Brooklyn.

Our starting prices for a Brooklyn storefront

Our website design and development page says our fixed-scope pricing starts at $1,400 for a landing page, $9,500 for a five to eight page brochure site, $18,000 for a ten to sixteen page business site and $34,000 for ecommerce under 200 SKUs. The same page has a section titled What you should own at the end.

Related services and guides

Pages that sit beside this notebook:

• Website design and development
• Multilingual website design
• Web design for small business
• Retail store website design
• Web design in Queens
• Web design by city
• SEO agency in NYC

Frequently asked questions