In this week’s teardown, I analyze a 10-year-old brick toy eCommerce site, AtlBrick.com. The website receives 35k organic traffic per month (Ahrefs estimate).
United Brick Company is one of the largest independent Lego stores in the United States with two physical store locations in Atlanta and Orlando. They sell new and used Lego sets, minifigures, accessories, shirts, and more on their site.
They have done a great job of growing their online traffic from SEO and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
In this week’s teardown we examine what this site does a great job at and what I would change to increase traffic and revenue.
This is what I cover in this report:
- Website overview
- Major highlights
- Competitor overview
- Easy wins to increase revenue and/or traffic
- Actionable takeaways you can apply
Let’s get into it!
✅ Website Overview & Highlights
The website has had strong growth over the past couple of years and is currently at its all-time peak of 36.5k organic traffic (Ahrefs).
They have earned 2,400 referring domains, a good number for an eCommerce site.
The website’s domain has been active since 2015, when the business was started by two toy industry veterans, Chris and Ed.
The business sells a large variety of Lego-related products from the past to the present. It sells new lego products and also used products that have been traded in by individuals.
The owners are active on YouTube with over 1,300 published videos. One unique tactic is their weekly livestreams of their physical store where they showcase new additions. Viewers of these videos can see products that are currently available at the physical store and then order them from the website.
Most of the roughly 6,700 indexed pages are product pages due to the large number of different Lego products available. Brick Economy has a database of over 19,000 Lego sets so there are still many products that AtlBrick.com doesn’t have a page for.
There is not much unique content on the site such as blog posts or guides. The blog posts are featured on the homepage but clicking on “View All Posts” only shows a total of 5 articles and no new posts in over a year.
The website design is functional with a sticky search bar at the top. The design is not the highest quality and improving the design could increase the confidence and trust of new customers.
The logo and branding are confusing. The URL is AtlBrick.com but the title tags use “United Brick Co”. There are two logos in the header for Atlanta Brick Co and Orlando Brick Co and the logo text is very small on mobile.
Highlights
- 2,400 referring domains
- 6,700 indexed pages
- YouTube channel with 12.2k subscribers
- Facebook page with 20k followers
- Instagram with 25k followers
Why is this site winning?
- Strong focus on a niche within toys that caters to an enthusiastic audience
- Strong presence on social media platforms where Lego enthusiasts are active
- Strong link profile compared to competitors
- Lots of unique product images
- A unique physical store that can attract links and brand mentions
Top 3 Competitors
Here are similar competitors targeting many of the same keywords.
- BrickOwl.com – A Lego reselling marketplace with 74k organic traffic.
- BrickSet.com – A Lego informational site with articles about the newest releases and 112k organic traffic.
- BricksAndMiniFigsEugene.com – The website for a physical store in Oregon that also sells online with 17k organic traffic.
Let’s get into the easy wins to grow this specific website.
🔥 5 Easy Wins To Grow This Website
There are opportunities to significantly grow this brand. I break down the following easy wins:
- Add a slide-out cart with upsells
- Make free shipping price higher than the average order
- Add post-purchase upsell offers
- Improve category pages with more text
- Introduce a subscription kit
Let’s get into it!
➡️ Win #1: Add a Slide-Out Cart with Upsells
When a visitor adds an item to the cart, a temporary popup window appears that shows the item added to the cart.
One of the best ways to quickly increase the revenue of an online store is to present upsells when a visitor adds a product to the cart.
This site could add a slider window, also known as a slide-out cart, that suggests similar or related products that could be added to their order.
This is a common feature of many Shopify stores and can increase the average order value.
Also adding a free shipping progress bar would encourage shoppers to add more items to qualify for free shipping.
➡️ Win #2: Make Free Shipping Price Higher Than the Average Order
The site currently offers free shipping for spending $50 on select items.
Setting the free shipping threshold to slightly above the average order value can encourage people to add more to their cart to earn free shipping.
However, this could also decrease sales if customers abandon their cart due to a shipping fee so it is important to test this.
They could also offer free shipping to first-time customers as an incentive to acquire new customers or create free shipping promotions on specific dates to boost sales.
➡️ Win #3: Add Post-Purchase Upsell Offers
Making an attractive offer to customers after they have just made a purchase is a great way to make additional sales while the customer is highly receptive to offers.
It is also convenient for the customer since they have already completed the checkout process. They can save time by ordering items without having to re-enter payment information and can save money if they have already qualified for free shipping.
Shopify has an app called One Click Upsell – Zipify OCU that makes it easy to make offers after a customer has made a purchase.
This store could offer limited-time special deals after the customer has completed their purchase to increase sales.
I would add no-brainer offers starting at a low price like $10, then increasing to $50, then $100 (One Click Upsell allows you to make multiple offers).
Adding these additional sales from products the customer was not initially planning to purchase can increase revenue almost immediately.
➡️ Win #4: Improve Category Pages With More Text
The category pages rank pretty high with some pages generating as much as 2,000 views/mo organic traffic. However, some category pages have very little text on the page.
For example, the category page for Pirates of the Caribbean Sets gets about 297 organic traffic per month but only has 1 short sentence of text.
The site also ranks #5 for “custom lego minifigures”, so making this page more SEO friendly with some additional text could help boost the ranking to the top 3 and significantly increase traffic.
Additionally, adding frequently asked questions at the bottom of these pages can help add SEO-friendly text and longtail keyword variations that can increase organic traffic.
Having insufficient text on a page makes it harder for Google to understand what the page is about and it may not rank as high in search results as it could.
➡️ Win #5: Introduce a Subscription Kit
This niche is a good fit for offering a monthly subscription box for customers who love Lego products.
Adding a subscription would be a great way to earn recurring revenue from customers.
A similar subscription service for Legos is Brick Loot which charges $27.28 per month for a 1 year subscription.
These subscription boxes are similar to “mystery boxes” which are very popular in the toy industry. YouTubers may create “unboxing” videos that would promote the subscription box.
Additionally, this could be a good way to sell overstocked inventory. If the retail value is shown to be higher than the subscription price, it will demonstrate good value.
Subscription boxes can also provide new product discovery which can lead to additional sales if the customer likes the product and wants more.
👉 Actionable Takeaways
Here are actionable takeaways that you can apply to your niche website today:
- Add upsells when a product is added to the cart and when a customer checks out to increase the average order value.
- Test setting the free shipping threshold slightly higher than the average order value to encourage shoppers to add more items to their cart.
- Look for pages that already rank well with thin content and add text to improve the rankings.
- Offering a subscription box can increase recurring revenue for eCommerce businesses.
