Relic & Reel CRO Audit

The homepage asks a first-time visitor to sort themselves across eight unrelated categories, carries, knives, swords, armor, apparel, art, and collectibles, with no guidance toward which one fits them. Visitors either already know exactly what they want or they're left guessing. That's the surface-level issue behind the low conversion, not the product itself.

Yes. The site states 13 reviews at 77 percent five star, plus three named customer testimonials and a genuine founder story. The problem is that none of it sits at the top of the page, and clicking through to reviews doesn't actually show them anywhere.

It shows 119 items, 24 per page, in a flat grid with filters for price and availability only. There's nothing to tell a reenactment buyer a piece from a display-only piece, so a genuinely motivated buyer still has to open every product to figure out what they're looking at.

It shows zero reviews with a be the first to write a review prompt, despite the price point. It also has no variant options and no compare-at price, even though the store runs real sale pricing elsewhere on the site.

No. The audit's conclusion is that the biggest opportunity is helping the traffic already landing on the site feel confident enough to buy, not driving more visitors to the same unguided experience.

A short quiz asking style and budget preference would route a visitor straight to a matching handful of products instead of leaving them to scroll through eight unrelated categories. The redesign concept demonstrates this, narrowing a European medieval, $100 to $250 preference down to a specific product and a few strong-fit alternatives.

The storewide review rating, drawn from reviews across all of Relic & Reel's products, can be repurposed on pages that don't yet have their own reviews. It signals that other buyers trust the brand while page-specific reviews accumulate.

Because nothing on the site currently pairs related products or offers a discount for buying two together, like the Damascus knife with a companion blade at 10 percent off. That's a straightforward way to raise average order value that isn't being used at all right now.

No, the recommendation is to add a notify-me option instead, so an interested buyer can leave contact info and get an alert when the piece is back, rather than hitting a dead end and leaving the site entirely.

No. The audit is explicit that this is a brand strength, not a weakness, honest descriptions, a real founder story, and named testimonials are all working proof. What's missing is the guidance layer that carries that trust from the homepage to the purchase.

Trust signals, review count, shipping time, and return policy move into the hero section immediately under the headline, followed by the find-your-piece quiz. Best sellers and collector favorites are introduced further down, after the visitor already has context on the brand.

The 27-minute audit covers Relic & Reel's homepage, the armor collection page, and one product page, a Damascus leaf pocket knife, then walks through a redesigned concept for all three.