CheckoutWeekly/TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #2119

Going Wall-To-Wall with Ruggable.com on Shopify

May 18, 2021

Hello - 

Did you notice the subject line for this email? 

Sometimes I choose a site to target and the subject line writes itself … there is only one clear and semi-humorous option. Other times I have to think hard and drink hard liquor to come up with an idea that is even mildly entertaining.

Then there are times like today when I can think of a bunch of them and have to choose. Some of the options I considered:

  • Sucking Up to Ruggable (it’s a vacuum joke)

  • Sweeping It Under the Ruggable (too Chicago-political)

  • Going Wall-to-Wall with Ruggable (the ultimate winner)

  • Getting Laid with Ruggable (I got voted down by HR for some reason)

  • Beating the Ruggable (seemed violent)

  • Cutting a Ruggable (ditto, like I’m in a gang or something)

  • Making a Mess on the Ruggable (I own dogs)

Anyway … now I’ve used them all.

Here’s this week’s Shopify website teardown.

Happy Selling,

Zachary

PS: We just sponsored a survey on email addiction. Getting insight into the behavior of your customers is a good thing. We keep telling your guys, email is NOT dead. It is still the best way to own your customer base. Anyway ... as subscribers you can check it out for free.

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This Week’s Target: Ruggable.com

Company Profile

This company is a marketing company first, and it shows. They are freak’in everywhere. Heck, even CNN and Yahoo! Are covering their rug designs like they were peace talks in Geneva. But the best that I can determine is that they were found … oh, about ten years ago when another Jeneva (Jeneva Bell founder and CEO) … well, let’s just say that her dog left an editorial comment regarding her choice in floor coverings and it had to be cleaned up.

Now, Jeneva (the CEO, not the town in Switzerland) runs her empire by the square foot from a 40,000 sqft warehouse in bustling Gardena, California.

They sell their washable rugs and pads on their website, via social media, on Amazon, and likely via telepathy because they seem to be just that good. They are a top 100 Shopify site and a top 30k site on all of the interwebs.

The Shopify Theme They Use

Since I am a Shopify nerd (and proud of it!) I think that this is interesting.

When we run our super high-tech 007 Q website spy tools on this site it is identified as a “Slate Theme.”  But Slate is not a theme. Slate is — or more correctly, was — a tool kit for developing Shopify themes. It’s a preprogrammed framework of sorts to make it easier for developers to build Shopify themes, which would then be used to build a site. Sort of like a code-builder to build a Shopify site-builder to build your eCommerce site on.

But … 

. Why? They gave a mealy-mouthed answer, mumble something technical, then offered everyone a donut — the good kind with cream inside — so no one really knows. Probably something to do with 

.

When the inevitable day comes that Ruggable wants to make significant updates to their site, they’re gonna have some hard choices to make. I’m NOT saying they made the wrong decision back in the day. I AM saying that big tech platform companies make decisions that affect all of us whilst eating lobster canapés on their deck overlooking the pool.

The Good Stuff

The folks at Ruggable.com are going to LOVE me for this … but here goes. I want all of you to take a look at their site navigation. Play with it. Observe the nearly seamless option search-selection process by size, color, style, and more. It is brilliantly thought out and very well-executed.

Next, they have a really strong content marketing strategy. Once you work your way through the navigation, the collection pages have — and this is IMPORTANT — stuff for sale up top and strong SEO content at the bottom. These Collection pages will rank for keywords.

Next is that these guys rock the social media sphere with activity and smarts. And they are in the places that they need to be without wasting time on flash-in-the-pan distractions. You’ll see more in the marketing section near the bottom of this newsletter.

Next, the question is who is the really really smart person is responsible for the navigation, content, and social media strategy? Well, 

 is responsible for everything, so she gets some credit. But 

, so maybe it’s her. I saw a 

, so who knows. Let me just say “kudos.” That’s a lot of work, and it has to be paying off.

Needs Improvement

The site is SERIOUSLYLY slow. Scanning via two authoritative automated scanners, the site has some of the lowest scores I’ve seen in a while. And while their other marketing has been able to compensate for that — probably for years — the Google algorithm change this month is likely biting them in the analytics already.

I like the shopping cart implementation, though it is a bit dated. The use of Express Payment options is solid and likely helps with conversions, but ApplePay is a notable miss. My knowledge of the demographics suggests that ApplePay would be a win. I can see ApplePay in the code, but it did not appear in the options … miss? Oversight? Deployment error?

I also thing that a scheduled payment option might help convert more expensive purchases. I can see AfterPay in the code, but it did not appear in my test purchases … miss? Oversight? Deployment error?

Apps They Deploy

We ran a scan to see what Shopify apps & supporting services they are deploying. Get a load of this list:

  • Klaviyo — eCommerce marketing and automation.

  • Curalate — Image engagement analytics.

  • Voyage Mobile — SMS text mess engagement.

  • Optimizely — A/B testing.

  • accessiBe — Accessibility auditing.

  • Amplitude — Mobile analytics.

  • Heap — User action tracking.

  • Yotpo — Customer reviews.

  • AfterPay — scheduled payments (did not see implemented)

  • FriendBuy — Referral program.

  • DoubleClick — Ad network.

  • ShopPay/PayPal/AmazonPay/ApplePay — The 4 horsemen of Express Payment options.

  • Criteo — Behavioral targeting.

  • Outbrain — Engagement via link-building.

  • Zendesk — Customer service.

This may not be a complete list. There are some unused apps here. And the code has well over 300 external calls on the home page and — astoundingly — nearly 500 on the sample product page I looked at. This stuff needs to be cleaned up.

Marketing Stuff They Do

Ruggable is everywhere doing everything. It is actually very impressive and if their rugs are have as good as their media and campaign efforts they are damn good. Here are three screen grabs of their work for inspiration. But I recommend that you spend some time on their feeds to learn good stuff.

Every Facebook post looks like an ad. They must keep a lot of folks busy.

You can

.

Facebook and Instagram .... you cannot have one without the other.

Check out

.

Arguably, Pinterest is not for every business. But when your target is home goods like Ruggable, Pinterest is a gold mine.

You can click and pin

.

Even their YouTube content feels fresh.

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They have invested heavily in their Amazon store. The office must get regular love notes from Jeff Bezos.

You can

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Does your Shopify site sdress down? If you need help making Shopify website tweaks or fixing those little nagging things on your Shopify store, let’s get stuff done. 

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