# Life In A Dollhouse — UX Research **Site:** https://lifeinadollhouseshop.com **Platform:** Shopify · theme `Canopy 2.10.0` (theme_store_id 732, pre-Online-Store-2.0) **Audit date:** 6 September 2026 **Scope:** Pain points · User personas · Competitor analysis · User flows --- ## 1. Method This is an evidence-based heuristic audit. Every claim below is traceable to something measured on the live storefront — no assumed numbers. **What was examined** | Source | What it gave us | |---|---| | `/products.json` (249 products, full payload) | Catalog composition, pricing, variants, description quality, image counts, stock, publish dates | | `/collections.json` (19 collections) | Category architecture, collection copy | | Raw HTML of home, PDP, collection, search, 4 content pages | Theme, apps, markup, image handling, buy-box composition, IA | | Byte-level asset fetches | Real page weight and image payloads | | Policy pages (shipping, refund) | Post-purchase terms | | 5 competitor storefronts + category search | Competitive benchmark | | Press coverage (CNBC, Star Tribune, Business of Home, House Beautiful) | Brand equity and founder story | **What was *not* available.** No analytics, no session recordings, no order data, no customer interviews. Conversion figures below are stated as *directional risk*, not measured loss. Where a fix depends on real numbers, that is called out. `mountainminiatures.com` sat behind bot protection and was assessed from search metadata only. --- ## 2. The business in one paragraph Ella Doyle started building 1:12 scale dollhouses in Minnesota at age 11 with her grandfather. By 13 she had national press — CNBC, the Star Tribune, Business of Home — and designed the kitchen for Caitlin Wilson's *Dollhouse Beautiful* project for House Beautiful in New York. The shop now carries **249 products from $1.00 to $2,750**: printable wallpaper and tile at $6.50, rugs and accessories at $10–$80, custom dollhouse kitchens at $475–$495, and one-of-a-kind dollhouses over $1,000. It is a designer-led miniatures brand with a genuine authorship story and a real commission business. **The core finding:** the storefront communicates almost none of that. The brand's three strongest assets — a named designer, national press, and bespoke build capability — are respectively unmentioned above the fold, on an orphaned page, and behind a bare Gmail address. **One number that frames everything:** products published by year — 2019: 2 · 2020: 25 · 2021: 8 · 2022: 23 · 2023: 30 · 2024: 107 · **2025: 0** · 2026: 54. The shop went dormant for a year and is now mid-relaunch. This is the right moment to fix the foundation rather than add more SKUs on top of it. --- ## 3. Pain points Severity is scored **out of 12** — one tick per inch of a 1:12 foot. Twelve means it is costing money today. ### Stage A — Discovery & entry #### A1 · The homepage never says who this is or why it is different — 8/12 The `

` of the homepage is **"Ella's Top Picks"**. There is no value proposition, no scale statement, no maker story, and no press above the fold — just a 631 KB collage image and a product grid. - **Evidence:** single `

` on `/` = "Ella's Top Picks". Meta description carries the positioning ("modern miniature 1:12 scale dollhouse furnishings…") but no on-page element does. - **Who it hurts:** every first-time visitor, especially Instagram traffic arriving cold from a reel. - **Impact:** a visitor who does not already know Ella cannot tell this apart from a dropshipper in the first five seconds. In a category full of generic import listings, provenance *is* the product. - **Fix:** an above-the-fold statement of what this is and who makes it — designer-led, original 1:12 designs, made by a named person in Minnesota, with the press logos right there. Move `Ella's Top Picks` to an `

`. #### A2 · Press coverage is orphaned; the nav points at an empty page — 9/12 Two pages exist. `/pages/featured-in` has real content (2,578 chars). `/pages/new-featured-in` is effectively empty (1,462 chars — indistinguishable from a blank page's chrome). **The nav links to the empty one, twice. The populated page has zero inbound links from the homepage.** - **Also empty:** `/pages/project-gallery` (1,470 chars), reachable from the nav as "Projects". - **Impact:** two of seven main-nav items lead to blank pages. CNBC and House Beautiful coverage — the single highest-trust asset a solo maker can own — is invisible. - **Fix:** repoint the nav to `/pages/featured-in`, 301 the empty duplicate, and pull the strongest two logos onto the homepage and every PDP over $100. ### Stage B — Browse & find #### B1 · No way to filter by the attributes people actually shop on — 9/12 249 products, 19 collections. Sorting exists (Featured, Best Selling, Price, Alphabetical, Date). **Filtering by room, colour, size, or price does not.** Search results have filters but no sort control. - **Evidence:** `/collections/all` offers a sidebar of *collections*, not facets. `product_type` is blank on **181 of 249 products** (73%) — the field Shopify filtering and Google Shopping both key off. Only `Rug` (65), `Sofa` (2) and `Gift card` (1) are typed at all. - **Compounding it:** variant option names are inconsistent across the catalog — `Accent Color` vs `Accent color`, `Hood/Range color` vs `Hood/Range Color`, `Subway Tile Grout` vs `Subway tile grout color`, `Knob Color` vs `Main Color/Knob Color`. Even with a filter app installed today, these would render as separate, half-empty facets. - **Impact:** someone furnishing a pink-and-green nursery has to scan seven paginated pages by eye. - **Fix:** backfill `product_type` on all 249 products, normalise option names to a fixed vocabulary, then enable filtering by room, colour and price. #### B2 · Every collection page has zero copy — 7/12 All **19 of 19** collections have an empty `body_html`. - **Impact:** "Dollhouse Rugs" and "Printable Dollhouse Wallpaper" are exactly the high-intent, low-competition queries this shop should own, and the landing pages for them are wordless. No context for shoppers, no text for search engines. - **Fix:** 80–150 words per collection covering scale, materials and how to choose. Highest value first: Rugs (65 SKUs), Wallpaper, Tile, Dollhouses. #### B3 · Stale seasonal collections are live in September — 5/12 `Cyber Monday Sale` and `Cyber Monday Serene Dollhouse` are still published and crawlable nine months out of season. - **Fix:** unpublish or repurpose. Low effort, immediate credibility gain. ### Stage C — Evaluate (the product page) #### C1 · Half the catalogue does not state its size — 11/12 **118 of 249 products (47%) have no dimensions anywhere in the description.** In a hobby defined by a ratio, this is the most damaging gap on the site. - **Evidence:** regex for any numeric measurement (`"`, `in`, `inch`, `cm`, `mm`) matched only 131/249 descriptions. There is no size guide or scale reference page anywhere. - **Also thin:** 20 products carry descriptions under 60 characters. 50 products have only one photograph; catalogue average is 2.83. - **Who it hurts:** every serious builder. A 1:12 miniaturist will not buy a $14 sofa without knowing whether it fits a 10-inch room box. - **Impact:** this is the number-one driver of pre-purchase abandonment *and* of "not as described" returns — which the refund policy already refunds in full. - **Fix:** add height × width × depth to all 249 products as a structured metafield rendered in a fixed position on the PDP. Photograph a scale reference (a common object, or a printed 1:12 rule) in at least one shot per product. #### C2 · The product page has no next step — 10/12 No breadcrumbs. No related products. No "you may also like". No room sets. No bundles. - **Evidence:** raw PDP HTML — 0 matches for breadcrumb, related, or cross-sell markup. - **Impact:** on a catalogue whose median price is **$80** and whose cheapest items are $1.00–$1.50, average order value is the whole game. A shopper who lands on one $1.50 plate from search has no path to the other 78 accessories. This is the largest single AOV lever available. - **Fix:** "Complete the room" modules driven by room tags, plus curated room-set bundles (kitchen starter, nursery starter) that turn one $14 purchase into a $90 one. #### C3 · No dynamic checkout button — 6/12 The buy box has **Quantity** and **Add to cart** only. No "Buy it now", no accelerated wallet button. - **Note:** Shop Pay Installments *is* enabled and eligible — the $2,750 dollhouse offers 2 × $1,375, and financing plans run to $30,000. That is a genuine asset for the high-ticket line. - **Fix:** enable the dynamic checkout button. On the printables, where the buyer wants the file in 30 seconds, it matters most. #### C4 · Sold-out one-of-a-kind pieces are dead ends — 8/12 10 products are out of stock, including **two of the three one-of-a-kind dollhouses** — the Seaside Tiny Home ($1,250) and the Serene Tiny Home ($1,150). - **Impact:** the two highest-consideration pages on the site, reached by the most motivated visitors, end in nothing. No notify-me, no waitlist, no "commission something similar" hand-off. - **Fix:** every sold-out item gets a back-in-stock capture. Every sold-out *dollhouse* routes to the custom enquiry — a $1,250 disappointment is the warmest commission lead the business will ever get. ### Stage D — Trust #### D1 · Zero social proof anywhere on the site — 11/12 There is no reviews app, no star ratings, no testimonials, no UGC. The only third-party scripts on the page are `shop.app` and `s.skimresources.com` (an affiliate link monetiser — worth reviewing whether it still belongs on a first-party store). - **For contrast:** MiniatureCrush leads with "Over 80,000 Reviews and Over 250,000 Sales." - **Impact:** a shopper is asked to spend $2,750 with a brand showing no evidence anyone has bought anything. Ella has ~19,000 Instagram followers and years of customer photos — the proof exists, it is just not on the site. - **Fix:** install reviews with photo capture, backfill from Instagram and past customers, and surface ratings on product cards as well as PDPs. #### D2 · The returns policy warns you the goods may break — 10/12 The refund policy states the shop **"does not guarantee careful handling during shipping"** once the item leaves. The shipping policy is roughly 80 words: processing 1–7 days, custom 2–5 weeks, "refer to the shipping times listed during checkout." No costs, no carriers, no international terms — despite the store offering seven currencies (USD, INR, GBP, CAD, AUD, EUR, JPY). - **Also:** returns are a 7-day window opened by emailing a Gmail address. Who pays return postage and whether restocking fees apply are both unaddressed. - **Impact:** disclaiming damage liability on fragile, hand-built, four-figure goods is the single most conversion-hostile sentence on the site. - **Fix:** rewrite to promise the opposite — "packed by hand, insured, and replaced if it arrives damaged." Add real shipping costs and an international section. Photograph the packing process; for this category it is a selling point. ### Stage E — The custom commission path #### E1 · The highest-value flow on the site is a mailto — 12/12 Custom kitchens run $475–$495 and dollhouses reach $2,750. The `/pages/custom-inquiries` page has **no form**. It has four portfolio photos and one instruction: email `lifeinadollhouse.shop@gmail.com`. The page states no lead time, no price bands, no deposit terms, no process, and no answer to "what can I actually ask for." - **Compounding it:** `/pages/contact-us` has no form either — every page on the site carries the same four inputs (search box and currency selector), and the contact page is no exception. Every enquiry in the business routes through one personal Gmail address. - **Who it hurts:** the buyer with the most money and the most anxiety. A four-figure commission from a solo maker demands more reassurance than any other purchase here, and receives the least. - **Impact:** each unqualified email costs Ella a back-and-forth to price. Each hesitant buyer who never writes is invisible. Composing a cold email to a stranger about a $2,000 commission is a far higher barrier than filling in a form. - **Fix, in order:** 1. A structured brief form — project type, room, scale, style references, image upload, budget band, target date. 2. Published price bands (*"Custom kitchens from $475. Full dollhouses from $1,200."*) — this qualifies leads before they arrive. 3. A stated process with lead times: brief → quote → 50% deposit → build (2–5 weeks) → photos for approval → ship. 4. Three case studies with before/after, timeline and price. The House Beautiful and Caitlin Wilson work belongs here. 5. A business email on the shop's own domain. ### Stage F — Retention #### F1 · Nothing captures a visitor who is not ready — 8/12 No email capture, no popup, no welcome offer, no loyalty programme, no wishlist. No marketing app of any kind is installed. `/blogs/news.atom` returns **404** — there is no blog. - **Impact:** a category built on inspiration, seasonal builds and long consideration cycles, with no owned audience channel. Traffic arrives from Instagram, browses, and leaves without a trace. - **Fix:** email capture with a genuinely useful lead magnet — a free printable wallpaper sheet or a 1:12 scale reference chart, both of which the shop can already produce. Then a content engine: room tours, build diaries, "how to wallpaper a dollhouse." Ella's grandmother taught her wallpaper installation; that is a post, a video, and a rugs-and-wallpaper cross-sell in one. #### F2 · Printables ship with no instructions — 6/12 Digital downloads start at $6.50 and are a distinct product line (wallpaper, tile, wall mouldings). Nothing on the PDPs explains print settings, paper stock, sheet coverage, or how to apply the sheet at 1:12 — and the shopper is buying an image of an image, with no way to judge how it prints. - **Fix:** state sheet size and coverage, specify print settings and paper, include an application guide in the download, and show one photograph of the printable installed in a real room box. ### Stage G — Platform & performance #### G1 · The theme is a decade old and is blocking most of the fixes above — 10/12 `Canopy 2.10.0` predates Online Store 2.0. No sections on every page, no native metafield rendering, no app blocks, no native filtering — the platform for reviews, filters, dimension metafields, cross-sells and back-in-stock is simply absent. #### G2 · The homepage ships 1.3 MB of images it does not need — 9/12 | Measurement | Value | |---|---| | First 12 homepage image requests | **1,337,024 bytes** | | Hero collage | **631 KB — a photographic collage saved as PNG** | | `loading="lazy"` on homepage | **0** (50 `` elements) | | `srcset` on the PDP | **0** (44 `` elements) | | Wasted `{width}x` placeholder requests | **5 of the first 12**, ~2.8 KB each, returning nothing usable | | Structured data on homepage | **0** JSON-LD blocks (PDP has 2) | The `{width}x` requests are a genuine bug: unresolved Liquid image-size placeholders are being requested as literal URLs. Product photography is stored at 3024 × 4032 and served at a fixed 1024 px to every device. - **Impact:** this is an image-led brand on a slow, image-heavy site. Mobile shoppers coming from Instagram — almost certainly the majority — pay for it directly. - **Fix:** re-export the hero as WebP (631 KB → roughly 60 KB), add `loading="lazy"` below the fold, add responsive `srcset`, and fix the placeholder bug. Nearly all of this comes free with a modern theme. ### Pain points ranked | # | Pain point | Stage | Severity | |---|---|---|---| | E1 | Custom commission flow is a bare email address | Custom | 12 | | C1 | 47% of products state no dimensions | Evaluate | 11 | | D1 | Zero reviews or social proof | Trust | 11 | | C2 | No related products, breadcrumbs or bundles | Evaluate | 10 | | D2 | Policy disclaims shipping damage on fragile goods | Trust | 10 | | G1 | Legacy theme blocks the fixes | Platform | 10 | | A2 | Press orphaned; nav points to empty pages | Discovery | 9 | | B1 | No filtering; 73% of products untyped | Browse | 9 | | G2 | 1.3 MB homepage, no lazy loading, no srcset | Platform | 9 | | A1 | No value proposition above the fold | Discovery | 8 | | C4 | Sold-out dollhouses are dead ends | Evaluate | 8 | | F1 | No email capture, no content, no retention | Retention | 8 | | B2 | All 19 collection pages have no copy | Browse | 7 | | F2 | Printables ship without instructions | Retention | 6 | | C3 | No dynamic checkout button | Evaluate | 6 | | B3 | Cyber Monday collections live in September | Browse | 5 | --- ## 4. User personas Four personas, derived from what the catalogue's price architecture, product mix and press coverage imply about who buys here. Each maps to one of the user flows in section 6. These are research-grounded hypotheses — validate them with five customer interviews before betting a roadmap on the details. ### Persona 1 — Margot, the design miniaturist **The core customer. Highest volume, highest repeat potential.** - **Who:** 52, interior-design-literate adult hobbyist. Furnishing a 1:12 house or room box as a multi-month design project. Follows miniature accounts on Instagram and Pinterest. - **Spends:** $40–$250 per order, several orders per build. Cares about coordination more than unit price. - **Goal:** a room that reads as a real designed interior — coherent palette, correct proportions, nothing that looks like a toy. - **Needs:** exact dimensions, true-to-life colour, pieces that coordinate, restock predictability. - **Frustrations here:** - Cannot tell whether a sofa fits her room box — no dimensions on 47% of products. - Cannot browse by colour or room, so matching a pink-and-green scheme means scanning seven pages. - No related products, so she has to re-find her way back to the catalogue after every item. - No reviews telling her whether the colour is accurate on screen. - **What would win her:** dimensions everywhere, room-based filtering, "complete the room" modules, and a photograph of each piece next to a scale reference. - **Quote:** *"I don't need it cheap. I need to know it will fit and it will match."* ### Persona 2 — Diane, the commissioner **Lowest volume, highest value. The flow that most deserves the work.** - **Who:** 45, has the budget and not the time or skill. Found Ella through House Beautiful, a design blog, or an Instagram reel. Commissioning a custom kitchen, or a full dollhouse as a milestone gift for a daughter or granddaughter. - **Spends:** $475–$2,750 in a single transaction. - **Goal:** something singular, made for her, that arrives before a birthday or Christmas. - **Needs:** proof the maker is real and reliable, an honest price band, a firm lead time, and visibility during the build. - **Frustrations here:** - The custom page gives her an email address and nothing else — no price, no timeline, no process. - She cannot tell whether a commission is $500 or $5,000, so she does not write. - The one-of-a-kind dollhouses that drew her in are sold out with no alternative offered. - Press that would settle her nerves sits on a page the nav does not link to. - The returns policy tells her damage in transit is not guaranteed against. - **What would win her:** a structured brief form, published price bands, a stated build timeline, three case studies with real numbers, and a deposit she can pay by card. Shop Pay Installments already covers the $2,750 house at 2 × $1,375 — say so. - **Quote:** *"I'd have ordered one months ago. I just couldn't work out what to ask for or what it would cost."* ### Persona 3 — Rachel, the gift buyer **Seasonal, deadline-driven, low scale-literacy.** - **Who:** 38, buying for a child, a niece, or a hobbyist parent. Does not know what 1:12 means and should not have to. - **Spends:** $25–$120, usually in Q4. - **Goal:** a gift that arrives on time and looks special when unwrapped. - **Needs:** an arrival date before she commits, a sense of what "1:12 scale" actually is, gift wrapping, and a gift card as a fallback. - **Frustrations here:** - No delivery estimate — "shipping times vary depending on service selected at checkout" is not an answer in December. - No scale explainer, so she cannot tell if a $14 sofa is a real present or a trinket. - No gift wrap or gift note, and the gift card is buried. - Sold-out items with no restock date. - **What would win her: **a plain-English scale explainer with a hand-in-shot photo, a shipping cut-off banner in Q4, gift wrap at checkout, gift bundles at $50 / $100 / $200, and the gift card in the main nav from October. - **Quote:** *"It's for the 12th. I just need to know it will be here."* ### Persona 4 — Sofia, the printables shopper **Impulse buyer, instant delivery, completely different journey.** - **Who:** 29, DIY builder on a budget. Buys $6.50 wallpaper and tile sheets to finish her own build, often on her phone, often late at night. - **Spends:** $6.50–$30, high frequency, near-zero fulfilment cost — the highest-margin line in the shop. - **Goal:** download it now, print it tonight, paper the room tomorrow. - **Needs:** to know how it prints, on what paper, how much a sheet covers, and what it looks like installed. - **Frustrations here:** - She is buying a photograph of a photograph with no installed shot to judge it by. - No print settings, paper stock, sheet size or coverage stated. - No "Buy it now" — a $6.50 impulse purchase runs through a full cart flow. - No instructions in the download, and no obvious way to reach the file again later. - **What would win her:** an installed-in-a-room photograph on every printable, coverage and print settings on the PDP, a one-page application guide inside every download, a dynamic checkout button, and a 3-for-2 sheet bundle. - **Quote:** *"I'll take four if I know they'll actually print at the right size."* ### How the personas map to the catalogue | Persona | Price band | Catalogue share | Current site support | |---|---|---|---| | Margot — design miniaturist | $10–$80 | Largest — rugs (65), accessories (79), furniture (78) | Weak: no dimensions, no filters, no cross-sell | | Diane — commissioner | $475–$2,750 | Small count, largest revenue per order | Very weak: email only, no terms | | Rachel — gift buyer | $25–$120 | Cuts across the catalogue | Weak: no delivery dates, no gifting | | Sofia — printables shopper | $6.50–$30 | 3 collections, highest margin | Weak: no install proof, no instructions | --- ## 5. Competitor analysis ### The set | | Life In A Dollhouse | MiniatureCrush | The Modern Dollhouse | Miniatures.com | Mountain Miniatures | Etsy | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | **Platform** | Shopify (Canopy 2.10) | Shopify | WordPress / Woo | Shopify | — (bot-protected) | Marketplace | | **Positioning** | Designer-led original 1:12 + custom builds | "small things, big dreams" — breadth for hobbyists | Curated modern 1:12 | 50+ year incumbent, "little joys" | High-end artisan curation | Everything, from everyone | | **Catalogue** | 249 | Very large, multi-scale (1:144–1:6) | Mid, curated | Very large | Curated artisan | Effectively infinite | | **Scales** | 1:12 only | 1:144, 1:48, 1:24, 1:12, 1:6 | 1:12 | 1:12, 1:24 | 1:12, 1:24 | All | | **Price entry** | $1.00 | Mid–premium | From $10 | Mixed | Premium | $1+ | | **Reviews** | **None** | 80,000+ claimed across channels | None visible | None visible | — | Core to the platform | | **Filtering** | Sort only | Mega-menu + facets | By type and by room | Category only | — | Deep facets | | **Custom builds** | **Yes — $475–$2,750** | No | No | No | No | Per-seller, via messages | | **Original design** | **Yes — designs its own line** | Resells + artisan brands | Curates | Resells (Houseworks etc.) | Curates artisans | Mixed | | **Named maker** | **Yes — Ella, with national press** | Brand-led | Brand-led | Corporate | Curator-led | Per-seller | | **Loyalty / wishlist** | None | Rewards + wishlist | None | None | — | Favourites | | **Content** | **None — no blog** | Blog, tutorials, community | FAQ | Blog, inspiration | — | Editorial | | **Email capture** | **None** | Yes | Popup with discount | Yes | — | Platform-level | | **Shipping promise** | None stated | — | Stated | Free US over $35 | — | Per-seller | ### Where each one wins **MiniatureCrush — the trust and content leader.** Multi-scale breadth, 80,000+ reviews across Etsy, eBay and its own site, a rewards programme, wishlist, tutorials and a community section. It has built an owned audience. This is the benchmark for trust infrastructure, and the gap is not close. **The Modern Dollhouse — the closest aesthetic rival.** Contemporary curation, clean photography, dual navigation by product type *and* room. Also has no reviews. It competes on taste, which is the one axis where Life In A Dollhouse can win outright — because it *designs* the pieces rather than curating other people's. **Miniatures.com — the incumbent.** Fifty years of catalogue depth and a free-shipping-over-$35 promise. Weak filtering, no reviews, thin content. Wins on selection and default trust, not on experience. **Mountain Miniatures — the artisan curator.** Handpicked high-end 1:12 and 1:24 from independent makers. Occupies the premium curation position; buys rather than designs. *(Assessed from search metadata only — the site blocked direct access.)* **Etsy — the real competitor.** Not a store, a habit. Most miniature buyers start their search there and never leave. It wins on reviews, saved searches, in-app custom-order messaging, and buyer protection. Any independent storefront has to give a shopper a reason to leave Etsy — which means owning something Etsy cannot list: the designer, the story, and the commission. ### The positioning gap Two axes matter in this category: **breadth vs. curation**, and **reselling vs. original design**. ``` ORIGINAL DESIGN │ │ LIFE IN A DOLLHOUSE ● │ ● (empty) designs its own line │ + builds custom │ │ CURATED ──────────────────┼────────────────── BROAD │ The Modern Dollhouse ● │ ● MiniatureCrush Mountain Miniatures ● │ ● Miniatures.com │ ● Etsy │ RESELLS / CURATES ``` **Life In A Dollhouse owns a quadrant nobody else is in.** It is the only store in the set that designs its own catalogue *and* builds bespoke commissions *and* has a named maker with national press. That is a defensible position — the kind Etsy structurally cannot replicate, because a marketplace cannot have an author. It is also almost entirely unexpressed on the storefront. The homepage `

` is a collection name, the press page is orphaned, and the custom offer is a Gmail address. **Strategic read.** Do not compete on catalogue breadth — MiniatureCrush and Miniatures.com have already won that, and matching them means becoming a reseller. Compete on authorship and bespoke. Practically: 1. **Lead with the maker.** Ella's name, face and story above the fold, press logos beside them. This is the one thing no competitor can copy. 2. **Productise the commission.** Price bands and a brief form turn a $2,750 conversation into a repeatable revenue line — and it is the only offer in the set that has no competitor. 3. **Sell rooms, not pieces.** Designed room sets are what an original design house can sell and a reseller cannot assemble. 4. **Close the trust gap first.** Reviews and a real shipping promise are table stakes the whole set except MiniatureCrush is failing — being first there is a cheap advantage. --- ## 6. User flows Four flows, one per persona. Each shows the path as it works today, the friction on it, and the path as it should work. `✕` marks a drop-off point; `⚠` marks friction that survives but costs conversion. ### Flow 1 — Furnish a room (Margot) *The volume flow. Where average order value is won or lost.* **Today** ``` Instagram reel ↓ Homepage ──── ⚠ h1 reads "Ella's Top Picks"; no idea who makes this ↓ Shop ▸ Living Room ↓ Collection ── ⚠ no copy, no filters, sort only ↓ ✕ can't narrow by colour or size → scans 7 pages by eye Product page ↓ ✕ no dimensions on ~half the catalogue → "will it fit?" unanswered ↓ ⚠ no reviews → "is the colour accurate?" unanswered ↓ ✕ no related products, no breadcrumb → the page is a cul-de-sac Add to cart ↓ Checkout ──── one item · ~$14 ``` **Proposed** ``` Instagram reel ↓ Homepage ──── who Ella is · press logos · shop by room ↓ Living Room ─ intro copy · filter by colour, size, price ↓ Product page dimensions in a fixed position · scale-reference photo ↓ star rating + customer photos ↓ ┌─ "Complete the room" — 4 coordinating pieces ↓ └─ "The Blush Living Room" set — 6 pieces, save 15% Add to cart ─ slide-out cart with 2 cross-sells ↓ Checkout ──── 4–6 items · $70–$110 ``` **The change:** three additions — dimensions, coordinated sets, and a cross-sell module — turn a single-item basket into a room basket. On a catalogue with a $80 median and $1.50 entry price, this is the highest-leverage change on the site. --- ### Flow 2 — Commission a custom build (Diane) *The revenue flow. Currently the weakest path on the site.* **Today** ``` House Beautiful article / Instagram ↓ Homepage ↓ Nav ▸ "Featured In" ── ✕ empty page (nav points to the wrong URL) ↓ Nav ▸ Custom Inquiries ↓ ⚠ four photos, no form ⚠ no price band → "is this $500 or $5,000?" ⚠ no lead time → "will it arrive by Christmas?" ⚠ no process → "what happens after I write?" ↓ ✕ compose a cold email to a Gmail address about a $2,000 commission ↓ [most people stop here] ↓ Email thread ── days of back-and-forth to reach a price ↓ Manual invoice ``` **Proposed** ``` House Beautiful article / Instagram ↓ Homepage ──── press logos, linked to a page that exists ↓ Custom Builds ↓ ├─ What's possible — 3 case studies: photos, timeline, price paid ├─ Price bands — kitchens from $475 · full dollhouses from $1,200 ├─ Timeline — brief → quote in 3 days → 50% deposit → 2–5 week build │ → approval photos → insured shipping └─ Press & credentials — House Beautiful, CNBC, Caitlin Wilson ↓ Brief form ─── project type · room · style references · image upload budget band · target date · email ↓ Auto-confirm ─ "Ella replies within 3 business days" + a look-book PDF ↓ Quote ──────── fixed scope, fixed price, fixed date ↓ Deposit ────── paid by card via a deposit product Shop Pay Installments available — 2 × $1,375 on a $2,750 build ↓ Build ──────── progress photos at 2 milestones ↓ Approval → insured shipping → unboxing photo request → review ``` **The change:** a form, three numbers and a stated process. This converts the enquiry that never gets written and removes the pricing back-and-forth from every one that does. **Bridge worth building:** any sold-out dollhouse page should route straight into this form. Two of the three one-of-a-kind houses are sold out right now, and a visitor who wanted a $1,250 house that no longer exists is the single warmest commission lead the business can get. --- ### Flow 3 — Buy a gift (Rachel) *Seasonal, deadline-driven, currently unsupported.* **Today** ``` Google: "dollhouse furniture gift" ↓ Product page ─ ⚠ "1:12 scale" means nothing to her ↓ ✕ no dimensions → can't picture the size ↓ ✕ no delivery estimate → "will it arrive by the 12th?" ↓ ⚠ no gift wrap, no gift note ↓ ✕ or: sold out, no restock date ↓ [abandons for Amazon] ``` **Proposed** ``` Google: "dollhouse furniture gift" ↓ Product page ─ "1:12 scale — one inch equals one foot" + a hand-in-shot photo ↓ dimensions stated ↓ "Order by Dec 15 for Christmas delivery" ↓ Gift wrap + gift note at checkout ↓ Sold out → notify me, with restock date ↓ └─ Not sure what to pick? ─ Gift sets at $50 / $100 / $200 ─ Gift card, any amount ↓ Checkout ──── gift options · delivery date confirmed ↓ Post-purchase shipping confirmation · "how to give a dollhouse gift" email ``` **The change:** answer the two questions a gift buyer always has — *how big is it* and *when does it arrive* — then give her a safe fallback. --- ### Flow 4 — Buy and use a printable (Sofia) *Highest margin, shortest journey, easiest to fix.* **Today** ``` Pinterest ↓ Wallpaper | Printable ── ⚠ no collection copy ↓ Product page ─ ⚠ an image of an image — no installed shot ↓ ✕ no sheet size, coverage, paper stock or print settings ↓ ⚠ no "Buy it now" — a $6.50 impulse buy runs the full cart flow ↓ Add to cart → cart → checkout ↓ Download ──── ✕ a file, no instructions ↓ ✕ prints at the wrong scale → refund request ``` **Proposed** ``` Pinterest ↓ Wallpaper | Printable ── how printables work · what you need ↓ Product page ─ installed-in-a-real-room photograph ↓ sheet size · coverage · paper · print settings · 1:12 confirmed ↓ "Buy it now" — one tap to checkout ↓ Bundle: any 3 sheets, save 20% ↓ Instant download ↓ Includes a one-page application guide — print, cut, paste, at scale ↓ Follow-up email ─ "show us your room" → review + UGC + repeat purchase ``` **The change:** two photographs and a print-settings block convert a hesitant $6.50 buyer, and one PDF in the download prevents the refunds. --- ## 7. Prioritised roadmap Ordered by impact per unit of effort. Nothing here needs an agency. ### Phase 0 — This week (a few hours, zero cost) | # | Action | Fixes | |---|---|---| | 1 | Repoint the nav from `/pages/new-featured-in` to `/pages/featured-in`; delete the empty duplicate | A2 | | 2 | Fill or unpublish `/pages/project-gallery` | A2 | | 3 | Unpublish both Cyber Monday collections | B3 | | 4 | Rewrite the shipping and refund policies — remove the damage disclaimer, add real costs and international terms | D2 | | 5 | Add price bands, a lead time and a process to the custom page, even as plain text | E1 | | 6 | Re-export the hero collage as WebP (631 KB → ~60 KB) | G2 | | 7 | Change the homepage `

` to a positioning statement | A1 | | 8 | Enable the dynamic checkout button | C3 | | 9 | Move to a business email on the shop's own domain | E1 | ### Phase 1 — This month (the two changes that pay for everything else) | # | Action | Fixes | |---|---|---| | 10 | **Custom enquiry form** — project type, room, references, image upload, budget band, target date, with an auto-confirmation | E1 | | 11 | **Reviews app** with photo capture; backfill from Instagram and past customers | D1 | | 12 | Add dimensions to all 249 products; publish a 1:12 scale explainer page | C1 | | 13 | Back-in-stock capture on all 10 sold-out items; route sold-out dollhouses into the custom form | C4 | | 14 | Email capture with a free printable or a 1:12 reference chart as the incentive | F1 | | 15 | Backfill `product_type` on 249 products; normalise the variant option-name vocabulary | B1 | | 16 | Write 80–150 words for each of the 19 collections | B2 | ### Phase 2 — This quarter (the platform) | # | Action | Fixes | |---|---|---| | 17 | **Migrate to an Online Store 2.0 theme** — unlocks filtering, metafields, app blocks, responsive images, lazy loading | G1, G2 | | 18 | Filtering by room, colour, size and price | B1 | | 19 | "Complete the room" cross-sells and breadcrumbs on every PDP | C2 | | 20 | Curated room sets sold as bundles | C2 | | 21 | Printables: installed photography, print settings, an application guide in every download | F2 | | 22 | Gift wrap, gift notes, gift sets and Q4 shipping cut-offs | Rachel | | 23 | Three custom case studies with timeline and price | E1 | ### Phase 3 — Ongoing | # | Action | Fixes | |---|---|---| | 24 | A content engine — room tours, build diaries, "how to wallpaper a dollhouse" | F1 | | 25 | Post-purchase flow: care, styling, review request, UGC capture | F1, D1 | | 26 | Seasonal room collections tied to the design calendar | Margot | ### What to measure Set a baseline before Phase 1, because none of it exists today. | Metric | Why | Target signal | |---|---|---| | Custom enquiries per month | The whole point of E1 | Any number is an improvement on an untracked mailto | | Enquiry → quote → deposit conversion | Whether the form qualifies leads | Fewer unqualified threads per closed build | | Average order value | Whether cross-sell and sets work | Items per order is the leading indicator | | PDP → add-to-cart rate | Whether dimensions and reviews close the gap | Split by has-dimensions vs. not | | Review coverage | Trust infrastructure | 30%+ of active SKUs with at least one review | | Mobile LCP | Instagram traffic is mostly mobile | Under 2.5 s | | Email list size | Owned audience, currently zero | Growth rate matters more than the number | --- ## 8. If only three things get done 1. **Turn the commission into a product.** A brief form, published price bands, and a stated timeline. It is the highest-value flow, the weakest experience, and the one offer no competitor in the set has. 2. **Answer "will it fit" and "is it good."** Dimensions on all 249 products, and reviews with customer photos. These are the two questions blocking every purchase, and the two gaps the whole competitive set except MiniatureCrush shares. 3. **Say who made this.** Ella's name and story above the fold, press logos beside them, and a nav link that reaches the page they are on. Original design by a named maker with national coverage is the position — right now the storefront hides it. --- *Audit conducted 6 September 2026 against the live storefront. Catalogue figures from `/products.json` (249 products) and `/collections.json` (19 collections). Performance figures from direct asset fetches. Competitor data from live storefronts and category search; `mountainminiatures.com` assessed from search metadata only. No analytics or customer data were available — validate the personas with five customer interviews and set conversion baselines before Phase 1.*