A private, working Shopify redesign preview before you decide
Preview-first Shopify redesign

Good products deserve better stores.

I review how your current Shopify store presents products, guides shoppers and works on mobile — then I rebuild it as a private, working preview on your real brand and products, before a single dollar is discussed. Approve it and I install it. Don't, and you've lost nothing.

your-store.com
Private preview
Built for clearer shopping.
Mobile-first navigation, product pages, merchandising and cart presentation.
Review the working direction first
Private working preview Scope confirmed in writing No theme files before payment
Hi, I'm Richard. Nearly 15 years building and running Shopify stores and ecommerce businesses, with degrees in engineering and design. Grounded Carts is my focused way to help founder-led brands see a stronger storefront direction before committing to a full project.
How it works

I rebuild before I ask you to decide.

You see a private working direction built around your store before choosing whether to continue.

01

Send me your store

Email your Shopify URL and tell me what feels off.

02

I rebuild a preview

If there is a clear, honest opportunity, I prepare a private working version using verified public brand and product material.

03

You decide

Click through the preview on your phone. Show your partner. Compare side by side.

04

Install or walk away

If you like it, choose handover or installation under a written scope. If not, say so and I close it; if I hear nothing, I may send one short follow-up only.

The approach

I start with what the current storefront can prove.

I review the public shopping journey, product information, navigation, mobile layout and current policies. Where analytics or customer research are unavailable, recommendations stay hypotheses—not invented facts or promised outcomes.

your brand
Designed from verified store facts
Clearer shopping direction
What I deliver

A working storefront direction, not a static mockup.

The preview demonstrates page hierarchy, product discovery, product-page content and a working cart with real links and products. Any discount, shipping, returns, review, app or checkout claim must match the live business or be omitted.

PrivatePassword-protected review link
3–7dTypical preview target, confirmed per store
What I engineer in

I don't just redesign your theme — I rebuild the funnel underneath it.

Every Shopify store has the same three funnel numbers underneath it. A typical store loses revenue at every one. The redesign is the surface — these are the systems I build into it.

Shopify conversion benchmark

Industry benchmarks put the average Shopify store at 1.4–2.5% of visitors converting. The best stores clear 3.3–4.7%. Same products, same traffic — what's different is what's wired in underneath.

~7%
Add-to-basket
of visitors put an item in the cart
~50%
Reach checkout
of those proceed past the cart
~75%
Complete order
of those finish the purchase

Most stores leak at all three stages and never know it. AOV and LTV sit on top, multiplying every gain. Every Grounded Carts redesign is engineered against these five numbers — built to push past the average, not just match it.

Lever 01 Add-to-basket rate

The five seconds that decide whether a visitor stays.

Hero, headline, hierarchy, mobile rhythm. I diagnose which of the four buyer types your category attracts — competitive, methodical, spontaneous, humanistic — and build the page that converts the one you're underserving.

Built in: diagnostic hero, real trust signals placed where the decision happens, mobile-first product card layout, believable proof above the fold.

Lever 02 Average order value

Increase basket size, not just prices.

Doubling traffic while AOV halves leaves you in the same place. I bake in the layers that quietly lift basket value without changing what you charge per unit — the same plays the biggest DTC brands use, sized for a founder-led store.

Built in: bundle ladder, quantity breaks, curated pairs-well-with placements, free-shipping threshold tuned to your AOV, a pre-checkout order bump and cart cross-sells, complete-the-set bundles, high-price anchoring.

Lever 03 Lifetime customer value

The 30 days after a purchase is where LTV is won.

Most stores treat the order-confirmation page as the end. It's the start. I design the post-purchase experience, the email-capture moment and the second-visit page as if they were the first impression — because for revenue, they are.

Built in: inline email capture with the offer in the CTA (not a generic 10% popup), a free-gift unlock at a spend threshold in the cart, recently-viewed prompts for the second visit, newsletter-tagged signups flowing to your email tool.

Lever 04 Basket-to-order rate

The cart is where good stores quietly bleed sales.

Roughly half of people who add to basket never reach checkout. Coupon friction, surprise shipping costs, PayPal Express failing on returning customers, a slow mobile cart — small things, big damage. I close the leaks at the decision point.

Built in: cart drawer with all costs visible, working coupon UX, free-ship progress bar, gift notes, payment-method visibility, mobile-thumb-tested flow.

Lever 05 Believable proof

Your products are probably better than your website makes them feel.

For premium founder-led brands, perceived value is the whole game. The site has to demonstrate — not claim — that the craft is real, the founder is real, and the reviews are real. I rebuild the brand-story layer, the review placement, the press strip and the founder voice so the price you charge feels obvious, not aspirational.

Built in: founder presence on the page, reviews where the objection lives (not on a separate tab), batch notes or provenance where it applies, awards strip, real photography over stock, press logos where they earn trust.

This isn't a checklist I run through at the end. It's the brief on day one. The redesign is what you see — these systems are what makes it earn.

Who it's for

Built for founder-led Shopify brands with great products and weak sites.

Small catalogues. Premium feel. Real craft. The kind of brand where the product deserves more than a generic Shopify template.

Chocolate Coffee Tea Honey & preserves Olive oil & pantry Candles Skincare Artisan food Boutique gifting Premium DTC
Simple pricing

Two ways forward.

Same engineered redesign either way — AOV and LTV systems built in. Pick how hands-on you want to be.

Agency rebuild $15–30k · template swap $0, moves nothing · Installed For You $1,800, done and guaranteed
The Grounded Carts Build System You're not hiring a freelancer for a blank-page experiment. You're buying a system that has already been through 30 full store builds — refined every single time.
Theme Handover
$1,200AUD
For founders who can install it themselves.
  • Business read on your products, customers and category
  • Fully editable Shopify theme — you own it outright. Rearrange sections, swap copy and images yourself in the customizer. Never pay anyone for "small change" requests again.
  • Done-for-you copy throughout — headlines, story sections and product framing written in your brand's voice, not template filler
  • Cart drawer with all costs visible + free-shipping progress bar, built in
  • AOV system: bundle ladder + free-ship threshold tuned to your numbers
  • LTV system: email capture with a real offer + a free-gift unlock at your spend threshold
  • Mobile-first sections engineered against your buyer type
  • Setup documentation
  • One round of revisions
  • Email support during handover week
Request a preview

Best if you've got a developer or a confident in-house person. Most founders would rather I just did it.

In the box — both packages

  • Cart drawer with every cost visible
  • Free-shipping progress bar
  • Bundle ladder + quantity breaks
  • Gift notes, order bump, cart cross-sells
  • Award, press and founder-story sections
  • All copy, written in your voice

Needs a Shopify app

  • After-checkout one-click upsells
  • Automatic frequently-bought-together
  • Enforced quantity-break pricing
  • Review collection (Judge.me, Loox…)

I build the storefront to hold all of it cleanly — the app does the part only an app can do. No surprises after install.

Installed right, or your money back. You approved the preview before paying — you already know what you're getting. My guarantee covers the rest: I install it correctly, it works on every device, and nothing on your live store breaks in the first 30 days. Or I refund every cent.

I keep two installs open at a time — never more — so the store you get is the one I'm actually focused on this week. When both slots are full, your preview goes on the queue and I give you the real date, not a fake countdown.

Why this is priced where it is

An agency rebuild is $15–30k. A template swap is $0 but moves no revenue.

There hasn't been a real middle option for founder-led brands doing $10–80k a month. That's the gap I built Grounded Carts to fill. The same calibre of revenue-engineering work, productised into a system I can deliver in days instead of months — because the strategy work is the same whether the brand is doing $20k or $2M, and most of the agency cost is meetings, layers of staff, and process I cut out.

You're not getting cheaper work. You're getting the same work without the agency overhead, and you only pay once the preview proves it.

Request a preview

Send me your store.

I'll review it. If I see a strong commercial opportunity, I'll build a private preview using your real brand. You only pay if you want it installed.

  • Review usually within 48 hours
  • Private preview built in 3–7 days
  • No obligation, no sales calls
  • Theme files only delivered after payment
Thanks — I've got your store. I'll review it within 48 hours and reply by email.

Replies usually within 48 hours, from richard@groundedcarts.com

I only use these details to review your store and reply — never shared, never added to a list without asking.

FAQ

Questions I hear often.

Can't see yours? Email hello@groundedcarts.com.

No. That's the whole point of how I work. You see the working preview first. You only pay if you want it installed or handed over.
Most Shopify designers sell you a prettier theme. I sell you a store engineered against five specific revenue numbers — add-to-basket rate, AOV, basket-to-order rate, LTV, and the perceived-value layer that lets you hold your price. The visual redesign is the surface; the AOV and LTV systems baked underneath are where the work actually pays for itself. That's why I treat the business analysis as the core of the job, not a bolt-on.
If, within 30 days of installation, you decide the new store isn't working for you, I refund the full amount. No questions, no fine print. The risk is on me.
Yes — that's the Installed For You package. I publish the theme in your Shopify admin, migrate your real product content, set up the cart, and QA on mobile before you go live.
No obligation, no follow-up calls. If you like the direction but want a few tweaks — different copy, swap a section, change colours, move something around — just tell me what you'd change and I'll add it and re-share the updated preview. If it's still not right after that, no hard feelings. I close it and that's it. You only pay if you want to move forward.
In most cases yes. Reviews, email apps, subscription apps (Recharge, Stay AI, Skio), bundling apps and shipping calculators are usually straightforward. I confirm app compatibility before install. App setup itself isn't included — I make sure the theme integrates cleanly with what you already use.
Agencies bill for meetings, account managers, project managers, junior designers, layers of review and a custom-built process every time. I cut all of that out. The strategy work — diagnosing buyer type, picking the right AOV levers, deciding where the LTV moment lives — is the same whether your store does $20k or $2M a month, and I've systematised the build around a base theme proven across 30 full store builds so the production work happens fast. You're paying for 15 years of judgment, not 15 weeks of meetings.
Preview: 3–7 days. Install: typically 5–10 days after preview approval.
Yes. You own the installed theme outright. You can edit it, duplicate it, hand it to another developer — it's yours.
Yes — and this is one of the most important things to understand about how I work. What you're getting is a proper Shopify theme with editable sections, blocks and settings — not custom code locked to me. Every section on your homepage, every product card layout, every piece of copy, every image — all rearrangeable and swappable yourself through Shopify's theme customizer. Want to move the "as featured in" press strip above the hero? Drag it. Want to swap an image, change a heading, add a new section, change the colour palette? All in the customizer, no developer needed. The point: most agencies build custom code that locks you to them for every change. I build a theme you actually own and can drive yourself.
Me — Richard. Nearly 15 years building and running Shopify stores and ecommerce businesses, with degrees in engineering and design. No account managers, no junior designers, no handoffs. You'll deal with me directly through the whole process.

Send me your Shopify store and I'll show you what it could become.

No deck, no pitch, no commitment. If I see a strong opportunity, I'll build the preview.

Request a store preview