This article is based on a live stream of a website teardown also known as roast. I and my colleague Mauro Semedo joined forces and recorded the process of analysing a random online shop. Here is what we suggested as improvements.

The purpose of the live stream and this article is only educational. The execution of these suggestions is as important as their selection. If you need help feel free to contact either of us for additional help with optimising your web shop. ☺️

First Things First, Focusing On The Homepage

We decided to only analyse the homepage but we ended up commenting on the product page as well. So make sure you read until the end.

• Don’t make it about you, make it about the product or the customer — as we started the analysis of the homepage me and Mauro noticed that the focus of the webshop was quite unclear.
• Outline a clear value proposition and don’t distract your users — avoid the overuse of popups, AI tools, badges and banners on your webshop if you want your customers to focus and buy your product.
• Do encourage your users to scroll further down by providing a sneak peek — for example showing additional text or image underneath the main hero section, creating a sense of incompleteness that encourages scrolling.
• On your homepage focus on your best seller — don’t miss the opportunity to brag about how loved your best-selling product is on the homepage and especially in the hero section.
• Make sure your product model image focuses on the right aspect — in the example we had during the live stream the image wasn’t centred and the focus was not clear so we weren’t sure what was the focal point and essentially the product being showcased.
• Consistency in messaging and products needs to be premium — if you are claiming to sell premium products, invest in web designers to create this feeling through visual design. 😁 Jokes aside, to be considered premium you do need the help of multiple teams (product photographers, packaging designers, web designers etc) to reach a level of simplicity, seamlessness and cohesion.
• For a better presentation of a product use a clear background as the main image — we covered this also in the live stream but mentioning it here could be also useful. Regardless of how technical your product is, provide your customers with a clear image of the main focal point and even the back. In the example case, we had for a watch, seeing what the mechanism of the watch buckle would have left one elderly customer much more pleased with his purchase.
• Remove all distractions from your homepage — asking for feedback, reviews and ratings on the homepage? Don’t. This is not necessary at this point in the user flow since they are not relevant at this stage. Do not clutter.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 — The Product Page!

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