Conversion rates

[sparklyscotty]

I have a website that sells jewellery. I am happy with my hits and I have lots of on and offline leads that visit the site. But how can I turn these visitors into customers?
I also get next to no sign ups for my newsletter, or for my free gift reminder services.
Any ideas?
-Angel-

[Rob Holmes]

Well you could visit the doctor and see what he says...

http://www.yourwebsitedoctor.co.uk

I'm sure others will have more to add here though :)

Rob

[Ozzy]

Hi Angel,
Few little thoughts I've had whilst quickly looking at your website.

Add a great big 0800 phone number to the top of every page of your website, even if it only goes to your mobile or a call centre. Get a good call centre and train them on taking orders over the phone. There are some members on here who can help or drop me a line and I can help.

On your contact page put a clear postal address and remove your mobile number and replace with either a landline number or a 0800 or 0845 number.

You accreditations hidden away on your website. Brag about them on the header of every page of your website.

Try to get a few more accreditations also, one good one is SafeBuy (approved by TrustUK and a bit like the old Which? Web Trader code). Some information on that can be found at http://www.safebuy.org.uk/
If you join through Quick Formations you get 25% off their joining fee saving you about £25. To join through Quick download the application form http://newsletter.quickformations.com/safebuy.doc and send it off, otherwise join direct if you prefer.

These are the things that hit me immediately, but the site itself looks OK. If you have money available it could do with a bit of a professional face lift by a web developer, for example comparing it to the following;
http://www.danielprince.co.uk/
http://www.thediamondjeweller.co.uk/

The two above have a more professional impression when looking at them, which would give a shopper more confidence in handing over a few hundred quid to the website for a piece of jewellery.

[sparklyscotty]

THanks guys. I am thinking about getting an 0845 number that forwards to my cell. Any recommendations?
Also,
"These are the things that hit me immediately, but the site itself looks OK. If you have money available it could do with a bit of a professional face lift by a web developer"
You have no idea how funny (tragic) that is.. I am still legally pursuing my webdeveloper (an MSN MVP!) for non-delivery of service. HUGE investment down the drain. :(
Never mind, HotIgloo are helping me out now.
-Angel-

[Top Hat]

This useit article
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/sales_cycle.html

Says that most sites achieve a conversion of 2% for well targeted visitors
(although those taking part in the survey achieved 4%)

Our average conversion is less, but on the well targeted leads we achieve similar
levels

[clickprofits]

I agree with the advice about prominently displaying your postal address and a contact tel number. SafeBuy makes sense too, it's essential for visitors to feel confident in buying from a retailer who they have not heard of before.

As for getting people to sign up for your newsletter and/or free gift reminder service, your sign-up form is nice and prominent (although you could also experiment with a pop-up using a cookie so it only appears once). Perhaps also consider offering some sort of incentive to sign up - a £5 off your order voucher or entry into a monthly free prize draw as well as advance notice of special offers/sales. For men browsing your site maybe you could include some articles on how to choose jewellery when buying as a gift, for example.

A good resource on conversion is the Grok Dot Com e-mail newsletter (which is free) - when you subscribe you will also get a very useful free 37 page report on increasing conversion rates, in pdf format.
:arrow: http://www.grokdotcom.com/

The same people run the company FutureNow (US based) which has information and case studies on improving conversion rates:
:arrow: http://www.futurenowinc.com/index.htm

They also wrote a book called 'Call to Action' which goes into much more detail on increasing conversion rates for e-commerce websites:
:arrow: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932226397/1567

Finally, an article with some tips on how to improve usability and improve your conversion rates:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/print.asp?source=%2F5%2Fwehr4%2Easp

[DarrenH]

Hi

Just a couple of thoughts...

1. Good idea to have a testemonial right there on the home page.

2. There's not enough information right up front about why I should buy from you and no one else (usP) unique selling proposition.

3. If you have photos on yoru home page, you've not inserted <alt> tags to describe the photo, not vital, but might win you a point or two with search engine spiders, also makes it screeen reader friendly for blind and poor sighted folk.

4. There's no insentive to join up to your newsletter, what are you going to give me for signing up, or what advantage will I gainfrom your newsletter.

5. Remember the most important thing a visitor wants from your site is content, and lots of it. Someone lands on your homepage and unconsciously says "What's in it for me"

To work out how to get this right up front, right a list of the main benefits of your product/service and keep asking yourself "so what?"

This will help you sharpen your main benefits until they can't get any better.

Hope that helps a bit.

Darren

[sparklyscotty]

Thanks guys. I can't believe how anyone can have a website as their sole source of income at conversion rates of 1 or 2%. Very depressing. :(
-Angel-

[Top Hat]

Thanks guys. I can't believe how anyone can have a website as their sole source of income at conversion rates of 1 or 2%. Very depressing. :(
-Angel-

It is possible, you just have to have thousands of visitors :D