Revamped site - no sales. Why? [Archive]

directmarketingadvice

6th September 2009, 11:47

You have google analytics on your site, so do a before and after comparison of the stats.

That should give you a better picture than just "sales have fallen through the floor" - e.g. the number of visitors, the number of visitors per source, bounce rate, average time on site, average number of pages visited, %ge of people adding products to the cart, main exit pages etc.

Without knowing what numbers have changed, it's impossible to say.

(especially without seeing the old site)

For all we know, your site is dependent on organic rankings and you may have lost those when you changed your site.

Hope this helps,

Steve

Kev Jaques

6th September 2009, 11:49

Looks ok from an initial quick look, still some conversion things which could go in
You have no Google links
Get your bags/products on Googlebase

oldeagleeye

6th September 2009, 12:01

Nice site but you could be suffering from the huge influx of counterfeits.

You might want to get the message across that quality aside knowing that you have bought a fake ain't the same as owning the real thing.:eek:

iboxsecurity

6th September 2009, 14:39

Running a magento site now was it on this before? If not chances are your link structures have completely changed and so any organic traffic will likely have dropped through the floor. Check your analytics for the past 3 months see what has changed.

gercam

6th September 2009, 14:51

Was not magento site before - but did redirect links.
Hits are down a little but sales not coming from them

Kev Jaques

6th September 2009, 14:54

Did you send out an email to your existing clients of the changes being made?
Don't alienate them, let them know of the benefits of the new changes.

iboxsecurity

6th September 2009, 14:58

ok if the links were all redirected was this done via htaccess using 301 redirects?

Also have you tried and tested doing a checkout yourself? From start to end?

NetConneXions

6th September 2009, 15:18

Iwould make a google webmaster account http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools and submit your sitemap, also if you can submit to google base which someone mentioned.

oldeagleeye

6th September 2009, 15:31

Gercam. Haven't you already posed this question on another thread.

I repeat what I said there you are trying to market a luxury product typically about £80 quid it seems and you do not only offer free delivery but want to charge £8.95. That is way over the top when people and yes even the reasonably well off are worried about jobs and watching the pennies. What's more I think a lot of people would think would resent paying £8.95 when next day delivery even on a heavy computer is only £4,95.

The bottom line is then that you have a least 3 barriers to hitting that final buy button. In today's market you can't afford a single one.

patientlady

6th September 2009, 15:45

Hi Gercam
I googled designer handbags and your site did not appear. Also did you have Sage pay on your previous site?
Nice site, easy use, quick loading I like it...

copywritingjohn

6th September 2009, 16:02

Depends how far along your customers are getting before they leave, and analytics can tell you that.

Also you could make the 'add to basket' button a bit clearer
it says 'add to bag' which is a bit confusing cos you're selling bags, and it looks a bit hidden and like part of the design. I bet you'd get more clicks with a bolder button, or just another colour so it stands out.

Depends if your customers are getting that far or not

oldeagleeye

6th September 2009, 16:05

Just had to check Alexa re another site and checked yours OP.

Alexa is showing a fairly large increase in traffic over the last 3 months. It seems that you are getting the traffic. As far a metatags driving visitors to the site they seem to kmnow precisely what they are after. These are the ratings from the most effective down to the least.

www.bagnificent.co.uk
kesslord fuschia purse
kesslord fuscia purse
gucci handbags
chloe designer handbags
designer handbags uk
handbags for you
designer handbags
fendi keyring
gucci handbags uk

That kesslord fuschia purse is searched more that 4 times as much as 'designer handbgs. You might want to add all those listed to you main meta tahgs. It doesn't solve the problem of those barriers however.

Kev Jaques

6th September 2009, 16:09

Gercam, are you working with your designer and coder on improving these issues?
I think a review between the 3 of you would help to flesh out some more issues.

patientlady

6th September 2009, 16:11

Gercam. Haven't you already posed this question on another thread.

I What's more I think a lot of people would think would resent paying £8.95 when next day delivery even on a heavy computer is only £4,95.

Sorry meant to mention this, I agree with the above. Would it not be better to add £8.95 and offer FREE delivery within UK or whatever.

gercam

6th September 2009, 17:08

Thanks for all your advice. I have been in constant contact with designer and tweaking here and there. Was hoping that a fresh pair of eyes might see something that we couldn't.

Google base is being done this week.

Other site only had paypal - thought giving other payment option was good idea.

Redirects were done with 301 redirects.

Will try giving free delivery and also changing "add to bag"

Thanks for all your advice/help.

patientlady

6th September 2009, 17:26

Other site only had paypal - thought giving other payment option was good idea.

Just a though Gercam but I do not do too much shopping on the net, but had never heard of Sage pal. Ok maybe everyone else has, but if not perhaps it might be putting people off, wondering if the site is kosher!

gercam

6th September 2009, 17:29

Just a though Gercam but I do not do too much shopping on the net, but had never heard of Sage pal. Ok maybe everyone else has, but if not perhaps it might be putting people off, wondering if the site is kosher!

Sage pay is the old protx. Am going to have visa, switch etc box at top and reiterate secure payment

iboxsecurity

6th September 2009, 17:55

I think the add to bag just doesnt stand out enough - it took me a couple of seconds (too long) to find where I had to click to get the item into the basket!

Jason L

6th September 2009, 21:12

I think the add to bag just doesnt stand out enough - it took me a couple of seconds (too long) to find where I had to click to get the item into the basket! Very much agree with this. I see why you've done it like that and it looks quite nice from a design perspective - but you need to sell some bags so I'd stick to a more traditional Add to Basket graphic! Also, your secondary thumbnail images aren't working when I click on them - and I would guess that the vast majority of customers will be clicking here. Agree with your decision to increase visibility on the card logos too - at the moment, they are barely visible on the left hand side of the page, and the fade on them will not inspire confidence - it just looks a bit strange. Lastly, don't forget that August and September are very quiet months for a lot of retailers. A lot of people are on holiday during this time, then it's kids back to school etc. It may not pick up significantly until Oct/Nov. Other than that, I think it's a nice professional looking site :)

gercam

6th September 2009, 21:20

Very much agree with this. I see why you've done it like that and it looks quite nice from a design perspective - but you need to sell some bags so I'd stick to a more traditional Add to Basket graphic! Also, your secondary thumbnail images aren't working when I click on them - and I would guess that the vast majority of customers will be clicking here. Agree with your decision to increase visibility on the card logos too - at the moment, they are barely visible on the left hand side of the page, and the fade on them will not inspire confidence - it just looks a bit strange. Lastly, don't forget that August and September are very quiet months for a lot of retailers. A lot of people are on holiday during this time, then it's kids back to school etc. It may not pick up significantly until Oct/Nov. Other than that, I think it's a nice professional looking site :)
Thanks for positive thoughts about site. Just one thing - about thumbnails. They work when I click on them - which bag did you click on?

sirearl

6th September 2009, 21:23

If you have not had the redesign done under the supervision of an SEO you have probably made a big mistake.

Many many people think there old site needs a facelift and just pick what they consider to be a nice modern design without giving a thought to how it may impact there rankings on the engines.

A nice design will not get you sales for most products.

The right products at the right price allied to a high position on the engines will.

Simples.( I hate that bleeding cat ):eek:

Earl

Kev Jaques

6th September 2009, 21:32

As sirearl said...
Prior analysis is key with any existing site, although we can't see what the old site was like (other than wayback machine) but there are numerous conversion tricks I can see which could be implemented and some of the issues already noted.
The OP has done well though to get the advice so far ;)

funkychef

6th September 2009, 21:54

I tried the additional images on quite a few bags, and although they initially show, the all dissappear when you click on one of them.

The last couple of months have been quiet for sales. We get as many hits, bet the sales ratio has dropped. I'm hoping it'll right itself soon. Maybe it just is a quiet patch for us all. Maybe you're looking to solve a problem on your site that isn't really there? I'd personally be inclined to wait a few more weeks, and then re-assess the situation.

Jason L

6th September 2009, 22:01

Thanks for positive thoughts about site. Just one thing - about thumbnails. They work when I click on them - which bag did you click on? All of the bags I've tried, e.g. http://www.bagnificent.co.uk/katharine-hamnett/pre-owned-katharine-hamnett-black-leather-box-bag.html
When I click on them, no image appears just a red cross with a product description. I'm using Internet Explorer 8 if that helps

sirearl

6th September 2009, 22:07

I'd personally be inclined to wait a few more weeks, and then re-assess the situation.

a few more weeks can be expensive best to get someone to check the site out now .

And find out if its a lack of rankings that is affecting sales as this can be fixed.

Playing one's lyre whilst Rome burns is not an option.:)

Earl

papverpoppies

6th September 2009, 22:07

I can get them to work (not clicked on every image) but the 10 or so I have - worked.

Poppy

Place of design

7th September 2009, 06:58

I got my site revamped about 6 weeks ago and sales have fallen through floor. I think it is easy to navigate etc and am at a loss as to why? Can anyone help?
www.bagnificent.co.uk (http://www.bagnificent.co.uk) Thanks

1. Your site from What I remember was VERY visually impactive on the front page. The new site seems to have lost that edge
2. You are only selling bags.. Try selling to women. The dream, the feeling, the value
3. The add to bag idea is fine, but it blends in far too much. This needs to be a lot more obvious, and it needs to be in the right place on the page... like right below the produc description. Perhaps a swishy graphic of a bag, in a brighter standing out colour would help. Same principle for checkout and veiew my bag
4. On one of my screens the text is fairly un-readable - the text for the product could do with not being on such a heavy graphic. The graphical nature is good, but dont let it get in the way of the message
5. Magento allows you to search on atributes. Why not have a "choose my bag" section.. i.e. like on the figleaves site, where you can choose style, colour, size..
6. The sagepay / Paypal argument will only be solved if you know what your abandoned cart rate was before you swapped. The same applies for SEO. You havent said if you are getting a comparitive lack of visitors, or a lack of conversion
7. P&P be up front about it. A shock in the checkout is a garuntee of an abandoned cart
8. Upsell. offer cleaning products, second bag discounts, the belt, the purse, the shoes
9. Have the SEO done properly But remember the formula: turnover = visitors x conversion x average order value
10. The left menu is very long and homogenious, and could do with clearer sections. this would encourage users to fine more of the site in 1 visit

Question: have your visitor numbers dropped?
Question: has your AOV dropped?#
Question: Has your turnover per visitor dropped?

gercam

7th September 2009, 08:40

If you have not had the redesign done under the supervision of an SEO you have probably made a big mistake.

Earl

I have an SEO expert helping me with site so hopefully not made big mistake

gercam

7th September 2009, 08:46

1. Your site from What I remember was VERY visually impactive on the front page. The new site seems to have lost that edge
2. You are only selling bags.. Try selling to women. The dream, the feeling, the value
3. The add to bag idea is fine, but it blends in far too much. This needs to be a lot more obvious, and it needs to be in the right place on the page... like right below the produc description. Perhaps a swishy graphic of a bag, in a brighter standing out colour would help. Same principle for checkout and veiew my bag
4. On one of my screens the text is fairly un-readable - the text for the product could do with not being on such a heavy graphic. The graphical nature is good, but dont let it get in the way of the message
5. Magento allows you to search on atributes. Why not have a "choose my bag" section.. i.e. like on the figleaves site, where you can choose style, colour, size..
6. The sagepay / Paypal argument will only be solved if you know what your abandoned cart rate was before you swapped. The same applies for SEO. You havent said if you are getting a comparitive lack of visitors, or a lack of conversion
7. P&P be up front about it. A shock in the checkout is a garuntee of an abandoned cart
8. Upsell. offer cleaning products, second bag discounts, the belt, the purse, the shoes
9. Have the SEO done properly But remember the formula: turnover = visitors x conversion x average order value
10. The left menu is very long and homogenious, and could do with clearer sections. this would encourage users to fine more of the site in 1 visit

Question: have your visitor numbers dropped?
Question: has your AOV dropped?#
Question: Has your turnover per visitor dropped?

Thanks for all your suggestions. Am going to change add to bag and will change checkout etc too

Will try and change LHS and make it shorter although struggling as to what looks best

Numbers have dropped slightly but not too much. It is the conversion rate that has fallen dramatically

I thought visuals were still impactive - maybe have a look again.

gercam

7th September 2009, 08:46

fisicx

7th September 2009, 08:57

Numbers have dropped slightly but not too much. It is the conversion rate that has fallen dramatically
In which case put the old site back up again. There is obviously something about the new site that your visitors don't like so go back to the one that works.

sirearl

7th September 2009, 08:58

I have an SEO expert helping me with site so hopefully not made big mistake

In that case one assumes none of your rankings have dropped.?

Earl

gercam

7th September 2009, 09:09

In that case one assumes none of your rankings have dropped.?

Earl
They have dropped slightly but have chosen different keywords

James.Dunford

7th September 2009, 09:15

Want to know the one thing i think is stopping sales? Finding the buy button!

I looked on the page, and couldn't see it within about 3 seconds of looking, it isn't where i thought it would be, nothing happens when you hover over it, and it just blends in with the rest of the description...

MrsPWN

7th September 2009, 09:18

I thought exactly the same thing, actually thought it may have been forgotten.

sirearl

7th September 2009, 09:24

They have dropped slightly but have chosen different keywords

are and do you know that these new keywords produce traffic and sales.?

Earl

quikshop

7th September 2009, 09:53

The first question when viewing your website is "Are these fakes?".

This one in particular, http://www.bagnificent.co.uk/gucci/pre-owned-cream-gucci-shoulder-bag.html, you can find this model bag on nearly every website selling fakes Gucci at a fraction of the price... all with their 'original dustbag' included.

Gucci, Louis Vuitton and I would imagine most if not all of the other brands you sell do not allow independent retailers to sell their new designer gear - the is nothing obvious on your website that states that your merchandise is guaranteed authentic used designer gear? The issue of trust in my opinion is the single biggest issue you have.

Want to know the one thing i think is stopping sales? Finding the buy button!

At every step in your shop there are unnecessary barriers to allowing a sale.

If I have to stop and search for the Buy button I'm guessing a lot of your potential genuine customers are as well. Just a change of colour, perhaps make it a red ticket to get noticed straight away rather than white with black outline.

When I did find it I was taken to a convoluted shopping basket page where you have to 'Request a Quote' for a shipping price? Surely as a UK business you could default to a UK shipping price and offer a means of selecting a different country?

Even the first checkout stage, what offer a choice between 'Checkout as Guest' or Register? Its just another hurdle for a potential customer to leap over, why ask the question at all? Have a one or two page checkout process and create an account for your customer behind the scenes instead of making the guest or registration process yet another barrier.

If you are selling authentic pre-owned designer handbags then you have to shout that out from your home page and make a big play of it, that's a great niche within the market that you should be making a big thing of.

Sunburn

8th September 2009, 13:22

My tuppence worth...

There is no BUY NOW button on your featured items!!
On the product pages the "add to bag" is invisible, took far too long to find where it was.
There is no visual cue other than a cursor change to state that what the EU is hovering over is a link / product / image or background.

Additionally, Im wondering why PRE-OWNED handbags are higher up in the navigation list? As a potential customer this maybe suggests that your products are likely to suffer from faults or be 2nds rather then Originals, New and perfect quality.

Ultimately the purpose of any e-commerce site is to get the user to buy your products as quickly and easily as you can without distractions to this end, id get rid of all the navigation ****e at the top of the page.

you want people to see a product, easily add to basket and checkout nothing more nothing less.

You may also want to consider this...
Lazy Registration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBT2niL2jKM

Put all of the information gubbins at the foot of the page, for those Users who want to learn more.

Also,

As a customer I need confidence in buying from you. BIG & CLEAR contact information is a must, Free Delivery, and Payment Methods are a given nowadays and should be secondary to user actions such as BUY now, ADD to cart, VIEW basket CHECK out

On your product description pages remove the brownish background from the information, it serves no purpose other than to make it hard to the end user to read and perform the action you desire from them.

Geoff

WebSquare

10th September 2009, 12:52

add to bag isnt too aparent..

Evan

10th September 2009, 15:01

Assuming your site is still being found as much as before, I wonder are visitors not being converted to sales because the "Add to Bag" button is not entirely obvious. I did have to look for it for a few seconds because it doesn't quite look like a button. It's probably not the whole reason, but I think the "Add to Bag" button should be more obvious.

gercam

10th September 2009, 17:36

MrsPWN

10th September 2009, 17:44

Much more obvious, hope it helps sales pick up.

James.Dunford

10th September 2009, 18:41

Thanks for all your comments. Am making a few changes to site overall but have changed Buy it Now button. Better?
http://www.bagnificent.co.uk/featured-bag-of-the-week/brown-leather-jamie-shoulder-bag.html
Much better, now when i look on the page and want to buy i can easily see where to click, and it doesn't blend in, yet still goes with your colours, super :)

Evan

11th September 2009, 07:12

Thanks for all your comments. Am making a few changes to site overall but have changed Buy it Now button. Better?

Hey Ger,

Yes it does seem a more obvious now. I nearly bought a bag myself! No just kidding. But I will recommend your site to my girlfriend. Hope things are picking up.

Evan

inigomedia

11th September 2009, 09:29

There's currently a broken link on every page. Your web developer has a link in the footer box which goes to a page that is under construction, but it pops up a link requesting a username and password.

Having a broken link on every single page will mean Google won't be particularly happy and may downgrade your site as a result.

Two other tips - if you can get your developer to take out that link (and reinstate it when he's organised enough to have a site):

See if you can set the Title to Miss or Mrs by default instead of Mr - how many men buy fashion handbags? Look at your stats and see what the largest group of buyers are (Miss or Mrs) and use that.

Remove the background from behind the Buy Now. It makes it harder to read than it should be. Then the Buy Now on white will do much better.

All the best.

Dan

ps - get a favicon so that the site doesn't look like every other Magento site - they're the little logo next to the web address bar - easily missed in a rush to get a site live

fisicx

11th September 2009, 09:54

Much better but still not quite right. You need to make it less integrated into the product description box. Even better would be to Also need to add buy now to the category pages.

You might like to reconsider the order in which the info is dispalyed in the page. The image and description box are disconnected (different sizes and style). The price and 'by now' are before the description - change the order and have the sale copy at the top. You don't provide an incentive to buy (women like to be seduced). Every female I know checks the inside of the bag before they buy. Add these to the site to increase potential sales. Why the slider and double click? Keep it simple: click on the image to enlarge is all you need.

The more and more I look the more issues I see wth the site. As I suggested in a previous post your best bet is to put the old site back up, it was converting so getting rid of it was not a good move. All you are doing with the current site is fiddling with the layout instead of investigating why people don't convert. THe solution is your analytics and other tracking tools (heat maps, click trail etc).

simon-at-shopfitter

11th September 2009, 10:10

Hi Gercam,

I've just caught up with your thread and looked at all the comments and advice you've received so far.

I can see you've altered the 'add to bag' to 'buy now' as suggested.

There are no prizes in e-commerce for being different, the only metric that really counts is a sale and i think there are still some areas that could be improved.

Firstly, you would be better having a 'buy now' button on your category pages, this will remove one click from getting your prospective customers to a point where they can make a buying decision, in fact it will mean that they are only ever one click away from you making a sale.

Secondly, the 'buy now' button, despite looking nicely integrated into the design, still doesn't look like a button - do not compromise sales opportunities for design sensibilities.

Third, check your stats to see how many people are pulling out on this page bagnificent.co.uk/checkout/onepage/. Although Magento doesn't insist on customers registering it still complicates the checkout process by asking a question - you just want your customers to buy the product by adding their payment/delivery details.

On that third point, we did lots of buyer behaviour research when we were designing the Shopfitter process and without fail those polled stated that they just want to pay and that registering was a hassle that they went through under duress. Many people said that they often bail out at that stage.

I don't think the left menu being long is a problem, web users use the scroll wheel quite happily and are more likely to see the list if it's visible that if you hide it in a flyout menu or sub-categorise everything.

Finally, bearing in mind that most people use laptops with a screen resolution of 1280 x 800 or 1200 x 768 on a desktop machine, it's worth looking at the animation on your homepage and analysing whether it's doing enough to draw visitors into your site on it's own.

The animation box uses up most of the visible portion of the page but the visitor has to sit and wait while it goes through all the information you're presenting. It may be worth considering making it less deep so that you can display static links through to key site areas that can be seen in a quick glance - remember that you have very little time to attract someone into the site.

Good luck.

zimple

11th September 2009, 13:37

only keyword I see is Bagnificent

<meta name="keywords" content="Bagnificent" />

iboxsecurity

11th September 2009, 14:05

there is a bit of SEO work needs doing on the site but im glad the OP is getting there with these comments - goes to show this forum can be extremely helpful and not overly critical!

gercam

11th September 2009, 14:45

Everybody here has been incredibly helpful- thank you so much. The advice has been invaluable

simon-at-shopfitter

11th September 2009, 15:10

Don't worry about not having many (if any) meta keywords Google and the other major search engines dropped support of that tag in 2002.

The main places to concentrate on for search terms are title tag for each page and visible text content. You should also have a different meta description for each page - these ought to be 'converting text' because it shows up as the detailed text in a search return.

It is worth adding terms to the keywords section, I usually advise webmasters to include common mis-spelling here because it they don't show on the page but do get noticed.

For example "Louis Vuitton" is regularly searched for as "Louis Vuiton".

You might also consider adding "bags" to each of the title tags to make "Louis Vuitton Bags" (or even "Louis Vuitton Designer Hand Bags")the primary search term.

I've said it before on this forum but here it is again; optimise for your customer base and the terms they may enter rather than worrying about targeting for a specific search engine.

emerchant

14th September 2009, 07:02

Did this quick for you, sorry about the spelling and if I missed anything

1. Have you changed URLs (set up 301 permanant redirects on the old urls) - this is important
2. Have a add to cart button on the product teasers, all the cta's dont really stand out enough
3. Have a more obvious "View basket" / cart status control with what items are currently in and how much.
4. The site is way too slow when browsing between categories (I havent read all the comments but I see others think its fast... but while its not painfully slow, just at that point when clicking to another page isnt instant when it should be) I am on a decent internet connection as well. Just seems to lag a little.
5. Whats the blank section at the bottom of the checkout for? (not that important).
6. Drop the two backlinks at the bottom promoting your web designers / developers sites (or make them nofollow if you must have them) the anchor text is great for them but wont be helping google work out what your site is about... its about top end bags google is probably wondering why every page has two back links to web design / development services.
7. Why is the alt text / title text of every product "FRONT VIEW" - get this fixed?
8. Move the search box above the cat browser and watermark the box with "search our site", drop the search heading and move the find button up to the same line as the box (rename it "go" if you have to. this will give you a little more vertical space).
9. Get listed on Google base and use Google webmaster tools and the MSN / Yahoo equivilants.
10. Check all site pages in ie6 / 7 / 8 / ff / chrome. I just checked in chrome and it looked great.
11. Make sure you have all the ROI code written out in analytics (value of sale / individual items etc).
12. Get title text put on all links in the side nav (all links if you can).

Really nice design, love it.

Some more promotional tips (might not help your conversion issues so much):
http://www.easywebstore.net/Promoting-your-Online-Store

gercam

14th September 2009, 18:03

[QUOTE=emerchant;987871]
10. Check all site pages in ie6 / 7 / 8 / ff / chrome. I just checked in chrome and it looked great.

Thanks for all your suggestions. Can anyone help with above - what does that actually mean? (Not very technically minded!!)

BFAB

14th September 2009, 20:51

I think your site is great - I don't know why people aren't buying. Maybe its just a bad time with the recession?

Have you noticed any improvements after implementing some of these suggested changes?

gercam

14th September 2009, 20:54

Thanks for compliment. I like site - just don't think it is in your face enough. Am making further changes and hope to have these done by end of week. Then fingers crossed things will look up.

Evan

15th September 2009, 08:36

[quote=emerchant;987871]
10. Check all site pages in ie6 / 7 / 8 / ff / chrome. I just checked in chrome and it looked great.

Thanks for all your suggestions. Can anyone help with above - what does that actually mean? (Not very technically minded!!)

Ah, he means check if your site is displaying properly in Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer 8 is the latest version of the browser. Chrome is Googles browser. By FF he means Firefox. Sometimes your pages could look fine in Firefox by would look completely wrong in Internet Explorer: such as various parts of pages appearing in the wrong position. And sometimes a page might look fine in Internet Explorer 7 but will look wrong in version 6 or version 8. To check your page just download each whichever browsers you aren't already using. Then simply open your website and check that the pages look correct.

There are ways in which you can still get old versions of Internet Explorer but the easiest thing might be to ask a friend who still has an old version to check it for you.

emerchant

15th September 2009, 09:38

Ah, he means check if your site is displaying properly in Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer 8 is the latest version of the browser. Chrome is Googles browser. By FF he means Firefox. Sometimes your pages could look fine in Firefox by would look completely wrong in Internet Explorer: such as various parts of pages appearing in the wrong position. And sometimes a page might look fine in Internet Explorer 7 but will look wrong in version 6 or version 8. To check your page just download each whichever browsers you aren't already using. Then simply open your website and check that the pages look correct.

There are ways in which you can still get old versions of Internet Explorer but the easiest thing might be to ask a friend who still has an old version to check it for you.

Sorry I wrote the reply in a rush (hope it was useful anyway) but this is what I meant - and you might like to thank Microsoft for making such a mess of internet explorer and making it so difficult to test multiple versions.

A message to everyone please dont use internet explorer (especially version 6) please upgrade to FireFox

:)

gercam

15th September 2009, 09:49

Sorry I wrote the reply in a rush (hope it was useful anyway) but this is what I meant - and you might like to thank Microsoft for making such a mess of internet explorer and making it so difficult to test multiple versions.

A message to everyone please dont use internet explorer (especially version 6) please upgrade to FireFox

:)

Yes thanks all your points were very helpful

Evan

15th September 2009, 10:30

A message to everyone please dont use internet explorer (especially version 6) please upgrade to FireFox
:)

Yes, indeed. I heard U2 and Sting are refusing to support Internet Explorer 6 any more. So their websites might not look right on it anymore, but they are sick of catering for it. Not sure if that's true: maybe just a rumour. I suppose someone who has 6 will soon find out.

emerchant

15th September 2009, 11:11

Yes, indeed. I heard U2 and Sting are refusing to support Internet Explorer 6 any more. So their websites might not look right on it anymore, but they are sick of catering for it. Not sure if that's true: maybe just a rumour. I suppose someone who has 6 will soon find out.

Wow with names like that fighting the good fight then it wont be long before IE6 is dead ;)

Only joking, the real problem is:

a) non technical home users with low spec machines who cant / wont upgrade
b) corporate users with legacy (intranet) apps that reply / were coded specifically for ie6 (and its terrible standards / rendering model)

And thats why despite what anyone tells you we are stuck with it for a while yet...

boho

7th October 2009, 21:54

For me I did a very quick scout about and lost patience very quickly...and I'm your target demographic as the owner of a reasonable size collection of designer bags, so that not a good thing!

Your buy now link take me straight to a product page, totally defeating the point of the buy now button, which should just take me straight to the checkout page!

When I get to the checkout page you're making it fairly obvious that I have a whole heap of pages to trawl through - 6 stages in fact! This is too much, you're sticking so many barriers in the way to me just getting the item and buying it that within a matter of minutes I've lost all interest and have clicked away from the site.

I can never see the point of checkout as guest or register, its a waste of my time and yours, what you need is a simple clean effective checkout that collects all of the necessary info to register me at the same time without me feeling the pain. Its quite simple, my invoice & delivery address and the contact email address and password for my account registration should all just be on one page, this should then lead to me clicking a button to make payment...simples!

The other thing I found really hard going was the site text font, your navigation font and product font is really harsh on the eyes and actually quite small, the logo and banner fonts are nice, but for the general text I would use something clearer.

Images are also an issues, you want me to part with anything up to c£400 for a preowned/pre loved bag, but the images on the initial page are really poor, they're much better when I open the item up, but the compression of the image on the focal page is bad enough that there is a very good change that for most of them - particularly the red mulberry bag - I simply wont bother to click on the item at all. I'm not sure what the answer is as you obviously have better images when the product is clicked on, but there must be a image size, or other setting for which your software can optimise those at and display clearly?

Evan

8th October 2009, 07:33

... Its quite simple, my invoice & delivery address and the contact email address and password for my account registration should all just be on one page, this should then lead to me clicking a button to make payment...simples! ...

I couldn't agree with you more, Boho. When I looked at this site, I didn't analyse the site as much as you, but your advice to Bagnificent is very prevalent and I'm sure it will help him lots. I can never understand why websites make you go through a series of pages to supply information that could all be input on one page.

Surprisingly this problem is not limited the small fish. A major national bank, AIB, recently updated their online banking site, turning one page transactions into three or four page transactions. Why? The aim seems to simplification, but the problem is that, especially when you have a slower connection, it takes so much longer to get through the process, making it a frustrating experience.

Cheers,
Evan

fisicx

8th October 2009, 08:12

Thanks for compliment. I like site - just don't think it is in your face enough. Am making further changes and hope to have these done by end of week. Then fingers crossed things will look up.
And that the whole problem. You like the site but your visitors don't. If they did they would be buying bags.

Changing the layout and a few styles isn't going to work. The problems lie right down in the core of the design. Reading back through all the post I realize that everyone is saying the same thing: you aren't sellijng the bags, all you have done is display the bags with apparently no thought to the actual process of buying a bag.

It matters not one jot what you think looks good - it's the opinion of the customer that is important and more than one potential buyer in this thread has said they don't like the layout.

And the checkout process is going to lose you customers by the bucketload, fixing this should be one of your priorities.

phil0s0pher

15th October 2009, 14:25

With a changed site, you may have been deindexed by Google? Is this possible?

phil0s0pher

15th October 2009, 14:28

If you've permanently changed your website structure, you need to do 301 redirects on all of your old pages to the new ones that have replaced them, otherwise Google will forget you

patientlady

16th October 2009, 06:56

Hi
Just wondered how you are getting on now with your changes? We have just had the worst six weeks of trading for some years! We know it is the 'credit crunch' nothing else. Just a thought...
I must say that the points above are very valid re as much info on one or two pages. Our broadband speed at the office is torture and we lose the will to live most day's with it...

My Little Customs

16th October 2009, 10:40

agree with all the comments made in this thread - I just wanted to note that once I click on an image, the images do not load in IE8 - if you wanted a screen shot so you can see what I am seeing, just shout :)

The images work fine in FireFox.

So many people use IE still, that could also be an issue? I can't even see the bag let along buy it.

Kev Jaques

16th October 2009, 10:56

IE8 has broken some Javascript/JQuery renderings, although I can't remember if the OP is using that, but just something to be aware of. Not sure if JQuery has released a fix for it as you know MS won't ;)
The use of the compatible button may be needed on sites, or even the compatible meta tag so the site uses IE7 within IE8

My Little Customs

16th October 2009, 11:03

IE8 has broken some Javascript/JQuery renderings, although I can't remember if the OP is using that, but just something to be aware of.

ah of course! <insert "D'OH" here> - I of all people should remember that as my own blog is easily broken in IE due to YouTube vids - LOL I switched to FF a while back.

However, in that case, may be worth loosing the fancy gadgetry to view the pics or maybe even have some static photos there?

From a customer point of view, if I only used IE, I certainly wouldn't think to download a different browser just to view some photos, I would go to another site :(

Fuzzy

16th October 2009, 12:29

If you have not had the redesign done under the supervision of an SEO you have probably made a big mistake.

Many many people think there old site needs a facelift and just pick what they consider to be a nice modern design without giving a thought to how it may impact there rankings on the engines.

Earl

Earl is totally right ;) I made this mistake twice, before I learnt my lesson and got an very nice SEO'er on board to liase with our designer.

On a side note, just last night I was looking for leather bags on google and all the sites I found were pants - your's is amazing. I would def buy right now - but couldn't find a bag I liked :(. You got anymore stock ?:D

Lots of Luck:D

dave_webb

16th October 2009, 13:38

I really like your website. Maybe because your old customers liked your old site you have put them off.

urbanmale

16th October 2009, 13:39

In the same boat as you OP, site revamp, traffic through the floor, not had a sale since the 6th Oct, I've put it down to the RM strike...

Steve

gercam

16th October 2009, 18:17

If you've permanently changed your website structure, you need to do 301 redirects on all of your old pages to the new ones that have replaced them, otherwise Google will forget you

We did 301 redirects at the time - so don't think it is that. But thanks anyway

gercam

16th October 2009, 18:21

In the same boat as you OP, site revamp, traffic through the floor, not had a sale since the 6th Oct, I've put it down to the RM strike...

Steve

Our traffic is only little bit down but conversions are through the floor. Maybe is recession , strike ..... all just seems a bit too much of a coincidence. Fingers crossed it picks up soon

gercam

16th October 2009, 18:22

I really like your website. Maybe because your old customers liked your old site you have put them off.
Thanks for compliment- doing a few more tweaks so hopefully things will pick up soon

gercam

16th October 2009, 18:25

Earl is totally right ;) I made this mistake twice, before I learnt my lesson and got an very nice SEO'er on board to liase with our designer.

On a side note, just last night I was looking for leather bags on google and all the sites I found were pants - your's is amazing. I would def buy right now - but couldn't find a bag I liked :(. You got anymore stock ?:D

Lots of Luck:D

Thanks. Got more stock to put on this weekend - check back soon and have a look. Were you looking for something in particular?

Fuzzy

16th October 2009, 18:26

Thanks. Got more stock to put on this weekend - check back soon and have a look. Were you looking for something in particular?
Brown leather or suede and a messenger type:D

gercam

16th October 2009, 18:27

With a changed site, you may have been deindexed by Google? Is this possible?
I don't know - what does it mean?

Upshot Media

16th October 2009, 18:46

Originally Posted by phil0s0pher http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=1017286#post1017286)
With a changed site, you may have been deindexed by Google? Is this possible?

I don't know - what does it mean?

It means your site is no longer in Google's results, your site is with about 867 results - click below link to see
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rlz=1R2GGLL_en-GBGB338&q=site%3Awww.bagnificent.co.uk&meta=

You can check what is displayed and what pages are indexed by typing - site:www.www.bagnificent.co.uk

Note: Indexed pages is different to ranking, many sites have pages in the index but are on page 1000 for a search term

Regards
Stuart

gercam

16th October 2009, 19:08