Go ahead and ask me what the pollen count was today.

Today in central Michigan the tree pollen count was “Very High.” Now, you can look on The Weather Channel website if you want to check it out. Accuweather has a nice little online pollen-tracking tool too. But I didn’t need either of those websites to confirm … very effectively … that the tree pollen count was annoyingly disturbingly high today.

That’s right, boys and girls. Your ‘ol buddy Shopify-Zach has botanical clairvoyance … I am a prophet of the pines and soothsayer of the elms. I am a Jedi of the junipers and an oracle of the oaks. There I am, going on about my business, not bothering anyone, just living life as an eCommerce tech entrepreneur. When all of a sudden … out of nowhere, like some Sith-Lord super-power, the trees of central Michigan reach into my sinus cavities using what can only be described as the Snotty Side of the Force.

Now, I loves me some Mother Nature. But for a few weeks each year in the springtime Mother Nature is a Mother … well, let’s just say she gets on my bad side. But don’t worry. In a week or so after a rainstorm all that tree-breeding ethereal haze of tear and cough-inducing arbor-smog will be washed out of the air and forgotten faster than the storyline of the original Star Wars.

Seriously … those sequels … what were they thinking?

Anyway … until that blessed rainstorm arrives, I will support the pharmaceutical companies of America. Walgreens gives me free valet parking this time of the year. I’m customer of the month. So, that means I’m a tad bit cranky. Maybe it shows.

So, I went looking for a Shopify site in the pollen business to take out my frustrations on … I mean, to offer assistance and guidance too. Found a whole bunch of them, and perhaps not surprisingly, they annoyed me. First, there was The Pollen Factory … now when one hears of a business called “The Pollen Factory” one might think of many kinds and manner of businesses. But no matter what one might think, in this case one would be wrong. The Pollen Factory sells jewelry. There are no necklaces made of pollen, no rings with pollen-ish designs … nothing of the sort. And there is no reason given … no explanation as to why this business was given such a name.

Makes me want to take that business out behind the marketing woodshed and teach it what for.

Then there was PollenClothes. Just a bunch of shirts with the word “pollen” written on them in a font that looks like it was ripped off a 1970s GAP billboard. Again … no “why” … just the word “pollen” on shirts.

Can you see why sometimes I get a little cranky?

I kept looking and finally came across a pollen-adjacent eCommerce site that had a reasonable excuse for having “pollen” in its name.

So, let’s take a look.

Happy Selling,
Zach

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Shopify Teardown Target of the Week: Pollen-Botanicals

Pollen-Botanicals is a line of skin care and makeup products made from all-natural ingredients with no artificial binders or emulsifiers … that kind of thing. On their Our Story page they say, and I quote:

“Being the most nutrient dense food profile in nature, pollen was the perfect inspiration for our name and our mission to provide skincare that feeds the skin with natural, nutritious ingredients.”

Anyway … that’s close enough, I guess. It sort of works … nature, nutrients … there you go. And I see a few products with honey as an ingredient, and honey is made in the bellies of bees from pollen.

Now … the website you see before your eyes is brand new. It was born on February 3, 2023. So good on them. Welcome to the family you bee-loving, Shopify-using, hay fever-inducing, pollen-people you!

But ….

This business has been around for more than decade. They have owned the domain since 2012 and had a Facebook page since 2013. for the first six years or so the domain landed on a “Coming Soon” page with zero content. It was that way for more than six years!

Then there was a partial website, then a changed website … anyway … you can use the Wayback Machine yourself and see all that wasted interest time that they could have been building a following and SEO. But hey … we get it. You have started your new eCommerce site, so do NOT stop now. Get’er done.

The Shopify Theme That They Use

So … this is strange.

Our analytics tools show that this theme has been changed tree times. It’s been Refresh, Publisher, Spotlight … and now it is something else. But the code has gotten muddy. It doesn't look like any of those now. But these folks are new to town, so we citizens of Shopi-ville are tolerant and forgiving kinds of folks until they get their theme together.

Stuff They Do Well

They are trying hard, and it shows. Finally.

The site is setting up nicely. They have some good photography and their branding and color palate are fine.

Basically … so far everything is … OK. Nothing exciting, nothing that sparkles.

Stuff That Needs Improvement

Since they are new, everything below is offered in the spirit of helpful hints to get started right.

One of my pet peeves … they have the word “Home” I the main menu navigation. No one needs it. Everyone knows to click th logo to go home just like the Glenda the Good Witch new that Dorothy had to click her heels together on those ruby slippers to go home. We all know. Don;t waste the space in that valuable main menu.

On your product pages ... like this example … we need to see risk reversal. Show a proper return policy to gain trust, show your shipping benefits … brag about your “all natural” products with a trust badge. This is no time to be shy here.

Please finish the site. Please. If you need help, let us know. That’s what we do for a living.

Zach-o-meter Score

We are ALL judged by context. This site is just a few months old and it is definitely a work in progress. But they have come a long way quickly so they get bonus points. But, then again, they sat on the dominator YEARS. I can’t tell if I am annoyed with them or if the allergy meds are wearing off.

I’ll split the difference. As it is, this site gets a Zach-o-meter score of 7.0 out of 10.

The Shopify Apps They Use

As usual, we used our super-duper top secret Shopify website analysis tools to peek under the hood and see what apps they are running on the site. Take a look. If you like what you see on their site you may want to look into the apps that they are using too.

• MailChimp — They have the new MailChimp integration there, so good on them.

• ShopifyPay/ApplePay/GooglePay/Amazon Payment — Express payment options.

• Bugsnag — This is the code cleaning tool of champions these days. On this site it has been recently installed so I suspect that a professional might be involved now. Probably a smart move.

• PhotoSwipe — Javascript image gallery.

• DoubleClick — An Ad network, so it looks like they are getting ready to buy some ads.

That’s about it so far, folks. This is a site in development in real time. I suspect that they are using some of the new marketing tools in MailChimp to cover retargeting and such.

Marketing Stuff That They Do

Like I said, they are new to Shopify, and it looks like they are still getting the site set up. But they made their Facebook page way way back in 2013. They also have an Instagram page and a YouTube Channel (with only one video from two years ago). They are not running any ads on search or social that I can see right now. But they have attached DoubleClick to their site, so they are about to to maybe do some?

I looked around and it looks like they have spent the better part of a decade just selling in person at local shows and farmers markets and such. These in-person sales events ARE a form of marketing. And we think that more eComm folks should get off of their basements and garages and actually meet some customers in real life.

Also as I said, they seem to be finally taking the eCommerce thing seriously. And we wish them much lock and success.

But for goodness sake actually do it this time.

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