dual purpose website v ecommerce only

[Kate]

Can anyone give me their opinions - we currently have a dual purpose website - publicising both the sessions that we run, and trying to sell activity packs to a similar demographic customer. The ecommerce side isn't working and we're looking at getting the site redeveloped into two sites, one dedicated ecommerce and the other, information with a link to the ecommerce site.

Any comments? - I think we're doing the right thing but it would be good to sense check it with you guys.

[DuaneJackson]

Hi Kate,

Personally I think a dual purpose site is best - the content on the site will get people there that aren't looking to buy and you can then sell to them.

I don't know if this's be applicable for what you do though.

Are you aware that your shopping cart is seriously flawed and that anyone can buy any product and choose the price themselves?

[clairemackaness]

I think you should keep it together, after all it's all nicely linked.

You have the same problem as me really, not enough traffic looking to buy.

Have you thought about opening an ebay shop and promoting the site on each listing? When I sell a painting on eBay I always say "Take a look at www.clairemackaness.co.uk to view more works by Claire" I get quite a good hit rate and often people buy something bigger and better from my online store rather than eBay.

[mattk]

I agree with the comments above, definitely keep them together.

When you say that your e-commerce isn;t working, do you mean that there are technical problems, or that you're not getting the amount of sales you had hoped for?

[Kate]

It's not working in that we're not getting the sales we hope for.

We've just started selling on ebay, and we'll open a shop soon. I was reading another thread about this the other day, that you were on, Claire and it seemed a good way forward.

We get a reasonable amount of traffic, but I think we're coming up in searches for things to do locally, then people are browsing the activity pack sales side and not buying.

On of the issues I think we have is that the site doesn't look very salesy. It's information heavy because of the other info that is presented there.

Thanks for the comments so far. Wasn't aware there was an issue with the basket. will look into that.

[autolycus]

Kate,

Personally, I would keep the two things on one site. That way:

- you have more chance of a random visitor finding something useful on your site (either the sessions or the activity packs)

- the site has more content (Google likes content)

- you avoid having two sites with potentially large amounts of duplicate content (Google dislikes so-called mirror sites)

The two products (sessions & activity packs) compliment each other very closely so, to me, it makes sense to keep them all on one site.

Maybe there arew other reasons why people aren't buying? e.g.

- the look of the site
- no option to take credit cards other than through PayPal
- ineffective/missing calls to action
- etc

I would look at this side of things before rushing into splitting the site in two.

Dave.

[silverpuresilver]

Hi Kate

I love the idea of a messy play place - aren't we all saturated these days with soft play areas where the kids go off on their own and run riot???

Good luck with your venture!!!

Karen

[becky]

Hi Kate

I agree it works well keeping the two together on one site.

I'm in your target market - like to go out and about to these things, and keen to encourage little'un with this sort of stuff, (though she's a little young at the mo) but looking at the product I wonder if the problem is not enough info about what you would get in the kits.

I guess people who like to encourage their kids to do stuff like this would have crayons and glue, so perhaps you need to place more emphasis on the other bits and bobs?

Looks like a fantastic idea though - wish we had something like that down here!!

Becky

[SillyJokes]

I agree with Becky. One cannot provide too much information about a product. Also your images could do with being more sizzly - cute kids getting their hands onto your kits.

I think also it seems to be quite hard to get down into the buying pages.

My initial reaction was that I was not too gripped by the products. They didn't look to be much better than what I can achieve at home with a bottle of PVA and some household junk.

I suppose what I mean is that there didn't appear to be very much added value. Would you be better off just selling the constituent parts like PVA and coloured tissue, pipe cleaners, pom poms and glitter and giving away the tips on things to make as high value content on the site rather than trying to get people to buy a specific kit to make fishes etc.

I used to run our local mums and tots and offered a makeing table as part of the afternoon. It was a great facility and even with simple things like cut out sheep covered in cotton wool the kids got a lot out of it and this did not cost very much to do at all.

My child minder buys a lot of art and activity material from both Ebay and Baker Ross, both of whom are strong competition to what you are offering.