Deciding when it’s time for a CPG website redesign can be tricky. On one hand, you don’t want to overhaul your site too frequently and risk confusing customers. On the other hand, letting your site become outdated can lead to lost sales and missed opportunities. In this article, we’ll explore some key indicators that it may be time for a CPG website redesign, as well as tips for identifying problems with your current site.

Indicators that suggest a CPG website redesign

Here are some of the top signs that it’s time to give your CPG website a refresh:

1. Low Sales Conversion Rates

One of the most obvious signs that your website needs an overhaul is low sales conversion rates. If you have a high volume of site traffic and visitors, but only a small percentage of those visitors are actually converting into paying customers, that indicates a problem. Some aspects of your site may be driving potential customers away or making it difficult for them to find products or complete purchases.

Analyze your current conversion rates and sales numbers. If conversion rates have been steadily declining over time, it’s likely time for a redesign. Setting clear goals for sales conversions and monitoring the data will help you identify when rates are unacceptably low.

2. Outdated User Experience

How easy or difficult is it for visitors to navigate and use your site? An outdated user interface and poor usability will also point to the need for a redesign.

Pay attention to:

• Site speed – Is your site slow to load? This will drive visitors away.
• Navigation – Can visitors easily find important pages and products? Confusing navigation lowers conversions.
• Responsiveness – Does the site adapt well to mobile devices? If not, you are missing out on sales.
• Forms/checkouts – Are they optimized for usability? Difficult checkouts increase abandoned carts.
• Contact options – Can visitors easily get in touch or find answers? Poor support reduces trust.

If your analytics show high bounce rates and visitors are not clicking through to product pages, your UX likely needs an overhaul.

3. New Branding or Packaging

CPG brands regularly update their branding, packaging design, logo, and visual style. When you introduce new packaging or branding, your website should also be redesigned to match. An outdated website will create dissonance between your fresh branding and your digital presence.

Visitors expect your website to reflect your current brand identity. If the packaging has been updated, but your website still shows old designs, it needs to be updated. A redesigned site with new branding builds consistency.

4. Customer Feedback

Actively collect feedback from customers and site visitors. If they are consistently pointing out particular pain points or issues, listen to that input. Frustrations from even a small number of vocal users likely represent issues impacting many more silent visitors.

Common pain points can include difficult navigation, unintuitive product organization, annoying popups, broken links, etc. If you notice a pattern in user feedback pointing out the same issues, it likely means your site needs an overhaul to address those problems. Don’t ignore consistent user feedback – let it inform redesign priorities.

5. Low Organic Traffic and Conversions

Analyze your website’s organic traffic sources and conversions. If traffic from search engines has been declining over time, your website may need to be redesigned and optimized for SEO.

Work on technical SEO audits and identify on-page optimization opportunities. An outdated website architecture, lack of meta descriptions, thin content, and poor page speed can all cause declines in organic search performance.

Redesigning and optimizing your site for organic can help regain lost traffic and converters from search engines. SEO should be a key priority in any redesign.

6. Product Pages Not Ranking

Along with overall organic traffic declines, look at your individual product pages. Do you see your main product pages ranking prominently in search results? If not, your product pages may lack SEO optimization and value.

A redesigned site should focus on building out robust, useful, keyword-optimized product pages. They should include all relevant information searchers want to make informed purchases. Well-optimized product pages that rank highly will get your products in front of motivated searchers, increasing conversions.

7. Lack of Mobile Optimization

Mobile usage continues to grow, yet many CPG sites still aren’t designed properly for mobile users. If your website is not responsive, doesn’t adapt well to mobile screen sizes, or has features that don’t work on mobile, you are missing out on potential sales.

Consider doing separate mobile traffic and conversion analysis. If mobile visits, clicks, and conversions lag far behind desktop numbers, your mobile UX clearly needs work. Use this data to inform priorities for a responsive redesign aimed at boosting mobile performance.

8. Site Doesn’t Reflect Brand Messaging

Your website content should reflect your current brand messaging and personality. But often, a brand’s messaging evolves over time while the website stays stagnant.

If your brand voice has changed but your website still shows outdated messaging, that will dilute your updated branding efforts. Visitors expect a consistent brand experience.

A redesign presents the perfect opportunity to audit all website content against your current brand strategy. Identify content that needs to be refreshed or replaced to align with messaging.

9. Lack of Personalization

Personalization is a rising trend across e-commerce. Visitors expect experiences tailored to their needs and interests, not generic sites.

If your website lacks any personalization or customization features, a redesign can help introduce them. Even simple personalization like showing recommendations based on past views or using geotargeting to surface location-relevant products can boost engagement and sales.

10. Poor Visual Design and Aesthetics

Never underestimate the importance of visual design. An outdated, cluttered, or amateurish visual style will reflect poorly on your brand.

Consider if your website aligns with current design trends. Flat and minimal styles are popular for modern sites. photography and bright colors.

Audit if all design elements – imagery, icons, typography, spacing, etc. – come together in a cohesive, pleasing way. If visual design is fragmented, a full redesign can unify aesthetics.

How to Identify Problems with Your Current CPG Website

If you think your website may be due for a refresh, how can you identify specific trouble areas and problems to address in a redesign?

Follow these steps:

Conduct User Research

Go straight to your customers and site visitors to understand pain points. Methods can include:

• User interviews – Recruit a small number of customers to get feedback through one-on-one conversations.
• User testing – Have testers complete common tasks on your site while observing their experience.
• Surveys – Collect feedback through online surveys from current site visitors.

User research will illuminate shortcomings that you can address in a redesign.

Analyze Site Analytics

Your analytics platform contains a wealth of data to identify areas for improvement. Dig into:

• Traffic sources – Where are visitors coming from? Is traffic trending up or down from key channels?
• Bounce rate – High bounce rates indicate dissatisfied visitors.
• Pages per session – Low numbers signal engagement issues.
• Conversion rates – Lower than-expected rates show room for optimization.
• Behavior flow – See where visitors enter and exit to detect navigation issues.

Technical/Performance Audit

Run audits using tools like Google Lighthouse, GT Metrix, and PageSpeed Insights. Diagnose issues negatively impacting performance like:

• Page speed
• Mobile optimization
• Accessibility
• SEO fundamentals

Technical problems will sabotage customer experience and must be resolved.

Competitive Analysis

Review competitor websites and see how your site stacks up:

• What do they do better in terms of design and UX?
• Do they offer useful features you lack?
• How does their content compare to yours?

Let competitors’ strengths and weaknesses guide your redesign priorities.

Update Site Architecture

Audit the structure and navigation architecture of your current site.

• What works well?
• Where do visitors seem to get confused?
• Does the IA align with customer goals?

Refine and enhance site architecture for the redesign.

Completing this detailed analysis will surface the highest-impact areas for your redesign to focus on from both a business and customer perspective. Approach your website redesign strategically and back decisions with hard data. Ultimately, if your site is underperforming, redesigning based on visitor feedback and analytics insights will pay off in the form of more customers and revenue.