Aquila Jewellery CRO Audit
A 43 minute CRO audit of Aquila Jewellery, a handmade jewellery store, covering the homepage, collection page and product page, followed by a full redesign concept built around guided buying.
Watch the full 43-minute recording.
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What we found.
Aquila Jewellery already has the hard part done. The photography is among the best our CRO strategist has seen in a store of this size, the hover states on the product grid show each piece in action, the layout is clean, and the reviews are real. The products themselves are handmade and genuinely good. None of that needs changing, and the audit says so plainly before it gets to anything else.
The core problem is that the site behaves like a catalogue, not a salesperson. It tells visitors that products exist and lets them get on with it. The homepage greets a new visitor with a discount popup, then pushes bestsellers before anyone knows what the store is, who it is for, or whether it can be trusted. The reviews that would answer that last question sit at the very bottom, where most never scroll.
The same pattern repeats further down the funnel. The collection page is another grid with thin filters, so a shopper torn between two pieces has to open both, read both descriptions and hold the comparison in their head. The product page shows the piece, the price and a button, but nothing near the buy box answers when it will arrive, what happens with returns, or what size to pick. It sells one item and stops.
The direction is a guided buying experience on every page: a hero that answers the three opening questions in the first seconds, a nav and quiz that route people by piece, metal, need and budget, product cards that carry the comparison, and a product page that reassures at the moment of decision. The one idea to keep is this: the website is not the business, it is the salesperson for the business, and right now it is not selling.
Problem, opportunity, impact
The site behaves like a catalogue rather than a salesperson. It shows handmade pieces and prices, but never builds trust first, never helps a visitor choose between pieces, and offers no reassurance where the buying decision is made.
With strong photography and real reviews already in place, Aquila Jewellery can become a guided store: a homepage that earns trust before it pitches, collection pages that help people compare, and product pages that answer the questions holding buyers back.
More visitors stay past the first few seconds, more find the right piece without opening several tabs, more add to bag because delivery, returns and sizing are answered, and matching sets lift the val
Scored across five dimensions.
Five dimensions, each scored out of ten.
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01
Homepage & PDP review Where attention leaks and buyers hesitate, section by section.
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02
Mobile UX audit 70% of your traffic — judged on its own terms.
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03
Trust & credibility check The signals that make first-time buyers convert.
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04
Collection & discovery Filtering, merchandising and guidance from browse to buy.
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05
Prioritized CRO roadmap Ranked by impact vs. effort, ready to ship.
Every issue, paired with its fix.
14 issues found, 18 fixes proposed.
A Discount Popup Fires Before Anyone Has A Reason To Buy
A 10% off popup appears the moment a visitor lands, before they know what the store sells. The discount is given away for nothing, when it could be earned by pairing two pieces or used in retargeting.
The Homepage Behaves Like A Catalogue Not A Salesperson
The site tells visitors that handmade pieces are available and leaves the rest to them. It does not ask questions, guide a choice or push for the sale, so it reads as a product list rather than a shop assistant.
Bestsellers Are Pitched Before Trust Is Built
Straight below the hero the homepage shows bestsellers. For a first visit that is a salesperson rushing a stranger at the door with an armful of products; the natural reaction is to step back and work out who you are dealing with.
The Three Opening Questions Go Unanswered Above The Fold
Within the first few seconds a new visitor cannot tell what the store is, who it is for or whether it can be trusted. The answers exist on the site, but they are not surfaced where a visitor decides whether to stay.
Real Reviews Are Buried At The Bottom Of The Page
Aquila has real customer reviews, one of its strongest assets, and they sit at the very end of the homepage. Most visitors leave within a few seconds and never scroll far enough to see them.
No Guided Route Into The Catalogue From The Homepage
There is no route for a visitor who wants to shop by metal, by piece, by budget or by occasion. The homepage offers a grid and expects the visitor to work out the rest on their own.
The Collection Page Is Just Another Grid Of Products
The collection page repeats what the homepage already showed: a grid of products with no reasons to pick one over another. Its job is to help people find the right piece, and it is not doing that.
Filters Do Not Match How People Shop For Jewellery
Shoppers cannot narrow by silver, gold or gold plated, by earrings or bangles, by price range or by whether the piece is a gift. Those are the questions a jewellery buyer actually has.
Product Cards Carry Only A Photo, Name And Price
Each card shows a photograph, a name and a price. It gives no sense of weight, fit, finish or who the piece suits, so the card cannot help anyone decide between two options.
Comparing Two Pieces Means Opening Two Product Pages
A shopper torn between two pieces has to open both product pages, read both descriptions and hold the difference in their head. That is a lot of work to put on the visitor before they have decided to buy.
Nothing Near The Buy Button Answers Delivery Or Returns
Around the Add to Cart button there is nothing on delivery times, returns or the store's promise. A buyer spending around £80 on a gift with a birthday in five days has an unanswered question and leaves.
Sizing Help Is Missing For Rings And Bangles
Rings and bangles raise a size worry for anyone buying for themselves or for someone else, and the product page offers no scale, guide or help with choosing. That hesitation alone can end the sale.
The Product Page Sells One Piece And Never A Second
The product page sells one item and stops. A visitor who is ready to buy earrings is never shown the matching ring or pendant, so the trust already won is not used to lift the order value.
Gifting Is Not A Path Through The Store
Jewellery is one of the most gifted products there is, and the gifting season is close, yet the store has no gift path by recipient, occasion or budget. Gift buyers get the same ungrouped grid as everyone else.
Remove The Welcome Popup And Reuse The Discount
Remove the welcome popup and move the 10% offer to where it does work: as a reward for pairing two pieces, on the product page, or in retargeting. Give the discount in exchange for something, not for landing.
Answer What, Who For And Why Trust In The Hero
Rebuild the hero so the first screen says what Aquila makes, who wears it and why the store can be trusted. The redesign concept uses a short video and a trust line here to create desire before anything is pitched.
Move Reviews And Trust Signals Up The Homepage
Bring the real reviews, the promise and a short Why Us section up the page so a visitor meets them before the first product grid, instead of at the bottom where almost no one scrolls.
Rebuild The Navigation Around Buying Paths
Restructure the top nav around how people shop: by piece, by metal, by need, by price and by gift, with recipient, occasion and budget under gifts. Every type of buyer gets a route to the right collection fast.
Add A Find Your Piece Quiz
Add a short quiz, the digital version of a shop assistant asking how they can help, that asks a few questions and recommends pieces matching the visitor's answers rather than what the store thinks they should buy.
Pitch Bestsellers Only After Trust Is Established
Keep the bestsellers, but place them after the trust and discovery sections and limit them to a handful of pieces with tabs to switch between types. Pitch once the visitor feels safe, not at the door.
Add Badges And Short Notes To Every Product Card
Give every card visual cues such as New, Bestseller, Customer Favourite, Staff Pick and Gift Ready, plus a one line note like handmade hoops, light in the ear, so the comparison happens on the card.
Add Filters For Metal, Piece Type, Price And Occasion
Add filters for metal, piece type, price range and occasion to the collection page, and add a shop by goal row at the top, so shoppers narrow to the right pieces instead of scanning the whole grid.
Let Shoppers Switch Collections Without Leaving The Page
Place quick links to the other collections at the top of each collection page so a shopper can move from rings to bracelets or gifts without going back to the homepage.
Place Delivery, Returns And The Promise Next To The Buy Button
Put delivery dates, the returns policy, the metal promise and gift readiness beside the Add to Cart button, exactly where the logical mind is asking its questions, so there is no reason to leave to find an answer.
Add A Size Guide For Rings And Bangles
Add a size guide and a scale reference to ring and bangle pages so a buyer can work out what will fit their own finger or someone else's wrist before committing.
Show Matching Pieces And A Pairing Offer On The Product Page
Add a pairs well with block on each product page with a matching ring, pendant or bangle, and offer the 10% discount or free shipping for buying the set together.
Build Sets And Bundles To Lift Average Order Value
Create complete sets, such as earrings with a pendant, and sell them as bundles on the homepage and in a frequently bought together section on the product page to raise the average order value.
Keep Selling Inside The Cart Drawer
Show complete the look suggestions inside the cart drawer. A visitor who has just added a piece is already convinced, so one extra click to add a matching item is an easy ask.
Build A Gifting Flow By Recipient, Occasion And Budget
Build a gift flow with its own entry point, routes by recipient, occasion and budget, and a gift quiz that recommends pieces, ready in time for Thanksgiving and the Christmas season.
Add A Why Us Section With Promise, Story And FAQs
Add a Why Us section with the store's promise, testimonials showing pieces being worn, a short note on the story and an FAQ block, so the remaining objections are handled on the page.
Consider A Virtual Try On As An Optional Add On
If budget allows, add a virtual try on where a visitor uploads a photo and sees the piece worn at true scale. It removes the try before you buy hesitation, but it is an optional extra with its own cost.
Fix The Buying Experience Before Spending On Ads
Hold off on paid traffic until the buying experience is fixed. Sending more people to the current site means paying to send them to a store that is not yet set up to convert them.
The version we'd build.
The teardown in 7 lines.
- The website is not the business; it is the salesperson for the business, and this one only shows products.
- A homepage has one job, to convince a visitor to stay and explore, and selling comes after that.
- Pitching bestsellers to a stranger at the door makes them step back, not step in.
- Real reviews are only an asset if visitors reach them, and most never scroll to the bottom of the homepage.
- A collection page should carry the comparison on the cards so the shopper does not have to carry it in their head.
- The sale is decided next to the Add to Cart button, and that is where delivery, returns and sizing must be answered.
- A discount handed out on arrival is wasted; the same discount for buying a matching set raises the order value.
Questions this audit answers.
The site acts like a catalogue instead of a salesperson. It shows that handmade pieces are available but never builds trust first, never helps a visitor choose, and never asks for the sale. Every other finding in the audit is a version of that one problem on a different page.
The popup gives the discount away the moment someone lands, before they have any reason to want it. The same 10% works far harder when it is tied to an action, such as buying a matching set or completing a look, or when it is used in retargeting. Removing it costs nothing and stops the store from training visitors to expect money off for nothing.
What is it, who is it for, and can I trust this store. The audit found that the answers exist on Aquila Jewellery but are scattered down the page, with the reviews at the very bottom. The redesign concept moves all three into the first screen so a visitor decides to stay before they are shown a single product.
No. Our CRO strategist was clear that the photography is one of the best things on the site, the hover states showing pieces in action deserve full marks, and the products themselves are good. The audit is about how those products are presented and sold, not about replacing them.
It means giving each type of shopper a route to the right piece instead of a grid to search. In the redesign that includes a nav organised by piece, metal, need, price and gift, a short quiz that recommends pieces from a few answers, filters that match how people actually shop, and product cards that carry the comparison for them.
Because a card is where most comparison happens. On Aquila Jewellery each card is a photo, a name and a price, so a shopper torn between two pieces has to open both and remember the differences. Badges such as Bestseller, Customer Favourite and Gift Ready, plus a one line note on fit or feel, let the card do that work instead.
Reassurance at the point of decision. Nothing near the Add to Cart button says when the piece will arrive, how returns work, what the metal promise is or what size to choose. A buyer who likes the piece and has the money will still leave if one of those questions goes unanswered, and go to a store that answers it.
By selling a second piece to a visitor who has already decided to buy the first. The product page gets a pairs well with block and a frequently bought together section, the homepage sells complete sets as bundles, and the cart drawer shows pieces that complete the look. The 10% discount that was being given away on arrival becomes the reason to add the matching item.
Yes. Jewellery is one of the most gifted products there is and the Thanksgiving and Christmas season is close, so the redesign adds a dedicated gift flow with routes by recipient, occasion and budget and a gift quiz that recommends pieces. Gift buyers currently get the same ungrouped grid as everyone else.
It is an optional add on, not part of the core redesign. A visitor uploads a photo and sees the piece worn at true scale, which removes the try before you buy hesitation that is especially strong for rings and bangles. It costs more to implement, so the audit presents it as something to consider separately.
The audit says no, and praises the decision to audit first. Paid traffic sent to the current site arrives at a store that is not yet set up to convert it, so the spend is wasted on the same leaks. Fix the buying experience first, then bring in traffic that lands on pages built to sell.
The recording runs 43 minutes. It walks through the homepage, the collection page and the product page of Aquila Jewellery in turn, then presents a redesign concept for each of those pages plus a guided buying quiz and a gifting flow, and closes with the next steps and the options for implementing the changes.
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5-minute video teardownA personalized walkthrough of your store, recorded by Eva.
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Homepage & PDP reviewWhere attention leaks and buyers hesitate.
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Mobile UX audit70% of your traffic — judged on its own terms.
-
Trust & credibility checkThe signals that make first-time buyers convert.
-
Prioritized CRO roadmapRanked by impact vs. effort, ready to ship.