FAQ (Covent Garden)

Questions we get asked regularly about Covent Garden.


Why don't you have tabs on the product page?

Over the years working on Conversion Rate Optimization for paying clients we have gathered hundreds of thousands of real user sessions showing that only around 1% of visitors click tabs on product pages.

Tabs are useful if you want to hide content away from visitors so they will never see it. If you look at one of the leaders in ecommerce, Amazon, who pioneered the use of tabs on their site, you won't see any tabs on the product page now.


Which carousel mode is best?

Storyboard (Recommended)

Storyboard mode distributes your hero images and messages throughout the home page, breaking up content and giving more visibility to each individual item.

The content will automatically adapt to the number of slides that have been set up in the carousel system. Set up the slides exactly how you would the classic mode carousel.

We recommend this mode because data proves that a sliding carousel is largely ignored, and that slides after the first one aren't seen.

If they are not set up correctly, as is often the case, then they simply waste screen space. We have compiled a number of reports that show why you shouldn't use them. For further insights, read the following articles:

Classic

If you would prefer to use this mode, please note that you should set up clear calls to action to avoid visitors ignoring the carousel.

Please note if the carousel does not change between slides, it's probably because you have switched on Conversion Optimization Mode in Global Theme Settings.


Why do you not recommend showing sharing icons on the product pages?

By analyzing hundreds of thousands of real user sessions we found that product pages without social sharing buttons convert better than those with. Anything that can potentially take visitors away from your site can cause them to get distracted and not complete a purchase.

For an in-depth look at some data, take a look at this report by VWO.

To promote your products with social sharing, we recommend using these features on the order complete step of the checkout, and in your transactional follow-up emails.


Should I use the simple header?

Selecting this option will activate a fixed layout simple header that places the logo, main navigation and utility links on one line. This is not recommended for stores with large category structures (unless activating the 'enclosed navigation' option), a vast amount of pages displayed in the header, or lots of utility links.

Use the simple header for sites without a lot of content areas.

If you have activated "Show Phone Number in Header", to save space in the header, the phone number displays in the page footer when "Simple Header" is activated.

The simple header respects other options such as colors and sticky navigation.

We would recommend activating the "Replace Utility Links With Icons" feature if you are going to use the simple header.


Which navigation design is best for my store?

Covent Garden includes three styles of navigation that can be displayed in multiple configurations to provide a unique layout to your brand.

For dropdown menus to appear, you need to set up a menu display depth of at least 2 levels deep.

To set this, in your store Control Panel, go to  Store Setup > Store Settings and click the Display tab. Under the Category Setting heading, look for the Menu Display Depth field.

Simple Menu

To create fly out menus, set the menu depth to at least 3.

Expanded Menu

This looks best if you configure your categories 3 levels deep. It will display the dropdowns in a single column.

Mega Menu

This looks best if you configure your categories 3 levels deep. If you have not set up your entire category structure to work with the mega menu, choose one of the alternative options above.


How do I set up Editorial Mode?

Link products on blog posts

  1. In your store's Control Panel click Storefront.
  2. Go down to Blog and select the post you want to work on.
  3. Scroll down to the Tags field and enter RP: followed by a product's id. A product id can be found in the URL when editing that product. So for example https://store-qgevfcjm6j.mybigcommerce.com/manage/products/144/edit would give you 144 as the id. Therefore the whole tag would be  RP:144 .
  4. If you want to more than one product just add another : followed by another product's id. So for example RP:144:145:146.
  5. Don't forget to click Save at the bottom of this page.

Adding a description for a product on blog posts

  1. In your store's Control Panel click Products.
  2. Select the product you want to work on.
  3. Along the horizontal tabs at the top of the page click Custom Fields.
  4. Enter Blog Post Description in a Custom Field Name.
  5. In the corresponding Custom Field Value enter the text you think best describes/promotes your product. This summary is limited to 256 characters.
  6. Don't forget to click Save at the bottom of this page.

Link blog posts on product pages

  1. In your store's Control Panel click Products.
  2. Select the product you want to work on.
  3. Along the horizontal tabs at the top of the page click Custom Fields.
  4. Enter Related Content in a Custom Field Name.
  5. In the corresponding Custom Field Value enter the article you want to link to. It should only contain the absolute path to the related content, not the protocol and hostname. For example, if you want to link to https://www.yourstore.com/articles/one-page-checkout/ simply enter /articles/one-page-checkout/ in the field.
  6. Don't forget to click Save at the bottom of this page.


Should I use the simple footer?

The simple footer presents an alternative footer design for smaller or simple stores. It will condense the navigation to just pages, and present the brands as a single link.

Other display options are respected such as payment methods, the newsletter and social icons.

The simple footer has additional color options for the newsletter strip.

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