Lots of visits - very little order - why?

[MichaelG]

Hi People, a client of mine needs your help.

We have just built a web based discount computer hardware and software catalogue - and as internet services partners we have got people to the website - according to the website log. But people are not placing orders just browsing the catalogue - even though product prices are competitive.

Visit: http://www.discountcomputerhardware.co.uk/

Questions:
What do you thinking of the website?
How can we improve the webiste?
What would make you buy?

 

[Anonymous]

Okies jsut took a nose......I apologise but..BORING
I (not as a business person but as a computer user) have about 8 hours online a day.. I do not care if you have "well over 60,000 products from 131+ manufacturers" I dont care if you have an entire half a page full of other companys logos..now..if there was 528mb DDrram for say £5 then id care..but you see i dont know that..all ive found is a frontpage with aload of text and pics then after finding the right section (i wouldnt have gone this far unless i was out to buy) i found a screen with. "no picture available" and "call us" to find out how much it costs.. at this point i left.. your problem simply enough is your site is to plain and too complicated.. customers (ive been one and in retail for a while) are at best lazy and at worse stupid...youve obvously taken alot of time to make what is a very good site for information..but to buy from..no thanks..

solution:

pictures.. limit the text on the front page to VERY IMPORTANT info use pretty buttons to navigate..make sure EVERYTHING is priced (just add "(retail)" after so businesses know theres will be cheaper if they call ) and pictured (even if its the same pic over and over again..
under your header put a banner that cycles through pics and prices of your produces.. put up another on the right a square gif that goes through systems built and how much they cost

my two pence

 

[DuaneJackson]

I'd agree with the comments above, the information could be better presented.

What search terms are bringing people to the site? You might be getting a lot of traffic, but is it good traffic?

If it were my site I'd use mod_rewrite (or a windows equivalent ) to get rid of the query strings. This would improve your rankings no end.

 

[Rob Holmes]

Hi Michael,

The site seems to have steered away from the keeping it simple model.

You have so many products and brands and promote that as positive, but I am wondering if you are creating a sense of fear and the sense of being over whelmed by tecnology to the visitor.

Go back to basics and really put yourself in the mind of the average customer, they are visiting your site with the hope that your site will provide them with exactly what they need in the least amount of time and as painlessly as possible.

IMHO - why sort things by manufacturer - sort them by client need - have a top menu linking to the ranges and never have more than 3 steps to your payment page or you'll start losing customers.

I'm sure others will give some more suggestions - my advice is to do one thing at a time, test what affects sales etc so it's a structured scientific learning curve as well!

Rob

 

[gary]

I got a blank page with just the navigation at the top the first time I went to the site, which probably isn't a good start!

The comments above cover things pretty well - you're not selling anything as far as I can see. There's lots of not very useful information about your site (and a rather odd list of keywords!), but where are the products? Your homepage should have photos of products, special offers etc that click straight through to the relevant product. Include a decent navigation with different types of products, so if I want a monitor I just click on Monitors.

Also, don't make people click on a search link to get to a search page - the search form should be on every page - it's something that's used an enormous amount, so make it easy to use and accessible.

I would recommend having a look at sites like http://www.misco.co.uk/ and http://www.pcworld.co.uk - that's what you should be doing with your site.

HTH!

 

[Jayne]

Hi Michael,

The site seems to have steered away from the keeping it simple model.

You have so many products and brands and promote that as positive, but I am wondering if you are creating a sense of fear and the sense of being over whelmed by tecnology to the visitor.

Go back to basics and really put yourself in the mind of the average customer, they are visiting your site with the hope that your site will provide them with exactly what they need in the least amount of time and as painlessly as possible.

IMHO - why sort things by manufacturer - sort them by client need - have a top menu linking to the ranges and never have more than 3 steps to your payment page or you'll start losing customers.

I'm sure others will give some more suggestions - my advice is to do one thing at a time, test what affects sales etc so it's a structured scientific learning curve as well!

Rob

I agree! I am a none techy person and wouldn't have a clue what things were without a good explanation. Need pics and prices. When I see a site with no prices, makes me think they are expensive, so look for another site which has prices on. I wouldn't want to call, because I wouldn't want to get a sales person on the other end, trying to sell me everything but the kitchen sink.

Jayne

 

[Amber]

For me the most off-putting thing about this site is the fact that I have to actually call you if I want to know how much something costs. People use the internet for instant information: they don't want to have to pick up the phone and call you to find out your prices. (Or at least I don't, anyway! Like Jayne, I'd assume I was going to be "marketed" to when I called )

Personally, I always assume that if the price isn't stated on a product, then it must be expensive, i.e. "if you have to ask, you probably can't afford it."

I'm also pretty sure (although I may be wrong) that some search engines will penalise you for having a list of keywords like that on your home page. It's a form of keyword spamming, and as Gary notes, it looks odd to visitors. It may be a better idea to have a short paragraph of text properly optimised for the keywords people are using to find your kind of site.

 

[MichaelG]

Okies jsut took a nose......I apologise but..BORING
I (not as a business person but as a computer user) have about 8 hours online a day.. my two pence ..

Thank you for your comment - never boring - we learn from people like you - I have made various changes to the website based on your comments.

I understand the need to have prices and did suggest this to the client, but they wantedall the products online - my job is to support them as much as I can to ensure they get max return of investment.

Keep the comments coming

 

[MichaelG]

I'd agree with the comments above, the information could be better presented.

What search terms are bringing people to the site? You might be getting a lot of traffic, but is it good traffic?

If it were my site I'd use mod_rewrite (or a windows equivalent ) to get rid of the query strings. This would improve your rankings no end.

I have created a static page generator the the search engine and google for example has index about 5600+ pages so far - the search term are relevant to the content/products on the website - I hate bad traffic!

 

[DuaneJackson]

oops, I'll keep my mouth shut then : )

Well done!

 

[MichaelG]

Hi Michael,

The site seems to have steered away from the keeping it simple model.

You have so many products and brands and promote that as positive, but I am wondering if you are creating a sense of fear and the sense of being over whelmed by tecnology to the visitor...

The navigation was built based on the way most of their existing business clients buy products - many medium-large businesses buy by brand/manufacturer because most of them have some kind of relationship with the manufacturer. For example - HP might offer a rebate for buying their servers or desktop, so businesses will tend to buy only HP products.

I will look at creating another category based navigation as per your suggestion.

This is a tricky website - lots of products all of which the client can truly supply

 

[MichaelG]

I got a blank page with just the navigation at the top the first time I went to the site, which probably isn't a good start! ...
....

Thanks for the suggestions: product search is now available on every page

Please remember, the website is primarily to give people asset to the full range and drive people to the client's main website. This is a b2b website - they don't really sell to the public - only businesses.

Please note - we can only work with the data we have and with 80k+ product database and many suppliers - each with different category names and classification - this is not going to be easy

 

[DuaneJackson]

This is a b2b website - they don't really sell to the public - only businesses.

Either way you are still selling to *people*. I do take your point about businesses having relationsships or preference for certain manufacturers. But don't lose sight of the fact that it's still always a person at the other end of the screen making the buying decision.

 

[Anonymous]

you need to have a word with your customer by the sounds of it..if he wants to keep it like this fine..but gearing toward exsisting customers doesnt get you new customers... draw up a proposal of changes make a demo site and see what they think..if they say no..well its not your fault and they'll still pay you..if they listen...push for a bonus when the site sales go up

 

[BrightSparke]

Dear Michael:

I'm unsure of your target audience - think it's b2b - but, for example, the index of manufacturers on the left consumes a lot of space and - for someone like me - adds no value. Example, I'm currently looking for a portable monitor that I can take with me to do on-site demonstrations. I don't know who (if anyone) makes one, but would find it more helpful to have an index organised by function (displays, etc) than vendor. But I might be missing the point here.

Your photos on the home page take a lot of space. If you need a picture of an "Xserve G5 2.3GHz DP 1024MB 80GB DVD/CDRW" does it need to be so big and have so much whitespace around it?

This must be one of the toughest markets of all to shine in and I wish to all the best.

Peter

 

[MichaelG]

I will like to thank you all for your help and comments. We have made a lot of changes to the website based on your comments today and hopefully we turn things around.

With do many products and product categories under one roof - the challenge is always going to navigation - getting people to the product they want as quickly as possible - whilst taken into account performance.

The logic/technology behind what you see on the website is very flexible so we now make changes every quickly - the next step is to quickly write a new "browse by product categories" function - after dinner and eastenders

 

[MichaelG]

Dear Michael:

I'm unsure of your target audience - think it's b2b - but, for example, the index of manufacturers on the left consumes a lot of space and - for someone like me - adds no value. Example, I'm currently looking for a portable monitor that I can take with me to do on-site demonstrations. I don't know who (if anyone) makes one, but would find it more helpful to have an index organised by function (displays, etc) than vendor. But I might be missing the point here.

Your photos on the home page take a lot of space. If you need a picture of an "Xserve G5 2.3GHz DP 1024MB 80GB DVD/CDRW" does it need to be so big and have so much whitespace around it?

This must be one of the toughest markets of all to shine in and I wish to all the best.

Peter

Peter my friend - use the keyword search - in the select manufacter field, select "Not Important"

As for the pictures taking too much space - we love space

 

[BrightSparke]

Oki doki Michael:

Understand - you love space... Heh, why else would you watch Eastenders? :wink:

Peter

 

[Srivvy]

Hi Michael

I strongly agree with some of the comments about looking for product type before brand name.

Most people go looking for a product, then choose a brand according to its price and perceived quality.

If a visitor looks for a modem and you list brand names first, your customer may not know whether a certain brand even makes modems.

It is fine to have a search box, but once they have started a search, people want to surf the web by clicking, not typing more.

Having links to product pages from your homepage should also help your rankings for these pages.

Hope this is of help

Srivvy

 

[Richard Conyard]

Michael,
Can I suggest a buy button? Also it's a bit annoying to have new windows popping up.

 

[Enigma121]

As another suggestion, which search engines are you targetting?

There have been suggestions that MSN offers a better sales conversion ratio than Google. Google will drive lots of traffic, but much of it won't buy (increasing server load without direct benefit).

Try optimising for MSN (we can provide help if you need it).

 

[clairemackaness]

I have the same problem. I've had 60 unique visitors today, granted at least 15 of them are you guys, but over all not as many sales as I would have hoped. Enough to pay back the development cost and fund an exhibition, but no new profit in a while.

 

[Enigma121]

Two factors are critical if you are having this kind of problem.

1. Your site isn't encouraging visitors to take urgent action to purchase.

2. You have visitors coming to your site for reasons other than to make a purchase.

Factor two is kind of unavoidable. As exposure increases people want to know about you, what you do, etc. It's flattery really.

Factor one is why ebay does so very well at selling things. You have to buy something or it's gone.

Hey there's a concept that works. (Marshall Mathers)


Again I'd stress that for some markets - including ours MSN users are more likely to buy than Google users. You need a little research to determine if this is the case for you.

 

[babybiz]

Do you have any tips as to how to make a visitor feel they need to buy now or it will be gone? It's something I've read about a lot but not how it's acutally achieved.

Tashxx

 

[SillyJokes]

I have the same problem. I've had 60 unique visitors today, granted at least 15 of them are you guys, but over all not as many sales as I would have hoped. Enough to pay back the development cost and fund an exhibition, but no new profit in a while.

60 people a day is a good start but no where near enough to sell much.

Conversion on a really good site is 2%, but I imagine you get a lot of browsers. Most are likely to be between .5-1.5%

To convert more you will need to write your sales patter in a way that makes it seem as if your work is selling pretty quickly and they would be fools not to snatch them up while they can.

The thing about art is that it should be either a one off or a limited edition - thats what makes it valuable in my eyes. You need to play on this. Get more recommendations from people or critics.

 

[clairemackaness]

All my works are original peices and I do harp on about it a bit. Perhaps I need to harp on some more in the home page as it's only when yu get to the showcase that it's mentioned. I am hoping to build up more of a testimonials page soon as well.

 

[William Wilson]

I’m find referrals to be the best way selling my work, I often receive a phone call (just had one) asking for my website details. I assume they really are only interested in the images, most probably never take time to read words, but the words Limited Edition and Original does carry a lot of clout especially to the discerning buyer.

 

[clairemackaness]

Just looked at your site william, I love the funky flowers

 

[Enigma121]

Do you have any tips as to how to make a visitor feel they need to buy now or it will be gone? It's something I've read about a lot but not how it's acutally achieved.

Tashxx

Well in short, you offer something for sale, then you impose a time limit of deadline. The offer will only last for a week, month, few months...

Once the deadline expires, remove the item for sale (at least from the channel that you are selling it, such as your website).

Hope this helps.

 

[William Wilson]

Just looked at your site william, I love the funky flowers

Thank you Claire