30-Minute Redesign: Boosting ShopRocket's Landing Page

I recently started following Ryan Badger on X and have been fascinated watching him build an e-commerce platform in ShopRocket.com by himself 🤯

Ryan shares a lot of his thought processes on X, and I became particularly intrigued by this recent post.

Here's a better look at the options. The "left" is the current design of the site.

(I helped my wife setup a Shopify for her polymer-clay earring business a few years ago, so I'm approaching this from the perspective of both the design rhetoric and a potential customer.)

So...left or right?

I didn't particularly gravitate towards either option...but why?

Let's start with the first thing that jumped out at me.

There are four areas with a focus on credibility.

One or two would be fine, but four is redundant and makes me wonder if the site is legitimate since they have to keep telling me they're legitimate.

Now examine the top right of the page.

If I've never heard of or seen ShopRocket, I'm not ready to hop into the crazy world of Discord servers and 'join the community' because I don't even know who you are (yet).

An active, passionate community of entrepreneurs is quite appealing to sellers like me, which is why I think it works better further down the page/funnel.

Lastly—and maybe most important?—I don't feel the ShopRocket brand comes through above-the-fold.

Part of the appeal of a site called ShopRocket is the speed at getting my store up-and-running.

I can't point to any design elements that indicate speed.

Someone standing in front of plants doesn't communicate that to me.

I do like how the angle at the bottom of the hero image incorporates a sense of motion and a subtle "cutting edge."

But the overall design doesn't resemble the velocity of a rocket.

How to improve in 30 minutes?

After a quick half hour adjusting the overall layout and messaging, here's where we landed.

First, I kept most of H1 but adjusted the copy to force the eye to read "Start selling [in] five minutes."

1. It's clear and actionable; two traits valued by entrepreneurs.
2. "Start selling" is more important and appealing than commands to copy/paste
3. Adding "...on your site in..." made the next part a lot easier...

People don't read; they scan.

I needed to quickly emphasize the features that ShopRocket has that other competitors don't.

Take a look at that last feature: No transaction fees is amazing! Compare that to Shopify's pricing... 😬

I still needed to help incorporate the brand, but I didn't have much time left.

I opted to expand on the "up, up, and away" angle from the top right of the ShopRocket logo. This layout puts the seller in the rocket, which is a perfect metaphor.

A few things I'd change if I had more time.

1. Incorporate more visual elements to emphasize the site's speed
2. Adding back the phrases "shopping cart" or "fully responsive" from the original copy...might good for SEO.
3. Nitpicking, but the three words in yellow in the checklist says "fast, easy, ever." Maybe "fast, easy, forever" makes more sense? Could be improved.

Final thoughts

I love what Ryan's building with ShopRocket. This was just a personal exercise, so I look forward to seeing what changes he makes.

What do you think? Reach out to me on X and let's chat 💬