I sell bookish/BookTok type tees, totes, hats, some crops, some tank tops and some sweatshirts.
I get decent numbers session wise, I run ads. I have Insta/FB & TikTok with followers. I just cannot get the store to convert. I have only had 24 orders since mid March when I opened. I have cleaned the store up substantially but still feel like I am missing something.
First and foremost, I would lay off the sign up popup… It is annoying and irritating.
Logo needs work. As it stands, the Facebook logo in the announcement bar is larger than the words in your logo. Your logo image is 600px but rendered at 100px, and since the actual logo is much smaller than the image, it really only comes out to about 35px. That is way to small for your logo on a desktop. The image has a black background, but this is on a white header…
This hero slideshow… Probably better not to cut the head off… Maybe an image of sitting back and relaxing/ drinking coffee/reading a book, not a closeup of the words…
I’m guessing this is a pod dropshipping operation? A few choice cuss words for that business model, but I’ll leave that for another post. Let’s talk about the actual graphics you are uploading. You know to remove the background, but is that all you are doing? Shirt printing is not upload an image and it just works magic. And the pod company is definitely not going to make any adjustments or better the image. What you upload is what they print. Not going to get into the specifics, which are a whole bunch of tutorials in themselves, but the point is you cannot just upload a png and expect it to come out great. You have to test.
Which brings me to the second point of pod dropshipping that people fail to do. Testing their own products. You absolutely need to do this if you want to succeed. Every shirt color. Every design.
Truth be told, the pod dropshipping shirt market is grossly overdone. And you’ve locked yourself into a niche within that market, so your 24 orders or whatever is actually quite good for this stage comparatively. You should be jumping for joy. Do a quick search for “no sales”. Many come here asking why they aren’t getting sales.
Work on the business. Work on bettering the designs. Work on getting personal with people. That’s where the real conversions happen. And go local if you can. Go to the book club or wherever that niche leads.
Thank you for the feedback. I really do appreciate it. I understand the stigma behind the business model but its what I can afford to do currently. Once I can afford to do more I would love to switch over to another business model. I do order quite a few samples of my products but I unfortunately cannot order everything. Being so new to it I didn’t know if what I have so far is good. If 24 orders at this stage is good then I will take that. I definitely treat this as a real business. I work on it for a ton of hours each week and have been since the beginning all while working a full time job. I would love to eventually open a local brick and mortar store. I will take all of your input and pivot a bit on what I have. Thank you again! 
your store needs modifications as pre CRO (conversion rate optimisation)
more sections in homepage (testimonials, offer banners, Trust badges)
additional policy pages (secure checkout, billing policies)
guest checkout and other enhancement too
website should look so professional that user trusts it and make purchse
search your competitor and try comparing your site
BookTok traffic is very visual and impulse-driven, so “decent sessions” from ads/social doesn’t always mean those visitors are ready to buy on first visit.
Two things we’d check first before more store tweaks:
Message match — does the page someone lands on feel like the same vibe as the TikTok/Reel/ad they clicked? For bookish apparel, if they land on homepage vs the exact tee they saw, conversion often drops hard. Worth sending paid/social traffic to collection or product pages, not just home.
Where the drop-off is — in Analytics, compare sessions → add to cart → checkout started → purchase. If sessions are fine but ATC is weak, it’s usually offer/price/photos/trust on the PDP. If ATC is okay but checkout is thin, look at shipping cost surprise, mobile checkout friction, or payment options.
Quick question: do you know if most traffic is mobile from TikTok, and are you sending them to a specific product or the homepage? That usually points to the biggest lever for stores at your stage (24 orders is still early — often it’s one funnel fix, not the whole store).
Hey @Nicole_Sweet
The niche is genuinely strong. Dark romance and morally grey readers are one of the most engaged and purchase-happy communities on the internet right now. BookTok buyers will spend real money on merch when it resonates. 24 orders since mid-March with running ads and social followers suggests the audience connection is there but something in the funnel is leaking.
On the marketing side: paid ads to cold audiences are a hard sell for niche bookish merch. The people most likely to buy are already congregating somewhere: r/DarkRomance, r/Fantasy, dark romance Facebook groups, BookTok comment sections under trending books. Being genuinely present in those spaces (not just dropping links) tends to convert far better for a brand like this than broad ad targeting. Your followers already prove the audience exists. It’s about meeting them where they’re already in the mood.
On the cart: you’ve got a slider cart which is good. But for a bookish merch store where someone might want the sweatshirt and the tote that match the same vibe, the cart isn’t surfacing those connections. Two things worth adding.
A free shipping progress bar: merch buyers in this niche will absolutely add a second item to hit a threshold, especially if the items feel thematically linked.
In-cart product recommendations: dark romance tee in the cart? Show the matching tote or tumbler. The “curated for the morally grey” angle makes this feel like curation, not upselling.
Don’t stack separate apps to do this. Something like iCart handles both in one place without eating into your margin.
You’ve got the right audience and the right aesthetic. The conversion gap is likely a combination of where you’re advertising and what the cart does once someone’s interested.
Hii @Nicole_Sweet
First thing, I don’t think you’re in as bad a position as it feels. 24 orders isn’t terrible for a booktok POD store and that actually tells me people are interested enough to buy and something is working.
But a few things i noticed that the popup appears very quickly. Personally I closed it before I had even looked at anything. In niches like this, people often buy because they connect with the personality, humor, fandom, or community behind the brand. I’d give people a chance to browse first.
The logo also feels a bit small compared to everything else happening in the header. Your branding should probably be one of the first things people notice.
The bigger issue though is that I don’t immediately understand what makes The Spined Life different from every other bookish merch store. The products are there, but the personality behind the brand feels hidden.
I’d actually put some of that front and center. Why this brand? Why these designs? What kind of reader are they for?
Looking through the products, I’d also spend some time improving the product pages themselves. More lifestyle mockups, clearer sizing information, and maybe some close-up images. In POD, people can’t touch the product, so the product page has to do more of the selling.
One thing I’d definitely check is where those 24 orders came from. Which designs sold? Which didn’t? Most stores have a few designs carrying most of the sales and that’s usually where the clues are. There’s usually a pattern there that can tell you what customers are responding to.
Honestly, this doesn’t feel like a store that nobody wants. It feels more like a store that’s getting interest but isn’t quite converting enough of that interest into purchases yet.
Hi @Nicole_Sweet,
Took a look and honestly your branding is great. The “morally grey reader” angle and names like “I Don’t Want Him Redeemed” are spot-on for BookTok. So it’s not the concept, it’s trust at the buying moment. Three quick wins:
Also worth testing: “BOGO 20% off” reads weak (BOGO usually means 50%/free), and check the full flow on mobile since your traffic’s coming from TikTok/IG.
Most your traffic comes from Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, 90%+ of your visitors are browsing on a mobile phone.
Open your store inside the Instagram or TikTok built-in browser and try buying your own product.
Hey, I’ll give you my super direct take on this.
The basic idea of putting book themes and elements on T-shirts isn’t bad at all. That’s not the problem.
The biggest issue I see is the *kind* of books you’re picking. You’re going for some pretty obscure stuff, or books with really strong, unique personalities. So, who are these readers? And more importantly, what do *they* actually expect from clothes based on those books?
I highly doubt they’re looking for super safe, generic designs, or stuff printed in Times New Roman, you know? Readers who are into niche, radical, or obscure books usually aren’t looking for plain, “goody-two-shoes” outfits. They’re often looking for an emotional outlet or a way to express themselves.
So, it’s not really about your mockups, those are fine, technology can handle that. It’s more about the designs themselves. Are they maybe a bit too… tame? Too mediocre for the books they represent?
If you made those patterns and styles more “explosive” or edgy, I bet your target audience would dig them way more and you’d see more orders.
You’ve already got 30 orders, which tells you people are interested in the *concept*. But if conversions are low, it probably means you haven’t pushed the designs far enough. You need to go harder, be more extreme with it. In today’s DTC world, to really stand out and survive, you pretty much have to be bold and niche.
Thank y’all so much for your feedback! I really do appreciate it. I am taking all advice and really trying to apply it to my business and my site. I did get another sale today so my shop isn’t bad it just needs some tweaks, trust and time. I wasn’t expecting a boat load of orders overnight, I promise I am not someone who follows POD gurus on YouTube promising a million dollars in sales if you sign up for their course. 
It’s just the business model I can afford right now.
First of all, I would work more with styling and shop design.
From my perspective as a progress bar app creator, I think this could be a great addition to your store, offering free shipping for orders bigger than $x.
Since all you sell is t-shirts, bundling collections is another great feature to implement. So, combine free shipping with cheaper options if a buyer gets more than one item.
Another incentive could be a free gift. A small item like socks or a scarf for orders over $X could attract more people to place larger orders.
There are plenty of ways to improve the sales, however, you have to test them. There is no one secret recipe. And sometimes one thing works in one shop, but is a total disappointment in another. So you have to work it out yourself.
Good luck!
Your store branding, aesthetic, and product mockups look absolutely incredible! The designs are perfect for the BookTok niche. Since you are getting great traffic but low conversions, the screenshot screencapture-thespinedlife-2026-06-11-03_10_59.png actually highlights a massive, critical issue that is likely killing your sales:
The Issue: Look at the left-hand side of your page in screencapture-thespinedlife-2026-06-11-03_10_59.png. Your ‘15% off’ floating tab is glitching and repeating itself at least 7 times all the way down the page as you scroll.
Why it breaks sales: On desktop and especially on mobile, these overlapping tabs look broken, block the actual product content, and scream ‘untrustworthy website’ to a buyer. A user will instantly bounce if the site looks broken.
The Fix: Check your discount or email pop-up app settings. You likely have a floating tab enabled that is duplicating across your collection templates or theme layers. Keep it to one single, clean banner or pop-up.
The Issue: Under your ‘New Drops’ section, the first three t-shirts (‘She Reads in the Dark’, ‘Probably Consuming Trash’, and ‘Girl… You Will NOT Believe’) do not display their prices. Only the fourth shirt shows ‘from $30.00’.
The Fix: If a buyer has to click through to a product page just to find out basic pricing, it adds an extra step that hurts impulse buys. Make sure your collection page settings are set to show pricing uniformly across all product cards.
The Hook: BookTok shoppers buy based on community hype. Since you already have a great social media following, pull some of that energy into the store.
The Fix: Add a dedicated product review section to your pages. If you don’t have many website reviews yet, embed a live Instagram or TikTok feed showing real readers holding or wearing your merch.
Fixing that duplicating ‘15% off’ tab should be your absolute highest priority, as it completely disrupts the user experience!
Honestly, 24 orders since mid March tells me this probably is not a “nobody wants this” problem. People have bought from you, so I would not read it as the store being broken.
Before putting more energy into ads or changing the whole site, I’d pick one product you feel strongest about and make that page the test case.
With POD/bookish apparel, mockups can make people hesitate because they can’t really tell what the print looks like in real life, how the item fits, or whether the shop feels reliable yet. Even a few simple phone photos of your own sample could help: close-up of the print, the item being worn or held, and one photo that feels more like the dark romance / BookTok world you’re selling to.
I’d also make the first few lines of that product page sound less like a basic product description and more like your reader’s world. People in this niche are not just buying a tee or tote. They’re buying the “this shop gets my books / my vibe” feeling.
Nicole, your niche is actually clear, and the brand voice is stronger than many new POD stores. I do not think the main issue is “no demand.” I would look at the path from social/ad click to product page.
A few specific things I noticed:
1. The repeated announcement strip creates a lot of noise. “Free shipping” and “new drops” are useful, but seeing them repeated many times can make the page feel busier than it needs to be.
2. Some review/product links appear to point to “/null”. If a buyer clicks from a review and lands nowhere useful, that weakens trust.
3. The homepage has good personality, but for paid traffic I would not send people there first. I would send each ad/TikTok to one matching product or collection. For example, a dark romance post should land on the Dark Romance or Morally Grey collection, not the general homepage.
4. Product pages need to answer the buying doubts quickly: fit, fabric, print quality, shipping time, returns, and whether the item is true to size. Bookish buyers may love the phrase, but they still need apparel confidence.
5. I would test one “hero product” funnel: one post/ad, one product page, one offer, one clear CTA. If that path improves, then repeat it across the best collections.
So my first quick win would be: reduce page noise, fix broken/null review links, then rewrite one best-selling or most-clicked product page around buyer objections instead of only product style.
the BookTok niche is super passionate but also very specific about what they respond to. if your ads are targeting broad “book lover” audiences you’re probably getting a lot of clicks from people who don’t vibe with dark romance specifically. i’d narrow your targeting to accounts that follow specific dark romance authors or BookTok creators instead of general book interest.
also worth looking at whether your product pages match the energy of the brand. your site name and concept are strong but if someone clicks an ad expecting that moody dark romance aesthetic and the product page feels generic, the disconnect kills the sale.
Hi, @Nicole_Sweet
From looking through the store, I think the niche and branding are strong. Since you’re already getting traffic from ads and social channels, I’d focus more on the buying experience than on bringing in more visitors.
Product discovery could be easier
You have a good range of products, but visitors may not immediately know where to start. Featuring best sellers or creating collections around popular tropes and themes could help guide shoppers toward products they connect with.A featured “BookTok Favorites” or “Best Sellers” section on the homepage could also help first-time visitors quickly discover products and give them a place to start.
Purchase confidence
Since the store is still relatively new, I’d make sure shipping information, delivery times, and return policies are easy to find. Small trust signals can make a big difference, especially for first-time customers.
Mobile experience
Most BookTok and Instagram traffic is mobile, so I’d test the entire journey on a phone. Make sure adding products to cart and reaching checkout feels quick and effortless.
Homepage messaging
The dark romance angle is unique, but I’d lean into it even more. Make sure visitors instantly understand who the products are for and what makes the brand different.
Speed and performance
Based on the PageSpeed Insights report, mobile performance could also be contributing to lower conversions. Slow loading and delayed interactions create friction, especially for paid traffic. Optimizing images and prioritizing above-the-fold content can help keep visitors engaged.
Since traffic doesn’t seem to be the issue, I’d spend more time optimizing the customer journey before increasing ad spend.
You could also consider tools like Website Speedy to help optimize images and improve page speed. It is optional to use.
Disclaimer: I’m affiliated with Website Speedy.
A few things others haven’t mentioned yet:
Your traffic source matters more than your traffic volume. If most sessions are coming from TikTok and Instagram in-app browsers, test your entire checkout flow inside those browsers specifically. They render differently than Safari or Chrome, and small things like sticky headers covering the add-to-cart button or payment buttons not loading properly can silently kill conversions. A lot of POD stores get decent click-through rates from social but the in-app browser experience is where they lose people.
On the product pages: for POD, the gap between “this looks cool” and “I’ll actually buy this” is almost always about tangibility. Mockups alone don’t close that gap. If you’ve ordered samples (which you mentioned you have), photograph them flat-lay on a desk, in packaging, being worn. Even one real photo per product outperforms five mockups because it tells the customer “this is a real product from a real brand, not a random print on demand storefront.”
One thing I’d add once you fix the trust/UX issues the other replies covered: give people a reason to add one more item. BookTok buyers are collectors by nature. A simple “buy 2 tees, get a free bookmark” or “spend $60 and pick a free sticker pack” kind of offer can push your AOV from one impulse buy to two. I’ve set this up for niche apparel clients using BOGOS with a progress bar in the cart that shows how close they are to the freebie. It works especially well when your products are in the $20-30 range because the threshold feels reachable, not forced.
But honestly, fix the basics first (popup timing, real photos, trust badges). Promotions don’t help if people bounce before seeing the product.
Best,
Moeed
Ads and traffic sound like they’re doing their job, so I’d look at the product page next.
Besides the banner issue already mentioned, the product descriptions could work harder. Right now they describe the shirts, but they don’t fully sell why someone should want that specific tee. I’d also add a short FAQ near the price/buy button for sizing, shipping, and returns.
Happy to point out the exact spots if useful.
off sitewide
July sale — 45% off at checkout, applied automatically. Valid for 60 minutes. One per customer.
Offer ends in
