Hi everyone,
I’ve been running my Shopify store for about 9 months and I’m struggling to get traction. I’ve put a lot of time into building the store, creating products, and trying different marketing approaches, but sales have been extremely limited.
At this point I’d really appreciate some honest feedback from people who know e-commerce.
Could you please take a look at my store and tell me:
Does the store look trustworthy?
Do the products seem appealing?
Is there anything obvious that would stop someone from buying?
Am I missing something fundamental?
I’m not looking for compliments — I’m looking for honest critique so I can understand whether I should keep improving this or change direction.
Store URL: www.zerofgstore.com
The store is very clearly all AI. If it’s not, it looks like it. Very few people will have any interest in purchasing AI made content, and if they do, they will usually go to Amazon or other popular brands. There is no identity to the brand.
No visible reviews, no clear CTA, text inside blurry images, mixed products that don’t correlate.
The design is off as well. I’d recommend just installing the Dawn theme, asking for a color palette + font to Claude that suits your brand, and using it “as is” out of the box. When starting out, there is no need to venture in design. It just needs to be functional so you can focus on products.
Good design is not going to have any positive impact in a store that is not having sales, but bad design will most definitely hurt a store that could have sales.
Performance is on the lower-end as well. It currently takes 15~ seconds to load for a brand new customer. (PageSpeed Insights report here)
There are many things lacking here. I’d highly advise to study ecom fundamentals.
Nine months is long enough to know something isn’t clicking, so let’s get into it honestly since that’s what you asked for.
The core problem with zerofgstore is that it’s trying to be too many things at once. Dog breed t-shirts, music lover posters, art lover wall arts, it’s all in one place and that makes it hard for anyone to feel like this store was made for them specifically. The stores that get traction in print on demand are usually the ones that go deep on one audience rather than wide across many. Someone who’s obsessed with their Golden Retriever wants to feel like your whole store speaks to them, not that their niche is just one section among many.
That’s probably the most fundamental thing to address before anything else because no amount of store fixes will compensate for a positioning problem.
On the store itself, your slider cart is there but it’s doing the bare minimum. You have a decent product range and when someone adds something to their cart you should be using that moment to show them what else they might want. A Golden Retriever mug buyer might want the matching t-shirt or keychain, but they’ll only know that if you surface it right there in the cart. That’s a straightforward cross-sell that print on demand stores almost always leave on the table.
Also add a progress bar inside that slider cart showing how close someone is to free shipping. For lower priced items like mugs and keychains people will genuinely add another item just to hit that threshold.
From my own experience, the stores that survive in POD past the one year mark are the ones that pick a lane and own it completely. Right now you’re spreading yourself thin across multiple audiences and none of them feel fully served. Pick your strongest one and build around it.
Don’t stack separate apps for the cart features either, it slows things down and adds up in cost. Something like iCart covers all of it without the bloat.
I took a look at your store and overall it looks clean, but there are a few things that might be affecting conversions.
The first thing is trust. When someone visits a new store for the first time, they want to quickly feel that it’s a real and reliable business. Adding stronger trust signals like customer reviews, clearer shipping and return information, and a more detailed About Us page can help visitors feel more comfortable buying.
Another thing is the product pages. Try to focus more on the benefits of the product and how it solves a problem for the customer, not just the features. Adding more lifestyle images or short videos can also make the product feel more real and convincing.
You might also want to think about branding and positioning. Right now the store feels a bit like a general product store. If you can make the brand message clearer and target a specific audience, it often helps with both marketing and conversions.
Also, if traffic is coming from ads or social media, make sure the audience is well targeted. Sometimes stores get visitors, but they are not the right buyers, which results in very low sales.
Overall, the store doesn’t look bad at all, but improving trust, product presentation, and brand focus could make a noticeable difference.
Keep going and keep testing things. Many stores take time and a few adjustments before they start gaining traction.
This is gonna sound harsh, but it’s for your benefit.
Anyone can download a bunch of images from the internet and get a website and upload a thousand products. Would take about a day to do. And you know what? Many already have. Too many. Far too many print on demand stores using downloaded images. Thousands and thousands just like you. What separates you from, say, Amazon? I can buy a faith quote shirt on Amazon for 10 bucks. And I can guarantee you that I would have more faith in that shirt than yours. Why? Because you’re just some random person who got sucked into this pod crap. At least with Amazon, I’d know for certain I’d be able to get a refund.
Google Lens is a great tool for an instant check on images. I can tell that you have spent absolutely no real time on creating graphics for these shirts, hoodies, mugs, etc. Some of them are just straight up copied with zero alterations.
Your About Us page says you partner with printing companies? Partner is a strong word.. Highest quality? Let’s see what the products really are.
Your shirt is Gildan, which verifies the lack of effort. Anyone in the apparel industry knows Gildan is the cheapest crap you can buy. Just one product browse and I’m done. I don’t need to see anything else.
Have you done any product testing? That should happen before you even open your store for business. How do you even know the quality? Since you have not done a simple investment of a professional email, I highly doubt you have done this essential step.
Faith or not, you need to wake up and smell the coffee. You’re dropshipping crap products using downloaded graphics (probably copyrighted material too), it doesn’t look like you have done any actual work to establish a business to be proud of.
Again, harsh, but it’s the truth. And the truth will set you free.
@glenn1804 I took a look at your store and wanted to share a suggestion that might help improve traction.
One opportunity I noticed is personalization. Currently, I didn’t see a way for customers to submit their own ideas—such as uploading a photo, adding custom text, or requesting a specific design. Adding a simple form where customers can submit their own words, images, or ideas (and choose which product they want them printed on) could make the shopping experience much more unique.
You could then design a personalized version specifically for them before producing the item.
This approach turns the store from a standard product catalog into a custom design service, which can be much more appealing because:
Each product becomes unique to the customer
Customers feel involved in the creation process
It differentiates your store from many other print-on-demand stores selling similar items
Personalization can also justify higher pricing because customers value items that are made specifically for them.
Just wanted to share the idea in case it’s helpful. I think adding a simple “Request a Custom Design” or “Create Your Own Product” workflow could make the store more engaging and memorable.
The store is visually clean, but there are a couple of areas that are probably impacting conversions. The benefits could be outlined more clearly in the product descriptions, and lifestyle shots would enable customers to visualize the use of the products. There are limited trust signals, such as reviews, clear shipping and returns policies. Streamlining the navigation and adding some urgency or social proof might also help sales.
From a first impression, the store is moderately trustworthy and you’ve built a solid foundation. The main opportunities now are around how clearly the value is communicated and how confident a new visitor feels to make a purchase.
Product confidence
Right now, there’s not enough to reassure a first-time buyer.
Add real customer proof (reviews, images if possible)
Show clear use-cases or outcomes instead of just listing features
Buying hesitation
Anything unclear can stop a purchase:
Delivery time
Return policy
Product quality expectations
Make these visible near the purchase area.
Simplify the journey
Try to reduce the number of steps between landing and buying. Even small things like quicker access to purchase options can help.
Perceived value
If similar products are easily available elsewhere, the store needs to answer: why buy from here?
This can be through branding, offer, or presentation.
If your mobile performance is low, it can directly impact conversions, especially with slower load times on product pages. Improving load speed (especially images and scripts) can reduce drop-offs.
Overall, it doesn’t look like a fundamental issue , it’s more about removing hesitation and making the decision easier for the customer.