The world of social media influencers is a strange and wonderful place. It’s a world not many of us truly understand.
One of the perks of having a strong online following is the ability to monetize it through selling affiliate products or starting your own brand.
For this week’s Shopify store review, I wanted to touch on an interesting fitness superstar Calum Von Moger, and see what I can dissect from his personal brand of supplements that are seemingly taking the industry by storm.
The supplement industry is notoriously hard to break into. You’re competing with companies that have thousands of dollars of disposable cash to pump into marketing and advertising. So it’s not a niche I usually recommend trying your luck with.
But there’s a lesson to be learned in this weeks store review. Read on to find out.
Who is Calum Von Moger?
He’s an Austrian-Australian bodybuilder/influencer with some freaky similarities to the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger. He even played the role of Arnold in the movie “Bigger”, so it’s safe to say he’s up there with the most influential.
His line of supplements Staunch has been built around his own unique slang and belief systems that have garnered him tons of loyal followers. For the most part, he has more integrity than your average fitness influencer. But looking at his Shopify store, despite how successful it is, there’s a lot of room for improvement.
But this is to be expected. Usually, no matter how shoddy their store looks, influencers followers are loyal to the point where they’ll purchase regardless. Simply because of the overwhelming sense of community these said influencers create. Their personas coupled with striking physical appearance are usually enough to make serious conversions.
But if you’ve already got the audience, why not put a lot more time and effort into building a truly exceptional online shopping experience?
Herein begins the review.
Staunch Supplements Shopify Store Review by PageFly
Homepage
It’s always admirable to see brands taking advantage of seasonal promotions, especially Black Friday. But first impressions tell me not much thought went into the design of this store. The promo banner isn’t flush against the navigation menu, and the logo background doesn’t match the color palette.
A subtle design flaw. Making your logo background transparent solves this problem.
The logo situation takes a turn for the worse as you scroll, becoming even more obvious as a white border surrounds it.
There's also no hero image to set the mood. Otherwise, the rest of the homepage is pretty standard. It’s a bit rough around the edges, and lacking in any real wow factor.
Product page
The two announcement bars at the top could be merged into one, with the phone number, free shipping, and social buttons integrated into one.
Otherwise, the best selling product Koala Freak sits is a page with minimal content. There are subtle grammatical errors and formatting issues with the product description.
But sales are strong, so who cares, right?
Facts remain, that sales could be even stronger with more compelling content and professional design. This is a site that clearly relies on the influence of Calum himself, coupled with strong social proof in the form of reviews.
Product reviews slide along on a carousel with the option to click and expand to read more. If you’re curious, the app used is YotPo, a free review add-on available from the Shopify app store.
And finally, there are product recommendations.
Calums personal tone of voice can be found throughout the site, seen here with the use of “chapsticks”. These little touches make the site feel more personable, despite the lack of sleek, professional design.
The verdict
The lesson to be learned from this Shopify store review is that you don’t really need good design or compelling content to be successful. As long as you have 3million followers on Instagram.
Judging by the reviews I have no doubt that these products work. But, if you’re going to put your personal name behind a brand, it’s important that your site represents you in the best light possible. And I can’t help but think that corners have been cut here, leading to an underwhelming experience for visitors.
But perhaps that’s what makes this site so great? Calum, as an influencer, seems to care more about his fans than most, and he comes across as likable yet flawed at the same time. He’s not perfect, and neither is his website. It could be the most accurate representation of his brand in that sense.
I know first-hand that Calum’s personality is big, bold and filled with humor. It would be nice to see more of that reflected in his site.
