Sales & Conversion
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
I once had a client with over 1000 products drowning in their own success. Their conversion rate was bleeding—not because the products were bad, but because finding the right one felt like searching for a needle in a digital haystack.
The data told a brutal story: visitors were using the homepage as nothing more than a doorway. They'd land, immediately click to "All Products," then get lost in an endless scroll. The homepage had become irrelevant.
While every "best practices" guide preached about hero banners, featured collections, and carefully curated product sections, I went rogue. Instead of following the playbook everyone else was using, I asked a simple question: what if we treated our homepage like our catalog?
The result? We doubled the conversion rate by turning conventional landing page wisdom on its head. This wasn't about A/B testing button colors or tweaking headlines—this was about fundamentally rethinking what a landing page should do.
Here's what you'll learn from this playbook:
Why following industry standards often leads to generic, ineffective pages
The specific approach I used to make the homepage the most viewed AND most used page
How removing features can actually increase conversions
The psychology behind why friction kills ecommerce conversions
A step-by-step framework for creating conversion-focused landing pages that actually convert
This approach challenges everything you've been told about ecommerce optimization and landing page design.
Industry Reality
What every ecommerce ""expert"" recommends
Walk into any ecommerce conference or read any conversion optimization blog, and you'll hear the same tired advice repeated like gospel. The industry has created a template that everyone follows religiously:
The "Perfect" Landing Page Formula:
Hero banner with compelling headline and call-to-action
Featured products section showcasing your best sellers
Collections grid organized by category
Social proof section with testimonials
Newsletter signup with discount incentive
This conventional wisdom exists because it works—sometimes. For stores with 10-50 products, this structure makes perfect sense. You can highlight your top offerings, tell your brand story, and guide visitors through a curated experience.
But here's where this approach falls apart: when you have hundreds or thousands of products, this template becomes a bottleneck. Every extra click between your customer and your products is a conversion killer. Every additional page load is an opportunity for them to leave.
The problem with industry best practices is that they're designed for the average case, not your specific situation. When you have a massive catalog, the "best practice" homepage becomes a beautiful obstacle course that visitors have to navigate just to start shopping.
Most ecommerce owners follow these guidelines because that's what successful stores do, right? Wrong. They follow them because that's what worked for different stores with different challenges. Your business deserves a strategy built for your reality, not someone else's template.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
Last year, I was brought in to help a Shopify client whose conversion rate was stuck in the basement. Despite having over 1000 high-quality products and decent traffic, customers were browsing but not buying.
The client was running a diversified product catalog—everything from home goods to electronics. Their strength was variety, but variety had become their weakness. The traditional homepage felt like a department store where customers got overwhelmed by choice and left empty-handed.
My first move was diving into their analytics. The data revealed a frustrating pattern: 78% of visitors were landing on the homepage, but only 12% were actually engaging with the featured products section. Most visitors immediately clicked through to "All Products" or used the search bar—treating the homepage like a tollbooth rather than a shopping destination.
I started with the classic conversion optimization playbook. We A/B tested headlines, repositioned CTAs, optimized the hero banner copy, and streamlined the featured collections. These changes helped marginally—maybe a 0.3% improvement in conversion rate. Nothing to celebrate.
That's when I realized we were treating symptoms, not the disease. The fundamental problem wasn't how we were presenting the homepage—it was that we were forcing customers through an unnecessary step. Every time someone landed on our beautifully designed homepage, they had to make a decision: which section to explore first? That decision paralysis was killing conversions.
The breakthrough came when I asked a simple question: if most visitors are immediately clicking to "All Products" anyway, why not give them what they want immediately? What if the homepage WAS the product catalog?
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Against my client's initial resistance ("This goes against everything we know about ecommerce"), I proposed something radical: eliminate the traditional homepage structure entirely and turn it into a product showcase.
Here's exactly what we implemented:
Step 1: Killed the Traditional Structure
We removed every conventional homepage element:
- Hero banner with lifestyle imagery
- "Featured Products" sections
- "Our Collections" blocks
- Everything that stood between visitors and actual products
Step 2: Built a Mega-Menu Navigation System
Instead of relying on homepage navigation, we created an intelligent mega-menu that could handle their 50+ categories. I built an AI workflow that automatically categorized new products, so the navigation stayed organized without manual intervention.
Step 3: Homepage as Product Gallery
The most controversial move: we displayed 48 products directly on the homepage in a clean grid layout. No lifestyle imagery, no brand story, just products with clear pricing and quick-add functionality. The only additional element we kept was a testimonials section below the product grid.
The Psychology Behind This Approach
This wasn't just about removing elements—it was about understanding customer intent. When someone visits an ecommerce site, they're usually in one of two modes: browsing or buying. Traditional homepages cater to browsers but create friction for buyers. Our approach eliminated that friction entirely.
Implementation Details:
Product grid used intelligent sorting—new arrivals, seasonal items, and trending products took priority
Each product card included quick-view functionality to reduce page loads
Mobile experience was optimized for thumb-friendly browsing
Load times improved dramatically with fewer elements competing for attention
The key insight: in ecommerce, reducing choice can actually increase conversions. Instead of asking customers to choose between sections, we gave them immediate access to products while letting the mega-menu handle organization.
Conversion Psychology
When you remove every step between landing and shopping, customers start buying instead of browsing.
Quick-Add Integration
Product cards included instant add-to-cart functionality—no need to visit separate product pages for simple purchases.
Mega-Menu Magic
AI-powered categorization meant perfect organization without manual maintenance as inventory grew.
Mobile-First Design
Thumb-friendly grid layout made mobile browsing effortless, where most of their traffic actually came from.
Within 30 days of implementing this approach, the results spoke for themselves:
Conversion Rate: Doubled from 1.2% to 2.4%
The homepage went from being a stepping stone to being the primary conversion driver. Customers were completing purchases directly from the homepage using the quick-add functionality.
Page Views: Homepage became the hero
Instead of immediately clicking through to "All Products," visitors were actually engaging with the homepage. Time on page increased by 43%, and bounce rate dropped significantly.
Mobile Performance: Even bigger wins
The simplified layout was particularly effective on mobile, where the previous design had felt cluttered. Mobile conversion rates improved by 67%.
Unexpected Results:
Customer support inquiries about navigation dropped by 80%
Average order value increased as customers discovered related products through the intelligent sorting
Site speed improved dramatically with fewer elements loading on the homepage
The client was initially nervous about the drastic change, but the data was undeniable. We had transformed their homepage from a beautiful obstacle into a conversion machine.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This project taught me that the best conversion optimization often comes from subtraction, not addition. Here are the key lessons:
1. Industry Standards Are Starting Points, Not Finish Lines
Best practices exist because they work for average situations. But your business isn't average—it's unique. When you have specific challenges (like a massive product catalog), you need specific solutions.
2. Every Click is a Conversion Killer
In ecommerce, friction kills conversions. Every additional step between your customer and their purchase is an opportunity for them to leave. Ask yourself: how many clicks does it take for someone to buy from you?
3. Test Bold Changes, Not Button Colors
Minor optimizations deliver minor results. If you want significant improvements, you need to test significant changes. Don't be afraid to break conventions if the data supports it.
4. Mobile Experience Drives Everything
With most ecommerce traffic coming from mobile devices, your mobile experience isn't secondary—it's primary. Design for mobile first, then adapt for desktop.
5. Customer Intent Trumps Design Trends
Beautiful design means nothing if it doesn't align with customer intent. Sometimes the most effective design is the simplest one.
6. Data Should Drive Decisions, Not Opinions
It's easy to fall in love with a design concept, but your customers' behavior tells the real story. Let analytics guide your optimization decisions.
7. When in Doubt, Remove Features
Adding features feels productive, but removing friction is often more effective. Sometimes the best optimization is elimination.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies, apply this thinking to your trial signup process:
Remove unnecessary form fields that create friction
Display core features immediately rather than hiding them behind navigation
Test removing your traditional homepage in favor of a product demo page
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores, especially those with large catalogs:
Test displaying products directly on your homepage
Implement intelligent mega-menu navigation
Add quick-purchase functionality to reduce page loads
Optimize for mobile-first shopping behavior