PopMount Store Review - Learn From The Not-So-Excellent

When it comes to design, “keep it simple” is the number one principle you should keep in mind. Regardless of whether it’s a website, a street sign or a billboard. Simplicity makes designs digestible to a larger audience. Most well-designed artwork looks incredibly simple, and people from various backgrounds can easily get the core messages. 

Keep it simple

You don’t need many words to make an impact, you only need the right ones.

Yet, every once in awhile, we’ll find ourselves lost in the attempt to reduce what’s supposed to be less important. It’s never been easy to keep things simple while still guaranteeing effectiveness. 

A deep understanding of the message being delivered, the people being targeted and also the context is essential to turn the chaos of your thoughts into an effective and simple design. 

Let's talk about The Good, The Bad and The Improvable 

Designing an effective web page is a big challenge. How do you design a web page that looks cool and converts well at the same time? 

The best way to get the answer yourself is to study other websites and discuss the good, the bad and the improvable, as well as what you’d learn from and what you’d suggest an improvement on.

About POPMOUNT 

POPMOUNT is a strategic company that helps media monetize their content by creating awareness, building credibility, and developing fan communities. POPMOUNT is a Shopify Plus Brand and has partnered with many trusted brands like The Washington Post, The Seattle Times, Bay Area News Group, and more. 

Homepage 

The Good: 

Good visual hierarchy: 

A couple of fundamentals in visual hierarchy and conversion rate optimization are applied quite well when you first see the above-the-fold area of the homepage.

• A red message box that immediately catches people’s attention
• A range of high authority brand logos that create a sense of credibility. 
• A free shipping announcement that is stated to apply to ALL products. Free Shipping, from time to time, is proven to be the champion of offers to online shoppers. 

Association with Trusted Brands

A long list of trusted brands as coordinators is what any brand wants to achieve. Big brands have been working with this page, this thought will sure ease people’s concerns significantly

Needs-Based Selection

Guide people easily through what the page offers via what they are looking for/ the problem they are dealing with/ the channel they are working with.

Strong social proofs

Despite not having any WOW factors, POMOUNT managed to keep their audience. They know their audience - media buyers - are fed up with drooling designs that offer no practical value. They know they value the presence of information adequacy rather than aesthetic meaningless that does not help to speed up their work! 

Knowing the audience that well, POPMOUNT makes a homepage that presents all necessary information without feeling crammy.  

The Bad: 

An Extravaganza of Red

The red message in the middle of the hero area clearly shows the designer’s aim to catch visitors’ attention upon entering the store. However, the bright right red color can be counteractive as people are shoved in the face with a 3-line paragraph text without headings, subheadings, capitalization, highlights or underlining. 

An Extravaganza of CTA

It’s also a bit confusing as there are too many CTAs. Judging from the visual hierarchy, the “Schedule an Appointment” button is the prominent CTA but is placed in the corner of the screen. 

Too many buttons might lead to confusion and distractions.

The Improvable: 

People look at your store as a billboard, not a book. 

Most of the time they scan and glance rather than reading your content. Instead of the frustrating paragraphs, it might be better to transfer the paragraph into a form that is easier to scan, by adding a heading, subheadings, using bullet points or capitalizing the important words.

Product Page

The Good: 

• All necessary information is there, at online shoppers' fingertips so that they can easily visualize the product. 
• A lot of options for product customization - which is great. We live in a world where everyone wants things to be their way - stronger customization = stronger incentives for the shoppers to take action, to turn something generic into their own!

The Bad: 

Now, while the homepage did a good job at providing adequate information and ignites a bit of interest from the audience, POPMOUNT’s product pages seem confusing and this could possibly affect the conversion rate: 

• While the prominent CTA is the ATC button, the “Schedule an appointment” is still there awkwardly, which might be very confusing, especially when the first impression upon entering the website is this website is offering services instead of physical products.
• There’s a button asking people to upload a file. This is okay to customize the product, however, there’s no instruction on what and in what format to upload.

The Improvable: 

While the all needed information related to the product is there, the presentation can be improved to increase time-on-site on the Product Page: 

• Better layout for product description. 
• Better product photography. The product images, albeit crisp and zoomable, do not feel real - especially with the white background. Putting the products in their natural habitat can be a great way to make product photos feel more authentic. 

The longer the audience stays on your product page, the higher the chance they convert!

Cart & Checkout Page

The Good: 

PopMount's cart page is designed nicely: 

1. It is kept simple without many distractions.
2. There are two CTAs and the visual hierarchy is made clear.
3. The unpleasant “Schedule an appointment” button is still there.     

The Bad: 

Signing in is required to Checkout from the product page. Guest checkout is not available and this may discourage prospective customers from moving further into the sales funnel. 

Solution Page

This is the page that decides whether you win or lose your customers to other competitors. 

So what did POPMOUNT do to win?

The good:  

• A clear header and tagline
• Benefits are presented in an easily skimmable manner, despite basic and near-bland copywriting. 
• Contents are wrapped within separated sections, creating a sense of well-organization and easy to get the main points. 

The Bad: 

What about things that make POPMOUNT lose out? 

• Too many buttons, too little focus. Audiences are presented with two buttons of basically identical function - driving the customers to the check-out page. Both buttons have different copies, different designs, but of the same size - which can easily confuse prospective customers. 

What exactly do you want me to do: Schedule a meeting or Browse the Gallery? 

The Improvable: 

Your competitors have always been waiting for the moment you stumble, to swoop in and win over your customers. Of course, you don't actually stumble - your page speed does. 

A loading score of 53 is average - but it could always be better to satisfy those impatient shoppers. 

Google combines a variety of factors to generate the final score - we can have a general idea of whether the website’s load speed is good or bad by looking through them. In general, 53 is considered average, so some optimization in this field is necessary. 

Conclusion

If you don't have an in-house designer and yearn for a well-functioning, practical online store, POPMOUNT is a prime example to go by. No spectacle, not wow factor, just a firm understanding of the targeted audience and providing them with all necessary information. 

Making a fantastic online store with a high conversion rate is easier said than done - we know. That's why we won't stop at simply inspiring you, but we’ll also show you the way to have an excellent online store!

Check out our most-read resources on how to build an online store that converts!

Further Reading:

1. A Visual Guide To Set Up Google Analytics For Your Shopify Tracking 
2. Step-By-Step Guide To Shopify Conversion Tracking
3. Shopify Pages: The Definitive Encyclopedia

Know a store that you think is brilliant and has a high conversion rate? Let us know and we’ll take a look and see what we can all learn from it. Cheers!