Hardly Home is an apparel brand for those that love to travel. You can celebrate your case of wanderlust with shirts, hats and bags that are an ode to life on the road. Their travel shirts are made to be worn while on a trip and are good conversation starters for that next international getaway. Think shirts that say, “love me while I’m here.”

Most of their merchandise carries their logo mark, “Hardly Home,” which is stitched on their hats and bags and printed on t-shirts.

The founder Markus King started Hardly Home as a side project and still oversees every element of production, including handprinting, sewing, packaging and shipping. For Markus, Hardly Home is a creative outlet that allows him to explore his passion for travel and give back while doing what he loves.

The Hardly Home website uses a modern, minimalist theme. As a small inventory store, they have put their focus on showcasing strong product photography and travel photos. When you hover over a product photo like a travel shirt, it will unveil a photo of the product on a model without needing to be clicked. This small action helps entice their customers to click through the full product page.

Hardly Home has a blog on their site where they talk about their charitable programs. In 2016, they launched a passport initiative to sponsor more than 100 passports for students to study abroad in partnership with Too Fly Foundation and Show Me Costa Rica. The blog allows them to connect what they are doing as an organization to support the community with their apparel. These partnerships and initiatives help customers feel aligned with Hardly Home’s brand values so that they can be proud to wear their logo mark.

Back to the store design elements, Hardly Home offers live support chat powered by Tidio to get in touch with their customers in real time while they browse the site. They also have an on-brand email capture for their newsletter called the Frequent Traveler VIP List. When you enter your email for the list, you unlock a 10% discount that can be used on your first order. Hardly Home then uses their email funnel to send out future discounts on new releases. They also use their mailing list to fuel the travel bug by sharing frequent traveler secrets and tips and tricks for your next trip.

Hardly Home uses Sezzle to offer a “buy now pay later” option at checkout. When used, Sezzle splits the customers’ order price into 4 interest-free payments over 6 weeks.

In response to the pandemic and its implications on travel, Hardly Home launched a series of masks made of reusable, machine-washable fabric.

Under each product page, they load up a “frequently bought together” promotional unit that lets you select additional items from their store to add to your cart. As you select and deselect additional items, it dynamically adjusts to show you the final price for all the items before you add to cart.

Testimonials and reviews are often the most convincing part of a buyer’s journey and they have leveraged them on product pages to help clinch sales. They include photos of customers wearing the product and a written review.

Hardly Home is a great example of a small inventory shop taking advantage of a clean design and strong product photography. As a small apparel brand, their charitable work helps people connect with their purpose and vision, and makes customers feel good supporting a company that is giving back to causes they believe in.