Six signs your store is due for a refresh

Consumer brands typically go about two years and four months between full redesigns of their site. That sounds reasonable until you think about how much moves in that time: how people shop, which devices they shop on, how search works and how they expect to pay.

When I ran a DTC business where nearly all of our sales came through the website, the store was never "done." But a full rebuild isn't always the answer either. Usually it's a handful of specific problems, and the trick is knowing which ones you have.

1. Mobile pages take three seconds or more

Google's research found that 53% of mobile visitors leave once a page takes longer than three seconds to load. Most of them never see the product you paid to bring them to.

How to check: Load your homepage and a product page on your own phone, on cellular rather than office Wi-Fi, then run both through Google's free PageSpeed Insights.

What a fix looks like: Usually oversized images and years of accumulated apps and tracking scripts. Cleaning those up often gets most of the way without touching the design.

2. Bounce rate is above 45%

E-commerce sites typically see bounce rates between about 36% and 47%. Well above that, visitors are arriving and not finding a reason to stay.

How to check: Look at bounce rate by landing page, not just sitewide. A few pages with very high rates usually tell you more than the average does.

What a fix looks like: Landing pages that match what people clicked on, faster load times and best sellers placed where people actually land.

3. It looks dated next to your competitors

Adobe's consumer research found that 38% of people stop engaging with a site when the layout or content is unattractive. Customers compare you with whoever else came up in the same search.

How to check: Put your homepage next to your three closest competitors on a phone. Be honest about which one you would buy from.

What a fix looks like: Often a theme refresh, better product photography and tighter copy, rather than a rebuild from scratch.

Need a hand with this? I help stores work out which of these are worth fixing first, and whether a rebuild is needed at all. Let’s talk →

4. Checkout still has friction

About 70% of online carts are abandoned. Baymard Institute's research suggests roughly a third of checkout abandonment can be fixed with better design.

How to check: Buy something from your own store on your phone. Count the taps, and note whether you had to create an account and whether Apple Pay, Google Pay or Shop Pay were offered.

What a fix looks like: Guest checkout and wallet payments switched on, shipping cost shown before the last step, and any field you don't truly need taken out.

5. SEO stopped at launch

Product titles, descriptions and the structure of the site were written for how people searched when the site went live. Search has changed a lot since then, and the site usually hasn't.

How to check: Search for your main products the way a customer would, without your brand name. See where you show up, and who shows up instead.

What a fix looks like: Rewritten titles and descriptions for your top products and collections, and a site structure that matches how people actually look for what you sell.

6. Small edits need a developer

If swapping a banner takes a ticket and a week, the site is slowing your team down too. Changes that should take an afternoon stop happening, and the store slowly goes stale.

How to check: Think about the last time you wanted to change a banner, add a product or run a promotion. Could your team do it that afternoon?

What a fix looks like: A site built so the day-to-day changes are yours to make.

Count them up

One or two of these is normal and usually fixable in place. Three or more, especially if the first two are on your list, and a focused refresh will probably pay for itself faster than you'd think.

If you'd like a more structured version, the store check walks through twelve questions like these and gives you a score with the three fixes I would start with.

Sources: Huemor website lifespan study; Google mobile page speed research; Shopify e-commerce bounce rate benchmarks; Adobe consumer research; Baymard Institute checkout research.