You only get one chance to make a first impression. And for many of the new visitors who land on your store, your homepage will be the very first thing they see.
Shogun can help you make your homepage the best that it can be — in this guide, we’ll show you how.
But before we go any further, it should be noted that you can’t technically use Shogun to edit your homepage on BigCommerce as it currently exists. Instead, you’ll need to create a new page with Shogun and then set it as your homepage:
Specifically, this guide covers how to use Shogun’s visual editor and element library to:
You’ll find that Shogun makes it easy to quickly design whatever kind of homepage you want.
Headings are one of the most important parts of your homepage — whether you want to announce a product launch, promote a sale, or simply offer a warm welcome, this element allows you to get your message across to new visitors.
To add a heading to your homepage in Shogun, simply click and hold the “Heading” option in the element library and drag it to wherever you want your heading to be placed on the page.
In addition to selecting whichever font and size you want, Shogun also gives you the following customization options for your headings:
There are several ways you can use Shogun to add images and video to your BigCommerce homepage. For one, the “Container” element allows you to overlay other elements such as text and buttons in front of an image or video background. You can use this to create a hero section that directs the visitor’s attention to anything you would like to highlight, such as a product collection.
If you’d like, you can add a link and make the entire container clickable. You can also make only a portion or absolutely no part of your container clickable — it’s all up to you.
Another option is to use the “Video” element to embed a video on your homepage.
With this element, you can add your video content by inserting its YouTube or Vimeo URL. Then, you can adjust settings such as the aspect ratio (16 x 9 or 4 x 3), whether the video loops once it is finished, and whether related videos are displayed at the end of the video (this is only an option for YouTube videos).
If your flagship product involves some type of new innovation that most people are unfamiliar with or is difficult to understand in any other type of way, you should strongly consider adding a video that demonstrates how it works to a prominent place on your homepage. If visitors can’t quickly figure out what your product even is or how it benefits them, they’re probably not going to stick around long enough to make a purchase.
Also, with the “Slider” element, you can add a slideshow that allows the visitor to toggle between multiple images or videos on the same area of your homepage.
You must always make sure to use space efficiently when designing a homepage — the further something is located down the page, the less likely it is that the visitor will actually scroll down to see it. Sliders allow you to add a lot of content to the page without crowding out all the other elements.
The customization options for the “Slider” element include:
There’s no reason to confine shopping experiences to your product detail pages. By making it possible for visitors to add items to their cart directly from your homepage, you can increase your conversion rate and improve your overall sales figures.
This can be done in Shogun with the “Product Box” element, which is found in the “BigCommerce” category of the element library. Once a “Product Box” has been added to the page, you can insert other elements from this category such as “Image”, “Title”, and “Price” — these elements will pull the appropriate product data directly from your BigCommerce account, so you won’t need to waste any time filling in such details manually.
The “Product Box” element is especially useful for building out a hero section that highlights a single product…
… as well as a recommended products section that showcases multiple options.
Finally, you should also consider using your homepage to direct more traffic to your BigCommerce blog. Developing a successful blog is good for SEO and provides you with more opportunities for cross-selling and upselling.
With Shogun, you can do this with just a few clicks.
In addition to the element library, you’ll also find a block library available in Shogun’s visual editor. Blocks are essentially multiple elements put together into one fully formed section of content. When you happen to need something on your page that there’s already a block designed for, this feature can save you an enormous amount of time.
There are a couple pre-built blocks available for featured blog post sections — all you need to do is drag one of these options over to your page, replace the default content with your own, and then you’re good to go.
Of course, you can use Shogun for much more than just your homepage. The ecommerce tools featured above will allow you to create just about any kind of content that you may need for your BigCommerce store.
