CheckoutWeekly/TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #2225

Big Bang Boom … on Shopify

Yo -

A lot of stuff happens this week.

First … great guacamole … as of this Thursday 2022 is half over. It’s the end of Q2. We are past the Summer Solstice. We are closer to Christmas than we are to New Year’s Day.

That’s madness!

But we are also coming up on the 4

of July – the red, white, and bluest of days when one’s thoughts turn to brats, bourbon cocktails, and apple pie. Smells like freedom! And the 4

is actually on a Monday this year. So, instead of cheating the calendar and gerrymandering a 3-day weekend out of it, we get a blessed long weekend totally legit and legal-like.

It’s also the holiday for fireworks. Did you know that Americans spent $2.4 b-b-b-b-billion on fireworks last year?

. That’s like $7.30 for every man, woman, and child … cheaper than a movie matinee. Seems like a good deal when you think of it that way.

But as much as I love BBQ, star-spangled cupcakes on the lawn, and sky-bound flaming patriotism bombs, I also love my dogs … hello! The business is called Task

HUSKY

for a reason folks!

But … but … while a lot of dogs take all the joyous noise-making in stride, many do not. Let me drop another stat on you …

than at any other time of the year. The reason is the sound of fireworks.

Anyway … here am I, searching for a patriotic Shopify store to rip to shreds this week when it hits me. There is a Shopify store who makes it their mission to help pets and pet owners get through Big Bang Boom holidays like this and other noisy events. Seems like a good fit.

Let’s meet this week’s Shopify teardown target.

Happy Selling,

Zach

We can teach your Shopify site to behave in front of thousands of readers. 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. 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: ThunderShirt.com

The actual name of the company is ThunderWorks, and it was founded in 2009 by Phil Blizzard. Phil had a dog named Dosi who was terrified of thunder and … you guessed it … fireworks. One experienced pet owner recommended wrapping Dosi in a firm blanket like you would an infant. Seemed crazy, but it worked brilliantly. Turns out there is some science behind it all. But actual science requires maths and test tubes and a protractor I think … besides, I do not look good in a white lab coat. So, let’s just stipulate that it’s a thing.

It worked so well that Phil designed a vest that accomplished the same things. It’s like giving your pet a big hug all the time. They launched their Shopify site in 2016 and are earning some serious Benjamins and Lincolns making pets calmer and pet owners happier.

What could be more patriotic than that?

The Shopify Theme That They Use

It’s been heavily modified, but ThunderShirt is built on a mobile-first theme called Dawn. It’s a new theme and was rated by more than one source as the best new Shopify theme for 2022.

.

What They Do Well

I love the product line and branding. They are obviously expanding the brand to include related supplements and nutrition products.

The shopping cart is fast and displays upsells well. You should take a look. The checkout process is standard, but does include a nice selection of express payment options.

Take a look in the hero area of the home page and allow the gallery to go to the quiz. Very effective and cool. They let you take a quiz to determine the best solution for your pet and then have you enter your email to get the results. I think you can see where this is going.

What Needs to Be Improved

Once I saw this, I couldn’t unsee it. The first image in the Hero gallery on the home page is cut off on the bottom on certain screen sizes. It’s probably not killing them on conversions. But they are making their own images, full responsiveness absolutely MUST be a part of that.

The main menu also stacks oddly. This is weird because both of these first 2 criticisms have to deal with responsiveness, and Dawn was designed to be a “mobile first” theme. That means that it is designed to work best on phones and tablets, but not neglect the laptop or pc experience. It does, indeed, look great on mobile … But someone needs to be looking out for the laptop shoppers as well.

Sorry ThunderShirt … your code is a mess. There are cancelled external calls and delayed loading and interstitial jumping. All tests from multiple sources rate the performance as a fail. I love you guys … call us. Let us help you fix this stuff.

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:ROI

  • Revolutions — An external service app for lead generation.

  • Hotjar — User heatmap.

  • Klaviyo — Customer lifecycle management.

  • Attentive — Customer lifecycle management.

  • Seconapp — Conversion optimization.

  • Lucky Orange — The luckiest of citrus fruits … and real time ecommerce analytics.

  • Searchanise — eCommerce search.

  • Zonos — International eCommerce SaaS.

  • Octane AI — Product recommendations.

  • Bugsnag — When there are little bugs, in your code no good. Who ya gonna call?

  • Yotpo — A purveyor of Yots … and a customer review widget.

  • PayPal /AmazonPay/ApplePay/GooglePay — All this big express payment options.

  • DoubleClick — Ad network.

Twelve apps and widgets is not too much. But still, something is hosing up the code. Needs to be researched.

Marketing Stuff They Do

ThunderShirt has several active social media accounts, including

,

,

, and

. They launched their Facebook page at the same time they launched the company in 2009.

They are running a TON of adds on social, ads in search, and email marketing. I was especially impressed with the balanced email capture campaigns with the signup form, the quiz I mentioned above, and then the follow-up emails. That’s some good work.

Below you will find 3 examples of social media ads and 3 search ads for your review and inspiration.

Sponsored

Let us help you make it a good dog. If you need help making Shopify website tweaks or fixing those little nagging things on your Shopify store, let’s get stuff done.