Sales & Conversion
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, I was staring at analytics that made my stomach drop. My client's Shopify store had over 1,000 products and decent traffic, but their conversion rate was bleeding out faster than a punctured tire.
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 completely irrelevant.
Every "expert" guide I'd read preached the same gospel: hero banners, featured collections, carefully curated product sections. But here's the thing about following best practices in a saturated market—when everyone follows the same playbook, that playbook becomes noise.
So I did something that made my client uncomfortable. I threw out every conventional homepage rule and treated their e-commerce site like a completely different type of business. The result? We doubled their conversion rate by turning the homepage into something no competitor was doing.
Here's what you'll learn from this experiment:
Why traditional homepage "best practices" are actually hurting your conversions
The exact homepage structure that doubled conversion rates for a 1000+ product catalog
How to make your homepage the most used page instead of the most ignored
When to break industry standards and when to follow them
The psychology behind why customers actually shop (spoiler: it's not what you think)
This isn't about tweaking button colors or testing new headlines. This is about fundamentally rethinking what an e-commerce homepage should actually do. And no, you won't find this approach in any "conversion optimization" course.
Industry Wisdom
What Every E-commerce Guide Tells You
Walk into any e-commerce "optimization" discussion and you'll hear the same tired recommendations over and over. It's like a broken record of conventional wisdom that everyone parrots without questioning.
The Traditional Homepage Playbook looks something like this:
Hero Banner - Big, beautiful image with your main value proposition
Featured Products - Showcase your best sellers or new arrivals
Collection Highlights - Curated sections like "Summer Collection" or "Trending Now"
Social Proof - Testimonials and trust badges scattered throughout
About Section - Brief brand story to build connection
This formula exists because it seems logical. The thinking goes: "We need to tell our story, showcase our best products, and guide customers through a curated experience." It's the digital equivalent of a physical store layout.
Here's where this conventional wisdom breaks down in practice. E-commerce isn't retail. Your customers aren't browsing leisurely through your digital aisles. They're on a mission, often with specific needs, and they want to find what they're looking for fast.
When you force them through your carefully crafted "brand experience," you're actually creating friction. Every extra click, every additional step between them and the products they want to see is a conversion killer.
The fundamental flaw in traditional homepage design is that it prioritizes your marketing goals over their shopping goals. You want to tell your story—they want to solve their problem. You want to showcase your curation—they want to browse everything available.
But most businesses keep following this playbook because it's what "successful" companies do. The problem? In a world where every e-commerce site looks identical, being "best practice" means being forgettable.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The Shopify store that changed everything for me had a problem that should have been a good problem to have: too much choice. With over 1,000 products across multiple categories, they were drowning in their own success.
The client came to me frustrated. "We're getting traffic, people are finding us, but they're not buying. Our conversion rate is terrible, and we can't figure out why."
I dove into their analytics, and the pattern was immediately clear. The homepage was getting tons of traffic, but visitors were treating it like a highway rest stop—quick visit, then immediately exit to the "All Products" page. From there, bounce rates were astronomical.
The Traditional Approach I Tried First
Being a good little marketer, I started with the textbook solutions. I redesigned their hero section with clearer value propositions. I reorganized their featured collections to highlight bestsellers. I added more trust signals and testimonials.
The improvements were... marginal. We saw a tiny bump in engagement, but nothing that would make anyone celebrate. The fundamental problem remained: visitors were bypassing the homepage entirely to get to the product catalog.
That's when I had what I now call my "highway vs. destination" realization. We were treating the homepage like a billboard on the highway—something people drive past to get where they're really going. But what if we made it the actual destination?
The Uncomfortable Conversation
I called my client with a proposal that made them nervous: "What if we completely eliminate the traditional homepage and turn it into the product catalog itself?"
"But that goes against everything we've learned about branding and customer journey," they protested. And they were right—it did go against everything. That's exactly why I wanted to try it.
The hypothesis was simple: if 90% of homepage visitors immediately click to see all products anyway, why not give them exactly what they want right on the homepage? Why force them to take an extra step?
It took three weeks of back-and-forth before they agreed to test it. "But just for one month," they said. "And we're keeping the old version ready to switch back."
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
What I built challenged every e-commerce "best practice" I'd ever learned. Instead of fighting against user behavior, I decided to work with it.
The Homepage-as-Catalog Experiment
Here's what I actually implemented:
1. Eliminated the Traditional Structure Completely
Removed the hero banner entirely
Deleted "Featured Products" sections
Scrapped "Our Collections" blocks
Eliminated everything that stood between visitors and products
2. Built a Mega-Menu Navigation System
This was crucial. With 1,000+ products, discoverability could have been a disaster. I created an AI-powered workflow that automatically categorized new products across 50+ precise categories. Customers could explore the entire catalog without ever leaving the navigation menu.
3. Transformed the Homepage Into a Product Gallery
The new homepage displayed 48 products directly—not "featured" products or "trending" items, but a smart mix that rotated based on inventory, seasonality, and user behavior patterns. Below that, I added just one additional element: a testimonials section for social proof.
4. Implemented Smart Product Rotation
Instead of static featured products, I built a system that rotated inventory based on:
Stock levels (prioritizing items that needed movement)
Seasonal relevance
Category diversity (ensuring all product types got exposure)
New arrivals (but limited to 20% of homepage real estate)
The Technical Implementation
The backend work was more complex than it looked. I had to:
Modify the Shopify theme to handle dynamic product loading
Create custom filters that worked seamlessly with the mega-menu
Implement lazy loading to maintain page speed with 48 product images
Build mobile-responsive grid systems that didn't compromise the experience
The Psychological Reasoning
This wasn't just about removing friction—it was about understanding shopping psychology. When someone visits an e-commerce site, they're usually in one of two modes: browsing or searching. Traditional homepages try to force browsers into searchers by making them click through curated sections.
By making the homepage the catalog, I let browsers browse immediately and searchers find what they needed through the enhanced navigation. No forced detours, no unnecessary steps.
Real Results
Homepage became the most viewed AND most used page—finally serving its intended purpose
Smart Navigation
AI-powered categorization across 50+ categories made 1000+ products discoverable without overwhelming users
Friction Removal
Every click between landing and products was a conversion killer—eliminated all unnecessary steps
Psychology Wins
Stopped fighting user behavior and started designing around how people actually shop online
The results challenged every assumption about homepage design I'd held for years.
The Numbers
Within 30 days of the new homepage going live:
Conversion rate doubled from the previous month
Homepage became the most viewed AND most used page on the site
Average session duration increased as people actually explored products
The "All Products" page traffic dropped by 60%—people didn't need it anymore
But the most telling metric was qualitative. Customer feedback shifted from "I couldn't find what I was looking for" to "I found so many things I didn't know you had."
The Unexpected Benefits
The experiment revealed benefits I hadn't anticipated:
Inventory Movement - Products that had been buried in categories started selling
Discovery Behavior - Customers found complementary products they hadn't searched for
Mobile Performance - The simplified structure worked even better on mobile devices
Reduced Support - Fewer "where can I find..." customer service inquiries
Most importantly, the homepage finally earned its position as the front door of the business. Instead of being a pretty but useless entry point, it became the primary shopping interface.
My client's reaction? "Why didn't we try this sooner?" followed by "Can you help us optimize this approach for our other product lines?"
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This experiment taught me lessons that fundamentally changed how I approach e-commerce design:
1. User Behavior Beats Best Practices Every Time
The most valuable insight came from actually watching what customers do, not what marketing guides say they should do. Analytics don't lie—people were bypassing the traditional homepage because it wasn't serving their needs.
2. Friction Isn't Always Obvious
I thought having a beautiful, curated homepage was helping customers. Turns out, it was just adding an extra step between them and what they actually wanted to see. Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is get out of the way.
3. Navigation is Everything for Large Catalogs
The mega-menu wasn't just nice-to-have—it was essential. Without smart categorization and intuitive navigation, turning the homepage into a product gallery would have been chaos. The infrastructure has to support the strategy.
4. Mobile Changes Everything
What worked on desktop worked even better on mobile. Customers on phones don't want to scroll through brand stories and value propositions—they want to see products immediately. The simplified approach was naturally mobile-first.
5. Industry Standards Can Be Competitive Disadvantages
When every competitor follows the same homepage formula, standing out requires doing something different. "Best practices" often just mean "most common practices."
6. Test Your Assumptions Ruthlessly
I almost didn't try this approach because it felt too radical. The best insights come from testing ideas that make you slightly uncomfortable.
What I'd Do Differently
If I were running this experiment again, I'd implement A/B testing from day one to isolate which specific changes drove the biggest impact. I'd also have created more granular analytics to track how the navigation changes affected different customer segments.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies, the homepage-as-product principle translates to showcasing actual functionality immediately:
Replace lengthy feature descriptions with interactive demos
Show the product interface directly on the homepage
Make trial signup the primary action, not secondary to "learn more"
Use use-case navigation instead of feature-based menus
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores, especially those with large catalogs, consider these implementations:
Display products directly on homepage instead of just featuring collections
Invest heavily in smart navigation and filtering systems
Rotate homepage products based on inventory and seasonality
Eliminate extra steps between landing and browsing
Test radical departures from industry standards