Website Critique for

Safia Organics

In this website I liked the banner image as it was very apt for the product (organic toiletries and cosmetics).

I also liked the information about Safia meaning 'pure' in Arabic.

However, I was confused by there being no menu – originally I thought there was only six items for sale! (i.e. the six featured on the home page). I clicked on one of them and then there was a left-panel menu for different categories of products. Back to the home page and then I saw that menu was actually along the top. But the way the home-page is designed, the eye is drawn straight down to the image and the cosmetics on the home page, so I missed it.

So I suggested putting that menu on the left panel rather than along the top. I would put it above the shipping information and the cart (as, while that information is important, people will search for that when they’re that committed to the purchase. They need to make the decision to buy first.) 

I also suggested putting the Safia = pure statement under the Organic Beauty Boutique tag-line in the banner. There was something similar there already, but the Safia text is stronger.  

That would give  more space on the left panel. I would make the ‘Ingredients Information’ the first item there, quite prominent. And then, slightly separate as it’s a separate category, the list of different types of products.  

Re the newsletter sign-up option – I advised that she had to do a bit of a sales job on it. She needed to tell the website visitors what information they’d be getting in the newsletter and how often they'd get it. She also needs to promise to keep their information safe, and maybe also offer a bribe to get them to sign up, e.g. a report of some sort or a discount off their first order. It’s an excellent idea having a newsletter and a great way of being able to contact your customers, but you need to get them to sign up first! 

I don’t think she needed 'Safia’s story' in the Ingredients Information, as it's also on the 'About Us' page. It’s more relevant in the 'About Us' Section. She could put something in the Ingredients Policy page such as, “As you’ll read in the [About Us] page, Safia is all about healthy ingredients. So you can be certain that our products contain none of the following ingredients …” 

I think that having details of those awful chemicals is excellent indeed – a very strong sales point. 

There isn't really any text as such on the Home Page so I couldn't give any suggestions there.

The 'About Me' Page:

What is Safia?

Safia is the Arabic word for Pure and sums up our philosophy in one word! We pride ourselves on choosing only the world’s purest and most effective natural and organic beauty products and providing you with an alternative choice to conventional, synthetic chemical based beauty and grooming products.

Safia’s Story

The path to alternative beauty hasn’t been a straightforward one for Safia. Safia has a background in both chemistry and beauty therapy. It was perhaps the collision of these two differing backgrounds which sparked the search for an alternative to the conventional beauty products widely available on the market. This led to over a year of research into natural and organic beauty options. And so the idea for Safia was created, a place where you don’t have to read the label, you just have to choose between the world’s best natural and organic beauty and grooming products safe in the knowledge that they contain no harsh synthetic chemicals. Safia aims to heighten peoples awareness of the choice that is out there in the world of beauty products and show that natural and organic products can be every bit as fun, sensational and fabulous as the non-organic, synthetic chemical alternative!

There’s a lot of good stuff in there. But it seems very corporate and distant. It doesn’t tell us anything about the person/people behind Safia, and people like to know who they’re doing business with. Also it’s written in a very formal third person, whereas a more intimate first person usually works better. And certainly it would work for your business which is about connections and nature and doing the best for people.  Another issue is that there are a lot of long sentences, which are difficult to read, particularly on a web-page.

So I would suggest something like the following text. Note that there’s a little bit of a story in there (the search for the ingredients – a quest) and an immediacy. Stories are a wonderful sales tool as humans have loved stories ever since they could speak probably.

You’ll also see how I’ve ended telling by telling the visitor what to do next. It gives them a direct path to follow.

See how much more connection is made with the reader through this version:

I’m Leila [Surname] and I’m the proud owner of Safia. 

I chose the word Safia for my business because it’s the Arabic for ‘pure’, and that sums up our business and product philosophy.

As a beauty therapist I was using skincare and cosmetics all the time. But also with my background in chemistry I knew exactly what was going into the products I was using, and I wasn’t happy about using these chemicals at all.

I knew I had to find an alternative.

I searched and researched for over a year to find products I could stand over, could believe in, and could use with a clear conscience on my clients. It wasn’t easy, because my standards are so high and so many other products – yes, even natural-seeming ones – just weren’t pure enough.

But eventually I came up with the products I offer on this website; products I’m proud to offer as being totally wholesome and safe. You don’t ever have to read the labels (because I’ve done all that for you) and you can be confident they contain no harsh synthetic chemicals. . You just have choose your favourites among this wonderful selection of the world’s best natural and organic beauty and grooming products.

It’s my mission to heighten people’s awareness of the choice that is out there in the world of beauty products, and to show that natural and organic products can be every bit as fun, sensational and fabulous as the non-organic, synthetic chemical alternative!

Go [here] to browse our wonderful selection and choose your favourites.

One other thing I suggested was that she have a little bit of descriptive blurb on each item's thumbnail photograph, to encourage people to click on the thumbnail and perhaps even buy. Or, at the very least have that blurb on the top of the screen when they do click. As it is, the blurb is only visible at the bottom of the screen of the main picture (i.e. they have to click on the thumbnail to see it, but there's no particular incentive to click on the thumbnail).

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