What can not miss on a powerful Shopify homepage?

Humans make snap judgments. According to the Missouri University of Science and Technology, it takes online visitors less than two-tenths of a second to form a first impression of your brand once they have viewed your website’s homepage [1]. Viewers then decide in an instant whether they should stick around or not. A well-built Shopify homepage design is essential when it comes to eCommerce, dropshipping, and selling online. However, web design, or homepage design, in particular, isn’t easy.

If you’re experiencing low conversion rates and have no idea how to add or improve your homepage elements, continue reading.

What is the Shopify homepage?

The Shopify homepage is the virtual front door of your Shopify store, which gives an introduction to your brand and guides visitors further. Most of the time, visitors don’t enter a website from the homepage. They often follow links to your other pages from search results or other websites. Nevertheless, one of the first things these viewers do after arriving at a new store is to go to the homepage.

The benefits of a powerful Shopify homepage?

A successful homepage design is one of the most important factors that can help establish your brand, engage users’ interest and attention, and drive sales. 

There is no specific way to set up a homepage. The way you plan your homepage from top to bottom depends on what you want your visitors to do, whether it is making a purchase or subscribing to your email list, etc.

However, every great Shopify homepage uses a combination of the following elements.

What makes a great homepage design?

“Above-the-fold” homepage content

Shopify merchants who seek to present an engaging experience for their website visitors are required to understand the concept of “above the fold”.

“Above-the-fold” content is anything visible immediately on your website that requires no scrolling. It’s the most “valuable real estate” that receives immediate attention from visitors because it’s the first thing they see [2]. 

To retain new visitors on-site and acquaint them with the brand, most of the finest eCommerce website designs feature headers that combine an attention-grabbing headline, convincing subtext, and an appealing image above the fold.

Above-the-fold contents in Pawsome Couture homepage
Store website: https://www.pawsomecouture.com/

For example, Pawsome Couture’s homepage. Pawsome Couture is a cat-themed shop that sells items via dropshipping. Because the goal is to get potential consumers to buy cat-related products, the area above the fold is brightly colored and features a cat image. In addition, a clear call to action is displayed to encourage visitors to view the products.

Homepage navigation

The most useful aspect of a website, according to 94% of people, is effortless navigation [3]. It’s not that difficult to see why. Website navigation is a collection of user interface components that allow visitors to access content quickly. It assists them in moving from one page to another and finding what they need.

Improve navigation with mega menu

The navigation in the header should be as simple as possible, with the most important pathways being prioritized. Too many navigation choices may confuse your customers. If you have a lot of products or collections, focus your key collections on the homepage and try out the “mega menu” to build sub-navigation.

mega menu with sub navigation on unwapped life home page
Store website: https://unwrappedlife.com/

Unwrapped Life’s homepage, featured above, does an excellent job of balancing between minimal navigation and a large inventory with a well-designed mega menu. 

Retain attention with sticky header

It is also a good idea to maintain the website navigation in the visitor’s view at all times. Why? Most of them do not want to put too much effort into browsing your website and why should they have to? So you can consider integrating a sticky header into your homepage to keep the header navigation fixed at the top of the screen. Now, when a visitor navigates the homepage, the mega menu will always be visible in his view. He may click any link at any moment to get to the desired page.

Imagery

According to Dr James McQuivey’s Forrester study, if “a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video has to be worth at least 1.8 million words” [4]. Whether you’re advertising a product or a collection or attempting to acquire leads, the goal of your imagery is to catch the visitor’s attention as soon as they land on your website.

Use product photography

Take a look at LuluGem’s homepage below. Instead of using 300 words to describe the jewellery’s colour, shape, and components, they just draw the user’s attention with a well-composed photo and be done with it.

necklace product image of Lulugem - a Shopify store
Store website: https://www.lulugem.com/

Use video content

A homepage video that tells a brand’s story can help them stand out. Some products, especially those that are innovative or complicated, may require demonstrations of how to use them to get visitors interested.

homepage video about waterproof boots on a Shopify store
Store website: https://www.manitobah.com/

Take the homepage of Manitobah as an example. Many visitors are unlikely to believe in the product’s waterproof feature yet. Therefore, the site builds trust in it through a video demonstration.

Assume you’ve uploaded an enticing image or an engaging video to your site that crams everything you want to present in a few seconds.

All right. Job well done!

Do you think so? No, not exactly. 

More people are browsing the internet on mobile devices. Images that look stunning on a wide desktop screen could be cut off or cropped in unusual ways on a mobile screen. When a website image is not optimized for mobile viewing, visitors often get frustrated and leave.

This is where the mobile responsive tweaks come into play since you can customize the banner images for different screens.

Call to action

The call to action (CTA) is a key element on a homepage. When you think about it, your whole Shopify store, and perhaps your entire sales funnel, may be dependent on a compelling call to action. It is a button that tells your visitors what they should do once they have found you. 

Without a clear call to action, potential customers may not know the next steps to take to purchase a product and are likely to leave the site. 

Your calls to action should be short, easy to find and hard to miss. You should also consider customizing call-to-action buttons to matches them with your brand essence

prominent call-to-action on front page of a Shopify toy store
Store website: https://bebemoss.com/

The homepage of Bebemoss, as shown above, does a fantastic job of leading visitors along their ideal conversion path. The visitor’s attention is drawn to the product images, while the main CTA is prominently featured in brown and black (in contrast with the white background). As you scroll down, more CTAs to buy more toys will appear.

Shopping cart

For most eCommerce websites, the shopping cart is an essential component of the homepage. Customers can check the list of products they’ve chosen, add or delete items from it, alter quantities, and so forth.

It is recommended that the shopping cart should be easy to find.

Even better, you can show the number of items in the cart to inform customers that their purchase is still in process and encourage them to finish their checkout.

the shopping cart on top right corner of Allbirds' home page
Store website: https://www.allbirds.com/

Allbirds, which is worth $1 billion [5], features a homepage with a shopping cart icon that indicates the number of items within and a slide-out cart that lets customers quickly continue shopping or proceed to checkout.

Search bar

In addition to simplifying navigation and shopping carts, many Shopify store owners assist visitors who know exactly what they want by providing a search bar. Stores with a large variety of products will benefit from the search bar in such a case.

Needless to say, the search bar should be easy to find, clear to see, ideally adjacent to the shopping cart.

smart search bar on United by Blue homepage
Store website: https://unitedbyblue.com/

For instance, United by Blue sells an extensive range of items, from clothes and accessories for both genders to kitchen products. They have incorporated a smart search bar that auto-completes a visitor’s search query with suggested items, collections, and pages. Clearly, it’s simpler for visitors to discover what they’re searching for. This establishes a direct link from the homepage to the page the user is looking for.

Social proof

Social proof has been used in advertising and marketing to earn the trust of new visitors for decades. It includes press mentions, customer reviews, social media posts, Instagram galleries, or endorsements from influencers or experts. 

Since consumers are heavily influenced by the suggestions and the recommendations of others, your homepage is an excellent area to include convincing social proof.

customer reviews as social proof on a Shopify store named Nerdwax
Store website: https://nerdwax.com/

The Nerdwax’s homepage above features reviews from customers as a testimonial to the quality of their product. And after showing what their product does, customer’s reviews are presented at the bottom.

Others Blogs, lower priority pages, and so on

You can include other components as part of your home page design or in your footer. They should only reinforce and expand on the information you’ve already introduced. They also guide visitors to other paths that lead to the same conversion goal.

Below is a brief list of elements you can add as parts of your homepage design, depending on how crucial they are to your goals:

Blogs

Blog content can be beneficial for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). However, placing it above the fold has the chance to distract visitors and divert their attention away from your products. In general, you want your blog content to direct viewers to your products rather than leading them the way around. Consider including links to your blog below the fold or in the footer.

Low priority and add-on products

Older products and add-on items may be worth placing at the bottom of your homepage to save the most valuable area for your flagship products or your new arrivals.

Lower priority pages

Pages like your Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Return Policy are usually best placed in the footer.

How to add Shopify homepage sections?

There are two straightforward methods for integrating these sections into your homepage. You have the option of using some Shopify apps or outsourcing your work to a third party.

Leverage Shopify homepage builder apps:

A Shopify page builder app is a third-party tool that allows you to create new web pages for your store. These applications offer more options than Shopify’s default page builder and have fewer limitations than the platform’s pre-built themes. Drag and drop items onto a template to create your page, then customize it with your headings, photos, and buttons.

In the Shopify app store, there are thousands of apps to choose from. But I have recently discovered two apps that will help you build a proper Shopify homepage.

Tapita

Tapita Landing Page Builder is an awesome page builder for your Shopify store. With Tapita, you can easily create a beautiful home page, landing pages, product/collection pages, and blog pages without any coding knowledge. They have a robust library of page and block templates with awesome layouts and effects, so you don’t have to build your pages from scratch.

PageFly

PageFly has a simple and intuitive user interface that allows you to control every aspect of your store. This is an excellent solution for both beginners and experienced designers since you can change your pages with code.

Shogun

Shogun assists you in creating attractive, mobile-friendly pages. It offers an exceptional service for a high-performance eCommerce website. The customer service has received positive feedback. The page builder allows you to design high-converting pages to any specification. However, investing in such a powerful tool may be out of reach for smaller enterprises.

Outsource your Shopify homepage design:

For a merchant, it is difficult to manage both the operation of their online stores and work involving advanced technological proficiency.

Therefore, there are thousands of high-tech outsourcing services out there for you to pick from. Before that, you should know what should be considered when choosing Shopify development services, have a look at why outsourcing services have grown so popular in the e-commerce world:

  • Raise your game by having your Shopify homepage customized to meet your objectives by a dedicated team of high-tech experts.
  • Help you save your time focusing on other parts of the business by quality work done quickly.
  • Save your tight budget with one-time payment services.

Final thoughts

It’s critical to ensure your homepage is visually beautiful and has the right elements that make a powerful one. An improper homepage design can cost your online business a lot of money. By aligning the mentioned elements with your primary goals when designing your homepage, you should be well on your way to attracting and keeping your visitors’ attention.

To take your homepage to the next level, start by deciding either to use apps or outsource your work. If you find it challenging to keep up with the latest technologies while busy handling your day-to-day tasks, look no further! As a Shopify Partner, HappyPoints can support you with an entire collection of homepage tweaks. Let’s have a look!

If you have any concerns, feel free to contact us!

Reference: 

[1] https://news.mst.edu/2012/02/eye-tracking_studies_show_firs/

[2] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/homepage-real-estate-allocation/

[3] https://clutch.co/web-designers/resources/top-6-website-features-people-value

[4] https://idearocketanimation.com/4293-video-worth-1-million-words/

[5] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-02-19/allbirds-is-worth-1-billion-can-it-compete-with-nike-adidas