Testing new site - good stats but no sales

Stampy · Sep 27, 2008

Hi

My clothing site (in sig) has finally gone "live" this week. There's still a few tweaks but I'm testing some keywords out using adwords for me to then do some SEO.

Looking at my google analytics stats, the adwords over two days have given me 434 visits, bounce rate 27.65%, avg time on site 2.11 mins, pages/visit 6.05.

Now I know it's early days, and there's a couple of things I need to do to the site (visible contact details etc), but I thought that the above stats were pretty decent. Is there anything anyone can immediately think of that may be stopping people buying?

sysops · Sep 27, 2008

Hi Stampy,

First, well done. The site looks very nice, and is mostly there in terms of what you need to run successfully.

You're quite right, the figures you quoted are quite decent, and the fact that you have had no sales is surprising looking at the figures alone. However, once you look at the site, the reasons become obvious. They are:

1. Your site is very, very, very slow. Stop being a cheapskate and buy some good quality UK hosting.

2. Although I like the look of the site, I wouldn't buy from it. I want clear contact information, including a UK phone number and an address (the latter isn't optional, it's a legal requirement). A PO Box wouldn't convince me either, so don't think about that as an option.

They are the main points. Fix them and you will convert.

A couple of other minor points (but ones which will only have a minor impact on your conversion):

3. In the footer you have "Help Us to Keep Magento Healthy - Report All Bugs" - looks unprofessional, and is irrelevant to your clothes shoppers.

4. Delivery - why do you have First Class and Recorded as separate options? Why would I pay for recorded?

sysops · Sep 27, 2008

Oh - I forgot to mention the homepage. You need lots of products on there, not a load of text.

quikshop · Sep 27, 2008

Just to echo Sysops comments, the design is very engaging but without more prominent product positioning on your home page with larger images and less text, the design actually works against the purpose of the shop which of course is to sell products.

gamer1810 · Sep 27, 2008

Hi Stampy

First of all, well done for getting your business underway! Now the really hard work begins!

Theres a lot to be pleased about regarding your site and your stats are good, however, there are also a few fundamentals that I think you really need to address:

1) First of all, look at your competition, its huge. And mor eimportantly, look at their sites. Most of the big boys have very impressive sites. Check out Jacamo and Top Shop.
2) Secondly, think about your target market (that includes me). They will be young(ish) and internet savvy. They are used to being wowed by either the retailers or thier online equivalents.
3) While theres a lot to like about this site and clearly people are interested and are browsing, I believe, you will never get great conversion with it.

Here;s my reasons why:

a) The feedback given in the above posts, especially related to the Homepage
b) The overall design, while functional, isnt of a suitable quality to gain market share from your competition.
c) The design should be cutting edge to reflect the fashion you are selling, and unfortunately, it is a little dated, in my view.
d) Buying, including clothes is full of minefields for the consumer - How do I know it fits me? Can I return it easily if it doesnt? Is this a reputable company?

I wish you every success, but feel you really need to address these issues sooner rather than later.

I hope this helps.

downsouth · Sep 27, 2008

Nice looking site, in agreement with some of the previous comments.

One other thing to look out for is what is your target audience?

There was a recent post on targeting an audience rather than stocking alsorts of products simply to capture a sale

I have a very very good feeling that I know exactly who your supplier is for your items and I think you are simply trying to 'stock' all of their items. If this is the case you are in serious competition with others who do exactly the same.

Your site needs to be different enough to capture a sale

urbanmale · Sep 27, 2008

Hi Stampy,

I'm having the same problems and I'm # 21 in Google for men's clothing. I've been going for 2 years nearly but sales have dried up since August which is very worrying, my stats since Sept 1st are:

Visitors: 6600
Ave time on site: 1.20
Bounce rate: 44%

Steve

willitbe · Sep 27, 2008

It doesn't look like a clothing site, it looks like a Gamers site or something.

It screams "Drop-shipping".

And the layout on the left is not-symmetrical with the right side, looks a bit off the shelf.

You will not get many buyers on that site until it looks like a clothing site.

JMO

Stampy · Sep 27, 2008

Thanks for the comments and feedback. I'm getting on with some of the suggestions, particularly around the contact details - there is an address on there but it is difficult to find so that needs to change. I'll ensure that there is a contact phone number and email address displayed prominently on the header of each page, and have the Contact page easier to find and updated with address.

I'll also look at the Homepage layout with regards to displaying the products etc. Although with a low bounce rate, that in itself doesn't seem to put people off.

Couple of strange comments from gamer, but I'm not going to go through them all, except to say I'm not competing with Topshop, as I don't sell ladies fashion. If you meant Topman, I'm not competing with them either, in the sense that there is little point me trying to dominate the market in jeans - it's never going to happen.

What I'm trying to do is target specific products, which is why the adwords I'm testing are averaging the first couple of positions in google and driving decent traffic volume to the site at a relatively low cost. Obviously that's no good if none of the traffic is buying anything, which is why I'm looking at what to change on the site.

Thanks again for the feedback, your help is appreciated.

directmarketingadvice · Sep 27, 2008

It doesn't look like a clothing site, it looks like a Gamers site or something.

I agree. I think the colour scheme doesn't really fit.

I also think the site uses space poorly and it's not good that there are no products on the first fold of the homepage.

I know it's not a like-for-like comparison, but look at amazon.co.uk and see the way their design focuses attention on the products. Your design focuses attention on the design.

Finally, most of the homepage copy doesn't say anything, so it could be pared down.

Hope this helps,

Steve

Stampy · Sep 27, 2008

Just to add - the power of this forum is mighty (or are Saturdays popular online clothes buying days?) - since I first posted this morning, I have had the first three orders through! And I haven't even changed anything yet.

Just wait until I've acted on your recommendations!

www.theriverangler.co.uk · Sep 27, 2008

Right well I buy items off sites just like yours and spend say £500 per year. Your major competitor and a site you must look at is extremepie.com.

Look how they use the space on the computer screen on the item pages, you have to scroll down on your site to actually buy something. On theirs its all in front of you and there is no need to scroll down.

IMHO the banner on the top of your site is far too big, put the search function my cart in the left column put your details and phone number in this area.

Also get rid of the of the log in, checkout, etc. in the banner, takes up too much space. You really need to half the size of the banner, so the important product info is pushed up the screen. Get rid of wishlist and compare products altogether!

You have the godaddy logo which is great but you again have to scroll down the page to see it, needs to be near the top of the page so its in the users face all the time.

I'm not to sure black works, all major websites are made with white backgrounds for a reason. There is too much blank space in general on the site, where everything could be pushed up so the user does not have to scroll down every page to get to what they want to see.

In general its a nice site but not user friendly at all and all the important information needs to be nearer the top of the page or people will go elsewhere!

Stampy · Sep 27, 2008

Some interesting points riverangler - it gets to the stage where it's difficult to be objective about your own site sometimes. Hence why I ask on forums like this, particularly as you're viewing it as a potential customer, rather than a web designer.

Agree with some of the issues about the header, and use of space - I'll get looking to see how I can make some changes.

Thanks again.

www.theriverangler.co.uk · Sep 27, 2008

I know how you feel Stampy and it can be very difficult to be objective on your own site. Your trying to make the site uncluttered so the user can easily find their way round the site which is great but what we have found that actually buyers are used to cluttered websites, look at amazon for example.

People in general are lazy when shopping on the internet so even scrolling down a little bit will lose you sales. When we put our details including tele no. in the header our sales doubled over night and when we put verisign logo near the top of the page in full view sales rose by 25%.

You will make sales for sure as you have products that people want and what I have found is that more and more people are buying that particular line of goods.

Move all the elements of the template closer together with the most important items at the top. Remember that most buyers do no know the site and you must give them confidence in your business. Oh and change it to white!

Hope this helps!

Sep 28, 2008

Hi Stampy

Think most of the points have already been made really, but my personal first impression was that I didn't like the black site, its quite oppressive and the product photography on a lot of the products was either not that great or looked terrible because of the black.

The other thing that I particularly didn't like with the product photography on the site is the sheer volume of scrumpled up looking items, maybe its some sort of mens shop convention I've not come across before? I do most of my clothes shopping online and particularly mens clothes shopping as my other half hates going round shops and would rather buy online generally but scrumpled up clothing just makes me think scruffy and also doesn't do much for assessing the items, which in some case were quite nice, but I'm afraid the message of scruffy, unkempt and wondering what condition the actual item would be in are all things that crossed my mind and his and made us click away - which can't be good?!

gamer1810 · Sep 28, 2008

Stampy said:
Couple of strange comments from gamer, but I'm not going to go through them all, except to say I'm not competing with Topshop, as I don't sell ladies fashion. If you meant Topman, I'm not competing with them either, in the sense that there is little point me trying to dominate the market in jeans - it's never going to happen.

Dude - Just trying to help. I gave these sites as 2 examples in the market. I understand that you may not be trying to compete with them directly, however, your site needs to stand up to what is in your broad market, as well as being targetted to your specific customer group.

So who are you competing with? Who are your customers?

Search

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Testing new site - good stats but no sales

Stampy

sysops

sysops

quikshop

gamer1810

downsouth

urbanmale

willitbe

Stampy

directmarketingadvice

Stampy

www.theriverangler.co.uk

Stampy

www.theriverangler.co.uk

gamer1810

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