| high |
The hero is the thing the brief rules out — a bottle slideshow Twelve-image slideshow of bottle shots with one button, “SHOP seasonal syrups!”; the SOP: “Do not make the hero primarily a static bottle shot … use lifestyle food photography”. |
Food hero — syrup on a stack — with “Southern flavor. Made for gathering.”, Shop Barlow’s / Find a Store and the proof line. |
Home |
In the design |
| high |
Thirteen apps put 331 requests and 19 MB behind the homepage Desktop homepage: 331 requests, 19.2 MB, 34 third-party hosts — Yotpo (reviews + loyalty) ×4, Klaviyo ×5, Hotjar ×3, Google ×5, Facebook ×2, tawk.to, Smile.io, Avada subscriptions, notify-me, SMSBump, Hulk forms, Stockist, YouTube. Mobile: 320 requests, 18.5 MB. PDP: 360 requests, 35 hosts, DOM 6,149 nodes. |
33 requests, 1.9 MB, 4 hosts, no trackers on the prototype; the build re-adds only the services the merchant keeps (Yotpo, Klaviyo, Stockist) and self-hosts imagery. |
Tech |
In the design · app audit: client decision |
| medium |
Three persistent layers over the page on load “$5 Shipping on orders of $18 or more*” bar on top, a pinned “Join our REWARDS program save 10%” bar at the bottom, a tawk.to chat bubble bottom-right — on every page, desktop and mobile. |
One announcement bar (free shipping over $45 · All day. Any way.); rewards and chat are build-time decisions, not default layers. |
Home |
In the design |
| medium |
A video section that renders blank Between the mix products and the syrups a full-width section holds a YouTube embed that paints white in the capture; the merchant’s SOP lists “published videos not functional / no sound”. |
No video section in the design until a functional, captioned video exists; the slot is the “More than pancakes” row. |
Home |
In the design |
| high |
634 reviews that never reach the homepage or the collection cards Peach Cobbler Syrup PDP: Yotpo distribution 532 / 41 / 30 / 21 / 10; no rating on any homepage or collection card; the SOP: “lack of upfront broadcast reviews”. |
Stars and counts on every card, a review block on the homepage and PDP, award / customer-favourite badges; counts are placeholders until Yotpo is wired. |
Trust |
In the design · data: build list |
| medium |
Awards and press exist but don’t dominate Seven media logos under the slideshow; the Flavor of Georgia win is a sticker on a product image and a clause in the PDP copy; the SOP: “awards and press lack dominance”. |
“Award-winning Southern flavor” strip, Award winner badges on cards and the PDP, the proof line in the hero; Awards & Press under Our Story. |
Trust |
In the design |
| medium |
Template feel, three typefaces, typos, a developer credit Stock Flow theme; Nunito Sans, Poppins and Instrument Sans on one page; “Easy to Make Recipies” and “Join us to recieve recipes”; “Designed By: Tech Wisdo” in the footer; the SOP: “aesthetic non current, no wow factor, template/patchwork feel”. |
Anton headlines, Archivo body, a script accent, #BA0707 red, “ALL DAY. ANY WAY.” as the voice, food photography throughout. |
Brand |
In the design |
| high |
Operational links in the primary nav; Wholesale is a dropdown to marketplaces Our Story · Shop · Nutrition · Recipes · Find us · Wholesale · Track order; Wholesale drops down to “Shop Faire” and “Shop Mable”; no Gift entry; the SOP: remove Track Order, Nutrition, Privacy, Terms, Contact, Blog and individual marketplaces from primary navigation. |
Shop · Recipes · Gift · Our Story · Wholesale · Find a Store; utility on the right; operational links in a grouped footer. |
Navigation |
In the design |
| high |
The “Wholesale” footer link opens a job-application form /pages/wholesale-inquiry — linked from the footer as both “Wholesale” and “Join our team!” — contains First name, Last name, “Opportunities: Warehouse Assistant $18/hr, Production Assistant $18/hr”, résumé upload and reCAPTCHA. There is no wholesale page. |
A wholesale page with why-retailers, trade terms, a retailer quote, the lead form (company, store type, locations, state, estimated opening order …) and retailer login; a careers page, if wanted, under Our Story. |
Navigation |
In the design |
| medium |
Thirteen collections for twelve products, four duplicate or empty syrups (8) and peach-cobbler-syrup (8) hold the same products; blueberry-lemon-syrup (1), strawberry-bourbon-syrup (1), black-friday (2), black-friday-breakfast-bundle (3), barlows-boxes (1); wholesale (0), gift-cards (0). Homepage product links route through /collections/peach-cobbler-syrup/products/…. |
Shop → Mixes · Syrups · Bundles · Gifts (+ Merch, Seasonal) with one canonical product URL each; old collection URLs 301 in the build. |
Shop |
In the design · redirects: build list |
| medium |
The 3-in-1 mix is two products instead of one with a size option original-mix (“1 - 16oz. bag”, $10.00) and original-pancake-mix-2-pack (“2 - 16 oz. bags”, $18.99) are separate products with separate pages, reviews and URLs. |
One 3-in-1 mix with size / value options, per the SOP’s Mix collection brief; “Build your Barlow’s breakfast” bundles on top. |
Shop |
In the design · merge: build list |
| low |
Collections have no description, filter or badge /collections/syrups: “Syrups”, then cards — vendor, title, price, Add to cart; no copy, no flavor or season filter, no best-seller or award badge. |
Header + one-line description, Flavor / Season / Best-for filters, sort, badged and rated cards, the bundle offer under the grid. |
Shop |
In the design |
| medium |
One paragraph where a syrup buyer needs four answers Peach Cobbler Syrup: a single description paragraph; no size / servings / ingredients / allergens table, no taste profile, no how-to-use, no recipe; “You may also like” is the only structure. |
Why you’ll love it · Product details · What does it taste like? (sweet / fruit / spice) · How to use · Make this with Barlow’s · reviews · Complete your breakfast. |
PDP |
In the design |
| medium |
A buy box that stops at Add to cart Stars, $8.99, quantity, subscription widget, Add to cart; no shipping message, no trust line, no Buy now; the $5-on-$18 shipping offer lives only in the announcement bar. |
Free-shipping progress under the button, trust line, Buy now; subscribe-and-save kept in the buy box in the build. |
PDP |
In the design |
| low |
The heaviest page is the one that sells PDP: 360 requests, 3.5 MB, 35 third-party hosts, 6,149 DOM nodes, three sticky elements (bars, chat), 8 of 27 images without alt. |
25 requests and 575 KB on the prototype PDP; images self-hosted and sized in the build. |
PDP |
In the design |
| high |
Forty-four recipes that link to nothing /pages/recipes: 44 thumbnails with names under “EASY TO MAKE RECIPES”; no category, time, ingredients or product link; no H1; 40 of 43 images without alt; the SOP: “recipe page is choppy; not sure of SEO lift”. |
The Barlow’s Table — category chips, time and difficulty, “Made with Barlow’s → product · price · Shop this” on every card; recipe schema and URL migration in the build. |
Content |
In the design · migration: build list |
| medium |
Corporate gifting does not exist A $10 / $25 gift card and a “Gifts” product tag; no corporate, host or holiday gifting page; corporate inquiries are a KPI in the SOP. |
Corporate gifting page — who we serve, five quantity tiers, the five-step process, Request a quote / Start my corporate gift; Gift in the main nav. |
Content |
In the design |
| low |
Find us is a widget page /pages/store-locator-1: “Enter your city or postal code…”, then “Loading store locator from Stockist store locator…”. |
“Find Barlow’s near you” ZIP block on the homepage; a location-first Find a Store page on the Stockist data is on the build list. |
Content |
Build list |
| high |
Semantics: headings, buttons, labels Current site: the homepage H1 is the logo image; no H1 on recipes, story, FAQ or wholesale; 24 of 49 homepage images without alt. Prototype: alt on every image, but no h1–h6, no <button> (every control is a div skipped by Tab), no <nav>/<main>, placeholder-only inputs, no lang; header Search / Account / Cart are inert on most templates. |
Semantic headings and controls, labels, landmarks, lang, unique titles and meta descriptions, structured data (Organization, Product, Review, Recipe, Breadcrumb) in the build — the SOP’s SEO and accessibility sections. |
Tech |
Build list |
| medium |
Email capture the merchant can’t trust Merchant-reported in the SOP: “10% off email capture not functional; unaware of where discount is sent”. On the site, the offer is the pinned Yotpo rewards bar; the newsletter form in the footer is a separate Klaviyo/Shopify form. |
One email capture in the design (“Join the Barlow’s Table”); audience-specific flows and a verified discount delivery in the build. |
Content |
Build list |
| low |
Mobile pass landed — two measured gaps remain Second pass: no horizontal overflow at 320–414, hamburger menu, stacked hero CTAs, two-column grid, sticky add-to-cart on the PDP. Lighthouse mobile: home 74 (LCP 5.5 s, hot-linked hero), shop 84 with CLS 0.196 (cards reflow as images arrive), PDP 88. |
Width/height and srcset on every image to remove the shift and self-host the hero; a real <button> hamburger with aria-expanded, focus and Escape in the build. |
Mobile |
Build list |
| medium |
Stock photography on the selling surfaces of the prototype Shop cards, the PDP gallery, the cart drawer and recipe cards use stock images (a honey dipper for Peach Cobbler, a box of chocolates for a placeholder Gingerbread syrup); the real pack shots appear only on the homepage cards; the founder slot is blank. |
Place the brand’s pack shots and food photography per the SOP shot list; no stock on a selling surface. |
PDP |
Client asset · build list |
