Larry Coulson Photo CRO Audit
A CRO teardown of a landscape and wildlife photography print shop on Etsy, plus a Shopify concept with a print quiz, gift finder, room visualizer and product pages built to sell.
Watch the full 19-minute recording.
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What we found.
Larry Coulson Photo sells landscape, nature and wildlife photography prints, with a strong body of work around the Rocky Mountains. The collection is good enough to sell, the shop already has 12 reviews from real buyers, and ads are already sending paid visitors to it. Getting traffic is not the hard part here. What happens after a visitor arrives is where the sales are being lost.
The store lives on Etsy, and Etsy is built to keep shoppers browsing the marketplace, not one shop. Every visitor paid for through ads lands next to a search bar, category menus and competing sellers, and many drift away to other listings. On top of that, marketplace fees take a real share of every sale, so the paid traffic that does convert earns less than it should.
The same gap repeats further down the funnel. The storefront is a grid of products that never introduces the photographer or the work behind it. There is no way to shop by place, subject, room or occasion. Listings show the print but do not help a buyer choose a size or a finish, or picture how it will look on their own wall, which is exactly where wall art buyers hesitate.
The direction is an owned Shopify store built around how people actually buy prints: by the place, the subject and the wall it will hang on. A guided print quiz, a gift finder, a room visualizer and clear finish guides do the job a salesperson would do in a gallery. The idea worth remembering is simple: the ad budget should send visitors to a store that only sells this work.
Problem, opportunity, impact
Paid ads send visitors to an Etsy shop where the marketplace search, category menus and competing sellers pull them away, and the storefront is only a grid of prints with no story, guidance or reason to stay.
An owned Shopify store that introduces the photographer, lets buyers shop by place, subject, room and occasion, and helps them choose a size and finish with a quiz and visualizer, so the ad budget only sells this work.
Paid visitors stay on a store with no competing listings, buyers get the help they need to pick a size and finish with confidence, and more of each sale stays with the shop instead of going to marketp
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, 16 fixes proposed.
Paid Ads Send Visitors Into a Marketplace
The shop runs ads, but every paid click lands on Etsy, where the search bar and category menus invite the visitor to keep browsing other sellers instead of buying a print.
Competing Sellers Sit One Click Away
On the marketplace the shop is always in competition. A visitor who came for a Rocky Mountain print can be looking at someone else's landscape listing within seconds.
Marketplace Fees Shrink Every Sale
A good portion of each order goes to Etsy, so the money left after a sale is well below what the shop expected, and the ad spend has to work harder to pay off.
Storefront Is Only a Grid of Prints
The shop page shows rows of product images and nothing else. It works as a catalog but gives a first time visitor no direction on where to start or why to buy here.
The Photographer Is Never Introduced
Nothing on the shop explains who took these photographs, where they were made or what drives the work, so the prints read as stock listings instead of the output of a working photographer.
No Way to Shop by Place or Subject
A buyer who wants the Rocky Mountains, or wildlife, or nature scenes has no dedicated path to that part of the collection and has to scroll the full grid to find it.
No Way to Shop by Room or Wall
People often shop for wall art with a specific room in mind, such as a bedroom. The shop offers no way to start from the wall and find prints that suit it.
No Guided Help to Find the Right Print
There is no quiz or question flow that narrows the collection by where a print will hang, the subject, the size of the space and the mood a buyer wants.
Buyers Cannot Picture the Size on Their Wall
Uncertainty about whether a size will look right is one of the main reasons people hesitate on wall art, and the listings give no way to see a print at scale in a room.
Finishes and Materials Are Not Explained
Buyers are left to work out the difference between finishes and materials on their own, with no guide to which finish suits which wall or setting.
No Gift Path Ahead of Gifting Season
Prints are a natural gift, yet there is no gift finder or gifting section that asks who it is for, what they love and the budget, even with gifting season approaching.
Existing Reviews Do Little Work
The shop has 12 reviews, but most individual prints have none of their own, so a buyer looking at a specific product sees little proof that others bought and liked the work.
Reassurance Is Missing at the Decision Point
Returns, delivery timing and the fact that prints are made and shipped from the United States are not set out clearly next to the buy button, where a hesitant buyer looks for them.
No Option to Buy a Matching Pair
Prints that work well together are sold one at a time, with no pairing offer to raise the order value of a buyer who is already decorating a wall.
Build an Owned Shopify Store for the Prints
Move the main selling effort to a Shopify store the shop owns. Keep the Etsy listing running if it helps, but make the owned store the place the business is built.
Point the Ad Budget at the Owned Store
Send paid traffic to the Shopify store, where there is no marketplace search and no competing sellers, so every visitor paid for only sees this photographer's work.
Import the Etsy Catalog and Collections
Bring every product across from Etsy and organise it into collections, so the new store launches with the full range in place instead of being rebuilt by hand.
Introduce the Photographer on the Homepage
Add a section with a real photograph of the photographer and a short account of the work, so visitors are buying from a person and a brand, not a list of files.
Add Shop by Place and Shop by Subject
Create entry points such as Rocky Mountains, nature and wildlife on the homepage, so a visitor drawn to one place or subject goes straight to that part of the collection.
Let Visitors Start From the Wall
Add a shop by room section, such as art for the bedroom, so buyers who think in terms of a space can browse prints chosen for that wall.
Launch a Find Your Print Quiz
Ask where the print will hang, what the buyer wants to see, how big the space is, the mood they want and the finish, then show matched prints based on those answers.
Build a Room Visualizer Into Product Pages
Let buyers choose a size, finish and frame and see the print on a wall in real time, then add it to the basket from the same view, removing the guesswork about scale.
Publish a Guide to Finishes and Materials
Explain each finish and material in plain language and say which suits which wall, and link the guide from collection and product pages where the choice is made.
Add a Gift Finder Before Gifting Season
Ask who the gift is for, what they love and the budget, then suggest suitable prints, and give gifting its own section in the navigation.
Show Storewide Reviews on Every Product Page
Use the 12 existing reviews as storewide proof on each product page, so prints without their own reviews still show that real buyers have been happy.
Put Reassurances Next to the Buy Button
State returns, delivery timing and that prints are made and shipped from the United States right beside the add to basket button, where hesitation happens.
Add a Note From the Photographer to Each Print
Include a short note on what the photograph shows and how it was taken, so each product page explains what the print is about and why it matters.
Offer a Buy the Pair Option
Suggest a matching print on product pages and let buyers add both together, raising the order value for people already decorating a room.
Add FAQs to the Product Page
Answer the common questions about sizing, finishes, framing, shipping and returns on the product page itself, so buyers do not have to leave to find them.
Give Collection Pages Useful Summaries and Filters
Show each print's variants, price and a short description in the grid, and add filters by place, subject, size and finish so the right product is easy to find.
The version we'd build.
The teardown in 7 lines.
- The biggest opportunity is not more traffic but helping the traffic already arriving feel confident enough to buy.
- Paying for ads that land on a marketplace means paying to show visitors a search bar full of competing sellers.
- A grid of prints is a catalog; it does not introduce the photographer or give anyone a reason to buy here.
- People buy wall art by place, subject and room, so the store should let them shop that way.
- Most hesitation on wall art comes down to size, and a visualizer answers that question before it costs a sale.
- A shop with only a handful of reviews can still use them storewide so every product page carries proof.
- Understanding the problem and implementing the fix are two different jobs.
Questions this audit answers.
The shop is paying for ads that send visitors into a marketplace built to keep them browsing. Search, categories and competing sellers all sit one click away, and fees take a share of every sale. An owned store keeps paid visitors focused on this work alone.
No. The recommendation is to keep Etsy if it helps, since being there does no harm. The change is where the focus and the ad budget go, which should be the owned Shopify store.
It is a grid of products and nothing else. It does not introduce the photographer, explain the work, or help a visitor find a starting point, so it acts as a catalog rather than a store that sells.
It introduces the photographer, adds paths to shop by place, subject, room and gifting, explains materials and where prints will hang, and shows real reviews. Its job is to help visitors find the right print and trust the brand.
A short question flow that asks where the print will hang, what the buyer wants to see, the size of the space, the mood they want and the finish. It then suggests prints that match those answers.
Buyers often hesitate because they are not sure a size will look right on their wall. A visualizer lets them try sizes, finishes and frames in real time and see the result before adding the print to the basket.
It asks who the gift is for, what they love and the budget, then suggests prints that fit. With gifting season approaching, it gives the store a dedicated path for people buying for someone else.
It has 12, and most individual prints have none of their own. The audit recommends showing those reviews storewide on every product page, which is a fair way to bring proof to products that have not been reviewed yet.
It moves from showing a print to helping someone choose it. That means finish and size guidance, reassurances about returns and delivery, a note from the photographer, reviews, a buy the pair option and FAQs.
Each print gets a summary with variants, price and what it shows, plus filters to sort the range different ways. The quiz, a finish guide, reviews and links to custom prints and gifting also appear there.
No. The plan in the recording includes bringing the products across from Etsy and setting up the collections on the new Shopify store, so the range is in place when the store goes live.
The 19 minute recording covers the current Etsy storefront and the case for an owned Shopify store, then walks through a redesign concept: the homepage, the Find Your Print quiz, a collection page, the gift finder, a product detail page and the room visualizer, before closing on next steps.
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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.
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Trust & credibility checkThe signals that make first-time buyers convert.
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Prioritized CRO roadmapRanked by impact vs. effort, ready to ship.