Case Study · Bakery · Nashville, TN
Baby Cakes Has a Reviews Problem — And a SpotHopper Ad in Every Footer.
Baby Cakes Bakery — Nashville, TN · babycakesnash.com
Sarah's review appears three times in the page HTML. The same 5 reviews loop three full times in the carousel. And the footer on every page advertises SpotHopper's website management and social media services — a direct competitor vendor credit visible to every customer.
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The Evidence
The reviews carousel loops the same 5 customer reviews three full times in a row. Sarah's review ('Baby Cakes has such a cute set up! The popcorn and the cakes are delicious…') appears 3 times in the rendered HTML. Any visitor who watches the carousel run will see the loop complete.
Footer on every page of the site: 'Powered by: SpotHopper' with a live link to spothopperapp.com, followed by 'Website design, Social Media marketing and Email marketing provided by SpotHopper.' The bakery is advertising their vendor's services to every customer who scrolls to the bottom.
Baby Cakes Bakery at babycakesnash.com is a Nashville bakery with real customers, real reviews, and a real SpotHopper platform that's doing the bakery no favors. The reviews carousel loops the same 5 testimonials three complete times — Sarah's review appears three times in the rendered page HTML — and the sitewide footer runs a full paragraph advertising SpotHopper's website design and social media services to every visitor who scrolls down.
The Business
Baby Cakes Bakery serves Nashville with custom cakes, cupcakes, and popcorn — a popular neighborhood option with real customer loyalty. Based on the reviews that do appear on the site, customers love the setup, the product, and the experience. The bakery has the social proof it needs to convert browsers into first-time visitors.
The problem is that the SpotHopper platform the site runs on has two compounding issues: a carousel configuration that loops reviews until the repetition is obvious, and a default footer template that SpotHopper includes in all their sites as free advertising for their own services. The bakery is paying for a website that advertises their vendor's business at the bottom of every page.
What We Found
Two separate vendor-caused problems — each one visible and credibility-damaging on its own.
Reviews Carousel Loops Same 5 Reviews Three Full Times
The homepage reviews carousel at babycakesnash.com loops its content three complete times without variation. Sarah's review appears three times in the rendered HTML in unbroken sequence:
“Baby Cakes has such a cute set up! The popcorn and the cakes are delicious…”
— Sarah's review, appearing 3× in the page HTML at babycakesnash.com
A visitor watching the carousel cycle through sees the same testimonial appear again as the loop completes. An observant visitor checking the page source sees the same review block duplicated three times. Either way, the signal is clear: the carousel is misconfigured and no one has reviewed it since launch.
SpotHopper Footer Ad on Every Page — Full Vendor Credit With Live Link
The footer on every page of the site displays:
“Powered by: SpotHopper”
“Website design, Social Media marketing and Email marketing provided by SpotHopper.”
— Sitewide footer at babycakesnash.com, with “SpotHopper” as a live link to spothopperapp.com
This is SpotHopper's default footer attribution for their platform clients — the same as a WordPress theme leaving its vendor credit in the footer. Every customer who scrolls to the bottom of Baby Cakes' site is served an advertisement for SpotHopper's other services. The bakery is paying SpotHopper for a site that does free marketing for SpotHopper.
Platform Dependency — The Bakery Doesn't Control Its Own Site
SpotHopper is a restaurant-focused SaaS platform with recurring fees. The bakery has no access to the underlying site code, no ability to remove the vendor attribution, and no way to fix the carousel loop without going through SpotHopper support. Every issue on this site requires a support ticket rather than a direct edit.
What We'd Fix
A site the bakery controls — with reviews that loop correctly and a footer that works for Baby Cakes, not SpotHopper.
Reviews Carousel Fixed — Each Testimonial Appears Once
The carousel configured to display each testimonial exactly once before cycling. Sarah's review gets one appearance, one impression, full credibility — not a three-peat that signals a broken implementation.
SpotHopper Vendor Credit Removed — Footer Belongs to Baby Cakes
The “Powered by SpotHopper” attribution and the vendor ad copy removed from the footer. The bottom of every page works for Baby Cakes — the bakery's name, contact info, social links, and nothing that sends visitors away.
Owned Platform — The Bakery Controls Its Own Site
A site the bakery can update directly — no support tickets required to fix a carousel or remove an attribution. Direct access to every page, every section, every word.
Nashville Local SEO Built In From the Start
Structured data for the bakery's Nashville location, products, and hours. The site configured to capture searches for “cupcakes Nashville,” “Nashville bakery,” and “Baby Cakes Nashville” — with Google able to properly index and surface the business.
Spec Redesign Deliverables
- ✓Reviews carousel fixed — each testimonial appears once, no looping duplicates
- ✓SpotHopper vendor attribution removed — footer works for the bakery, not the platform
- ✓Platform independence — direct access to site code, no support tickets for basic edits
- ✓Nashville local SEO — structured data, schema markup, local keyword targeting
- ✓Mobile-optimized layout — Nashville customers browse on their phones
- ✓Curated testimonials section — Baby Cakes' real reviews, displayed properly
The Opportunity
Baby Cakes has the product and the customer loyalty to compete in Nashville's bakery market. The SpotHopper platform is the bottleneck — it creates two visible credibility problems (the looping carousel, the vendor footer ad) and puts every fix behind a support ticket.
Transitioning to a site the bakery controls directly solves both problems permanently. No carousel loop, no SpotHopper advertisement, no dependency on a vendor's support queue to make basic changes. The site works for Baby Cakes, not for the platform vendor.
We've built the spec redesign. Baby Cakes can see what a clean, vendor-free, properly configured Nashville bakery site looks like — before committing to anything.
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