In the past I built a site on Zencart, then Woocommerce, this is my first Shopify store and a totally new business. I’ve been focusing hard for 3 weeks, the first week building it, then the last few weeks stocking it (still have tons more to list). I’ve perhaps got tunnelvision focusing so much on listing. Any tips to improve it? I’ll take all constructive criticism! I’ll be making more banners like the band tee one, I just started with one to get the home page looking decent. Thanks!!
Topic summary
New Shopify apparel/accessories store seeks improvement advice, with cart user experience emerging as the primary issue. The current setup adds items without opening a cart drawer; switching to the Horizon theme’s drawer revealed a bug where item details don’t populate, blocking edits and checkout. An attached screenshot shows the drawer indicating two items but not listing them.
Key recommendations:
- Use a cart drawer (a side panel showing cart contents without redirect) to maintain browsing momentum, add a free‑shipping progress bar, and show complementary products. Prefer a single app that consolidates these features to avoid multiple subscriptions (e.g., iCart).
- Homepage: add clear CTA buttons (Add to Cart/Shop Now), a seasonal FOMO message (urgency), and clickable collection images for faster navigation.
- Product pages: include real model/lifestyle photos, multiple angles and close‑ups, make price more prominent, and consider personalization options.
- Engagement and trust: use a light seasonal popup with a promo, link banners to specific collections, surface shipping/returns, reviews, and consider an advanced blog for SEO (search engine optimization).
- Consider a 3D viewer for interactive product exploration.
There’s disagreement about using free themes; the store owner defends Horizon and plans to research a drawer cart app. Actions: will implement suggestions and test a drawer cart solution. Status: ongoing; drawer cart behavior remains unresolved.
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Three weeks in and you’re already stocking heavily, which shows commitment. Coming from Zencart and Woocommerce, you probably know the basics, but Shopify has its own quirks. Let me give you some feedback on what needs attention before you get too deep into just adding more products.
The main issue is your cart experience. When someone adds a product, you’re redirecting them to a separate cart page. That’s breaking the shopping flow completely. They’re browsing your tshirts, shirts, pants, or whatever caught their eye, they add something, and then you yank them out of that experience. Most people will abandon right there because the momentum is killed.
Switch to a slider cart that opens on the same page without disrupting their browsing. This keeps people engaged and makes adding multiple items feel natural. With the variety you’re carrying, tshirts, outerwear, bags, wallets, belts, hats, jewelry, prints, people are likely building outfits or picking up several things. Make it easy for them to keep shopping without constantly being redirected.
Once you have that slider cart working, add a progress bar showing how close they are to free shipping or a discount threshold. When someone sees they’re twenty or thirty dollars away from unlocking it, they’ll grab another item. Your product range probably has items at different price points, so people are often right on that edge. Without the visual nudge, they don’t even know the opportunity exists.
Show complementary products right in that cart. Someone adds a tshirt, show them pants or a hat that goes with it. Someone grabs a belt, suggest a wallet or bag. Someone buys a band tee, show them other band merchandise or accessories. These are natural pairings that make sense, and you’re making it convenient for them to see what else works without having to navigate through your growing catalog.
Don’t install separate apps for each cart feature. One for the slider cart, another for upsells, another for progress bars, another for product recommendations. That gets expensive fast and you’ll be paying for multiple subscriptions before you’ve even established consistent revenue. Look into something like iCart that handles all your cart customization in one place. It’s cheaper and keeps your site running smoothly.
You mentioned tunnel vision on listing products. That’s understandable when you’re building inventory, but conversion optimization matters just as much. You can have thousands of products, but if your cart experience is pushing people away, those listings won’t translate to sales. Get the cart sorted now before you add hundreds more products, because fixing it later when you have more traffic is just leaving money on the table in the meantime.
Thank you so much for all this! You are right, I’m not thinking about all that yet. So this theme did have a slider cart, I actually turned it off, I can’t remember why now, it was something like the cart opened, then slid shut, and nowhere could I find a button to get back into the cart. It seemed to only work if I made the cart its own page. I must have been missing something. I encounter frustrating websites, and I just want my website to be simple and not frustrating, and that sliding cart was frustrating me. Maybe I wasn’t understanding it. And yes, I need people to see the upsells, I can’t assume they know I have products that would go perfectly with what they’ve chosen. Thank you so much! I will work on all of it 
Great job getting your Shopify store launched so quickly! As someone who enjoys optimizing stores for both user experience and sales, here are a few constructive suggestions after browsing your store:
Homepage Tips:
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Add More Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons: Help guide visitors toward purchases by ensuring each product showcased on your homepage has a visible “Add to Cart” or “Shop Now” button. The easier it is for people to act, the better your conversions.
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Add FOMO/Seasonal Messaging: Consider a dynamic banner or a scrolling “FOMO” (fear of missing out) text - something like “Holiday orders are shipping FAST - don’t miss out!” This creates urgency, especially during the shopping season.
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Showcase Collection Images: Add attractive collection images on your homepage, each linking to its respective collection (e.g., Band Tees, Accessories). This helps new visitors immediately see the range of what you offer and navigate quickly.
Product Page Tips (example: 38 Special Emblem Gold T-Shirt – Midnight Rebellion)
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Real Model & Lifestyle Images: Show the t-shirt on a real person (front and back), and if possible, in different settings. This helps shoppers see fit, size, and style - key for apparel.
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Multiple Angles & Close-Ups: Offer detailed shots from various angles to showcase design quality and fabric details. This builds trust and reduces hesitation.
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Highlight the Price: Make sure the price stands out (e.g., bigger font, bold, or a color accent), so customers can easily find it.
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Personalization Options: If relevant, consider adding personalized options (ex: custom text or image printing) to attract gift shoppers. You can use TailorKit Product Personalizer to easily do this to showcase personalized products for your store.
You’re off to a strong start, and you’re right - stocking and content can be a massive focus early on. But even small tweaks in user experience can make a big difference in building customer confidence and sales. Keep experimenting and iterating - Shopify makes it easy!
Hope my suggestions will be helpful for you!
hi @MidnightRebellion i believe that clicking “add to cart” should simply add product to cart without opening the cart slider, only if the visitor clicks the cart icon to show products on their cart.
Thank you so much, I will implement all of these!!
Yes that’s what it does now, you see this little thing fly up to indicate it’s going up to the cart, the page doesn’t open. Then one can keep shopping. When I had the slider cart, it would slide open when I added a product, but I couldn’t figure out how to check out when I was done, like the cart button at the top didn’t work. I need to experiment again, but there was a reason I chose to not use the slider cart. But indeed, you’re right, right now it just flies into the cart but that page doesn’t open. For me this is less frustrating.
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I js checked out your store. The overall look is solid, so now it’s mainly about smoothing the customer journey.
• You have a lot of holiday items, so adding a simple seasonal popup with a small promo or early access usually captures visitors better. High browse, low buy is super common until you give them that first nudge.
• Your banners are nice, just make each one point clearly to a specific collection to guide the shopper.
• Make shipping and return info a bit more visible on product pages since that’s where people hesitate most, especially with gift purchases.
A light popup strategy tends to work well for stores with a mix of everyday and seasonal products, and I can go into more detail anytime.
So I just switched from the cart full page to the slider, and now I remember why I chose not to use the slider, it doesn’t populate the items that are in their cart, so if they wanted to delete something they literally can’t get to the part that shows what’s in their cart unless I have it as a separate page. I assume this isn’t the way it’s supposed to work. See my screenshot, that’s the slider cart open, it says there are two items but doesn’t show what they are.
May I know which app you’re using for slider cart?
I’m not using a different app, just what Shopify offers, but with the Horizon theme if that makes a difference.
Hey @MidnightRebellion,
Try using an app like iCart. It can help you with the cart drawer that actually shows what’s inside your cart.
Hey @MidnightRebellion,
It’s awesome that you’ve been expanding. It really shows your commitment, and I believe it’s going to push you forward and bring you a lot of success.
A tool you might want to look into is the 3D Viewer. What helps customers understand your products better is adding an interactive element to your website. Even a simple 3D viewer can make a big difference. It lets people engage with your products instead of just scrolling, and they usually end up spending more time on the page because of it.
Your products are pretty simple to model, so adding a 3D experience won’t cost much. A more personalized, interactive shopping experience can make your store feel more modern and show that you really care about giving customers the best experience possible.
Wishing you good luck!
This is the typical result of a combination of using a free basic theme plus having little to no knowledge of how to customize the theme.
A cart drawer, when properly coded and configured, can be an invaluable asset. You have thousands of themes to choose from, and you also have a ton of online resources. Literally hundreds of YouTube channels that show you how to do things.
You’re either not the first to express this sentiment that implies “this is what you get when you use a free theme”, or you’re saying it a second time. The idea that a theme that costs money surely must be “better” is interesting to me, as well as the assumption that everyone’s business budget includes paying for a theme. In reality, I specifically chose this theme because it’s Shopify’s own theme, out of their free themes it seems to be the better option, with Shopify being the creater they are more likely to keep up on updates and keeping the theme working well with the Shopify platform. It fits my current budget. A lot of big brands use this theme despite the fact that I’m sure their budget is bigger. And, actually I have a degree in web design, so customizing and coding will not actually be an issue. I was just aswering someone’s initial question about why I had chosen to use the page format for my cart instead of the drawer cart, I went back and tried it and remembered why I decided for the time being it was safer to stay with the page cart until I could figure this out. I do agree that the drawer cart is the better option, so I will figure out how to get it to work, even if I need to find an app.
Thank you!! I will look for that app
Well it’s free for a reason. Kind of like the difference between going to a steakhouse and going to the soup kitchen… And no offense, but budgeting a theme that houses your entire business is kind of important. If you can’t afford a hundred bucks or something for that, how can you afford to run a business? Just sayin. Nothing wrong with going free. By all means. But you shouldn’t have high expectations just because it’s Shopify’s… I’m sure the horizon cart drawer is minimally functional. It’s probably a good thing you decided to do without until more knowledgeable.
I mentioned budget because for some people that might be the biggest deciding factor, and to chide them for using a “free basic them” and implying without outright saying it that that free theme is going to be an issue is not necessarily helpful. I have my own reasons for choosing the theme I chose and I’m actually very happy with it so far. I’m looking into drawer cart apps now.
Like I said by all means. Not chiding at all. Simply stating fact. Its a combination of basic theme features and lack of knowledge. It’s not Shopify’s fault, they have lots of options. And lots of tutorials. Just a matter of how much work you’re willing to put into it. Youre not being targeted. You’re not being chastised. It is what it is. Basic theme plus inexperience equals a lot of threads here…