Sales & Conversion
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, I took on a Shopify website revamp for a client drowning in their own success. With over 1000 products in their catalog, 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. I killed the traditional homepage structure entirely and turned it into the catalog itself.
The result? Conversion rate doubled. The homepage reclaimed its throne as the most viewed AND most used page.
Here's what you'll learn:
Why feature hierarchy isn't about following rules—it's about understanding user behavior
How breaking "best practices" can be your biggest competitive advantage
A systematic approach to reorganizing features based on actual user data
When to prioritize speed over "proper" structure
The real metrics that matter when testing feature hierarchy
Industry Reality
What every design expert tells you about feature hierarchy
If you've read any UX design guide in the last decade, you've heard the same sermon about feature hierarchy. The industry has crystallized around a set of "proven" principles:
The Sacred Order Everyone Follows:
Hero section with value proposition
Featured products or services
Social proof and testimonials
Secondary features or collections
Call-to-action sections
Design agencies charge thousands to implement this "proven" structure. Templates are built around it. Every competitor follows the same playbook because it feels safe.
Why This Conventional Wisdom Exists: It's based on the assumption that users need to be educated before they can make decisions. The hierarchy is designed to build trust, explain value, then guide users toward conversion.
For simple sites with few products, this works. For content sites explaining complex services, this makes sense. But here's where it breaks down: when you have a massive catalog and users already know they want to browse.
The problem isn't that these principles are wrong—it's that they're applied universally without considering actual user behavior data. Most businesses follow this structure because everyone else does, not because their users actually need this level of hand-holding.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When I opened the analytics for this 1000+ product Shopify store, the user flow told a different story than what any design guide would predict.
The homepage was getting massive traffic—good sign, right? Wrong. The average time on page was under 30 seconds. Heat maps showed users weren't even scrolling past the hero section. They were clicking one link: "View All Products."
The Client's Situation: They were a specialty goods retailer with an incredibly diverse catalog. Think thousands of unique items across dozens of categories. Their strength wasn't in having a few flagship products—it was in variety and discovery.
But their homepage followed every "best practice" in the book:
Beautiful hero banner explaining their brand story
"Featured Collections" showcasing 8 curated categories
Testimonials and social proof
Newsletter signup
Brand story section
It was textbook perfect. And completely useless.
What I Tried First: Like any sensible designer, I started with optimization. Better hero copy. More compelling featured collections. Improved call-to-action buttons. We A/B tested headlines, rearranged sections, added urgency elements.
Results? Marginal improvements at best. The fundamental behavior pattern didn't change. Users were still treating the homepage as a pit stop before heading to the real destination: the product catalog.
That's when I realized we were solving the wrong problem. We weren't dealing with users who needed education or persuasion. We were dealing with users who wanted to browse and discover. The elaborate homepage structure was actually friction.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
I proposed something that made my client uncomfortable: What if we treated the homepage like the catalog itself?
Step 1: Killed the Traditional Structure
I removed everything:
Hero banner—gone
"Featured Products" sections—deleted
"Our Collections" blocks—scrapped
Brand story content—eliminated
The homepage became a clean, fast-loading product grid showing 48 products directly.
Step 2: Built a Mega-Menu Navigation System
Since the homepage was now the catalog, navigation became critical. I created an AI workflow to automatically categorize new products across 50+ categories. This made product discovery possible without leaving the navigation menu.
Each category was carefully organized based on search behavior data—not internal company structure.
Step 3: Added Strategic Friction
Only one additional element made it onto the homepage: a testimonials section. Not at the top, but after the first 48 products. This served as social proof without disrupting the browsing flow.
Step 4: Optimized for Speed
With 48 product images loading, page speed became crucial. I implemented lazy loading, optimized image sizes, and simplified the CSS. The page had to feel instant.
Step 5: Mobile-First Product Grid
On mobile, the grid adapted to 2 columns with larger touch targets. The key was making product browsing feel natural on any device.
The core insight: Instead of forcing users through an educational journey they didn't want, I eliminated every step between landing and browsing.
Radical Simplification
Removed all traditional homepage elements—hero banners, featured sections, brand stories. Made the homepage the destination, not a gateway.
Data-Driven Categories
Used AI workflow to analyze search behavior and automatically organize 1000+ products into 50+ intuitive categories based on user intent.
Speed Optimization
Implemented lazy loading and optimized images to ensure 48 products loaded instantly. Page speed became conversion-critical.
Behavioral Analytics
Heat maps showed users bypassing traditional elements. Followed the data instead of design conventions to rebuild the experience.
The numbers spoke for themselves:
Conversion rate doubled from the baseline
Homepage became the most viewed AND most used page (previously just most viewed)
Time to purchase decreased significantly
Product page views per session increased by 60%
Unexpected Outcomes:
The client's internal team initially panicked—"Where's our brand messaging?" But customer feedback revealed something interesting: users appreciated the straightforward approach. No fluff, just products.
Mobile conversions improved even more dramatically than desktop. The simplified structure worked perfectly for thumb-scrolling behavior.
The testimonials section, positioned after the products, actually performed better than when it was prominently featured in the traditional layout. Context mattered more than prominence.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Top 7 lessons learned from breaking feature hierarchy rules:
Follow user behavior, not design theory. Analytics tell you what users actually do, not what they're supposed to do.
"Best practices" are starting points, not finish lines. When everyone follows the same playbook, differentiation comes from intelligent deviation.
Friction isn't always bad, but unnecessary steps always are. Each homepage element should either serve the user's immediate goal or get out of the way.
Product catalog sites need catalog-first design. Don't force users through educational content when they want to browse.
Navigation becomes critical when homepage is simplified. Mega-menus and smart categorization replace traditional homepage sections.
Page speed matters more with dense product displays. 48 products loading instantly beats 12 products loading slowly.
Mobile behavior differs from desktop in fundamental ways. Thumb-scrolling users want different hierarchy than mouse-clicking users.
When this approach works best: Large product catalogs, browse-heavy customers, known brands where education isn't needed.
When it doesn't work: Complex services requiring explanation, new brands needing credibility building, products with high consideration purchases.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS platforms with feature-heavy products:
Test dashboard-first onboarding instead of marketing-heavy landing pages
Let power users skip educational content entirely
Use behavioral data to identify user segments needing different hierarchy
Prioritize time-to-value over comprehensive feature explanation
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores with large catalogs:
Consider homepage-as-catalog for product-focused brands
Invest in smart navigation and filtering over traditional feature sections
Test removing "featured" sections that compete with natural browsing
Optimize for mobile-first browsing behavior