Reader Nick Colebatch writes, “I went through your training, took copious notes, and ordered them in the area of websites, to help others tear down their own websites. Here are your tips, summarized and ordered from a merchant's perspective.”
Header
- Strip out social links and share buttons
- Add tag line under the logo in the header
- A toll-free number is good
Navigation
- No “Home” on Menu - it’s safe to assume that clicking on logo navigates to homepage
- If the difference between product categories not obvious consider putting images into a mega menu
- Ensure Menu breaks out products as much as possible, and if you have a top secondary menu you can put non-product related stuff (e.g. About) into that
- Check menu doesn’t take up much screen real estate when you scroll down
Footer
- Have an exciting newsletter call to action, not “Subscribe” - provide a compelling reason to join
- Have Media Enquiries in the footer
- A toll-free number is good
Home Page
- “As seen in” strips are powerful social proof and consider having them high on the homepage
Collection Page
- Quick View lightboxes not generally recommended - adds load time
- On a Collection page, when you scroll over a product you want a “hover effect” on that product
- “Trending now” instead of “Featured Products”
Product Page
- Dynamic checkout buttons
- Add reviews under the product name
- Strip out social links and share buttons
- If print on demand then have some real photos and try to have photos that are different even if you just crop them differently
- Videos to increase conversions
- Returns policy in the description - use returns policy all over your website
- Don’t hide text on the product page, such as “Details and Dimensions” - have all text display by default
- When a product has options: Consider changing “Add to Cart“ button text to “Select a size [or colour or whater]” if not all options are chosen. Have default drop-down option as a “Choose” option so you force the customer to make a conscious choice for the option before they can Add to cart so you don’t get people accidentally buying the wrong thing (like a small size t-shirt just because that was the default size) - requires development
- If different pricing for different options, then have the price dynamically change based on the option chosen (rather than showing a range of prices) - not sure if this needs a developer?
- Financing options like After Pay can be a huge conversion boost especially with higher-priced products
- “Only x number left” (inventory indicator when low) is good
- If you have “out of stock” have the ability to enter your email and get notified of when back in stock
- Add to cart navigates straight to cart page
- Big advantage to keeping to layout conventions
- Hex colour 444 (light black) good colour for easy reading
- Font Size 16 point good size
- If selling apparel add size guide as photo
- Addressing sizing concerns and returns policy is a common area to improve for apparel stores as it is a key reason not to buy
Cart Page
- Dynamic checkout buttons
- “Proceed to checkout” good text to have on the checkout button
- Have a lock icon on checkout button (on the cart page) instead of lots of trust icons - not sure if it requires development
Checkout Page
- Dynamic checkout buttons
- Add phone number under your logo on checkout
- Auto-suggest on address field in the checkout
- Make sure it’s styled (colours/fonts) as per rest of website
- (Multiple pages) Colour isolation: Consistent button colours from product page > Cart page > checkout page with only one button on each page being key branded colour and other buttons subtle colours that don’t draw attention
Sales copy wins
- Instead of “View All/More Details/Learn More” use “Shop Now” on any buttons
- “You focused language” in copy
- Don’t use “Industry Speak”. Use customer surveys and reviews - find common phrases and make those your headlines
- HotJar Survey “If you did not make a purchase today, what was it that stopped you?” set on exit intent and limited it to fire only if the url contains “products”. Mine the responses.