Fix Your Homepage

Fix your homepage by following the best practices in eCommerce, user experience, and design. This checklist uses battle-tested tactics and is backed up by over 100,000 hours of research from leading research companies, such as Baymard Institute, CXL, Google and dozens of blogs.

Boost revenue per user, profitability, customer experience
The proven way

What do you get, once you improve your Homepage?

By improving your homepage, you help to push more people towards category pages and product pages - and greatly increase the likelihood of people adding items to the cart and ending up purchasing them. You improve the site’s usability, customer experience, and bottom-line profit.

Home

→  Category  →  Product  →  Cart  →  Checkout  →  Confirmation  →

€€$$

Present a clear value proposition on the homepage

Tell people why they should buy from you, what's in it for them, why you are better for them, and why you are better than the rest. Use a value proposition canvas if you do not have one.

Present clear, unique selling points

Back up the value proposition with 3-5 additional boosting points, tell people what makes your brand and shop unique, and why to buy from you.

Be 100% sure, the user gets all this info without scrollin

The top area of your website is the decision maker! Keep is laser-optimized, clean, clear, and persuasive. Make people want more!

Make sure all images are of high quality, and clean, not cluttered

The first impression matters a lot, keep the attention of users by offering them appealing, high-quality visuals, and clear messaging.

Present precise delivery times and pricing, without the user needing to scroll

Do you ship to my country? How much does it cost? When do I get my package? Example: Free EU shipping within 3 days, Free EU delivery from 59€.

Have the following sections covered

The site-wide pre-header

A great place where to introduce information about delivery, returns, and unique selling points! Make sure the Return policy is clear, visible, and friendly.

The site header with branding, auto-suggest search, support contacts, and main navigation

Take a look at the examples by Wunderfront. For mobile, it is essential to keep the search input open, navigation, and cart quickly accessible, and branding concise. Try also bottom navigation on mobile! Be thumb-friendly and boost conversions!

The campaign banner(s) to present the latest campaigns or specials

Provide appealing visuals of your latest product specials, campaigns, or brand announcements. Keep one clear call to action, and boost the messages with a limited countdown timer!

The value proposition with your unique selling points

Not all might not open up the pre-header and get the entire message, keep a short and compelling section to make sure new visitors really get your value to them, and also help the returning customers to remember why they love you in the first place.

The main product categories

Help people enter the category they are looking for with one tap. Feature main or highly popular categories right on the homepage top area.

The featured product sections by category or sales metrics

Show from one to five product sections, and help people find relevant products faster. Show them per category and sales metrics, such as popularity, average ratings, or sales.

The thematic collections or product bundles

This one here is an amazing opportunity to boost average order value and customer happiness. Assemble collections or bundles from your amazing products - and lead visitors to discover them, and buy them.

The why shop with us - a reminder and social proof

Remind people who scroll this far, why your brand is a match for them, and how it helps to make their lives better! Keep the messaging from the customer's perspective. Spice up and add social proof with testimonials, where people confirm your messaging.

The top brands (if you sell many of them)

Help people to dive right into their favorite brands and reach desired products faster. Remember, people might be brand advocates.

The about us section

Have a short section of your brand, story, and values to increase trust, like-ability, and authority. Tell a story people love, and relate to. Make it about them.

The recently viewed products

Help the returning visitors become visitors much faster, and also consider moving this section below the Hero campaign banners for returning users (on homepage)! This an amazing opportunity to take the user to the checkout!

The pre-footer: The bottom benefits

Visually and textually remind site-wide why shop with you. Keep it super short and have 3-5 benefits visualized and communicated.

The pre-footer: The payment options

Showcase different options people can use to pay, and bet big on buy now and pay later options. Make people trust you more, and help them get products faster and more conveniently.

The site footer with bottom navigation and trust marks

The site footer is like the air you breathe in, it has to exist. Showcase trust badges/marks, top navigation items, key categories, contact pages, FAQ, About us pages, social links - and all the terms and privacy pages. And do not forget the delivery information and return handling pages! You can also use the area to acquire leads and make people subscribe to your newsletter, but there are better ways.

The bonus checklist

Coming soon! 

The “please avoid” checklist

Avoid auto-rotating banners

It is a proven conversion killer and causes banner blindness. Please, avoid it.

Avoid too many ads and banners

Help people stay focused and lead their attention. Do not add banners for everything and for everybody. It is proven to work against sales.

Avoid poor page speed

One two three four five six .... Bye-bye. Speed equals money in your pocket. Remember that, keep your Google page speed index above 90 on desktop and above 70 on mobile.

Avoid poor design, bad use of colors, and low contrast

It has been proven with research, that every 1 USD you invest in design and user experience improvements brings back 100 USD on average (https://tinyurl.com/wunderfront). Do not underestimate design, first impressions, and color psychology. Keep navigation and call to action of high contrast.

Avoid overpaying - use tools, themes, and plugins to make it happen! Go no-code or low-code!

There is the easy way and there is the hard way. Work smarter, not harder, unleash the power of software, and just buy affordable plugins, themes, or tools, to make it happen.

Avoid reinventing the wheel

Instead, use plugins, and ready-made software to cover these core guidelines.

Visual examples & guides

Take a look at the short video ☝️

What next?

Fuel your eCommerce site with more growth.