Question for experienced online shop owners

[Anara]

How long would you say is the right length of time to leave a product on a webshop when it isn't selling before you reduce the price/put it in a sale to clear it? I'm thinking specifically about products that haven't sold at all rather than those that are just slow to sell.

Thanks

Claire

[sirearl]

Well I think there are other avenues to be explored.

Like giving the product a more prominent display or a better description.E.T.C.

Earl

[RedEvo]

It's surely not about how long it's been there, it's about how many times it's been viewed by people looking for a similar product.

Example. You sell bikes. You have adwords or organics bringing traffic to your site of people looking for a bike. So you know they want a bike, they found your bike, they didn't buy it.........why?

Price. colour, didn't trust your site etc etc

Look for answers to these questions then think of a strategy.

After doing all this you will most likely find your bike is cheaper somewhere else ;)

d

[boho]

I would examine the number of product views, and also examine my analytics for customers searching for this kind of product first and then armed with this would first try having it as a featured product on the homepage and if that got no joy but was still getting plenty of views I would try a small price reduction and place it in a sale item/special offers page. If the number of product views were really low, even after promoting the item then I would look at trying it with a more significant price reduction instead.

But try promoting it as a featured item, maybe rewriting the product description, taking a better photograph, or just a new picture which promotes the item actually being used, email an offer of a %discount off the item to current customers.

[Page]

Plenty of good suggestions.

You also need to think if having the product on your web site adds to the image in some way even if it is not selling.

Maybe it makes your site different from others or more interesting even if it does not really bring any direct profit in.

Other factors - how much money is it tying up in stock - how many items do you have to get rid off - whether the storage volume back at base is a problem.

So as always - it all depends.

But do consider just getting rid of the stock at or near cost so that it goes more quickly and frees up resources.

[Christiane]

I usually give it about 3 months. Some products may be seasonal and sell better in spring, etc, so I still stock these all year round. However I'd rather introduce new stock than keep very slow selling ones.
I try getting rid of it on ebay sometimes or give it to friends.

[kulture]

I think it is better to remove the item from the shop and sell it on ebay or some other outlet cheaper rather than reducing on the site. If you get into the habit of reducing stock after a period then customers will get into the habit of waiting.

I do this when I buy DVDs. I no longer buy new releases when I know they will probably be half price or less at HMV or woolworths in a few months.

[boho]

Thats why I suggested offering it at a discounted rate to current customers - it's a perk of them being members of your site then and not a thing for everybody.

It's fine to offer reductions on a website though, just don't permanently reduce the price and don't run reduced prices for huge periods of time. Ebay is a good way of clearing out the stock too, but I still wouldn't say don't use the website.

What are the products, perhaps we can help with some pointers if there is an issue with the product description/image or pricing?

[Anara]

Thanks all, some interesting points made.

All my descriptions have been re-written by a copy writer, in the case of these products they are relatively cheap anyway (art supplies), certainly no more expensive than the competition and they are selling for me on another sales channel albeit quite slowly.


I think the problem is the products are not right for the website and the traffic that comes to the website isn't looking for this particular kind of product. I think I made a mistake in putting them on the website.

For now I have reduced the prices of them on the site and included this fact in my newsletter today. They will stay at this price until the end of the month and then I think I will remove from the site and the other sales channel they're on (because the fees there massively erode into any profit) and try them on eBay.

[.Spiralling.]

I clear my old stock on Ebay. I reduce the price in my shop for a limited time and after that clear them out to Ebay. It works well for me.

[Steve2507]

With slow stock or discontinued stock you have a number of choices:

- reduce the price
- offer at a reduced rate to current customers
- bundle with another slow moving or discontinued product
- make a bigger feature of it
- move to ebay or such
- increase the price (this can make it seem more desirable - we recently had to increase the cost of an item by 70% because of a massive increase by the sole distributor. Now we get more enquiries about it than we ever did before)

We use a mixture of the above. We only use ebay for discontinued lines and normally prefer to bundle products and make a big thing of it in the newsletters and on the site.

[kulture]

I think the problem is the products are not right for the website and the traffic that comes to the website isn't looking for this particular kind of product. I think I made a mistake in putting them on the website.



You have probably hit the nail on the head. If the web site is set up and mainly concentrates on other things, then people looking for these products either dont find them, or when they hit your site move on as they think they have found the wrong site. No amount of cost cutting will fix this.

Why not create a new shop/url which concentrates on these items. If as you say they are competitivley priced what can you loose?

[iLove]

Hi, I've had a quick look at your site, and all of what's mentioned here applies to a degree. I hope you don't mind me giving you some pointers from my old consultant days (i'm really not a great one to talk as I'm currently struggling to get suppliers to supply an ecommerce only venture - so I'd welcome your thoughts on this in return).

Your site looks great, and is well laid out. However, whilst it's true that you shouldn't discount all the margin out of the products, from experience I believe customers use the net looking for "bargains". Just look at Amazon etc, there's always a prior price on there or vs RRP. Your site doesn't offer a sense of getting a bargain. I believe you could increase your conversion rate by making the site more "selly" - try some time limited offers, flagged clearly on the front page. this works wonders. In terms of your arts and crafts products, I believe they would benefit from photos showing the products being used - add some fun to it.

Hope that helps at all - the site looks great.

[Hedgie]

Ebay is a good means of disposing of surplus or end of line stock but do be prepared to sell at cost or near cost otherwise you will end up more out of pocket with the cost of seller fees if the item(s) do not sell.