Design audit

The store has ten collections, from Tops to Home Decor & Gifts, but none of them are visible until a visitor clicks the menu icon at the far left. The header shows a logo and three icons. Every competitor reviewed shows a category bar on desktop, and four of five also show a search field or icon beside the logo.

Recommendation. Show a category bar under the logo on desktop with six to seven items and a dropdown for the rest. Keep the hamburger for phones only, and add New Arrivals as the first item.

The announcement bar is 45 px and the logo band is 200 px. On a common 1440 by 900 laptop screen the header uses 27 percent of the first view, and the product title on a product page starts 410 px down. The header does not shrink on scroll.

Recommendation. Reduce the logo band to 90 to 110 px, move the bison mark into a compact lockup and make the header stick in a 64 px version once the visitor scrolls.

The bar reads {Rooted in the West, Refined in Style} with the braces rendered as text. Its brown text on the tan background measures 1.92 : 1, far below the 4.5 : 1 minimum. The bar also carries no promise a shopper can act on: no shipping threshold, no local pickup, no return window.

Recommendation. Use the bar for one promise per season, for example free shipping over a threshold or in-store pickup in Castle Rock, in a dark text on light colour pair that passes 4.5 : 1.

On a 390 px wide screen the header keeps only the menu icon, the logo and the cart. Search is reachable only by opening the drawer first. The tap targets that remain are a good size at 50 px.

Recommendation. Keep a search icon in the mobile header and make the header sticky so search and cart are always one tap away.

Items are set in 22 px capitals with no imagery, no counts and no grouping, so Sterling Silver & Authentic Turquoise wraps onto three lines. Secondary links such as Log In and Create Account measure 3.11 : 1 against the olive background. Blog sits between shopping links and account links.

Recommendation. Group the drawer into Shop, Our story and Help. Shorten labels (Sterling & Turquoise), add small category images and use sentence case with a text colour that passes 4.5 : 1.

The Mailchimp popup appears within two seconds of the page loading and sits over the hero photograph. On a phone it fills the screen. Because it is injected in front of the page, it also blocked the menu button in our tests until it was closed.

Recommendation. Trigger the 10 percent offer after a visitor has scrolled past the first products or after 20 seconds, keep an inline signup near the footer, and never show it twice in one session.

The slideshow shows a single photograph of the owners in a field with no text over it and nothing to click. To a screen reader the slideshow is an empty tab panel. A visitor who arrives from Instagram or a magazine feature gets no confirmation of what the store sells or where to start.

Recommendation. Keep the photograph and add a short headline, one primary action (Shop new arrivals) and one secondary action (Sterling & turquoise).

Below the hero, a single section titled Back To Our Roots lists 50 products in a three-column grid. On a phone the grid becomes one column, so each product takes a full screen and the page runs to 24,655 px. There are no category tiles, no new arrivals block and no best sellers, so the page cannot be scanned.

Recommendation. Rebuild the homepage as a short route: hero, six category tiles, eight new arrivals, the sterling and turquoise story, press and reviews, the owners, the Castle Rock booth, then the email signup.

Cowgirl Magazine features, the Cowgirl 30 Under 30 listing, a Boutique Hub podcast and Colorado Boutique of the Year 2019 are listed as bold text links under an As Featured In heading, after 50 products. The mother and daughter story is set as a level 6 heading in 17 px monospace. The Emporium booth in Castle Rock is announced under a heart emoji heading with no hours, map or photo.

Recommendation. Move a press logo strip and one line of the story to just below the new arrivals, and give the Castle Rock booth its own block with hours, address, map link and a photo.

The theme's accent font is set to SF Mono, an Apple system font that falls back to a generic monospace on Windows and Android. It is used for the Add to Cart label (13 px), size options (13 px), the address (19 px), the owners' story (17 px) and the We're Open text (11 px with 1 px letter-spacing). Alegreya serif is used everywhere else, so the store speaks in two unrelated voices.

Recommendation. Use two families: the serif for headings and product names, and one legible sans for prices, buttons, forms and small text. Set nothing below 14 px.

Section headings (40 px), product page titles (36 px), the header icons and the address block all use rgb(199, 149, 87) on rgb(248, 248, 245), a 2.51 : 1 ratio. Large text needs 3 : 1 and icons need 3 : 1. Body text in brown measures 4.82 : 1 and passes.

Recommendation. Keep the gold as an accent for rules and small ornaments, and set headings and icons in the darker brown already used for body text, or in a brown of at least rgb(140, 90, 18) which measures over 4.5 : 1.

After the 245 px header comes a full-width banner photograph, then the title Tops at about 850 px. The first row of products appears only after scrolling. On a phone the banner and title fill the first screen as well.

Recommendation. Replace the banner with a compact collection header: title, product count, one line of description and the filters, so the first products are visible without scrolling.

This collection is the second item in the menu and is called out in the store's meta description as a reason to shop here. It contains a single product, and its All Sales Final policy is stated only in the collection description, not on the product page.

Recommendation. Either stock the collection before the relaunch or fold jewelry into Accessories until it is deep enough for its own menu item. Put the final-sale notice and the artisan and stone details on each jewelry product page.

The store's own action is a 162 by 44 px outline button with a 13 px monospace label. Next to it, Shopify's dynamic checkout button is solid purple and draws the eye first. On a phone Add to Cart sits 1,053 px down an 844 px screen, and there is no sticky bar, so a shopper must scroll to buy.

Recommendation. Make Add to Cart a full-width solid button in the brand's dark brown, move the Shop Pay button below it in a quieter style, and add a sticky bar on phones with the price, size and Add to Cart.

The Leopard Pleated Skirt description is 176 characters and opens with Adorable, right? There is no fabric composition, no care instruction, no measurement table and no note about what it was styled with in the photo, although the photos feature belts and boots the store also sells.

Recommendation. Use a structured product template with four blocks: description, fit and sizing, fabric and care, shipping and returns. Link the accessories shown in each photo as Shop the look.

Searching for turquoise returns 20 products, but the results list also outputs style code as visible text, starting with @media screen and (min-width: 591px). The result heading reads Your search for turquoise revealed the following, which is unusual phrasing for a store.

Recommendation. Fix the search result template so inline styles are not printed, show a result count, and add filters for products, articles and pages.

Each article excerpt begins with an escaped image tag, so visitors see code before the summary. The blog holds 26 posts and covers the stock show circuit and fashion shows, which is strong content, but the cadence gaps from October 2023 to July 2025.

Recommendation. Fix the excerpt filter, rename the blog from News to something like Events and Style, and feature the latest post on the homepage.

The cart page reads Your cart is currently empty. Continue browsing here. Adding an item sends the shopper to this full page rather than opening a drawer, and there is no shipping threshold progress or recommendation on it.

Recommendation. Use a cart drawer that opens on add, shows a shipping threshold bar and two recommended items, and links back to New arrivals when empty.

There is no newsletter signup, no phone number, no email, no address, no hours and no payment icons in the footer, although the phone number 720-301-9308 and the email address exist on the Contact page. The social icons render as icon-font glyphs with a stray letter for the fallback text.

Recommendation. Build a four-column footer: Shop, Help (shipping, returns, size guide, contact), Visit us (booth address, hours, map link) and Stay in touch (email signup, social, payment icons).

The homepage announces The Emporium booth at 200 Perry St., Castle Rock, Colorado. The Meet Us page describes a permanent storefront in Oregon opened after a holiday pop-up. The Contact page lists a phone and email but no address at all.

Recommendation. Write one Visit us block with each location, its hours and what a visitor will find there, and reuse it on the homepage, the About page and the footer.