CheckoutWeekly/TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #2219

Time to Get Fluffy … on Shopify

Yo - Quick, read this out loud:

“Se bare på Zachary, han er så sexet og smuk!”

Before you rush off to Google Translate to figure out what that means and spoil the mood, allow me to say thanks, but I’m in a relationship.In case you hadn’t guessed, we are going to do something a little different this week. I was out there looking at interesting sites to keep you lovely people educated and entertained and I came across a little gem of a Shopify website that I wanted to share. Yes, it’s a good-looking site and yes, they have found a niche market that they obviously love because you can see it in the loving care in which they display their products and brand. But it is also built on an updated version of a very cool theme that has a lot of cool features. So, I want you to look at the site execution like always, but I also want you to take a good hard look at the theme as well.Also, this eCommerce site is based in Denmark, so the text is in Danish … the language, not the pastry.Dang … now I want a Danish pastry. One of those fluffy ones with sweet cream cheese and blueberries so it’s like eating a flat croissant. Why do I always do this to myself? Sitting here trying to work and then I make myself hungry. Anyway … this site does NOT sell fluffy blueberry pastries, but they do sell fluffy blue tufting yarn … which is totally not the same things because tufting yarn gets stuck in your teeth and tastes like sheep.Or so I’ve heard.Happy Selling,Zach

You Can Be Next!

Well, not “you” exactly. Who wants to get a newsletter about ”you,” right? But if you have a Shopify site and want that site to be front and center in an upcoming TaskHusky Checkout Weekly newsletter this is kind of cool.

Here’s the deal … we have spent the last few years focused on the larger Shopify stores. That’s great and all, but I thought it would be cool to give a few “normal” sites a load of free advice and such. And I will do just that. But keep in mind that I tell marginally humorous jokes and poke fun at everything. So, well, you get the idea.

Just reply to this email and say

“Tear me down Zach!”

and I’ll put you on the list for an upcoming issue.

This Week’s Shopify Teardown Target: SlowStudio.dk

In 2019 Michael and Henrick took some time off and travelled to Thailand where they met a ceramics maker in the jungle. They spent a few months working for free in his studio making pottery and then returned to Denmark. But they were hooked, so they rented an old shed behind a house in Copenhagen and bought a kiln to enter the pottery business. More specifically, they wanted to share the artistic and therapeutic experience of making pottery.

But you can guess what happened next … yup … COVID. No one could come to their studio. So, they pivoted and started sending clay and tools to people’s homes so they could work on it during lockdown. Michael and Henrick would then swing by to pick up the pieces, fire them in the kiln, and then return them for display. The press picked up on the story and they suddenly had as much business as they could handle.

Then it gets interesting.

They had this idea to pivot the business again to become not “just” a retailer of creative supplies and tools and not “just” and experience service. They wanted to build a community-based business. So naturally, they went on a reality TV show.

You know how in America we have the TV Show “

?” Well, that show is actually based on a British show called

. Well, in Denmark that have their own version now called “

” — or Lion’s Den. They didn’t get any money. But they kept pitching and just this year they got a private investment of one million …. but not dollars. They got a million Danish Krone which is about $140k. Now they sell home crafting kits for ceramics, rug tufting, and other creative activities.

Obviously they used some of that money to build out a great-looking site, take a lot of expensive photos, and film a lot of expensive videos.

They think of themselves are a community brand, but to my mind they are a lifestyle brand. I do not doubt their sincerity or the therapeutic value of creative activities, but their products and services are obviously targeted to higher end consumers and self-identity management.

The Shopify Theme That They Use

Fortunately, they did not waste their investment dollars on a custom theme because then I would yell at them until they cry. No, they were smarter than that. The purchased a standard premium theme. But to be clear, it’s one of the best, most modern premium themes to come out in a while. They added a little extra cash to do some customizations too and the results speak for themselves.

So, while we are reviewing the rest of the site, make sure that you look at the execution of the theme as well. It is a moderately customized version of the Lorenza theme from Fluorescent Design, and you can

.

What They Do Well

The product kits are well-thought out and packaged to deliver a high-end experience. The photography is obviously professional and good match.

. See the 3-column area immediately under the hero image? If you have been reading our content for a while, you know that we are a big proponent of risk-reversal and trust badges. We are constantly advising our clients to use them on product pages and in the checkout process. It really cuts down on cart abandonment and helps overall conversions. But SlowStudio put 3 of these messages right up from on the home page — Full return policy, A sustainable vision, and a Free Shipping notice.

When you have good, customer-friendly policies shout it from the rooftops … and these guys do.

What Needs to Be Improved

I almost didn’t put this here, but I got to. You know all those beautiful photos and video clips running on the home page? Holy crap they make the site load slow! Instead of “SlowStudio” they should have called the business “SlowLoading.”

There’s 7MB of stuff that has to load … it takes a full 32 seconds to finish. That’s enormous!

They do a good job of

, but a little extra effort on SEO would get them a bunch more traffic. Speaking of SEO marketing ….

The biggest problem with SlowStudio? Marketing. Jump down to the marketing section below to read about it. But wear oven-mitts because I come in hot.

The Shopify Apps They Use

We used our top-secret Shopify scanning tools to determine that this site is using the following apps and plugins:

  • Care Cart — Shopify cart abandonment app.

  • Klaviyo — Customer lifecycle management.

  • Automizely — Traffic tool.

  • Trustpilot — Revies app.

  • Tidio — Live chat.

  • Bugsnag — Find code errors.

  • Judge Me — Product reviews (another one?).

  • European Commission Online Dispute Resolution — Dang! The EU government makes them install an app? What could go wrong?

  • ShopPay/GooglePay/ApplePay — Express payment options.

  • Flickety — mobile touch responsive image carousels.

There are not too many apps to muck things up. But there are 2 different customer reviews apps, where only one is likely needed.

Marketing Stuff They Do

Remember that old Kevin Costner film called “

?” In that flick, Costner plays a guy who starts hearing voices in his head saying,

“If you build it, they will come.”

For most folks, that kind of behavior is a ticket to court-ordered psychotherapy. Anyway … it turned out well for Costner, but i

n the real world you’ve got to market like a crazy monkey

because ain’t nobody coming unless you get heard.

So, allow me to fully detail and discuss the complete set of marketing activities we can see from SlowStudio.

Ahem ... nothing.

They have a

and an

, but they post rarely and we could not find any social media ads.

Zero … nope … nada … bupkis

. We also did not see any affiliate or influencer tracking tools in the code. And we found one — ONLY one — paid search ad (see below).

I remembered when I was

about how they got a bunch of free press during COVID. Then they got a lot of free exposure gong on that Lion’s Den TV show. It is my opinion that they are still living off of that free exposure. Who wouldn’t LOVE to have free media like that, am I right?!

The problem is that stuff wears off. They should be capitalizing on all that free, unearned media attention to do something that keeps them top of mind for their target customers.

And they ain’t doing nothing. This is advantage squandered.

The free-ride is over boys, time to get busy.

What you see below is the ONLY ad we were able to find at the moment.

Sponsored

Let us help speed up your business. If you need help making Shopify website tweaks or fixing those little nagging things on your Shopify store, let’s get stuff done.