Seeking advice

Shopify Discussion
1

Hello Again,

i come here feeling somewhat almost like giving up, but i can’t. I had posted two weeks earlier seeking advise for my shop venushaven.com

i have done major changes. I am not quite there but boy i have spent many hours reading and working on the shop. Could someone please and kindly let me know if i am headed in the right direction towards running ads and atleast making some sale even of one item to boost my morale. Many thanks ,many thanks for all the advise i am to receive. thanks.

2

You’re closer than you think, but I’d hold off on ads — a few things on the store will eat the budget first.

Product titles still have draft text in them. One activewear set is titled with two alternative names and quote marks. Sweep the whole catalogue for that.

Reviews: there are 8, all on the headband, and the homepage widget repeats the same ones three times. The names read like placeholder data. Delete them and start collecting real ones — one honest review beats eight that look generated.

Almost every product shows a struck-through price. When the entire catalogue is permanently on sale, the discount stops reading as a deal.

71 products across strength gear, activewear, swim and hiking is too wide to advertise cold. Pick one hero product — the 11-piece resistance band set is the obvious one — make that page genuinely good, and send all traffic there. Widen once it converts.

3

thank you so much for you honest opinion and advise.

4

Hey @lynnebaky ,

First of all, don’t be discouraged. The fact that you’ve spent time implementing feedback and improving your store is already a positive step. Building a successful store is usually an iterative process rather than something that happens overnight.

From what you’ve described, I think you’re moving in the right direction. Before increasing your ad spend, I’d focus on making sure the fundamentals are as strong as possible:

  • Make your value proposition clear as soon as visitors land on the homepage.
  • Ensure product pages include high quality images, detailed descriptions, and clear information about shipping, returns, and customer support.
  • Add trust signals such as customer reviews, secure payment options, and clear business contact information.
  • Test the entire shopping experience on mobile, since many visitors from paid ads will be using their phones.

Once you’re confident those elements are in place, I’d recommend starting with a modest advertising budget, reviewing the data carefully, and continuing to optimize based on how real visitors interact with the store.

Remember, your first sale is often the result of many small improvements coming together rather than one single change. Keep refining the experience, measure what works, and build from there.

If you found my reply helpful, feel free to mark it as the accepted solution so it can help other merchants following this discussion.

Thank You !

5

Hi, @lynnebaky

First off, give yourself credit! Every store owner has felt this exact burnout right before making a breakthrough. The fact that you spent the hours doing the work shows you’ve got the persistence to make this succeed.

Before turning on ads, run through this quick sanity check to protect your budget:

Trust First: Make sure your Return Policy, Shipping Policy, and Contact pages are clear and visible in the footer. Cold traffic needs instant trust.

Mobile Check: Test your store on a phone. The Add to Cart button should be visible right away, and pages must load instantly; around 80% of ad traffic will be on mobile.

Clear Benefits: Focus product descriptions on why the customer needs this item, not just what it is.

Strategy for that first sale: Start small with a $5–$10/day test budget on Meta/TikTok. Make sure automated abandoned cart emails are turned on in Shopify, and keep an eye on your analytics to see where visitors drop off.

If this response helps, please mark it as an Accepted Solution so it can help others in the community.

Thanks!

6

i truly appreciate all your advise . beyond grateful

7

If you like it you can mark as solution.

Thank You !

8

Hi @lynnebaky

First of all, don’t give up. I can see you’ve put a lot of effort into improving your store, and you’re definitely moving in the right direction. However, I wouldn’t recommend running ads just yet. There are still a few important improvements that can help increase your conversion rate before you start investing in traffic.

Here are a few things I noticed:

  • SEO still needs work. Your homepage is missing an H1 heading, and the heading hierarchy needs improvement. There are also several duplicate H3 headings. A proper heading structure (H1 → H2 → H3) is important for both SEO and accessibility.

  • Schema markup could be improved. Adding structured data for products, breadcrumbs, FAQs, and your organization will help search engines better understand your store.

  • Product pages need some refinement. The product gallery layout feels unbalanced because the main image is much larger than the thumbnails. A cleaner gallery will improve the shopping experience.

  • I would also recommend adding an FAQ section to your product pages. It helps answer common customer questions and builds trust while also benefiting SEO.

  • There is still room for speed optimization, including image optimization, reducing unused CSS/JavaScript, and improving Core Web Vitals.

  • Consider adding more trust-building elements such as customer reviews, guarantees, shipping information, and return policies in more prominent locations.

Overall, I think you’ve made good progress, but I’d recommend completing these improvements before spending money on ads. Even a small increase in your conversion rate can make your advertising budget much more effective.

Keep going—you’ve already made noticeable improvements, and with a bit more optimization, your store will be in a much stronger position. Best of luck!

Best regards,
Devcoder :laptop:

9

You’re heading in the right direction. I’d strengthen trust signals (reviews, shipping/returns, product pages) before scaling ads. keep going you’ve made a solid progress.

10

@lynnebaky

Nice work, keep going. Those images looks almost pro. Good setup, lights but you really should check each one again. For example “11-Piece Resistance Band Set — Full Home Gym in a Bag” foot should be on band. This looks storage, but maybe it could make some people smile a bit :slight_smile: Also try to rename product image to have connection to a product name.
Also if product that is shipped does not match image you may have some returns, so compare sizes and general look. But also if you have your store name on any product, on image you should have that in real product, right?

Keep working, pick up advices and implement them.

Good luck

11

@lynnebaky ,
You have already made a lot of progress and thats something to be proud of. One thing recommend before spending on ads is watching a few real user sessions using a tool like Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar. Its surprising how often visitors get confused by something that seems obvious to us as store owners.

Also dont judge your store only by whether you get a sale. Look at the smaller milestones too are people clicking product images, reading descriptions, adding items to the cart, or reaching checkout? Those metrics will tell you whether you’re moving in the right direction.

If you can improve those step by step, sales usually follow. Keep iterating you have already shown you are willing to put in the work and thats one of the biggest advantages you can have.

12

HI @lynnebaky

First of all, don’t be discouraged. The fact that you’ve taken feedback on board and spent time improving your store is a great sign. Most successful stores go through several rounds of refinement before they see consistent sales.

From what I can see, You’re definitely moving in the right direction. Before increasing your ad spend, I’d focus on a few key areas that have the biggest impact on conversions:

  • Build trust above the fold. Make sure visitors can immediately see your shipping information, return policy, contact details, and secure payment options without having to search for them.
  • Strengthen your product pages: Include clear benefits, high-quality images, customer reviews (if available), FAQs, and a strong call-to-action. Customers should understand why they should buy from you instead of another store.
  • Improve your value proposition. Within the first few seconds, visitors should know exactly what makes your store or products unique.
  • Check the mobile experience. Most ad traffic comes from mobile devices, so make sure pages load quickly, navigation is simple, and the Add to Cart button is easy to find.
  • Start with a small ad budget. Rather than scalling immediately, test a few creatives and audiences first. Let the data tell you what reasonates before increasing your spend.

One thing I’d recommend is holding off on spending heavily untill you’re confident the store is converting visitors well. Even a small improvement in conversion rate can make your advertising much more cost-effective.

You’re making progress, and that’s what matters. Keeping refining based on feedback and analytics, and don’t be discourged if the first sale takes a little time. Many successful Shopify stores don’t get everything right on the first attempt, but consistent improvements usually pay off in the long run.

Best of luck with your store, and I hope your first sale comes soon!

13

You have made real progress, but I would not use “the store looks finished” as the signal to start ads. I checked the live site, and the more important question is whether one cold visitor can understand a specific reason to buy from you rather than browse a broad fitness catalogue.

Right now the homepage moves from resistance bands to a water bottle, activewear, a balance board, an abdominal wheel, dumbbells and a bench. That breadth makes the store feel stocked, but it gives an ad campaign no single promise to continue.

Before spending meaningfully, I would choose one hero product and build a small test around it:

  • send the ad directly to that product page;
  • match the ad image, promise and price on the landing page;
  • make delivery, returns and what is included visible near the buy action;
  • measure product view → add to cart → checkout → purchase for that one offer.

Also fix the homepage “Easy Returns” link, which currently has no destination, and the TikTok icon, which points to Instagram. These are small defects, but cold visitors use them as trust cues.

Start with a budget sized to learn, not to force the first sale. If product views are qualified but add-to-cart stays weak, pause and improve the offer before buying more traffic.

14

You’ve gotten an unusually thorough set of feedback here, and I want to say clearly: that’s not a sign you’re far behind, it’s a sign people can see real potential in what you’ve built and want it to work. Given how much is on this thread now, here’s a way to make it manageable rather than overwhelming:

If you only do five things before spending on ads, in this order:

  1. Pick one hero product (the resistance band set, as multiple people suggested) and make that page the absolute best it can be - everything else can wait.
  2. Delete the fake-looking reviews and don’t reuse them - an empty review section is more trustworthy than one that looks generated.
  3. Fix the strikethrough pricing on that one hero product at a minimum, so the discount reads as real.
  4. Fix the two broken trust cues, Icey. Lane caught the dead “Easy Returns” link and the TikTok icon pointing to Instagram. These take minutes but matter disproportionately to a skeptical first-time visitor.
  5. Test the mobile experience on that one product page specifically, since that’s where your ad traffic will land first.

Everything else in this thread - schema markup, heading structure, Core Web Vitals, session recordings - is genuinely good advice, but it’s iteration work, not launch work. You can absolutely improve those in parallel after your first small ad test, rather than treating them as blockers before you’re allowed to start. Perfection is the thing that’s actually delaying your first sale right now, not any single missing feature.

You’ve clearly put in real hours and taken every piece of feedback seriously - that persistence is the hard part, and you’ve already shown you have it.

Best,
Vikash Jha - Apploy

15

I see two potential roadblocks before you run ads:

  1. I can’t see a Meta pixel firing on your homepage. Worth confirming with the Meta Pixel Helper extension, or under Settings, then Customer events in your admin. If it isn’t there, Meta can’t optimise for purchases, can’t retarget, and can’t tell you which ad did anything.

  2. Just make sure you’ve done some ad-math beforehand. Work out your real margin on the 11-piece set at A$94.99. Then assume a 1-2% conversion rate, which could be generous for a new store on cold traffic. That’s roughly one sale per 75 clicks, so divide your margin by 75 and you’ve got the absolute most you can pay for a click.

Of course, your results will be their worst in the beginning. But over time, as your pixel optimizes, you find the right audiences, improve your ads, and even improve your on-store conversion rate… It gives you something to work toward and a bit of a benchmark.

Relatedly, if and when you start running ads, I would give Carti a try. I’m the founder, so I’m a bit biased, but it helps boost conversion rates by giving every visitor personalized service. That means instant answers, better product recommendations, and guiding them to checkout. It’ll be totally free until you scale up, so it’s worth a shot.

16

Really pretty store and the wellness niche has a great audience behind it - the overall look and feel is on point. Just a few things worth cleaning up before you push harder on traffic.

The header is a bit too large right now, especially on smaller screens, where it takes up a lot of space before you even get to the products. Tightening it up will immediately make the store feel more balanced and easier to navigate.

The footer on the other hand feels quite empty. A proper footer with navigation links, policies, contact info and some trust signals makes a real difference for first-time visitors who scroll down to check if a brand is legitimate before buying.

The content across the store also has quite a few em dashes throughout, which is a pretty clear sign of AI-generated text. Search engines are increasingly picking up on this and it can work against your rankings. Worth going through and rewriting those sections in a more natural tone - it’ll also make the brand feel more genuine and personal to your audience.

Reviews are there but they need to be more visible and prominent on the product pages. Most people won’t click to find reviews - if they don’t see them immediately, they assume they don’t exist and that kills trust for a wellness product where social proof really matters.

On the alt text side, some images have it and some don’t, and the ones that do aren’t quite hitting the mark in terms of being descriptive enough to actually help with search visibility. For a catalog like yours going through everything manually would take a while. There’s a free app called AltMaster on the Shopify App Store that handles it in bulk through a template system - worth giving it a try to get everything covered consistently.

Small fixes on an already solid foundation - you’re close!

17

Thanks so much!!! Well received!

18

Hi, @lynnebaky
I checked out Venus Haven, and I’d actually hold off on running bigger ad campaigns for now. Ads can bring visitors, but if the store still has trust, positioning or performance issues, you’ll basically be paying to send people into a funnel that isn’t ready to convert.

Fix the trust issues

The first thing I’d fix is the About Us page, because it still has placeholder content. Replace that with your actual story, business information and what makes Venus Haven different. Also make sure your shipping, returns and contact information are easy to find.

Make the homepage more focused

You have quite a few different products, so I’d make the hero section very clear about what you sell, who it’s for and why someone should buy from you. Don’t make a visitor figure this out by browsing the whole site.

Pick 1-2 products to advertise

Pick your strongest 1-2 products and improve those product pages first - better product images, clear benefits, shipping/returns, reviews if you have genuine ones, and a prominent Add to Cart button on mobile.

Fix the mobile speed issues

I also checked the mobile PageSpeed report and there are performance improvements worth working on, particularly around images and JavaScript. I’d optimize those before sending paid traffic because there’s no point paying for visitors who leave because the page is slow.

Then run a small ad test

Once those are fixed, start with a small budget and send the traffic directly to the product you’re advertising.

Track: Ad → Product page → Add to Cart → Checkout → Purchase

That will tell you exactly where the problem is. If people click but don’t add to cart, improve the product page/offer. If they add to cart but don’t purchase, look at shipping, checkout and payment options.

I wouldn’t give up yet. I’d make these changes, start with one product and a small ad budget, and let the data show you what needs work next.

If performance is one of the areas you decide to work on, tools like Website Speedy are worth looking at . It can help with things like image optimization and frontend performance though it is optional to use.

Disclaimer: I’m affiliated with Website Speedy.

19

Thank you so much for your honesty and feedback. Super constructive! I really appreciate.

20

Hi,
It shows you offere free delivery on a ForgeFit Pro All-in-One Weight Bench to New Zealand? (And I assume other places but haven’t checked)
How can you offer that rate? Is your shipping set up correctly for international and where do you send from?