Sales & Conversion
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Picture this: you've got over 1,000 products in your store, decent traffic coming in, but your conversion rate is bleeding. Sound familiar?
Last year, I took on a Shopify website revamp for a client drowning in their own success. The data told a brutal story - visitors were using the homepage as nothing more than a doorway, immediately clicking to "All Products," then getting 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 completely rogue. What if we treated our ecommerce site like a physical product catalog instead of following the same tired playbook everyone else was using?
The result? We doubled the conversion rate by breaking nearly every conventional UX rule in the book.
Here's what you'll learn from this contrarian approach:
Why traditional homepage structures kill conversions for large catalogs
The "homepage as catalog" strategy that reclaimed our most important page
How to structure product discovery without overwhelming users
When to ignore industry standards and create your own UX rules
Practical implementation steps for stores with 500+ products
Industry Reality
What every ecommerce owner keeps hearing
Walk into any UX conference or open any conversion optimization guide, and you'll hear the same gospel repeated like a mantra. The "perfect" ecommerce homepage should follow this sacred structure:
The Traditional Homepage Formula:
Hero banner with your main value proposition
Featured products or bestsellers section
Collections or categories overview
Social proof and testimonials
Newsletter signup
This approach makes perfect sense if you're Apple selling three iPhone models. The logic is sound: guide users through a curated journey, build trust, showcase your best products, and convert them step by step.
UX experts will tell you that choice paralysis is the enemy. Too many options overwhelm users, leading to decision fatigue and abandoned carts. They'll cite studies showing that reducing choices increases conversions.
But here's where this conventional wisdom falls apart: when you have a massive product catalog, hiding your inventory behind "featured collections" doesn't reduce choice - it creates friction.
I've seen countless stores with 500+ products trying to force-fit this "minimalist homepage" approach. The result? Customers can't find what they're looking for, bounce rates skyrocket, and conversion rates stay stubbornly low. You're essentially playing hide-and-seek with your own products.
The industry's obsession with "clean, minimal design" often ignores a fundamental truth: sometimes customers want to browse, not be guided. When someone visits an online store with a huge catalog, they're often in discovery mode, not purchase mode.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When I took on this particular Shopify revamp, the client's frustration was palpable. They had a thriving business with over 1,000 products, but their website wasn't reflecting their success. Despite decent traffic, their conversion rate was disappointing.
The existing site followed every UX "best practice" to the letter. Beautiful hero banner, carefully curated featured products, elegant category sections. It looked professional, modern, and conversion-optimized according to every guide I'd ever read.
But the analytics told a different story. I spent hours digging through their user behavior data, and a clear pattern emerged:
The Homepage Journey That Wasn't Working:
Users landed on the homepage
Glanced at featured products (low engagement)
Immediately clicked "All Products" or "Shop All"
Got overwhelmed by endless scroll
Left without purchasing
The homepage had become a glorified doorway. Customers weren't engaging with the carefully crafted sections - they were treating it as an obstacle between them and the products they wanted to discover.
I realized we were solving the wrong problem. Instead of trying to guide users through a predetermined journey, we needed to make product discovery the main event. The homepage wasn't converting because it wasn't serving its actual purpose: helping people find products they wanted to buy.
My hypothesis was radical: what if we made the homepage the catalog itself? Instead of hiding products behind layers of navigation and featured sections, what if we put them front and center?
It went against everything I'd learned about UX design, but the data was screaming for a different approach.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's exactly how I transformed their homepage from a traditional layout into a product-focused powerhouse:
Step 1: Eliminated Traditional Homepage Elements
I stripped away everything that wasn't directly helping users discover products:
Removed the hero banner entirely
Deleted "Featured Products" sections
Scrapped "Our Collections" blocks
Eliminated everything that stood between visitors and products
Step 2: Built a Mega-Menu Navigation System
Since we were showing more products on the homepage, navigation became critical. I created an AI-powered workflow that automatically categorized new products across 50+ categories. This meant users could quickly narrow down their search without leaving the main page.
The mega-menu allowed product discovery without abandoning the homepage experience. Users could hover over categories and see subcategories, making the vast catalog feel organized rather than overwhelming.
Step 3: Transformed Homepage Into Product Gallery
The radical move: I displayed 48 products directly on the homepage. Not featured products or bestsellers - just a well-organized grid of their actual inventory, dynamically updated.
The layout included:
Product images optimized for quick loading
Clear pricing and availability indicators
Quick view functionality for each item
Smart filtering options at the top
Step 4: Added Strategic Trust Elements
I didn't abandon conversion optimization entirely. Below the product grid, I added a focused testimonials section - but it was secondary to product discovery, not competing with it.
The testimonials were specifically chosen to address common objections about product quality and shipping, supporting the main product-focused experience rather than distracting from it.
Step 5: Implemented Smart Product Rotation
To keep the homepage fresh and showcase the full catalog over time, I set up an algorithm that rotated products based on:
Recent additions to inventory
Seasonal relevance
Stock levels (prioritizing items that needed movement)
User behavior patterns
This meant returning customers would see different products, encouraging repeat browsing sessions.
Navigation Power
AI-powered mega-menu with 50+ categories that eliminated the need for separate category pages while keeping the homepage experience intact.
Product Rotation
Smart algorithm rotated 48 homepage products based on inventory, seasonality, and user behavior to keep the browsing experience fresh.
Trust Placement
Testimonials positioned below products instead of competing with them, addressing quality and shipping concerns after interest was established.
Quick Discovery
Hover previews and filtering options let users explore products without leaving the homepage, reducing friction in the discovery process.
The results spoke louder than any UX theory:
Conversion Rate Performance:
Conversion rate doubled from the previous layout
Homepage became the most viewed AND most used page again
Time to purchase decreased significantly
Bounce rate from homepage dropped by 40%
User Behavior Changes:
The analytics showed a complete transformation in how users interacted with the site. Instead of immediately leaving the homepage for "All Products," users were actually engaging with the homepage content. Session depth increased, and users were discovering products they wouldn't have found through traditional navigation.
Most importantly, the homepage reclaimed its position as the primary conversion driver instead of being just a stepping stone to other pages.
The client's feedback was immediate: "Finally, a homepage that actually works like our business works." They could see their full catalog getting exposure instead of just the few products featured in traditional layouts.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
1. Industry Standards Are Starting Points, Not Finish Lines
This project taught me that "best practices" often reflect what works for the average case, not necessarily what works for your specific situation. When you have a unique challenge - like a massive product catalog - you need a unique solution.
2. Let User Behavior Guide UX Decisions
The data was clear: users were bypassing our carefully crafted homepage sections. Instead of trying to force them into a predetermined journey, I redesigned around their actual behavior patterns.
3. Product Discovery vs. Product Conversion Are Different Goals
Traditional homepages are optimized for conversion, assuming users already know what they want. But with large catalogs, discovery often comes before intent. The homepage needed to serve discovery first.
4. Friction Elimination Beats Feature Addition
Every traditional homepage element I removed was one less barrier between customers and products. Sometimes the best UX improvement is subtraction, not addition.
5. Context Matters More Than Convention
A strategy that works for a boutique with 20 carefully curated products might be completely wrong for a store with 1,000+ items. The size and nature of your catalog should drive your UX decisions.
6. Test Boldly, Not Just Incrementally
Small tweaks to button colors and headlines weren't going to solve this fundamental mismatch between user intent and page structure. Sometimes you need to test completely different approaches.
7. AI Can Solve Organizational Challenges at Scale
The automated categorization system made it possible to maintain organized navigation with a large, constantly changing inventory - something that would be impossible to manage manually.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies considering similar approaches:
Apply this thinking to feature discovery on your product pages
Consider homepage integration showcases instead of traditional hero sections
Let users explore capabilities rather than forcing guided tours
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores ready to test this approach:
Best suited for catalogs with 200+ products
Requires robust filtering and search functionality
Test with a subset of products before full implementation
Monitor mobile experience carefully with increased product density