Business not taking off!!

[Ali-v-8]

Email is usually fine. Contact number is a bonus.
Addresses usually lead to spam.

If you want your business to do well add products or a tleast a choice to the main body of your website.
Optimise thet site so it comes in the natural listings.
Invest in PPC
and add to google shopping.
The navigation on right of this page should be on your home page.
http://www.sowoodyou.co.uk/play_sets.html

Thanks for all your comments - point taken about the copyright, I'll get it removed asap.

I don't have a telphone number because I'm a small business and don't want to pay out for a business line, not until I'm more established anyway.

I have researched other online toy shops and not all have telephone numbers and quite a few have a PO Box address, even my suppliers do.

Is there another way other than have a PO Box address? Don't really want to use my home address!!

 

[Vintage06]

So Wood You. You should have a contact number on your webpage. If you don't want a land-line at the moment then use a mobile phone. Just go out and buy a cheap £10 mobile phone. You don't even need to top it up. Just be able to receive calls on it. if needed.

 

[the king]

Hi Debi

' don't know whether this post is still extant; you've obviously taken on-board what you want to / are able to address so for what it's worth, here's my two-penny worth:

pleasant look'n'feel (as Piqueperfumes: "Lovely bright site")

I concur with: Jeff Bearcroft (#35); BusinessRookie (#37); SmilePrint (#66) re: business (as opposed to web)

is everything hand-made? (#47); could be USP?

why bother with expensive SEO having high up-front cost - at least initially? why not try AdWords

offer value; a Blog, possibly a newsletter?

transpose logo <=> title (not everyone uses full-screen!); header is too deep;

I don't get right-click pop-ups (but then I block everything by default anyway!)

re: Home page:

you use We three times! - the page should not be about you; ' should read something like:

Are you looking for...
Don't you wish you could find... that is not only... but also eco-friendly - and will last you a lifetime?
​

no-one cares about you; concentrate on the benefits (as opposed to features), make 'em compelling (' didn't say 'twas easy!)
invest in WEB Copywriter? (UKBF's Chapman Copy and Design seems to me to be consistently on the ball)

LHS product navigation contains apparent 'duplicates'; accessing 2nd(+) pages etc. may mean viewing only one item (cf bookshelves-1.html); this will also reduce the length of your list!

remove PayPal from home page (although list your payment options; inc. cash / cheque? - see: eg handyplan.co.uk/... (last para))

make FREE delivery more prominent (for all items - even if prices need to be increased / margins reduced? this could be a USP?)

"10%-off" is irrelevant without knowing prices! anyway, trade on 'value' not discount
Best Seller - really a page full?!
​

' hope this is of at least a little assistance!

 

[Penelope Pitstop]

As a mum of two little ones and a big fan of wooden toys I like the overall look of your website but my comments would be
1. I agree wholeheartedly about the PO Box - it would put me off
2. I think you have diluted your "brand" by including too many products - soft toys and umbrellas aren't wooden! Go back to basics and focus on the key products that you say you specialise in
3. Have a big local marketing drive - now is the ideal time in the run up to Xmas. Do a relaunch, get local press on board, target schools and nurseries and local netmums sites. Try "party plan" type events where you offer the host/school some free toys eg £10 for every £100 ordered.
4. Have a Toy of the Week featured on the front page
5. Make the whole site more personal. I love to read personal reviews of products, descriptions of toys or items written from a more personal perspective

Hope that helps a bit! I will watch how you get on with interest as I am planning on opening a bricks and mortar wooden toy shop next year

 

[Baldykev]

Hi
My wife shops the internet 24/7 and her comments were that if you cannot post contact details then she skips the site

If you cannot put your name to it then it IMPLIES something is not right, esspecialy if there is no proper address details to have a physical point of contact in what is a virtual world

 

[ORDERED WEB]

There are two issues

lack of traffic
Very poor site

Don't bother resolving the lack of traffic until you resolve the site. I am going to be honest and not tell you you have a great site to make you feel good, I am telling you how it is - and please dont be disheartened - a few simple changes will make the site much more user friendly and ultimately make you more money

- very weak template
- very poor organisation of products
- very poor customer direction
- fairly poor copy
- no focus
- no call to action

here is the equation you should recite every day

turnover = visitors x average order value x conversion% / 100

Plug some numbers in this and you will see that unless your site converts your turnover wil be poor

also - if you improve your site so it doubles the conversion, your turnover doubles, but also your spend on advertising is twice as effective

action plan

- get a piece of paper out and draw out your front page. makes sure it has a call to action, features (for now) either the product you need to sell most or the most profitable product
- promote your USP on nearly all pages, including the front page
- make sure the front page is steering people to buying
- get all the normal business contact details sorted
- get someone to really polish up your template - it is messy and looks amateurish. Your shoppers will have 15 other websites open, and unless you have a really good USP, they will get the sale
- when you get the money, invest in a more grown up and smooth operating shopping cart system
- get the on page SEO sorted
- get the off page SEO sorted

think this before typing or doing anything
- why - why would someone want to buy this
- who - who will be buying this - and who for
- why not - why not buy the product elsewhere - what are the objections to the sale (and some are not obvious)
- can - Can the user do the task in hand easily

 

[Drpepper]

This is the problem with the internet. Everybody and their dog thinks all you need is a website selling almost anything and the orders will come flooding in.

How many websites does the average person actually buy from, probably less than 10 (thinking on my feet here, myself - Amazon, Play, cartridge monkey, carrier bag shop.com, comet, currys, waitrose, that's about it they pretty much serve my needs), why would I go to an independent that may or may not be genuine? Very few internet "shops" actually make enough money to live on, the successful independents are usually added to a High Street shop for a bit of extra income.

If you want it to be a success your going to need £10,000's to generate traffic and orders. 5 hits a day is pathetic, my website - which I don't sell from - gets an average of just 1,500 unique visits a month, and they are just checking out opening times etc.

Either invest in the site and promote is properly, or just treat it as hobby that will cost you money and time whist providing no real income.

Sorry for the rant, just makes me mad with people who think it's just easy to make money from the retail, internet or High Street.

 

[Drpepper]

Why have I just replied to a five month old thread :|

 

[UKSBD]

How many websites does the average person actually buy from, probably less than 10 (thinking on my feet here, myself - Amazon, Play, cartridge monkey, carrier bag shop.com, comet, currys, waitrose, that's about it they pretty much serve my needs), why would I go to an independent that may or may not be genuine? Very few internet "shops" actually make enough money to live on, the successful independents are usually added to a High Street shop for a bit of extra income.

I wrote something similar a few months ago,
http://www.podline.co.uk/info/?p=894

I think the bubble has burst for a lot of small web based businesses, especially as the established businesses are branching out more and improving their website presence.

 

[akirk]

This is the problem with the internet. Everybody and their dog thinks all you need is a website selling almost anything and the orders will come flooding in.

How many websites does the average person actually buy from, probably less than 10 (thinking on my feet here, myself - Amazon, Play, cartridge monkey, carrier bag shop.com, comet, currys, waitrose, that's about it they pretty much serve my needs), why would I go to an independent that may or may not be genuine? Very few internet "shops" actually make enough money to live on, the successful independents are usually added to a High Street shop for a bit of extra income.

If you want it to be a success your going to need £10,000's to generate traffic and orders. 5 hits a day is pathetic, my website - which I don't sell from - gets an average of just 1,500 unique visits a month, and they are just checking out opening times etc.

Either invest in the site and promote is properly, or just treat it as hobby that will cost you money and time whist providing no real income.

Sorry for the rant, just makes me mad with people who think it's just easy to make money from the retail, internet or High Street.

Agree.

We advise our customers going into eCommerce to think of it at the least as a shop / another shop - in terms of people / money investment - it is amazing how many people want to spend no more than £2-3k on an eCommerce website, but would never dream of opening a physical shop on that budget - they also assume that they need put no time into it

however - I think that where the independents do well is in the hobby / specialist fields - though most still have an offline presence as well...

Alasdair

 

[ORDERED WEB]

To be frank, it depends what you are selling. Some companies are niche, and theier product is very personalised or niche too - and these companies can stand up tall in the market place. In fact relitivley a lot taller than they really ought to be in "the big picture"

Think about this

A search phrase gets 20000 searches a year workdwide, the whole industry gets 100000 - its a piddly little search volume

A company operates in that nice market, and gets 90% of the people who ever were looking for this niche product on thier site, because they have good onpage SEO, and theier competition is lame... so lame they barley need backlinks

If the AOV is good, and the site converts, they could well be getting 1000 really good sales, just by having a half reasonable site that outperforms the competition. Would you turn down 1000 sales at £100 a pop?

 

[Joseph123]

Don't worry much, Debi. What you're experiencing now is normal.
It's the normal process all starters go through. I also went through it.

Concerning your website, I think it needs some professional touches. At the the moment it looks rather unorganized.
Your home page is not compelling enough. No call to action.

Let me quote the last paragraphs from your website home page: "We hope you enjoy our range and you find what you are looking for. Thank you for visiting."

It should read something thus:
"Please click here for our special offer of the month."
or
"Buy before so-and-so data and receive discount ...."

Apart from that, when you describe your products, you forgot to pin-point their advantages. Further, I found your return policy to be vague and a hindrance to trust. At your stage, money-back guarantee should not have strings attached.

Well there are other bottlenecks, but I'll leave that for now.

Finally, some advice:
1. Optimize your web site not only for your potential customers, but also for search engines. 90% of your online visitors will come from them.

2. Advertise, Advertise and Advertise!
Advertised products do sell. Unadvertised products don't!

3. Evern though initially you will have more time than money, nevertheless, automate routine tasks. Make this a habit from the start.

4. Set goals and priorities.

5. Learn to overcome obstacles, and not obstacles overcoming you.

Good luck.

Joseph.
Author and Publisher,
Josytal.com - software for small and medium business

 

[saxondale]

A search phrase gets 20000 searches a year workdwide, the whole industry gets 100000 - its a piddly little search volume

A company operates in that nice market, and gets 90% of the people who ever were looking for this niche product on thier site, because they have good onpage SEO, and theier competition is lame... so lame they barley need backlinks

If the AOV is good, and the site converts, they could well be getting 1000 really good sales, just by having a half reasonable site that outperforms the competition. Would you turn down 1000 sales at £100 a pop?

do you have a source for these figures or are they - made up?

 

[ORDERED WEB]

do you have a source for these figures or are they - made up?

It was a hypothetical to illustrate a point. however, it is pretty close to a business and search term I was looking at earlier in the day

Would love to illustrate with facts, but a NDA is in the way

the flip side is that - I haven't seen one that skewed for a long time, however those opportunities are out there

 

[saxondale]

It was a hypothetical to illustrate a point. however, it is pretty close to a business and search term I was looking at earlier in the day

Would love to illustrate with facts, but a NDA is in the way

the flip side is that - I haven't seen one that skewed for a long time, however those opportunities are out there

but no figures, okay.

 

[UKSBD]

To be frank, it depends what you are selling. Some companies are niche, and theier product is very personalised or niche too - and these companies can stand up tall in the market place. In fact relitivley a lot taller than they really ought to be in "the big picture"

Think about this

A search phrase gets 20000 searches a year workdwide, the whole industry gets 100000 - its a piddly little search volume

A company operates in that nice market, and gets 90% of the people who ever were looking for this niche product on thier site, because they have good onpage SEO, and theier competition is lame... so lame they barley need backlinks

If the AOV is good, and the site converts, they could well be getting 1000 really good sales, just by having a half reasonable site that outperforms the competition. Would you turn down 1000 sales at £100 a pop?

Yes, but these things aren't as easy as they were 5 - 10 years ago and when you do find them, the hit and run approach is probably better, hence why I said the bubble has burst.

 

[BenP]

I have not read threw the entire read so if i repeat someone, sorry.

Instead of having a vast list of items down the left hand side, personnaly. I want to see pictures of each category. Makes it far easier for me to see what you have/what i am looking for. Instead of having to read a load of text.

Make it simple as possible.

 

[silverrepublic]

Debbi - I am Mum to a two year old and a 4 month old and this Christmas I spent a fortune on a web site selling Childrens toys - the only reasn i found that web site was because I was told about it from another Mum at one of the Childrens groups i attend.

Every Mum at the group I attend made a purchase from their site - the reason being is that they have a BB section on their website (battered box) - we all secured some real bargains and i will most def be using their site again.

Call me foolish but when i used the site I did not check for returns policy, a telephone number or an address - the reason for this was simple - it was based on recommendation from a friend so i had a trust in the company.

If i were you i would try and go down this road whilst doing everything else already suggested on this discussion

Hope this helps

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

invest in WEB Copywriter? (UKBF's Chapman Copy and Design seems to me to be consistently on the ball)

I didn't spot this when it was said at the time, but thank you.

 

[newbizniz]

We work from home and use a virtual office for call handing (receiving and sending out our engineers) and for mailing and office address. We are now a nationwide business and our customers are happy with our B1 City Centre "Head office address" even though we live miles away! (Our post is sent to us daily by email).
We've been using Roweford Associates services for a while now and never had any problems! We have been praised for good customer service even though we dont have any actual call handling staff!
Image does matter to most customers and it doesnt hurt to give your image a boost, will be better to use these services rather than a P.O.Box or home address! It might be worth contacting them, Im sure the address only thing was only about £15 a month. Im paying £50 for the whole lot which is so much cheaper than renting an office or taking on staff. Also, they have given me a geographic phone number for free, cant hurt to ask them.
You website is nice, but needs to be higher ranked in search engines. Im quite sure Roweford Associates do this too as they do cheap websites for new businesses.

 

[tree568]

How about also selling on a site like Amazon or Ebay? That way, when you send the goods out you can also direct the customer to your own site, so the next time they want toys they will buy from you direct.

I agree with some of the other people posting - itf all I saw on a web site was a PO Box number, without a street address and a telephone number, I wouldn't buy anything from them. We use the warehouse where we store our goods as our business address,e ven though we only go there to pick up/drop off goods and don't actually work out of the site.

 

[Liane Dugal]

HI,
I have just set up an on-line vintage clothing business and I had really good advise about adding social media, get a facebook page and twitter. Also if you have any friends who have websites get them to hold a link on their page. I have the opposite problem, lods of hits and no sales! go figure! these are difficult economic times!
Liane
My Vintage Look

 

[Ali-v-8]

In which case you have a conversion issue...Lets have a look see and give you some pointers.

HI,
I have just set up an on-line vintage clothing business and I had really good advise about adding social media, get a facebook page and twitter. Also if you have any friends who have websites get them to hold a link on their page. I have the opposite problem, lods of hits and no sales! go figure! these are difficult economic times!
Liane
My Vintage Look