Looking for feedback on my Shopify store – any suggestions for improvement

Topic summary

A Shopify store owner selling tech gadgets in Malta and Europe seeks feedback on their self-built site (rdmalta.com), focusing on design, mobile usability, product pages, and checkout flow.

Key Issues Identified:

  • Logo & Branding: Text in logo is too small; recommendation to use symbol only
  • Cart Display Bug: Black cart bubble with black text makes item count invisible
  • Payment Icons Broken: Card payment logos not displaying on product pages and checkout
  • Cookie Bar Malfunction: Border too wide with disordered text

Design Recommendations:

  • Add hero banner with clear headline and call-to-action on homepage
  • Organize products into categorized rows (Featured, Headphones, Gadgets, Car Accessories)
  • Move customer reviews higher on homepage for social proof
  • Restructure customer review cards for better alignment
  • Consider adding promotional messaging in header (free shipping, discounts)

Performance Concerns:

  • Desktop score: ~57-70%
  • Mobile score: ~40-64%
  • Large images causing slow Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
  • JavaScript blocking initial render
  • Missing alt text on product description images

Suggested Optimizations:

  • Implement responsive image sizing with lazy loading
  • Defer non-critical JavaScript
  • Compress and optimize images
  • Shorten meta descriptions to 100-200 characters
  • Add sticky “Add to Cart” button on product pages

Multiple respondents praised the clean layout and clear checkout flow while emphasizing that targeted improvements could significantly boost trust and conversion rates.

Summarized with AI on October 26. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.

Hi everyone :waving_hand:

I’m looking for honest feedback on my Shopify store:
https://rdmalta.com

We sell tech gadgets and accessories, mainly targeted at customers in Malta and Europe.
I’ve built the site myself and I’d really appreciate insights from other store owners, designers, or Shopify experts.

Specifically, I’d love your thoughts on:

  • Overall design and first impression
  • Mobile usability and speed
  • Product pages: clarity, layout, trust
  • Checkout flow: is it clear and simple?
  • Anything you’d change or improve?

Any advice—big or small—would be super helpful as I continue improving the site.
Thanks in advance! :folded_hands:

1 Like

I took a look at your site. I saw couple things that can be improved.

General

  • For the logo on the site, I would recommend going with just the symbol because the text is too small to see.
  • Cart bubble count doesn’t show the number because the circle is black and the number is black

Home

  • Try creating rows of related items like:
    • Featured Items
    • Headphone
    • Gadgets
    • Car Accessories
    • etc

Single Product page

Overall, I like the color scheme, the site is very fast on desktop, checkout flow is clear.

Hi @PeppePro02

This is David from PieLab here.

I checked out your site and it has a solid foundation with a clean layout, simple navigation, and a familiar Shopify checkout flow.

However, it would benefit from stronger brand messaging, more modern visuals, and improved mobile usability.

Product pages are functional but could be enhanced with richer descriptions, better imagery, and trust signals like reviews or badges.

Mobile performance is decent but needs optimization for spacing and speed. You can use this image for your reference:

While the checkout process is clear, I also noticed this issue:

The accepted payment methods are malfunctioning, you might want to have a look there.

Overall, with a few targeted improvements, the site could significantly increase user trust and conversion rates.

Hope this help,
David

1 Like

Hi @PeppePro02

I have spent some time checking your website and concerning the store design, page speed and inner situations, I would like to share something useful, and you can make them as a reference here.

  1. For store design and first impression: Your store looks like very clean and straightforward for visitors to know what you sell, but I feel hard to know your top sale products, and I’m unsure if you have any activities on the store, which may make me feel hesitated to further explore honestly to say. And furthermore, there are two more details on the page that require your attention.

    • It seems like the cookie bar is not working properly on my laptop while checking. The border is too wide, and the text content seems like disordered. You can consider optimizing this element, and it can give visitors a better impression and make your potential customers think this store professional I believe.

    • Apart from listing WhatsApp contact with underlined URL on the top of your store, you can also put some store policy or activities if you have, such as Free shipping for products sold to Malta or 20% off for Products sold to Europe. This can attract some customers who is eager to explore more on your website and helpful for the final purchase.

    1. For store page speed: I have tested your store on desktop and mobile ports both three times with the help of Google PageSpeed Insights (It is the tool our APP Team frequently use because it can detect out the latest page speed status after our testing) to get an average feedback and here is what I find below:

    After calculating, the average results of your store page speed are 60 on mobile and 79 on desktop. Your mobile page speed is indeed lower than desktop page speed. From the analysis of Google Page Speed Insights Tool, the three test results are all mentioning the Total Blocking Time(TBT), which is the main cause code. Though it is in green, you can still optimize more on the store to get a better status, like removing unnecessary JavaScript contents or streamlining web page code. For more details of TBT, you can read this article from chrome for developers directly.

    1. Additionally, I find out something unusual on your store SEO aspect. Let’s see more details when searching on Google:

      As you can see here, your meta description is too long to display completely and when I click to see your page URL structure, it contains unnecessary codes inside.


      The two factors here are both harmful for your store SEO and will make Google bots as well as customers feel hard to identify and tell your store properly.

    If you plan to optimize them two, you can follow my shared advice here below:

    • Shorten the meta description length between 100-200 characters. You can check it from Shopify admin page (Preference page I remember) to see if it is too long. If so, shorten it with the help of Online Character Count Tool and make sure it is within 200 characters. If not, double check the meta description related code contents in theme.liquid file and see if it works normally or not.
    • Change URL content into a clearer one. I can give you one better example here for your reference:

    Therefore, it is suggested on your end to do an SEO Check regularly, and you can see more feedbacks beneficial for your store. You can consider installing SEOAnt to do this work for you if not so familiar with SEO self-check on your store. Hope what I shared here above can give you some reminders in some ways to further optimize your store. Cheers!

1 Like

Hello @PeppePro02 , Thanks for sharing the store with us to test and analyze. I have made a complete evaluation of your store, and below are the results generated from it -

Design and First Impression
First impression of your store is very good, as the design structure is clean and simple. As your store is related to the selling of Gadgets, you can try to little more things you can add, like make the color vibrant for your store, or add some background images to make it more attractive.

For the design first thing that came to my mind is the logo, as the text seems very small and is not clear to see. Try to remove the text, only place the symbol in that.
Secondly, the cards you have placed in the customer reviews are not well structured might be you might want to create a new design, but I would recommend placing all those cards in the same line.

Your social media icons are placed in the top above the navigation bar. I would recommend placing it either in the navigation bar or below it because WhatsApp redirect is already at the top, and placing social media redirects just below it is not a good idea.

Speed Analysis

I have tested your site using Google Page Insights Report, and the below are the results.

Your overall performance score is not up to the standards and needs a big improvement to make the changes.

Image Delivery - Try to reduce the download time of images can improve the perceived load time of the page and LCP. Use responsive image design to reduce the download size of the image.

For example -

Use srcset and img_url filters for responsive

<img
  src="{{ product.featured_image | img_url: '480x480' }}"
  srcset="
    {{ product.featured_image | img_url: '240x240' }} 240w,
    {{ product.featured_image | img_url: '480x480' }} 480w,
    {{ product.featured_image | img_url: '800x800' }} 800w,
    {{ product.featured_image | img_url: '1200x1200' }} 1200w
  "
  sizes="(max-width: 480px) 240px,
         (max-width: 768px) 480px,
         (max-width: 1024px) 800px,
         1200px"
  alt="{{ product.title | escape }}"
  loading="lazy"
/>

Document Request Latency
Your first network request is the most important. Reduce its latency by avoiding redirects, ensuring a fast server response, and enabling text compression. Try to reduce the unnecessary use of third-party scripts and minify the code as much as possible to increase the response time.

Page’s Initial Render

Requests are blocking the page’s initial render, which may delay LCP. Try to defer the non-critical resources from the page to render the resources faster.

For example -

<script src="{{ 'custom.js' | asset_url }}" defer></script>

Alternatively, if you wanted to solve these issues automatically, I recommend to give a try to the website Speedy - an optimization app that handles loading and rendering delays of the site by optimizing images, JS, and CSS.

(Disclaimer: We are the developers of this app and are always ready to solve any problem you may face.)

1 Like

Hi @PeppePro02 ,
Overall, your store looks clean and professional — the branding is consistent, which builds trust.

Design Improvements

  • However, the homepage hero section could be stronger. Consider adding a single, clear hero banner with a headline, main benefit, and call to action. This immediately tells visitors what makes your store special.
  • Highlight a featured product or best-seller section higher up the page.
  • Bring customer reviews further up the homepage — real social proof should be visible without scrolling too far.
  • On product page adding a sticky Add to Cart button that stays visible as shoppers scroll through long descriptions.

PageSpeed Insights — Key Issues

  • Homepage: Performance score ~57 — slowed down by large images and JavaScript blocking.
  • Product Page: Performance score ~64 — slowed down mostly by large product images (Largest Contentful Paint).

1 Like

Hi @PeppePro02 ,

I am from Mageplaza - Shopify solution expert.

Your self-developed website is quite good — I appreciate your ability to build it independently. However, there are a few areas you should improve to better attract customers:

  1. Home Page
  • Use a logo design without text.
  • Add a banner slider with clear CTAs like: “Buy Now,” “View Details,” “Up to 40% Off.”
  • Featured / Promotional Products:
    Display 4–6 products in a grid (scrolling or sliding).
    Show original price – sale price – discount percentage.
    Include buttons like “Add to Cart” / “View Details.”
  • Optionally, segment products by tags such as: “Best Seller,” “New Arrival,” “Hot Deal.”
  1. Product Details Page
  • Adjust and align the layout for the product description section.
  1. Collection Page
  • Add promotional campaign items to drive sales and encourage purchases.
  1. Performance Scores
  • Desktop: 70%

  • Mobile: 40%

I hope my suggestions will be helpful to you.

Best regards!

1 Like