11 May 2026 · Helen Crowe
The sequence of tiles on a category page tells shoppers what you believe is worth buying first. That sequence should follow sell-through, not the photographer’s favourite look.
Category grids are often handed to a studio because they “look like merchandising.” The studio will sequence by colour story or by the frame that printed well. Shoppers treat the first row as a recommendation. If the first row is last season’s slow colourway, conversion on the whole page suffers while the converting colourway sits on row four.
When we review a category, we print the grid as a shopper sees it on a laptop and on a phone, then number the tiles. Beside that print we place last week’s add-to-basket by listing. The argument is visual: tile three converted; tile three is below the fold on a phone. Moving it is a buying-and-merchandising decision, not a design flourish.
Badges complicate this. A “new” badge on a non-converting colourway trains the eye to stop on the wrong tile. We ask merchandisers to treat badges as scarce. If everything is new, the grid is shouting and conversion charts go quiet.
None of this requires a new shop rebuild. It requires someone with authority to change tile order weekly during peak, and to stop treating the photographer’s favourite look as the default first frame.