Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

Quick impressions: Many of the photos in your slider are blurry, which create the wrong impression. You have a number of "Click here to edit title" blanks. It's unclear why someone would want to buy from YOU. What's so special about YOUR candles? What makes them luxury?

Many reactions, but overall the site could use some help.

For starters, the "Welcome" copy has way too much first-person reference -- "we" and "our" -- and no crisp focus on the benefit your target audience can expect. (Is there a headline thought you want site visitors to come away with?)

No call-to-action on the homepage.

Then there is the hard-to-read reverse type -- white on a black background. And the black background makes the whole site look ominous or "dark," not happy/inviting.

Then there is a notable absence of humans on the site. I don't think I saw a single picture of a happy customer using the product or a person who works at the company and is passionate about what they do. Very cold and off-putting, not warm and inviting.

It might be time to seek some outside professional help if you are serious about this business.

Hope this is helpful.

The site appears self-oriented rather than customer-oriented. First, the color choices are off -- candles and scent appeal because of their airy, etherial, uplifting and often feminine qualities (think spa, flower fields, fresh air, flowing scarves) and visually this site seems more like closeted magic, a darker message. The dramatic colors might feel to you like they underscore the luxury point, but luxury is all about light and freedom and privilege and indulgence, so it's best to reserve tuxedo colors only for tuxedos.

There are some copy challenges as well. The first is visual -- it's just hard work for eyes to read reverse type, especially lots of it, and the result is that visitors will not read it. The second is language -- the first headline in the first slider says "The Glow is Ours," which is not centered on the customer, and makes an unfortunate first impression. Elsewhere, talking about refills, the site asks "Did you purchase a jar from us that you can't depart with?" "Part" would be the more appropriate word, as "depart" suggests a posthumous choice.

Photography is exceptionally important on a site such as this. If a specific candle shot is not ideal, then replace it with a stock photography image that works as a metaphor for the scent or emotion of a specific candle.

Here are two candle websites with good photography, brief copy and a lighter overall palette to serve as examples of a visual approach that works in this business category:
https://www.kobocandles.com/
https://www.hillhousenaturals.com/

Hope these thoughts help you create a successful online business.