Feedback on our store - thehatkelife.com

[hatkelife]

We have recently gone live with our store (https://www.thehatkelife.com) and would welcome feedback on the store. We have used the Pipeline theme for the store and except for a few customizations, have been pretty much able to get the store created. We however are new to doing business online and would very much welcome suggestions on what we could improve on or have missed. We would also welcome suggestions on how we could increase traffic to the store.

Thanks!

[Brie]

Hi, @hatkelife !

Thank you for reaching out in the community for some advice about your storefront. I took a look at your site, and I would be happy to offer some suggestions! First, the site is looking great so far. I can tell that you've put a lot of work into it and you've already included many of the key qualities that are important on an online store, such as high quality product photos, a page about your personal story, an FAQ page, a clear return policy, and more; great job! Here are a few additional things that you can consider, which will help boost that conversion rate even higher. 

• Add reviews for your products. Product reviews build a customer's trust in a product, and there are a number of ways that you can integrate these. If you have existing testimonials then you can import them into a reviews app such as Shopify Product Reviews.  This also enables your customers to add their own reviews once they've purchased the product as well. Alternatively, you can use an app like Yotpo to create a page of general site reviews, which you can add to your main menu for any visitors to see.  
• Consider offering free shipping. Have you considered factoring shipping costs into the product and offering free shipping? If you find that a lot of customers are abandoning the checkout, then your shipping costs may need to be reassessed. 

The above suggestions will help with your conversion rates once you're receiving high quality traffic to your site. I recommend giving this blog post a read, which goes over a few different strategies for increasing store traffic. What marketing strategies are you using to drive traffic to your site? Are you currently running any Facebook ads or email marketing campaigns? 

[DuaneBrown]

You have done a great job to get to this point. The photos for the products are clean and look crisp. I work with a lot of startup fashion brands but also major brands like ASOS. Here are some ways to make your store even better and make people want to purchase.

Homepage Feedback

1. I would make the text on your homepage image bigger and easier to read. Even with my glasses on, I think it's to small. Even the text on the FAQ page could be larger
   
   
2. Having both the Shop and Featured Collection seems a bit redundant. I would remove one and consider adding a Featured Product section on the homepage (i.e. Product Of The Month). Pick one products and tell people why you picked it and what makes it great

Product Page  Feedback

1. Make sure each product has 3 - 5 images as that will help someone decide if they want to purchase. Some products I saw only had 1 or 2 images. Lifestyle images of someone wearing the scarf would go a long way
   
   
2. Add a section for customer reviews when you get them. This helps build social proof and makes it easier for people to trust your brand. Ask past customers for reviews is a great way to get this started

Your store just needs some tweaks to take it up a level.  Hope you found this helpful, if so please click "like" below to let me know.

[hatkelife]

Thanks a lot for your feedback, we really appreciate it. We have looked at the Product Reviews app, however the App seems to want access to customer and order data. I understand the need for order data but a bit concerned about the customer data as it does not line up well from a privacy perspective. Do you know how others have handled this?

[DuaneBrown]

You don't have to use an app. Some link to their Google Reviews (opens in a new tab). Others just show a few current customer reviews on the homepage. Each one has pros and cons to it of course. Having some strong customer reviews on your site will be 100% better then not having any. You want to keep people on your site as much as possible.

[neha-sparq]

Hey,
It seems you have worked quite a lot, as the store is amazing and close to perfect. It has everything at its place from top to bottom but surely you can work on few aspects mentioned down below which will help you in settling UI and overall functionality which will build trust for visitors and eventually drive you a

lot better sales.

1. Favicon is missing.

2. I would love to see an Account login/sign-in system, as it is a must for e-commerce.
   

3. For engaging new customers, you can add a section of best-selling products.

4. For some sales at the start, you need to offer some discounts to get going as a promotional offer.
   Also, it would be great if you can create a seperate sale page for discounted products.

5. Also, You have around 33 products and sure you might add a few more as its just a start for your visitor might feel hard to find the right product.
   Also, your search page is a bit off and empty https://www.thehatkelife.com/search?type=product&q=  .Don't you think if suggestions are offered to the searchbar, there will be a lot of chances for a visitor to buy from your store?
   I would recommend replacing the default search with an advanced search like Sparq which allows synonyms, advanced custom tag filters, spelling correction, and other such features. Visitors with search are high intent users and their conversion rate is higher than normal users.
   Check out the features live here.

6. Sales Pop syncs your store's data to turn recent orders into sales notification popups on your storefront. This is Sales Pop's highest converting feature and is most commonly used on product pages, collection pages.

7. Baymard Institute cites that more than 68% of online shopping carts are abandoned. If you're suffering from lots of traffic and little sales due to abandoned carts, you're not the only one— and PushOwl could be the answer you're looking for. Automated abandoned cart push notifications can help you increase sales and re-engage visitors to your site who have left.

I hope my feedback will help you convert visitors into customers.
Neha:)

[FFT_SMART]

Hi @hatkelife 

Overall I think your shopify store looks pretty good, But I noticed a couple of things that you might consider adding.

Did you think about adding a blog. A blog could be used to drive more traffic to your store, and you could also use it to recommend potential products that your customer could buy.

After carefully reviewing I don't see reviews. If you add reviews it will help keep your customers on your site. If your customer needs to leave your site to do research on a product they might not come back, adding reviews can help with that.

You might consider adding a sense of urgency. One of the main reasons why people don't buy from a store is because they feel like they can buy it whenever. A big thing that can help more of your visitors be turned into buyers would be by adding a sense of urgency to your store. One way to add urgency is to have a sale, and all sales need an end date. You can easily add a sale to your store with a countdown timer. One countdown timer that I recommend is https://apps.shopify.com/better-countdown .

You know your store is actually quite good, and I think with just a bit of love and care, you will be able to really succeed.

Just so you know, I also created a tiny email series that has some tips on making your shopify store better https://mailchi.mp/7d8692283c12/shopify-conversion-course

To learn more visit https://www.answrly.com/

[Brie]

Hi, @hatkelife! 

Thank you for your response. I can definitely understand being concerned for your customers' security, and I think it's great that you are doing everything you can to protect their information. Shopify continuously works to ensure the platform is secure, and keeping your data safe is always our highest priority. However, if you're not comfortable providing our app access to the requested information, then you can always do one of the following instead: 

• use a different app to connect your Facebook or Google reviews - each app may have different required permissions
• add a menu item that links to your reviews on Google, Facebook, or any other site 
• create a page and manually enter in existing reviews there 
• pick a few key reviews and feature them on the home page - this will depend on your theme; some themes have a built in testimonials section that you can use, and for others you can use a regular text section and enter them in manually

If you'd like some additional tips on how to ensure account security for both you and your customers, check out our help doc on securing your account.  Let me know if you have any further questions about that! 

[AiTrillion]

Hey @hatkelife , your store looks great. I would suggest you to increase engagement on your store. If your store will be engaging then it will help you to capture visitors and convert them into prospective or paying customers. You can add loyalty points and rewards, chatbot, email marketing automation, pop ups. This will help you to make your store interactive and will increase conversions. These are the best ways to reach out to your customers and stay connected. It helps in building a relationship with your customers and proves to be the best way of increasing conversion and retention rate. 

The best way to get traffic is through paid ads. But make sure your store is able to engage your visitors. If your store is not able to engage your visitors then visitors will bounce back from your store. You can add web push notifications to retarget your customers even when they are not on your store. It is also helpful in reducing the abandoned cart rate. 

To know more about how you can implement this. Feel free to ask. 

[oscprofessional]

Hi @hatkelife ,

I reviewed your store, its amazing! Here are a few minor things you might consider changing.

Sticky Header: You can create a sticky header. Sticky header is something that remains fixed to the top of the website, and are visible even when you scroll down. It gives a better navigation experience to the user.

Images: Your website images don’t look responsive to many devices. You need to fix it.

Live Chat Support: A website with no live chat is like a store with no sales assistant. Start a conversation with your visitors and turn them into happy customers. So integrate live chat support on your website.

Structured Data: What I observed that structured data is not effectively implemented, If it's not effectively implemented then it won't help you increase search appearance on SERP.

Build trust: Show off trust signals and customer testimonials to boost conversion. Customer testimonials and trust Signals help customers to feel more secure in their buying decision.

CTA: You need a strong call to action to convince people to act. Try to use good CTA to increase conversion and sales.

Add write a review section: This is a great way to win customer trust by providing them authentic reviews of the product so add ‘write a review section’ on your website and display it with the aggregate rating.

Social Media: Integrate social plugins on your website to increase traffic. Social media pages helps to reach more customers. Social media make your business visible and it expands conversion such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram are great platforms for marketing and connecting with your new and existing users. 

I hope my feedback will help you!!! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!!

Thank you!!!