The Perspective #26

Welcome to the 26th edition of The Perspective by Oddit!

Twice a month we send out actionable tips for creating brand-first and conversion-optimized customer experiences from the best brands in the world!

In this edition 🗞:

• Brand-first breakdown with The Essence Vault

• 5 questions with Magic Hour Founder Zhena Muzyka

• Mobile homepage hack: icon-label combos

• Listen up: Shaun’s latest podcast guesting

• New DTC brand discoveries this month

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If you missed our last editions, you can read them here!

Brand-First Breakdown: The Essence Vault

Prepare to be immersed in the captivating world of full-strength scents that pay homage to beloved high street brands while maintaining their own unique aromatic signature!💫🌺 

Their collection takes you on a scent journey like no other, featuring long-lasting perfumes (only Eau De Parfum!) inspired by Aventus, Black Opium, Daisy, and more, as well as exquisite wax products that will leave you entranced.

Here’s the exciting part: they offer distinct alternative fragrances, never attempting to clone or imitate! With a commitment to vegan-friendly and cruelty-free practices, their guilt-free fragrance sprays and certified safe fragrance oils ensure a delightful experience in each spray (or whiff!).🌸✨ 

So, take a moment to relax and indulge as we explore parts of The Essence Vault's website, uncovering tweaks to enhance user experience and transform it into a conversion powerhouse. Let's jump right in!

Mobile Menu

Suggestions To Test:

Suggestion 1: Call-out the total number of items in the cart in the heading.

Suggestion 2: Bring in your free shipping progress bar so customers are primed and encouraged to add more items to their cart to get free shipping.

Suggestion 3: Pull up the item in your cart and reformat the hierarchy to provide a clearer flow of information. Move the price below the product name and utilize a “Remove” link instead of a ‘trash’ icon. This is to ensure users’ familiarity with the action and avoid further confusion.

Suggestion 4: Include an add-on to help increase your AOV. Use incentives to get users adding the item directly to the cart by giving your customers a discount.

Suggestion 5: In some of the split tests we've done, we've noticed that adding a lock icon to the checkout CTA increases conversion; consider testing it to see which performs better.

Suggestion 6: Add a tooltip next to the product headline that opens a modal box stating the fragrances selected. This is to reduce clutter on the cart page, making it look a lot less overwhelming.

Best Sellers

Suggestions To Test:

Suggestion 1: Pull up this section and surface your best selling products in rows of 2 on mobile, rather than forcing users to swipe off screen to access them.

Suggestion 2: Test a new headline for this section; new users always want to see what other customers love the most.

Suggestion 3: Leverage a full-width CTA button to “Shop Best Sellers” and ensure it stands out. The CTA should communicate clearly where users will be navigated to.

Suggestion 4: Add your free shipping offer below to break down any purchase barriers.

Bundle & Save

Suggestions To Test:

Suggestion 1: Add a headline to let users know what this section is all about.

Suggestion 2: Add the potential savings as a badge overlay on the image for users to know what savings they will actually get when they bundle.

Suggestion 3: Bring visuals into play too. A collection of your products is a great way to educate users on what you sell and also hook users into the bundling option.

Suggestion 4: Add a loud CTA below and communicate to your users where they will be navigated to once they click on the CTA.

Intense Collection

Suggestions To Test:

Suggestion 1: Instead of directing users to the collection page with one CTA for the “Intense Collection”, include two product cards and then follow that with a primary CTA button to explore / shop all.

Suggestion 2: Layer your free shipping threshold to help increase AOV and break down purchase barriers.

UGC / Social Proof

Suggestion To Test:

Suggestion 1: Add a headline that calls out the number of 5 star reviews you have. This provides validation to your brand and builds trust.

Suggestion 2: Include a UGC image with the product image. This helps users know what product review it is.

Suggestion 3: Include a short snippet review and add the reviewer’s name plus a “Verified Buyer” label to provide some authenticity and make your brand more trustworthy.

Suggestion 4: Place the product link of the product shown in the UGC below.

Suggestion 5: Use carousel indicators to indicate the number of UGC cards in this section.

Product Page (PDP) Header

Suggestions To Test:

Suggestion 1: Move your carousel indicators over your gallery images to help save space and pull up key content instead.

Suggestion 2: Ensure your review badge and text is actionable. This should direct users to the review section of your PDP.

Suggestion 3: People love savings so state the discount users are saving as a label next to the price.

Suggestion 4: Convert this into an interactive section; Include an image as an indicator on what perfume has be selected.

Suggestion 5: Include the price in the ATC button for transparency purposes and convert the gift wrap option to a simple checkbox.

Suggestion 6: Add a cross-section / band showcasing key details and benefits of your brand. Make sure it’s short and scannable for the majority of users that tend to skim and scan. This will also break down any purchase barriers.

If you want loads of fresh insights like this for your site, check out our Quick Win 10-Pack and Full Reports!

Founders Five 🖐

Founder: Zhena Muzyka is the visionary maven stirring up the tea industry with her brand Magic Hour.

More than your average tea connoisseur, she's a certified aromatherapist, Life and Executive Coach, and did we mention, a Level 3 Reiki Master? Yup, she's a certified wellspring of wisdom.

But Magic Hour isn't just about aromatic leaves in your cup. It's a whole lifestyle revolution steeped in mindfulness, brewed with a dash of love for organic farming and a hearty serving of fair trade ethos. And the cherry on top? Virtual tea ceremonies every Monday!

So, grab your comfiest chair, ready your favorite mug, and prepare to sip your way into Zhena's magical world of tea and transformation. Oh, and don't forget - "Love is all there is." 💖 That's Zhena's mantra. And we have a hunch it's going to become yours too.

Oddit: What inspired you to start Magic Hour Tea & Transformation, and how has your vision evolved since its inception?

Zhena: I started Magic Hour more as a therapeutic and creative endeavor than a business. I'd been exited (read: gotten fired) by my investors in my first tea co for not agreeing with their new direction after they wanted to go into drugstores with diet teas. As a passionate Fair Trade and Sustainability activist, tea was much more than a product to me. After this experience I thought I’d never start another tea company (scorned founder ha) but when I got the letter that their new direction failed I was more devastated than I’d imagined I could be. I missed making tea and serving it, I missed my tea growers and visiting the tea fields for harvests…I missed what I had lost at this point in being able to advocate for workers in the fields.

I had gotten Fair Trade into Walmart, Kroger, you name it we were there pioneering the way for better wages and living conditions in Sri Lanka, India, Africa, and China through selling teas from gardens that supported the Fair Trade business model. At this point, that was mostly what I missed–it was being on a mission and showing my love through blending and serving regenerative teas that uplifted humanity…so once I heard my last company was closing, I had a big funeral for it (Zhena’s Gypsy Tea) and the next day set about creating a new type of tea company based on tea ceremony and creating a community through tea.

I founded Magic Hour to teach people how to create and practice Tea Ceremonies from ancient cultures, and I wanted to empower them with the wellness benefits of taking time for a mindful cup of tea at sunrise and sunset–which is when we remember the quiet preciousness and passing of our daily lives. (Dawn and dusk are “the Magic Hours”)

There’s a saying in Tea Ceremony: Ichi go Ichi e which means “each moment only occurs once,” I wanted to remind people through the simple ritual of tea to remember this and live as if each moment mattered–because it does!

I opened a tea salon and held tea ceremonies weekly, it was fulfilling and fabulous until a few months later Covid hit and we had to shut our doors. I was fairly certain the whole love affair with Magic Hour was an illusion until one day I sat alone in my tea salon and the phone started ringing and the website starting making sales–we went from an in person tea ceremony school to an online tea ceremony school and business!

I called my furloughed employees back and we started packing the teas for online orders that magically kept appearing…well, my old customers from my first company had found me through one of my goofy tea tutorial videos where I was spilling Matcha and laughing, they recognized me and began buying their favorite blends again. It was an accident, but now at age 3 business-years-old, we are a digital-first tea maker focused on helping people make ceremonies for their lives through tea.

Oddit: What's your favorite tea blend you've created, and why does it hold a special place in your heart?

Zhena: That’s like picking my favorite kid-impossible! BUT if I had to pick a “if you were stranded on a desert island” tea it would be Bohemian Breakfast. It’s like coffee but smoother, healthier and it has Puerh which is a type of double-fermented probiotic tea that heals your gut and makes you happy (90% of serotonin is produced in your gut!). It’s also our bestseller and I love everything about it, esp the full bodied vanilla notes.

Oddit: Can you share any upcoming product launches or initiatives that you're particularly excited about?

Zhena: I create at least one new tea per month! Right now we are launching our Cosmic Garden Iced Teas and my favorite blend is the Lemon Meringue Puerh that tastes like pie & puts you in a beautiful joyful mood!

Oddit: What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to enter the tea industry or start a lifestyle brand?

Zhena: I’d say if you want to start a business, only do something that you want to do and where you can truly be yourself every single day.

Life’s too short to do business for its own sake. Money is great, but what I learned after raising almost $10M for my first business is that the more you can be yourself and have a blast doing what you love, the easier attracting success comes.

My first tea company started with belly dancing tea parties, tarot readers and such a celebration of the beauty in my heritage–Ukrainian Gypsy/Roma. I loooved it, but then I got too many investors, grew too fast, and lost my way because my way became their way. I don’t regret any of it but I do know that the lustre and excitement disappeared as soon as I had to compromise my mission of Ending Poverty through Tea and to “make profit no matter what and cut all the fun and exciting stuff” from the business. You don’t want to waste your precious life doing something that is not totally fulfilling. So really dig in and ask yourself this:

What would it look like to get paid to be myself?

Ask yourself this everyday and create a business from there!

When I started Magic Hour I was a publisher at Simon & Schuster in NYC which was amazing and inspiring (books and tea are my favorite things in the world), but it wasn’t who I was–I was not meant to sit in editorial meetings and manage so much paper and other authors–instead I craved to serve my heart, and the hearts of others through tea.

And by asking myself what it would look like to get “paid to be myself” Magic Hour became nearly the size of my first tea company in only 2.5 years! What took me 12 years last time only took 2.5 years this time! The only reason is because I am truly sparked by a divine inspiration and joy of getting to be myself everyday and expressing my love of tea from a place of tremendous love and inspiration from within me. So, don’t start a business that is an “outside in” business–(here’s a trend, let’s start a business) but start a business that is based on inside-out (I love this so much I want to do it everyday!).

Love is all there is, cliche sounding I know, but at this point in my life I know it to be true.

Oddit: If you could share a cup of tea with anyone, past or present, who would it be and why?

Zhena: I’ve sat on dirt floors in India sipping Chai with tea worker families. I’ve sipped Moroccan mint tea with sugar in Marrakesh desert oasis gardens with snake charmers. I’ve practiced tea ceremony with monks in the Kyoto Zazen Temple where Japanese Tea ceremony was created 450 years ago. In a Chinese strip mall outside of Hong Kong I sat with a tea master who taught me about compassion and and how it can erase sins and sadness.

I learned how to blend herbal tea in the jungles of Peru, and how to whisk Matcha on the floor of a college dorm room in Missouri. I’ve served chai to hundreds of spiritual seekers outside of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. I’ve hosted Tea Ceremonies in Iceland with the president of the country and taught tea ceremony to small children in my Ojai Tea Salon. I was married in a Lakshmi Temple in our tea estate in Sri Lanka amongst the tea bushes and trees filled with monkeys.

My experiences with tea are vast, but there is one thing that each of these experiences has possessed, and that is CONNECTION. In serving or being served tea, there is cherishing, nourishing and loving connection. If I could have a cup of tea with anyone at this point, it would be my grandmother who taught me tea as a kid–she’s on the other side, but I’d like to sit with her one more time in person and tell her, show her what her love of tea and healing has brought me.

Mobile Homepage Tip!

Classifieds 🔎

🎙️ Catch Shaun on the Make Each Click Count Podcast as he shares key strategies for optimizing conversion rates, the importance of website optimization over ad spends, and the role of AI in enhancing the customer journey.

🔮 Quick Tip: Balance engaging brand stories with captivating visuals like in this example.

🛍️ Check out these rad DTC brands we found: Singular Society, Vyrao, Oura, Black Lines, Prose

Want your own brand-first breakdown? 🚨

Check out our full reports — Or even start with a Quick Win 10-Pack!

If you don’t find any value you’ll get all your $$ back. No questions asked.

The Perspective is written by Shaun Brandt, Taylor Davies, Laura Deacon and Sarah Fernandez!

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Oddit in the Wild

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• 🎧 Listen to our Co-founder Shaun on your favorite podcasts:

• Make Each Click Count: "Action Items That Will Improve Your Website Conversion With Shaun Brandt"

• Ecom Gold: "S2 E20: Oddit Co-Founder Shaun Brandt"

• SyncSpider's eCom Ops Podcast: "The eCommerce Trick No One Told You: Less is More! — Shaun Brandt — Co-Founder of Oddit"

• The Quiet Light Podcast: "Reducing Friction Points with Shaun Brandt"

• Ecommerce Influence: "Optimize your Ecomm site and watch conversions rocket with Shaun Brandt"