5 Above-the-Fold Mistakes We Fix on Every Ecom Redesign

The first screen does most of the work

On a phone, the first screen of any page is the only part every visitor sees. Everything below it is seen by fewer and fewer people the further you scroll. So when we redesign a store, we start above the fold. And on almost every store, we find the same five mistakes.

Here they are, with the fix for each and examples from our recent teardowns.

Mistake 1: The hero talks about the brand, not the customer

Many homepage heroes lead with a slogan. It sounds nice, but a new visitor cannot tell what the product does or why they should care.

The fix is an outcome headline: say what the customer gets, in plain words. In our Arccos homepage concept, we kept the look of the brand and changed the headline to a clear benefit for golfers. Same image style, very different first impression.

In past homepage tests, an optimized header and hero has shown lifts as high as +28.1% in revenue per visitor.

Mistake 2: Too many buttons

Two or three buttons of equal weight in the hero split attention. Visitors stop and choose, and some leave.

The fix is one primary button with a specific label, and any second path as a quiet text link. One clear next step beats three good options.

Mistake 3: No proof on the first screen

Most stores have reviews, customer counts, or press. Most stores also hide them below the fold or on another page.

The fix is to move proof up: a star rating and review count under the headline on the homepage, and next to the title on product pages. In our Made By Mary cart concept, we used the brand's 48,000+ five-star reviews right next to checkout, where the last doubts show up.

Mistake 4: The price and button are pushed down

On product pages, a tall photo often fills the first screen, pushing the title, price, and Add to Cart below it. On the live EVANNEX RennStand page, the first screen had no price at all, and a cookie bar covered the buy area.

The fix is to make the first screen hold the name, rating, price, a couple of benefit lines, and the start of the button. Then add a sticky Add to Cart bar so the button stays in reach as visitors scroll. Unique selling points above the fold have shown lifts around +23.1% in past tests, and a sticky Add to Cart around +8.0%.

Mistake 5: Things covering the buy area

Cookie banners, chat bubbles, popups, and promo bars often sit right on top of the most important part of the first screen. Each one is small. Together they can hide the button or the price.

The fix is to audit every overlay on mobile. Make cookie notices a thin bar, delay popups until the visitor has scrolled or spent some time, and move chat bubbles away from the buy area. It is not glamorous work, but it often has a fast payoff.

Why these five keep showing up

These mistakes are not about bad design. Most of these stores look good. They come from building pages on desktop first, copying big brands without the context, and adding apps one at a time without checking how they stack on a phone.

That is why we always review redesigns on a real phone, at real size, before anything else.

How to check your own first screen

Take a screenshot of your homepage and your best selling product page on a phone. For each one, ask:

• Does the headline say what the customer gets?
• Is there exactly one main button?
• Is there proof on the screen?
• On the product page, are the name, price, and button visible?
• Is anything covering the content?

Mark every no. Each one is a test you can run.

Turning fixes into tests

We do not ship these fixes blindly. We turn each into an A/B test with a clear goal, usually revenue per visitor, and run it long enough to trust the result. Many of our ideas come from patterns that have already won on other stores, which makes the odds better from the start.

Order matters when you fix them

If you have all five problems, fix them in this order. Remove overlays first, since that is a settings change. Then fix the product page first screen, because product pages usually get the most buying traffic. Then the homepage headline and button. Then proof. Keep a simple log of each change, the date, and the result, so you can see which fixes moved revenue and which did not.

Get more test ideas

We collected 35 A/B test ideas shared by CRO practitioners on X into a free swipe file. Each one shows the test, the page it ran on, and what changed. It is a quick way to find your next test when you are stuck.

If you want the swipe file, grab it free and keep it next to your test backlog.