Landing Page Makeover Clinic #26: iGrowKids.com.au

Landing Page Makeover Clinic #26: iGrowKids.com.au

Reader Comments (40)

  1. Hey Robert,
    WOow Excellent post bro. These are some awesome tips.
    “Make it easy for shoppers to find what they need fast.” Great .. exactly right. Easy navigation,desgin and headlines are very important factors of landing page.
    Btw. Point 8 and 10 are awesome πŸ˜‰

    Thanks for sharing this great post :).

  2. Those pants look so comfortable- I’m really tempted to buy some for my daughter! And i love the idea of adding designs to the t-shirts.

    I really like the text you’ve used for the menu navigation, but I would recommend losing Twitter and Facebook from the top level navigation, and spacing out the links more- because they’re such a heavy font they need more space.

    I wholeheartedly agree regarding the photos- you need some nice big model pictures! Think about the kind of pics that big clothing sites use (Old Navy comes to mind)- nice crisp shots on white backgrounds.

    You don’t mention if you ship to Europe (probably too expensive)- but I’m definitely tempted!

    Good luck.
    Kelly

  3. Great pointers Roberta. It’s very important that you make the strongest point on the landing page and remove all distractions.

    ~~ Sarah ~~

  4. Hey Roberta,

    This is excellent on how you broke it down for us. I would like to see more post like this.

    Chat with you later…
    Josh

  5. This was a great makeover/review. I struggle with making it easier for shoppers to find things.

    Looking forward to getting my makeover πŸ™‚

    Michelle

  6. I would add a picture of the baby wearing the stuff (show the goods in ACTION), since the images look like adult clothing. Perhaps have a picture of an adult doing some kind of yoga pose with a lightbulb over their head (showing how the idea was generated).

    People love to read about the story BEHIND the product they are buying (preemptive marketing). We can thank good old Claude Hopkins for that, and later Jay Abraham.

    Make the buying process REALLY easy for your customer.

    Roberta, as always, great crit. I especially like your line about “being like a bakery.” I am afraid that I must steal that and use it on some future post somewhere… great quote.

    -Joshua Black
    The Underdog Millionaire

  7. Oh, and one more comment- the customer needs incentive to buy RIGHT NOW and not come back later for more browsing. Perhaps you can show bundled pricing…if you get two tops by the end of the month, you get the pants free etc.

    The sale is the most fragile even in business, and if you allow for any reason that the customer can lose focus on the end goal (buying lots of stuff), then you will lose the sale.

    -Joshua Black
    The Underdog Millionaire

  8. The only issue I have is with the T-shirt page. There appliques that you must choose for the T-shirt (no option to buy without one but nowhere is a picture of a t-shirt with an applique. Without knowing where and how big the applique is, I wouldn’t order the shirt. Aside from that, everything looks good.

  9. Love it, and the thing is I think most people are insecure about putting their best products out in front for people to buy.

  10. I just went and looked at the current home page, and there’s a tiled grass background (not showing up in your screenshot). The tiling looks messy and takes up space that could be filled with happy kids and product shots.

    I agree the site needs more sorting options – boys, girls, customer favorites, then by type of clothing (tops, skirts, etc.)

    Have your customers tell you which products they like best (maybe vote them up or down), or feature a special on those.

    LL Bean in the US does this really well. Go have a look at their site and see if you get ideas.

    Those pants do look comfy though. In adult sizes, they’d be perfect for freelancers (a step up from jammies). πŸ˜‰

  11. @Jodi, the thing about the tiling is that on the resolution I use on my laptop, it’s barely visible, just a sliver. There’s not enough real estate to do anything like a product shot.

    #2 and #3 would bring a lot of value. It’s hard to visualize exactly what an outfit will look like — how long are the pants, how big is the applique on the t-shirt, etc. Plus, of course, parents are hard-wired to melt at the sight of cute little kids.

    I notice that Karen has already implemented some of the navigation improvements, and the site already looks a lot better than it did in Roberta’s screen shots.

  12. HI Roberta,
    Great information.
    I think to many people get caught up in
    things that really have nothing to
    do with making a sell.
    Over the years, it has been amazing how things
    have changed on the net.
    The basics you laid out are great.

    Thank you for your contribution
    Jeff Faldalen
    The Prospecting Funnel Guy

  13. Hey, Jeff – thanks. Technology changes, the human heart does not. We all want to seek pleasure and avoid pain. The rest, to paraphrase the Jewish philosopher, Hillel, is commentary. Go and study … and don’t forget to test. πŸ™‚

  14. @Sonia, on my big Mac screen at 1650 x 1080 (yes, I’m a resolution pig) it looks like there’s a thin white stripe on the right hand side.

    @Roberta:
    >>The rest, to paraphrase the Jewish philosopher, Hillel, is commentary. Go and study … and don’t forget to test. :)<<

    Do I have to stand on one foot? πŸ˜‰ I wonder what Hillel would make of the Internet…

  15. Good points, Sistah !

    The home page is crying out for photos of cute kids wearing the clothes.

    Right now it’s not even clear that the clothes are for sale. Showing some prices will be a clear signal that we can buy and also says that they are good value.

    I’m guessing that her value proposition is “clothes will grow with your kids”. It’s worth testing this to see if buyers actually want this feature – and if they do then go big with it and lose some of the secondary messages like “easy-this-that-and-the-other”.

    You can test different value propositions on a low budget by putting them in AdWords copy and seeing what people click and what they ignore. A bonus is that some of the clickers will also buy – but the main idea is to see what real-life people are interested in.

  16. G’Day Roberta,
    Good to see you giving an Aussie a “leg up.” Your “Think like a Bakery” line is a gem.

    If Copyblogger published only rubbish–which of course it doesn’t– it’d be worth subscribing to just for your makeovers.

    One of the problems we have Down Under is that we have lots of web designers who think that they know lots about marketing but who simply don’t.

    Keep up your excellent work and…..

    Make sure you have fun.

    Regards

    Leon

  17. Just woke up down under here to see the post up and some fabulously helpful comments! Thank you not only to Roberta but to everyone who took some time to take a look and add to her review.

    I am an at home mum and http://www.igrowkids.com.au is 100% designed and built by me on my little 6 year old PC using open source software….and it has taken just over a year to learn the web technology and design the site. I have to say it is very easy to get a little lost in the woods and loose sight of the customer experience while emmersed in CSS tutorials! It is hard to express just how valuable it has been to me to get some objective, professional critique.

    Thank you thank you thank you! ….. right, now to brief my photographer….

    Karen

  18. @Jodi – Hillel would love the internet. Not so sure about Shammai. πŸ™‚

    @John – excellent points. I do recommend clients use Adwords to cheaply test copy points and value props, but only if there’s enough traffic to get a valid result.

    @Leon – You flatter me, Leon. Keep up the good work. πŸ™‚ I love all web designers, as long as the work looks good and more importantly, supports the marketing message.

  19. Hi Roberta,

    Great post with excellent points.

    You could easily use the points for any site you are making whether it is a simple auction post or a full online store, they are valid for both.

    Looking forward to reading more.

    Regards

    Simon

  20. I wish everyone was following these tips and website visitors would be happier and spend more money.
    Here are some tips from me:
    Gallery page: don’t show it it if you don’t have content yet
    Font: Times New Roman is not very nice what abour Arial or Verdana, it pleases eye bit more
    Web page titles and SEO: Every page should have different title

    My email is michael@elaunch.com.au if you have more question regarding html/css or seo

    I hope it helps.

  21. @Roberta:

    LOL! I’m no Torah scholar, but I think Shammai would have said the Internet was not halachic and that it was forbidden.

  22. Roberta,
    Thanks for your time and insights again.

    Karen,
    Several remarks on resolutions and browsers were made already. Cosmetic issues are one thing, but on my tiny netbook screen, the Add to Cart button was actually hidden behind the View Cart button! The Size drop down menu was not visible at all.

    Here’s my screenshot:
    http://www.twitpic.com/1rtrt0

  23. Great tips, and I totally agree that it would be really helpful to see kids having fun & wearing these clothes on the landing page.

    This is super helpful to read over reviews like this for other ecommerce sites. I just launched a new online shop myself, just over 2 months ago, so I’m still trying to tweak and add things and make it as easy to navigate for the customer as possible. Thanks for the ideas!

  24. I might have missed this, but why did you swap out the “Buy Now” text for an “add to cart” button? Was it just to go for a softer sell?

  25. As Brian so aptly noted, the “Buy Now” vs “Add to Cart” has been tested hugely and Add to Cart generally gets a better ultimate conversion. If you think of selling as a process of romancing the prospect, Buy Now is akin to “Let’s Get Married” where Add to Cart is more like “Let’s Have Dinner.”

    As my dad used to say, it’s all about the timing and quality of commitment. πŸ™‚

  26. My ‘To Do’ list has flipped another (A4) page here! Love the specifics I am getting from all your comments. Thanks to those who have offered further help – you’ll be hearing from me!

  27. @Ken, @Roberta , @Brian : thank you for bringing up the Buy Now Vs Add to Cart. I have never even thought there may be distinction between the two. Our site is seasonal – yep, we sell Christmas stockings, so about this time of a year we usually start on upgrades to get ready for the Christmas season which usually starts in October. So Buy Now is out and Add to Cart is in.

  28. Roberta explained better than I did… in that sense, “Add to Cart” is a softer sell because it continues the seduction rather than abruptly requesting consummation. But it’s an approach that closes more deals, which to me is a stronger sell. πŸ™‚

  29. One further thought … if you’re selling something with a big discount and a tight deadline, I’d seriously test ‘add to cart’ vs ‘buy now’ – in the latter case, the urgency of ‘buy now (or miss out)’ makes a stronger emotional appeal. But for general ecommerce shopping, I’d stick with ‘add to cart.’

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