As a Shopify development agency, we look at a lot of stores every single day. Some are really good, some aren't so great. With that being said, the good ones all have one thing in common:

A conversion driving homepage framework that educates shoppers and helps guide people through the website for product discovery and trust building.
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When it comes to any Shopify store, the homepage is typically one of the most heavily trafficked pages, especially organically, so making sure your homepage is as strong as possible is a great way to improve your overall conversions.

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Although every brand is unique and may need different elements or a different flow, this is a great starting point for building a high-performance homepage on Shopify.

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Hero Section

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The hero section is the first thing that you see before you start scrolling. This is your first impression with your audience so make it good!

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To be as strong as possible, your hero section needs to show your audience three things:

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1. Who you are 
2. What you can do for them
3. How people can buy your products

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By building a hero section with these three elements, you can streamline communication and guide people to your product pages faster. 

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In addition to the three elements of a successful hero section, make sure you add in a high-quality brand photo to show people what you can do for them.

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Last but not least, add in an engaging pop-up to give people a special offer to join your mailing list. Remember, the better the offer, the higher your sign-up rates will be and the less “invasive and annoying” the pop-up will be.

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Educational Content If Needed

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If your products are extremely unique or if they have a unique feature and you need to educate your customers on why they need to buy, then it’s a good idea to add a section to give a little more context and information around your brand. 

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For example, if you’re selling a supplement, add a short section to show why your supplement is the best. 

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If you don’t need to educate your customers on what you sell (example: you sell t-shirts), then you might want to skip this section and jump right into the next section! Keep this section short and sweet and lead with your key value proposition as a brand. You can educate more in-depth later,

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Testimonials

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You can tell people how good your products are, but if your customers are saying how good your products are, then they must be good!

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Before you try to sell your products, build some trust with social proof to show that your products are actually doing what you are saying they are going to do. 

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90%+ of people read reviews before making a purchase online so building trust right out of the gate can set you up for success quickly.

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Best Selling Collection

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For brands with a smaller catalog, your best sellers collection is going to be one of the highest converting collections.

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Why?

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Because people see “best sellers” as meaning the best products that most people buy, so they must be good.

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For brands with larger catalogs (think clothing brands with men's and women’s), having a collection overview that guides people closer to where they want to go is a great way to improve product discovery and intra-site navigation.

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More Educational Content

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Once your audience gets through the key value props, trust building, and best sellers, you can continue to educate your audience to build more value and trust around your brand.

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A great way to think about this is to determine where your audience is in their problem-to-solution buying process. From there, you can show how your products will help them go from their current state to their goal state.

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In other words, you can show how your products are the best solution to their problem.

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Collection Overview

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Now that your customers are a fair way down your homepage, it’s time to get broad and help them navigate to your collections.

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Building a section that acts as an overview with multiple thumbnails is a great way to show people what they can expect from each collection while giving them a visual opportunity to click through from the homepage to continue their shopping experience.

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Inspiring Lifestyle Section

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To break up the site and add some balance after the collection section, build a full width lifestyle section that will be designed to inspire people. The popular premium clothing brand, BYLT Basics, does a fantastic job with this. 

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This section will be used to connect with your customers emotionally so that they can see themselves using your products and feel like they need to buy your products.

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Social Proof

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Showcasing more social proof including UGC, publications, and/or more reviews can tie the whole page together and put the final bit of confidence in your shoppers that they need to make their purchase.

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Newsletter Subscriptions

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If people made it all the way to the bottom of your homepage but never clicked through, maybe they just aren’t quite ready to buy yet.

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That’s ok for now!

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Encourage them to sign up for your newsletter so you can send them special offers down the road and bring them back to your site to continue their shopping experience.

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Footer

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Similarly to your header, your footer needs to contain an easy-to-use menu and your logo. On your footer menu, you should also add in some links to your policies like your shipping and return policies. Depending on space, you can also add in some more text to help with SEO keywords.

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Now that you know how to build a homepage on Shopify, it’s time to make it happen!

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As you build your website, keep in mind that every brand is unique and may need different elements throughout the site. This resource was created to act as a baseline for the average website.

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If you’re not sure what you need on your homepage, get in touch with the 253 Media team and one of our team members will point you in the right direction!

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