We are SO excited today to have our first Create Hype Shop Critique!  We were absolutely flooded with entries from you and it was very hard to pick the winner but in the end we chose Karina Anne of Karina Anne Handmade Designer Jewellry.

Before we get into the critique though, we want to make it clear that Karina has an amazing site!  She obviously has a great brand going and knows how to use her website.  The tweaks we came up with, however, will certainly boost her sales and clean up a few unused buttons and pages on her site.  We hope you enjoy!!!

Things we loved about the landing page:

• We drooled over the opening slideshow, the clean design, the white space, and the great color scheme.
• Social media buttons are big and easy to find.
• Beautiful, colorful photographs that were big enough to show us the details AND grab our attention.

Things we would tweak:

• Ideally, a customer shouldn’t have to scroll down your landing page because it means they might miss information and gives them too many options.  Instead, we’d just stick with the slide show (as pictured above) and cut out the extra testimonials, gift wrapping picture, and thank you.
• The ‘about’ page should ALWAYS be the first thing on your menu after HOME.  It’s the most clicked on page on any site.  That being said, Karina has a great about page!

Sales Page

Things we loved about the sales page:

• Loving the social media buttons!  These make it really easy for your fans to share your work.
• The ‘You Might Also Like’ is a brilliant idea.  Not only does it help your customer choose a set of jewelry that goes well together but you can essentially double every order.
• Dual photos are very nice because it gives us a sense of how the piece looks and also how it will look while we wear it.

Thing we would tweak:

• We’d like a little more information on how big the bracelets are, how long is the necklace chain.  Since we can’t pick up the piece and try it on, it’s essential you give your customers as much information as you can to get rid of their doubts.
• We would make sure both of the photographs are color.  It’s so important to show the piece as it truly is and by having the photo of the piece being worn in black and white, we got the feeling you were hiding something.  The colors in your jewelry is gorgeous; show it off!

Other odds and ends:

• Karina has a category page before her actual shop and this is a great way to help your customers get right where they’re going.  Color photos would be better here, Karina, to make sure people get excited about your work!  Also, photographs of the work laying down would be best here because the pieces are a lot smaller in the photographs where they are on a model.  Since these photos are already small, you want to make your jewelry as big as possible.
• Mailing list!  It took us a few moments to find the mailing list.  A Hello Bar! or a more colorful sign-up form would really help get people signing up for the list.  Plus, ‘Sign up for treats!’ had us asking, ‘What does that mean?  What sort of treats?’ instead of instantly signing up.  Clearly state what your subscribers will be getting.
• Karina, you either need to blog or not blog.  Having a button that leads to one ‘hello’ post with no photos and just a sentence about what the blog MIGHT be is really just a waste of a button on your menu bar.  Plus, it has been there since June so it’s time to decide!  To blog or not to blog…
• The same goes for the ‘Fun Stuff’ button.  When we clicked, it took us to an expired giveaway.  Perhaps this should be a button that comes and goes because it’s very off-putting to suddenly find a page that isn’t updated or of use.

 We hope this critique helps not only Karina but you get excited about cleaning up your site and ramping up your sales.  Please let us know below if this critique helped you with your site! 

Want more?  Check out our e-course Convert Your Creativity to learn how to increase your sales conversions and build a show that brings in the money you want.