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Products are not selling - Tips and advice needed!

  • avatar

    by: gatstore
    New SaleHoo Member
    9 posts

    Products are not selling - Tips and advice needed!

    Posted 14 Jul 10 10:12 pm.

    Greetings!

    Would like some feedback and recommended improvements to my new website link hidden .

    I have been a member of Salehoo for a while. Am new to the business environment, and am looking for some opinions on my new website. I am based in Southern California and am marketing mainly to the U.S. market (due to shipping issues).

    I am using GoDaddy for hosting, etc. Their integration of Quickbooks with their Quick Shopping Cart is lacking. Their templates are pretty restrictive. I did do some of the SEO stuff. Tried the Google Adwords (got $75 credit from GoDaddy) and not a very good response. I tried Facebook Ads yesterday ($50 credit from GoDaddy), and got a better response.

    I have not sold anything online yet.

    Thanks in advance.

    GATStore
  • avatar

    by: fudjj
    SaleHoo Staff
    2858 posts

    Re: Products are not selling - Tips and advice needed!

    Posted 14 Jul 10 10:33 pm.

    K, I quite like the store image from a visual marketing stand point, it's warm and inviting, although it does look quite unfinished, and that kind of look can impact on sales as the customer can't be confident in spending their cash if they feel that the site is either brand new, unfinished or just about to close.

    The obvious question is how much traffic flow are you generating?, and then to what sort of conversion rate are you getting. Sales to visits ratio?

    Marc Ransom

    Community Manager
    SaleHoo.com

    About the Community Manager

  • avatar

    by: pc-stuff-n-more
    New SaleHoo Member
    1 posts

    Re: Products are not selling - Tips and advice needed!

    Posted 16 Jul 10 6:24 pm.

    Hello,

    I agree the site looks nice but not finished. You need to add more content if possible. I would try to list some customer comments too. That helps people to see you are really in business. Do you have a retail store also? If so, post pictures of the store or your sales area. Pictures of actual products help too. Make sure they are large enough so the customer can see the detail in the product. List as much information about the product as possible without going overboard.

    Just as an example. You have listed a product cs0021 Burgundy Oval.

    The item states it has a verse on it. I would list the verse along with what flowers are used in the design.

    Good Luck and Happy Selling
  • avatar

    by: fudjj
    SaleHoo Staff
    2858 posts

    Re: Products are not selling - Tips and advice needed!

    Posted 16 Jul 10 10:57 pm.

    Welcome to SaleHoo PSNM, and some really good advice for gatstore. It's not just the Devil that hides in the detail, sales do as well :)

    Marc Ransom

    Community Manager
    SaleHoo.com

    About the Community Manager

  • avatar

    by: gatstore
    New SaleHoo Member
    9 posts

    Re: Products are not selling - Tips and advice needed!

    Posted 17 Jul 10 5:34 am.

    Hi Marc!

    Thank you for the constructive feedback. Much appreciated. I have gone ahead and pick a different template. Have made a number of changes as well.

    I have not made any online sales yet. Have sold to a few friends who were local.

    Please let me know what you think of the updated main page.

    Thanks,

    GATStore
  • avatar

    by: gatstore
    New SaleHoo Member
    9 posts

    Re: Products are not selling - Tips and advice needed!

    Posted 17 Jul 10 5:48 am.

    Hi pc-stuff-n-more!

    Thanks for the feedback. I am honored that your 1st post is in response to my 1st post. :-)

    Just made some changes to the main page. Please let me know what you think of the updates. Will try to update the content. The reason that I didn't list the verse, is that when one clicks on the picture they should be able to read it. But, then again, not everyone will click it. I will go ahead and list it in the item description.

    Was planning on adding a customer comments page after I sell some items online. But, if I don't put it now, I may not have any online customers. A "chicken and egg situation". :-) Will ask those people I sold a few to locally to give some feedback, and create the page. I do not have a retail store.

    Thanks again.

    Regards,

    GATStore
  • avatar

    by: fudjj
    SaleHoo Staff
    2858 posts

    Re: Products are not selling - Tips and advice needed!

    Posted 22 Jul 10 10:44 pm.

    Much better layout, site looks complete now. Good colour branding, suits the product style, while remaining warm and welcoming. I like the welcome message, however I would like to see you break that first paragraph up into two. Large blocks of text can be off putting to a lot of online customers, so keeping paragraphs shorter can encourage reading.

    I think it's important to encourage the customer to read because if you are travelling around the world to source these types of products, then you have a fantastic story to tell, and you can use that story to capture a customers imagination if you tell it well.

    You start of telling that you travel all over the world, but you limit that to just a few words, where I would suggest you could talk a little about the destinations that you do travel to in sourcing the products, and take the customer along for the ride.

    Capturing a customers attention quickly is half the battle, and building a story like that around the products can capture that attention, and even more so add more value to your products in the mind of the customer.

    I note the part in the introduction where you inform customers that no two items are the same due to them being hand made. It's a great point to be highlighting, but to me it almost reads like a disclaimer. Disclaimers are usually hidden in the fine print because they are a negative aspect of marketing, and when marketing a product you need to keep the negatives as muted as possible.

    You should shine a light on that fact in a more positive fashion, being unique is a huge selling point, so I would suggest rewording that to highlight the positives of purchasing unique hand crafted items over mass produced, and again you will be adding value to the products in the eye of the customer.

    I think you need better images, what I mean is matching images. Some on white backgrounds, some on black, there is no uniformity there at all. It gives a patchwork quilt appearance, rather than a soft silky smooth feel with all images matching. The first thing that comes to my mind is Google images, or some sort of online library images.

    You run the risk of customers thinking that perhaps the travelling all over the world part isn't truly accurate or you would have better images, and as soon as you give a customer a reason to feel that, then all the positives you have built around the products will be completely devalued.

    In regards to the layout of the products, I think having them categorised would be better for navigation, and again, it just shows that you are treating the products with more care by keeping them in their own space. Now I know a lot of people will think I've gone completely insane, but where would someone keep the good silver cutlery?

    You will find most would not keep the kids plastic knifes in with the silver, that would have its own place because it's special. People can subconsciously relate things kept in their own special domain as being special. It's not the type of thing that will generate you a sale on its own, but it's simple little things like that, when all combined together can trigger an emotional purchasing decision.

    I won't bore you to death with my ideas lol, however I will just touch upon you Customer Comments section before I wrap this up. Sensational idea, extremely positive marketing point, however it can be a massive negative if you don't have any good comments in there at all. Customers will be attracted to a header like that like a fly to, well you know what, but if they find nothing there it indicates one of either two things. The site is new, and no one has bought anything yet, or no one that has bought anything that they were impressed enough with to make comment. Both have strong negative aspects to them, and you should stay clear of them all together.

    If you can start generating some good comments, it would be a bonus if the customers would also send in some pics of how they have used the products themselves. That not only gives new customers confidence in purchasing, but it gives them ideas on how they can also use the products.

    Anyway, some food for thought at this point for you, hopefully you will find that helpful : )

    Marc Ransom

    Community Manager
    SaleHoo.com

    About the Community Manager

  • avatar

    by: gatstore
    New SaleHoo Member
    9 posts

    Re: Products are not selling - Tips and advice needed!

    Posted 22 Jul 10 11:17 pm.

    Hi Marc!

    Wow, good review. Let me respond as much as I can. You clicked the Customer Comments link as I was posting it. I have got one comment that I have already posted. Have requested a few more from local customers (have not sold anything online yet).

    Will work on the formatting of the main page as suggested. Will be making more modifications over the weekend. The main picture will also be replaced with one which is "warmer".

    Good point about the pictures. Will try to modify.

    Appreciate all the help.

    Thanks,

    GATStore
  • avatar

    by: fudjj
    SaleHoo Staff
    2858 posts

    Re: Products are not selling - Tips and advice needed!

    Posted 22 Jul 10 11:41 pm.

    No problems at all Emil, just fire me a PM when you want me to do another drive by, looking forward to seeing it all come together.

    : )

    Marc Ransom

    Community Manager
    SaleHoo.com

    About the Community Manager

  • avatar

    by: gatstore
    New SaleHoo Member
    9 posts

    Re: Products are not selling - Tips and advice needed!

    Posted 16 Aug 10 6:41 am.

    Hello!

    Just wanted to thank everyone (especially Marc) for all the input. I have made most of the recommended changes, and will continue to fine tune the site.

    Best regards,

    Emil