Learn with Rhoam
Practical guides, insights, and explanations for small businesses trying to make websites, ecommerce, and everyday systems feel simpler and easier to manage.
Running an online business can feel overwhelming when everything starts connecting together. Websites, marketplaces, stock, customer emails, shipping, social media, SEO, apps, analytics… it adds up quickly.This space is here to make those things feel clearer. Simple explanations. Practical advice. Real-world lessons from working with small businesses every day.
7 Big Mistakes That Make Running an Online Shop Harder Than It Needs to Be
Author: Iselle Maddocks 29/04/2026
In the last few weeks, I’ve taken a good look at the websites of many local businesses in and around Cheltenham. And honestly? The same patterns keep popping up. Not always massive dramatic disasters either. Just small things quietly costing traffic, trust, enquiries and sales.At the end of the day, most websites are trying to do three things: prove the business is legitimate, give people information, and generate sales or leads. But when the foundations are shaky, running the site becomes far harder than it needs to be. The biggest issues I keep seeing are:
• missing SSL certificates
• abandoned or outdated websites
• slow loading pages
• poor mobile experiences
• running ads before fixing site problems
• lack of trust signals
• confusing navigation and clutterI’ve used those patterns to put together seven of the biggest mistakes I keep seeing. Let me know which one sounds the most familiar.
#1: The Ultimate Killer. No SSL Certificate.
If I can’t get onto your site properly to begin with, no one else can either. No traffic, no sales, no trust. Honestly, it’s almost worse than not having a site at all.You can usually tell by looking for https in the URL or the little padlock icon. Most hosted platforms like Shopify or Squarespace sort this automatically nowadays, but I still come across sites missing it. And if a browser throws up a “not secure” warning, most people are gone immediately.Without an SSL certificate, customers can end up feeling like their details aren’t properly protected. And the moment people feel uneasy about entering payment information, they’re usually gone.Quick check: Visit your site and look for the little padlock icon next to the URL. If the site shows “Not Secure” or doesn’t start with https, it’s something worth fixing immediately.
#2: The Abandoned Site.
This one happens all the time. The site gets built, everyone breathes a sigh of relief, the task gets ticked off the list and then… nothing.Except websites aren’t really ever “done”.Over time a layer of dust starts building up. Old information sits there, products disappear, links break, and things slowly drift out of date. Eventually Google starts treating the site a bit like an abandoned shop on the high street.Customers notice it too. If your latest update was three Christmases ago and the homepage still says “Happy Easter 2022”, people start wondering if anyone’s actually behind the wheel.A website doesn’t need rebuilding every five minutes, but it does need regular attention.
#3: The Slow Load.
We’ve all done it. Clicked onto a website, waited, clicked again, waited some more, button doesn’t work, image jumps about, patience evaporates. Then we leave and find what we need somewhere else.Usually this comes from too many plugins or apps, massive image files, clunky scripts, or years of things being bolted onto the site without much thought for the overall experience.Sometimes businesses accidentally turn their website into the digital equivalent of carrying eight shopping bags, three coffees and a folding chair all at once. Simple and stable usually wins.Quick check: Open your site using mobile data instead of WiFi. If it feels frustrating to use, customers probably feel the same.
#4: The Ostrich.
Pretending mobile doesn’t exist.A huge amount of web traffic now comes from phones. In fact, more than half of all global web traffic is now on mobile devices according to StatCounter. Yet loads of sites still seem to only get checked on a desktop computer once every six months. Tiny text, broken layouts, awkward menus, and buttons you need surgical precision to press.If somebody has to wrestle your website while standing in Tesco with one bar of signal, they probably won’t stick around very long.One of the best things you can do is simply use your own website properly on your phone for five minutes. You’ll spot problems very quickly.
#5: The Ad Chaser.
Throwing money at ads before fixing the website itself.Running ads to a broken website is a bit like paying for loads more customers to walk into a messy shop and immediately walk back out again.More traffic won’t magically fix a confusing site. If people arrive and can’t work out what’s going on, don’t trust the business, or get frustrated halfway through buying, ads just help more people leave faster.Before paying to bring people in, make sure the place is actually ready for visitors.
#6: The Shady Site.
No contact details. No reviews. No reassurance. No delivery info. No returns policy. No confirmation emails etc… Basically the online equivalent of a market stall covered in a tarp with somebody whispering “trust me”.Customers need reassurance before spending money online, especially with smaller businesses they haven’t used before. It needs to feel genuine, clear and looked after.It’s worth taking a step back and asking: does the website actually make people feel confident buying from you?Quick check: Can somebody easily find delivery info, returns, contact details and reviews within a few seconds?
#7: The Jumble Sale.
Too many options, too much clutter, no clear direction, and navigation that feels like a treasure hunt designed by a sleep-deprived raccoon.Sometimes businesses try to show absolutely everything because they’re worried customers might miss something important. But usually the opposite happens. When everything shouts for attention, nothing stands out.Good websites guide people clearly. They make it obvious where to click, where to go next, and what actually matters. Simple navigation is massively underrated.A good website doesn’t need to be the fanciest thing on the internet. It just needs a clear purpose, decent foundations, useful information, good navigation, and signs that there’s an actual human behind it.Most of the time, the best improvements aren’t dramatic redesigns. They’re small fixes that make things clearer, smoother and easier to trust.Quick check: Ask somebody unfamiliar with the business to find a product or piece of information. Stay silent and watch where they struggle.
Final Thoughts.
Most of these problems aren’t caused by businesses “doing it wrong”. Usually, it’s just the result of things growing over time, getting overlooked, or trying to juggle too much at once.A good website doesn’t need to be the fanciest thing on the internet. It just needs to feel clear, trustworthy, easy to use, and properly looked after. Small improvements can make a surprisingly big difference, both for customers and for making the day-to-day running of the business less stressful.If reading this made you think “…yeah, my site probably does a few of these”, don’t panic. Most of them are fixable without starting from scratch.
If you’d like a fresh pair of eyes on your website or online shop, feel free to get in touch. Sometimes a few small changes can make a much bigger difference than people expect.
How to Optimise Product Images for Your Online Shop
Author: Iselle Maddocks 29/08/2026
Good product images can make a huge difference when you’re selling online. Ideally, your product gallery should include a few different styles of image too: a clear product shot, close-up details and lifestyle images showing the product in use or giving a sense of scale. Depending on what you sell, you might also include graphics explaining important features or benefits.Together, these images help customers understand what they’re buying and give them some of the information they would normally get from seeing a product in person.But there’s another side to product images that’s easy to overlook: the actual image files themselves.
If you’re uploading photos straight from your phone or camera, they can be much larger than your website needs. Over time, a shop full of unnecessarily large images can contribute to slower page loading and make browsing your products more frustrating, particularly on mobile.The good news is that you don’t need to become an expert in image editing to sort them out. Here are the main things worth checking before you upload product images to your online shop.
#1: Get the Image Dimensions Right
Modern phones and cameras can produce enormous images. That’s useful if you’re printing them, but your website generally doesn’t need all that information. Image dimensions are measured in pixels, for example: 2000 × 2000 pixels. There isn’t one perfect image size for every online shop. Different platforms have their own recommendations:
Shopify: For square product images, Shopify says 2048 × 2048px usually displays best.
eBay: Listing photos must be at least 500px on the longest side, but eBay recommends at least 1600px on the longest side for the best display.
Squarespace: Squarespace doesn’t give a separate fixed size specifically for product images. Its general image guidance says 2500px wide is ideal for most images, and it automatically creates different image sizes for different screens.
These aren’t targets you need to obsess over. The important thing is to give your platform a good-quality image without uploading an enormous original straight from your camera.
Products where customers need to zoom in and inspect very fine details may also benefit from larger images.
#2: Keep Your Product Images Consistent
This one isn’t really about website speed, but it can make a surprisingly big difference to how professional your online shop looks. Consistent product images make everything feel more considered and help create a cleaner, more polished shopping experience.
Try to use the same aspect ratio for your main product images. The aspect ratio is simply the shape of the image. A square image, for example, has a 1:1 aspect ratio.
If some of your product photos are square, some portrait and others landscape, your product listings can start to look inconsistent.
You don’t necessarily need square images. The best format will depend on what you sell and the design of your website. What’s more important is choosing an approach and sticking to it.
#3: Choose the Right File Format
You’ll usually come across a few different image formats when preparing images for your website.
WebP - Where supported, WebP is a great choice for web images. It can provide good image quality at a smaller file size than traditional formats and it can also support transparent backgrounds.
JPEG/JPG - Still a perfectly good option for photographs. JPEG files can usually be compressed to a relatively small size while retaining good visual quality.
PNG - Useful for graphics and images requiring transparency, although files can be considerably larger than equivalent JPEG or WebP images.
Your e-commerce platform may also optimise or convert images after you upload them. For example, Shopify automatically delivers images in a suitable format for the customer’s browser, while Squarespace converts uploaded images to WebP by default.
So don’t get too caught up in converting every single file yourself. The goal is simply to avoid uploading unnecessarily large files in unsuitable formats.
#4: Reduce the File Size
This is different from changing the image dimensions.
Two images could both be 2000 × 2000 pixels but have very different file sizes depending on how they’ve been saved and compressed. File size is usually shown in KB (kilobytes) or MB (megabytes). As a general guideline, I recommend aiming for 500KB or less per product image, and smaller where you can, while maintaining good image quality.If you’re regularly uploading product images that are several megabytes each, it’s worth reducing them before they go onto your website.Compression removes some of the unnecessary image data to create a smaller file, but the aim isn’t to make the file as small as possible. Your product still needs to look good. If an image starts looking fuzzy, pixelated or noticeably lower quality, you’ve gone too far. Customers need to be able to see the details of what they’re buying, particularly if your website allows them to zoom in. You’re looking for a sensible balance: a clear, good-quality product photo without a needlessly large file.
There are plenty of free online tools that can do this for you. CrushImage is a simple free online option that can compress WebP, JPEG and PNG images without needing to install any software. If you’re comfortable using image-editing software, Photoshop also gives you more control over the dimensions, format and quality when exporting images.
And if you’ve already got hundreds or thousands of product images to deal with, doing them individually probably isn’t the best use of your time. There are tools and bulk-processing methods that can speed things up considerably, or that’s something I can help you with.
#5: Give the File a Useful Name
Before uploading an image, have a quick look at its filename.
Something like 'IMG_8472.jpg' doesn’t tell you much. Instead, give it a short, descriptive name such as 'recycled-paper-notebook-green.jpg'
This makes your image library easier to manage and gives search engines a little more context about the image. Keep filenames straightforward and descriptive rather than trying to cram lots of keywords into them.
#6: Add Useful Alt Text
Most website and online shop platforms will give you somewhere to add alt text, short for alternative text, to an image.
Alternative text is a short, written description of what’s shown in an image. It provides a text alternative when someone can’t see the image, and its most important purpose is accessibility, particularly for people using screen readers.
For example 'Green A5 notebook with recycled paper and elastic closure' is much more useful than 'A5 Notebook Image'.
Describe what someone would need to know if they couldn’t see the photograph. You don’t need to stuff keywords into every image description. Clear and genuinely useful is better.
#7: Use Different Images to Answer Different Questions
Image optimisation isn’t only about pixels and file sizes. Your images have a job to do. When someone is buying online, they can’t pick the product up, turn it around or inspect it in person. Your product gallery needs to fill in some of those gaps. Depending on what you sell, you might include:
a clean main product image
different angles
close-ups of important details or textures
different colours or variations
packaging
an image showing the product’s scale
lifestyle photography showing the product being used or worn
a graphic highlighting important features or benefits
a simple dimensions or sizing graphic
Those last couple can be particularly useful for products where the benefits aren’t immediately obvious from a photograph. A well-designed graphic can quickly communicate something like “dishwasher safe”, “made from recycled materials” or “holds 350ml” without making the customer hunt through the description.Just be careful about where you use them. Your main product image should normally concentrate on showing the product clearly, particularly when you’re also selling through marketplaces.
A Simple Product Image Checklist
Before uploading a new product image, check:
Is it large enough to look clear without being unnecessarily enormous?
Are my main product images a consistent shape?
Am I using a sensible image format?
Could the file size be reduced?
Does the image have a descriptive filename?
Have I added useful alt text?
Have I included a good mixture of product, detail and lifestyle images?
Could a feature or sizing graphic help explain the product?
Does each image give the customer some useful new information?
You don’t need to make every image technically perfect. A few simple habits when preparing your product photography can keep your online shop looking consistent, make your files more manageable and help avoid unnecessarily slowing down your website.
And if your existing online shop has gradually become a bit messy, slow or difficult to manage, you don’t necessarily need to start again. Sometimes it’s simply a case of working through what’s already there and making sensible improvements.
If you’d like some help working out what could be improved, get in touch and we can talk through what makes sense for your shop.
Ready to Get Started?
If you’d like to talk things through, fill in the contact form or email [email protected] and we’ll arrange an initial call.
