One of the most commonly searched queries about Shopify product pages is how to make them your homepage. Here, we are not just referring to product category pages, also known as Shopify collections, but single category or single item pages.
For store owners who have a more limited selection of products, using product landing pages as their homepage is highly preferred as it creates the shortest conversion funnel possible.
In this article, we’ll be going over the different options you have for setting up your product pages as your homepages in Shopify, and why you should consider building more product-oriented home pages.
How to Make Product Pages your Homepage on Shopify
Shopify doesn’t inherently allow you to make your product pages your home pages out of the box, because their product pages generally have a page path outside of the base URL (this is theme dependent). The widely accepted solution for making PDP’s your homepage that works for most themes is to include a redirect from your homepage to your specific product page. After building thousands of stores, we have a significantly better solution below, but we'll start with the most common suggestion given by the community.
Here are the step by step instructions on doing this (you must be an admin or a developer on your Shopify account to enable this as we’ll be going into the code directly):
- Go to Theme -> Edit Code
- Navigate to the theme.liquid file
- Find your <head></head> tags
- In between the two (generally before </head>) add this code snippet, and replace {insertproductpathhere} with the product path from your store - you can find this by navigating to your product page URL
{% if template == 'index' %}
<script>
window.location.href = '/products/{insertproductpathhere}';
</script>
{% endif %}
This code identifies if the current page a user is on is the index/home page. If they are, it will navigate the user towards the url path you defined in the same window. You can similarly change the path to whatever page you want if you'd like the homepage to redirect to something like a blog or another page.
Things To Note When Considering Making Your Product Pages a Home Page
While enabling this may seem to solve your issues, it isn’t the cleanest solution and is significantly less optimal than building a homepage or landing page with a product element instead. Many landing page vendors suggest this solution as it’s the easiest path, but there are quite a few downsides to doing this:
- URL Mismatch - You’re redirecting to a page path that isn’t your true homepage ie. the URL itself won’t match what the user is looking for.
- Poor Customer Journey Analytics - An href isn’t a true 301 or 302 redirect, it’s merely telling your browser to load another page. It is a full page reload, which means any cookies will not persist (this may produce issues with your analytics and prevent you from having a clean view of your customer journeys).
- Speed Decrease - Because you’re calling another page load once a user reaches the homepage, there is a slowdown in speed with this product page method. Google reports that 53% of visits are abandoned when mobile sites take longer than 3 seconds to load. Seeing as 77% of retail visits and sales happened on smartphones in 2024, site speeds should be optimized for every millisecond.
If you still insist on using this method, the best thing to do to minimize load times is to delete everything outside of the head and the redirect in your theme.liquid file. This will ensure that your initial homepage isn't loading anything unnecessary as it'll just redirect to the product page anyways. If you'd like a better solution without any of these issues, keep on reading!
The Best Way to Make Your Shopify Homepage your Product Page
From what we’ve seen, the best-in-class companies who have made their homepage single product-focused with Shopify actually created home pages with product page elements and sections. Gruns does a really good job with this, as their homepage has a product page element that allows users to purchase directly on the page without navigating to a separate product page.
In Shopify, this is a more complex process that often requires custom dev work, but Replo allows you to build these pages and push them directly to your Shopify store live—no engineers required. With this method, you’ll also be able to customize your product page design at will to better target potential customers.
At Replo, we have hundreds of PDP templates you can use for any page. This means that you can essentially wrap a product page into your homepage without needing to use any hacky workarounds that may be a poor experience for the end user Here’s an example of how you can do it with the Suri product page template:
1. Create a new page on Replo and Select build from Template; make sure you are on the pages tab and not the product page tab!
2. Browse our template library and find a PDP template you like (We’ll pick the Suri template here)
3. After selecting the template in the pages, make sure you select “set the page as your home page.”
4. Within the template, set your product in the product buy box. You're also style the page however you'd like and configure things like slide out carts and any other integrations you'd like on this template.
5. Publish your page! With Shopify product page customization, your new homepage is essentially a product page now, without any of the downsides that the standard method offers.
Why Use Product Pages (And Product Sections within a page) as a Home Page?
1. Immediate Focus on Products
When visitors come to your homepage as the default landing page, they’re often searching for products or solutions to their needs. By making a product page your homepage, you immediately showcase what you’re selling and remove extra steps that could lead to drop-offs. Research shows that simplifying user navigation can increase conversion rates by over 20%.
2. Enhanced SEO Benefits
Product pages are usually rich with keywords, high-quality images, and detailed descriptions—all elements that improve SEO. By setting your product page as your homepage, you leverage this content to rank higher in search engine results, driving more organic traffic to your site.
3. Streamlined User Experience
A well-designed product page provides all the information a visitor needs to make a purchase decision. This includes product details, images, reviews, and a clear call-to-action. By using it as your homepage, you offer a seamless experience from landing page entry to checkout.
Building out Your Best Product Pages
1. Choose Your Best-Selling Product
Select a product that represents your brand well, is popular for your ideal customer profile, and has high conversion rates. This product will be the focal point of your homepage.
2. Optimize the Product Page
Ensure your product page includes:
- High-Quality Images and Videos: Show your product from multiple angles and in use. Videos can increase conversions by 80%. If applicable, make sure to incorporate user-generated content from social media onto your product page.
- Clear and Compelling Descriptions: Highlight key features, benefits, and usage instructions.
- Customer Reviews and Ratings: Social proof is critical; according to a survey done by BrightLocal, 84% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Don’t forget to include customer testimonials if applicable!
- Trust Signals: Display secure payment icons, return policies, and certifications to build trust and customer confidence in the reliability of your brand.
3. Simplify Navigation
Minimize distractions by removing unnecessary links and banners. Keep the focus on the product and the call-to-action.
4. Incorporate Strong Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
Place “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” buttons prominently. Use contrasting colors and strategic placement to make them more eye catching and stand out.
5. Enhance Mobile Experience
With over 75% of ecommerce traffic coming from mobile devices in Q1 2024, it is vital to ensure your product page is mobile-friendly. Fast load times and easy navigation are crucial to prevent customer drop-off.
6. Utilize Analytics and A/B Testing
Monitor performance metrics such as bounce rate, time on page, and conversion rate to track how your page is performing for your target audience. Use A/B testing to optimize elements like CTAs, images, and descriptions.
Real-World Example: Apple’s iPhone 15 Product Page
Apple excels at using product pages to captivate and convert visitors. Their iPhone 15 product page includes stunning visuals, interactive animations, and a clear CTA button that is accessible from all parts of the page.
In addition, they do a great job of sharing product specs without disrupting site visitors’ viewing experience by separating more detailed product information from the main page via a pop-up button. Together, these elements not only inform and engage visitors, but also play a great role in helping to drive immediate sales. By setting a high-performing product page as your homepage, you can create a similar impact.
We admire the ingenuity of Apple’s product page so much that we’ve actually written about them before. For a more detailed breakdown of what the iPhone 15 page did well on, check out the full article on our favorite examples of different types of landing pages.
Build Your Product Homepage on Shopify With Replo
Transforming your product page into a homepage can be a game-changer for your Shopify store. It simplifies the user journey, boosts SEO, and focuses visitor attention on your best products. With careful optimization and continuous testing, you can significantly enhance your conversion rates.
Start building your product-centric homepage today and watch your ecommerce business thrive. With tools like Replo, you can easily create and customize high-converting pages that integrate seamlessly with Shopify.
While you can dive into building pages from scratch, we’d recommend leveraging our collection of hundreds of Shopify product page templates and landing page templates inspired by top brands. Browse through them to get started and save time by adapting a template (or however many as you like) for your own site.
Best of all, Replo comes with a community of Experts and Builders for hire and 24/7 support to help you make the most out of Replo. For more informational resources on all topics related to marketing and ecommerce—from comparison shopping engines to dropshipping to Shopify A/B testing—check out our blog!
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