Welcome to part three of our four-part deep dive into the marketing strategies of DTC sneaker brands Atoms, Vessi and Cariuma
If you haven’t read the first two parts, start by catching up with our Facebook Ads and Email analysis.
For this section, we’ve partnered with Oddit to analyze each brand’s website. Oddit provides simple, to-the-point website audits for direct-to-consumer brands wanting to boost conversion and strengthen brand loyalty.
The Oddit team has highlighted areas for improvement from each brand’s website and offered quick-win solutions they can apply ASAP.
P.S. Look for tips from the Pilothouse team throughout! 👀
Let’s Jump/Run In:
Homepage:
The homepage is most users’ first interaction with your brand. Make sure your H1 is big and clear, plus make it known that you’ve got over 3,000 5-start reviews.
A prominent header and social proof helps start users off on the right foot (get it? 😆)
Pilothouse Tip: The banner “Free Standard Shipping over $80 + Free Exchanges for the United States” should follow users as they scroll down the page. Make it a sticky banner!
Color Options:
Vessi has great colorways, but the 2-tone circles make it confusing.
Flipping back and forth between colors creates decision fatigue and as a result, sales are lost.
Consider integrating a variant selector that shows the physical shoes to reduce a user’s need to switch back and forth between colors.
Pilothouse Tip: The testimonials on Vessi’s product pages are easily lost at the bottom. We’d suggest moving them farther up the page so users have a better chance of seeing those 5-star reviews 🤩
Category Pages:
For category pages, it’s important to make actions easy to understand and click.
This page explains the product types and provides a selector that scrolls users down, but doesn’t display the products.
Further, it’s unclear that the three sneaker types are buttons.
Adding the sneaker images grabs the user's eye while eliminating the need for shoppers to make their own interpretation of what “Everyday”, “Weekend” and “Cityscape” shoes are.
Less interpretation = more sales
Homepage:
The brand’s reviews look like they’ve scrapped together text from friends and family. It’s not believable 🤨
Display robust and real reviews with more context
Similar to Vessi, the brand has thousands of great reviews. Make them known!
Pilothouse Tip: On the homepage, Cariuma features their best sellers. It’s a great move. People want to know what everyone else bought. Include this on your own site!
Press
Great press is more impactful when users can see what publications wrote about the product.
Pick the most household logos and display a pull-quote to build strong brand equity! 💪
Pilothouse Tip: Similar to Vessi’s website, we’d suggest implementing a sticky banner and bolding “Free Fast Shipping and Extended Returns” so customers don’t miss it!
Product Pages
There are certain “rules” guiding how specific elements in e-commerce are expected to work. One example is a brand’s logo redirecting to the homepage.
Product pages are another example where it’s best to keep things simple and expected.
The current page, with product details on the left, is better suited for products where features are the selling point, rather than visual aesthetic.
The Oddit layout works well specifically for visual products because people read from left to right, so they’ll see the product image FIRST.
Reviews
We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again...DISPLAY REVIEWS.
When you have this many strong reviews, utilize them as often as possible. They’re especially beneficial higher up in the funnel when you’re still building trust.
Limited-Time Offers
It’s important your limited-time offers aren’t lost in the weeds.
We’d suggest adding a delayed pop-up with a clear message and easy exit points to help transition users into a “checkout” mindset faster.
Cart:
The cart is a great place to upsell especially when there’s reason to spend more money.
A free shipping upsell is great because it feels like a value-add, not just another promotion.
Atoms could take it a step further and recommend products that are often bought together. 😎
Pilothouse Tip: Atoms homepage hero graphic says “Comfort You Can Count on”
The brands largest competitive difference quarter sizing. This is unheard of in the footwear industry.
Instead of competing on “comfort” which is a difficult attribute to own, they should use this space to make quarter sizing known instantly!
Product Pages
Currently, the product pages end with reviews.
Increase add-to-cart by giving users somewhere to go! 🛒
Homepage Reviews
Whitespace is your friend, but too much can make the text feel unimportant.
Increase the review font size, and tweak the yellow bar so it looks and feels like a tab selector.
Adding lines to represent the five reviews makes it a clear action point.
Pilothouse Tip: On the homepage, we’d suggest Atoms makes it more obvious what their differentiators are.
This small paragraph briefly explains what makes them great, but the text is easy to miss.
Further, we’d suggest swapping out this image. It doesn’t make sense to write “laces that you’ll never need to tie again” but feature someone tying their shoes. 😬
CTA Buttons:
Your CTA’s should be easier to spot than the Eiffel tower.
Giving core actions like “Shop Now” much higher contrast will boost conversions and help create a better-branded experience.
We’d also suggest testing the price directly in the CTA button button
That’s all for this round of DTC Diagnostics.
We’ll be finishing off the series next weekend with a look at each brand's Google strategy!
If you liked what the Oddit team had to say and want personalized insights to enhance your brand’s website, you can start your own Oddit today to get one free quick win to improve your UX instantly.
