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Hello, I love the vibe of your brand, it feels authentic and handcrafted. A few things I noticed that might help make it even clearer for visitors:
It’s not immediately obvious what exactly you sell and why it’s special. A quick line in the hero section could help, like “Handcrafted Wooden Goods Built to Last.”
On product pages, adding how someone might use the item, why yours is different, or a short story about the craftsmanship could make it more engaging.
Images are nice, but showing real-life usage or scale can help people understand the product better.
Since this is a new site, adding trust signals like reviews, a short “About Us,” or your experience with woodworking could make visitors feel more confident.
Overall, it’s a solid start! A bit more clarity, storytelling, and trust-building could make it even stronger.
Email is Gmail. If you are a professional engraver you should have a professional email.
Besides email as mentioned, contact details are missing. Footer should have this. It builds trust.
About Us page exists, images are slightly rounded. Extra Large imasges, single column, 1 paragraph. It is pretty basic. I would include more images, more text. Maybe have a few image/text blocks, where the image is on one side and a text description on the other, then alternate the positions in next block.
Header is very large, needs to be only the height of a thumb.
Footer is really large as well, about 1/3 of the screen when you scroll all the way down. You really don’t need a 5 inch section for the subscription form… It’s very basic, should not take more than the height of the form and text.
Product card images are pixelated, not clear images like on the product page. Second image on hover, not a fan, but it is preference. Like that the cards are rounded.
Are you selling outside US? If not, then the USD after price is unnecessary.
Product page has a variant for custom logo/text, this cost extra so it should not be selected by default. Consider switching these around so the “No engraving” is first. Also when Engraving is selected there is nothing for the customer to upload to, no upload button. You can custom code this to where when it is selected an upload section appears, the customer uploads their logo or whatever and it will continue into the order as an item property.
I like the box-shadow on the buttons, but I would consider a different color than the button color. Black looks nice:
The cart drawer is strangely somewhere in the middle of the page, and is semi-transparent. Not sure if this is on purpose but it was worth noting. Also, it doesn’t follow the border-radius of your other elements:
Side note on Logo/image upload: If you use a standard upload snippet or section, you may find the quality is not even remotely what it was originally. This is because of Shopify’s compression. So when someone uploads a high quality svg, that you absolutely need to be high quality for sending to the engraver software, you will not be able to get that using Shopify’s item property. What most people in the industry do is write a script that sends the customers uploaded image to a third party host like Cloudinary, that retains image quality and size.
Welcome to the community.
It is always refreshing to see someone post a store with something that is made by their own hand. Plus, it is wood.
And the store looks Ok, but some things I find off. Too much green for me in general, but Ok. Images need to be higher resolution.
Homepage:
Product page:
Still, good luck and hope you get a good sales.
Great to see a review request that isn’t just another drop shipper!
I think you’ve got a good start here, but here’s a few suggestions:
I see that you’ve imported some of your reviews from etsy, which is a great way to establish trust. It looks like some of them have imported twice though, which can call their legitimacy into question. I’d also suggest displaying their star ratings where those products appear on your home page.
somebody else already mentioned the gmail. If you can get an email set up with @fentonriverwoodworks.com it’ll look a lot more professional
the items linked in your header are things I would put in the footer (also, I imagine the “message us” and “contact us” links serve the same purpose, so you probably don’t need both) – the header is a great place to provide a menu with the different categories of items you sell, so customers can quickly browse what you carry and navigate around the site
Personally, I’d only include one row of products per collection on your home page – ideally the best sellers, or maybe ones you think are great but overlooked. Then I’d include a block about who you are and your business ethic. A shortened version of your “about us” story could work.
I agree that the header is too tall, and some of the information in it could go below the banner image. I also see that you offer free shipping on orders over $35, which is the kind of info that would be great to present right at the top, especially given that the vast majority of what you sell is over $35/item.
A blog might be a nice touch to consider, moving forward. You could use it to explain cool features that people who aren’t versed in woodworking wouldn’t necessarily understand are selling points. Subjects like “what is spalting?” or the oils and conditioners you use to finish products. Creating blog content can also help with your SEO
Anyway, I like what you’re doing, and wish you luck on shopify!
Hello @fentonriverwoodworks
There is already a lot of really good feedback. In an effort to not repeat:
I know you said, don’t sell you…… But I have a set of 2 legged bars stools at a great price!
Regards.
It sounds like I have a lot of work to do! Thank you all for the insight!
The navigation is the first thing to sort out. Right now the store feels like a long scrolling page rather than a proper shop and that makes it hard to understand the full scope of what you offer. Someone interested in the yoga and somatic healing side might not even realise you also make cutting boards, coasters and plant stands.
A proper header menu with your main categories visible and clickable, along with an about page and contact page, would make this feel like a fully built out business rather than a landing page. The story behind a woodworking studio matters a lot to the kind of people who buy handcrafted goods and an about page is where that story lives.
The cart redirect needs to go. Someone adding a $129 yoga block set or a $235 over-the-sink workstation to their cart is already making a considered purchase decision and pulling them to a separate page at that moment breaks the flow completely.
A slider cart keeps them right where they are and for a store with this kind of product range the cross-sell opportunity inside that cart is genuinely strong. Someone buying the hardwood yoga blocks should be seeing the somatic sculpting tool or the grounding block set right there in the cart. Someone adding a cutting board might love the matching coasters or the utensil holder alongside it. These combinations feel completely natural and they’re the kind of thing people who buy handcrafted goods actively want.
A free shipping progress bar inside that cart would also suit your price points well. With items ranging from $18 to $235 there’s a lot of room to nudge people toward one more piece.
Don’t install separate apps trying to build all of this out individually though. It adds load time and costs more than it needs to. Something like iCart handles the slider cart, progress bar and in-cart cross-sells all together without the bloat.
HI!
The yoga blocks and all your other products look really great.
I think the color scheme and the logo are appropriate branding - earthy, natural colors.
Without getting into detail, I do agree with others here that the navigation needs improvement & clarification. It appears that you are using the craft theme?
When I look at the lines of text such as Cutting Boards | Work Stations | Coasters | Utensil Storage |Coffee Stations | Paper Towel Holders - I want to click on them and be taken to those products. If they are not intended to be menus, it would be clearer to have a paragraph of descriptive text about those offerings in general. If they are intended to be menus, that can be done using collection pages, based on product types and tags.
I think improving the navigation would really help - that would make it easier for people to find what they like and buy from you on the site.
Hello, there are some improvements point which need to add in the store which can improve the UI/UX and also improve conversion . Below is the detailed Audit report shared, Hope this helps.
The header feels visually cluttered and too tall, with excessive text.
Recommend removing the first slider entirely and instead:
The “Personalized Engraving Message” should be:
Placed more prominently (top area)
Linked to a dedicated collection page for engraving-compatible products.
The navigation is currently not user-friendly and requires too many clicks to reach products.
Suggested improvements:
Add direct categories like:
Yoga and Somatic Tools
Kitchen Accessories
Plant Stands
Remove “Message Us” from the main menu (not appropriate placement).
Fix inconsistency like “ABOUT US” in all caps → maintain uniform styling.
The menu should prioritize ease of navigation and product discovery.
The hero banner is visually good, but:
Add a prominent button like:
Shop Now
Explore Collection
View Products
The text section after the banner and the Yoga collection are misaligned.
Ensure consistent spacing and alignment for a cleaner visual flow.
Displaying all products on the homepage feels unstructured.
Instead, include:
A short About Us section
Customer reviews/testimonials
FAQ section
Trust-building elements (e.g., handcrafted, materials, shipping info)
Focus on brand + trust + guided browsing, not just product dumping.
The footer is currently underutilized.
Add:
Navigation menus (Shop, About, Contact)
Policies (Shipping, Returns, Privacy)
Contact details (email, location, etc.)
If the product name spans 5 lines, the font size is too large.
Reduce font size for better readability and layout balance.
Some product images are text-heavy. Need to implement Accordian
These should:
Be moved into a separate informational section below
Keep main product gallery clean and visual-focused
The current method (choosing font from an image) is not user-friendly.
Suggested improvements:
Add a text input field for entering custom engraving
Add font selection dropdown
Provide live preview of entered text
Option to upload a custom logo/image
This significantly improves usability and conversion.
The “Write Review” button (white text on yellow background) has poor contrast.
Fix for better readability and accessibility.
Improve navigation clarity → reduce friction
Add strong CTAs → guide user actions
Focus on UX for customization → key selling feature
Strengthen trust signals → reviews, story, policies
Simplify layout → less clutter, more structure
Hey @fentonriverwoodworks, clean design, could be improved for a better cro
Ok! So I’ve taken all of your advice to heart.. and admittedly some tweaking here and there?? But I think I’m on the right path!
I appreciate your insight! (fentonriverwoodworks.com)
Best regards,
Dean | Fenton River Woodworks
Great job on your modifications, Dean, it’s starting to look fantastic !
The site is much clearer now.
Just a quick technical point !
Since you’re working quite a bit on the design and fonts on the Hero, take a look at CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) in PageSpeed.
Just be careful that the elements don’t jump around when the site loads.
Google is pretty strict about that these days.
Same goes for the live preview of the engravings.
It’s a great idea, but make sure it doesn’t make your theme.js file too heavy.
It would be a shame to lose loading speed just because of that.
Keep it up, you’re on the right track!
You’ve gotten this really far, and there is a lot of great feedback here. I wanted to make a few suggestions that will probably overlap with the others but hopefully help you wade through all of the great suggestions.
Try those few changes and then view the site. Think about how it looks now compared to your inspiration site.
The second layer I would think about is how to make your products the star of the show.
I think you will make your life easier if you use a theme. It will save you so much time and take your design up many levels. There are some great options for less than $100. The theme will have much of these suggestions built in and won’t take you nearly as long to set up as Craft did. Happy to make a suggestion if you need one.
Again - great job so far!
Thank you for taking the time to review my shop!
I am going to take your feedback and try to implement as much as I can.
I have 2 distinct customers. The well educated, not afraid to spend a few $$ on hand made items over having to settle for mass produced faceless imports or those who are part of the “chase to the bottom” with pricing. The others are my Healers..The Yogi’s, BOHO earthy types that yes, they are looking for a specific item, but ultimately buy from a “feeling of comfort and connection”! This is the basis for my business plan. Thus our landing page! There’s nothing worse than landing on a page and being inundated with splash ads, AI content, buying into programs and a feeling of a Walmart fire sale.
There are a ton of imported, drop ship sellers out there flooding the market with a lot of garbage. So I thought it was important first, to invite them into a comfortable place and then into the Artisan experience with the products. Rarely is it just point and click. They ask questions first or mull it over for a day or two before buying! We have a lot of customer contact and questions!
Those are my customers.. I will forego the dumpster diving deal seekers and not have to turn out products as fast as I can vs. being able to meet a customer’s needs or personalized an item for them that is of heirloom quality and a solid recommendation. It takes time to build a brand.
Having said that, yea I want to turn it up a notch or two in the coming months. We’ve recently invested into laser engraving and feel that this will put us right in line with our biggest competitors. I needed to make sure first that our mission was solid and production scaled to meet the demand. We come from years of building custom homes and are now transitioning into ecomm. We are all getting too old to be climbing around on rafters and roofs!
Again, your comments and your help are greatly appreciated!
Dean | Fenton River Woodworks (owner)
