As 2020 is soon coming to a close, we thought we'd do a short "round up" post outlining some of the coolest and more successful coffee websites we've seen this year.
Here's what we're looking for when we identify the "best" coffee websites:
We're thinking of things like user experience, conversion rate optimization, and really smart website structure that makes sense for both consumers as well as search engines, so the website's themselves are easily found and optimally exposed in search results and other marketing channels.
It's great for a website to "look cool", but as Steve Jobs once remarked "The design is not just what it looks like and feels like. The design is how it works."
So we're going to look at the best according to a few different criteria:
Speed.
User Experience.
Conversion Rate Optimization.
Website Speed
Our pick for speed is https://biowillysbeans.com/.
Why? Well according to Pingdom they boast a an impressive load time of under 500ms:
I ran the Pingdom speed test several times and the results were fairly consistently below 500 ms.
If you ever want to learn more about how to properly evaluate page speed and why it's important I recommend you checkout WP-Rocket's blog article on "Why you Shouldn’t Care About Google PageSpeed Insights". But basically, tools like Pingdom do a fantastic job, especially when used repeatedly, of properly evaluating how fast a website really is.
Biowillys Beans boasts not just a good page speed, but a good page speed in spite of some fairly robust content. For instance they include a video on their homepage, which would often be expected to slow the experience down considerably. However the video is carefully implemented (for one thing it doesn't load unless you hit "play").
Interestingly the website appears to be using Shopify. Sistrix recently came out with a study that compared the average loading times across different website builders and CMS platforms, and Shopify came out more or less in the middle of the stack.
This particular website, however, is fairly convincing proof that however the Shopify platform performs natively (meaning out of the box) it absolutely can be optimized through upgraded hosting and/or "Shopify Apps" to perform very well with respect to page speed.
User Experience
With respect to User Experience I'm a big fan of "Atlas Coffee Club":
Atlas has a subscription based model, where you can sign up to receive a monthly shipment of coffee.
One thing they do right is immediately communicate their whole value proposition on their home page saying "Try Coffee From Around the Worlds". So instantly we know what it is they are offering and how it might be different from others.
Beyond that they waste no time in explaining, in very simple terms, how their service will work. They curate the coffee, they roast it and deliver it to you (with accompanying goodies), and you benefit from a "world tour" of coffee.
Simple to understand, and the appeal is obvious.
Once you "Start Your Journey" they make the sign up process very easy and very visual. You are prompted to make a series of choices, beginning with the number of bags per shipment and ending with your grind type.
The signup process feels fun, you are able to make all your selections on a single page within a few seconds, and the visuals make it easy to understand what you should expect in your package once you make the purchase.
All that said, I have to at least give an honourable mention to https://www.drinktrade.com/. These guys do a great job of walking you through product selection with a fairly impressive Quiz they've put together:
Conversion Rate Optimization
To be honest I have mixed feelings about "Lifeboost Coffee". They are a touch aggressive in their marketing but there is still a lot that can be learned about the way they do things.
They certainly get the basics right, starting with a very clear and compelling "Call to Action" (a CTA) encouraging people to "Shop LifeBoost Coffee" directly from the home page:
You'll notice in that same screenshot there's a very visible phone number to call with 5 "stars" next to it. Now I don't know if those stars signify a third party customer service review, but they at least suggest that their customer service is a priority, as that's the association many people would make.
There's also a "Better Business Accredited" business symbol at the top right to further instill trust.
Additionally, they use symbols and visual elements beneath the CTA to quickly call attention to some details that might inform purchasing decisions. For instance, "Single Origin" and "GMO Free". So they are also immediately addressing any concerns the consumer might have.
Their product pages are among some of the smartest you'll find in any industry. Consider everything they accomplish that's visible in the screenshot:
- The original price is crossed out, suggesting this price is coming at a discount.
- They offer both one time purchases as well as subscriptions, but make sure to callout not just
- "Subscribe" but "Subscribe and Save" while quantifying the % you'll save.
- They have multiple extremely high quality images to cycle through.
- They callout "100% NO-RISK MONEY BACK GUARANTEE" along with their many (115 for this coffee) positive reviews.
Their product page isn't just selling you on the specific coffee, it's also selling you on the brand and letting you know with the "As Seen On" imagery that they are a legitimate and trusted company you should feel comfortable buying from.
By the way, feel free to check out our larger guide to review even more examples of coffee websites for inspiration.
Of course there's many different ways of deciding what the "best coffee website" might look like, but I can assure you that the above three examples are coffee websites that drive sales and make money.
It's fair to say that their choice of fonts, their colours, and their imagery are certainly deliberately executed with the larger brand in mind, but their clearly mindful that the primary objective of their website is ultimately to drive sales.
