My new ecommerce site - ShoesACharm

[zomex]

Hello everyone,

Looking for feedback for my new ecommerce site:

ShoesACharm - Personalise your Crocs with our range of shoe charms

At ShoesACharm we provide a large range of stylish and fun shoe charms designed for Crocs shoes.

shoesacharm.com

Never going to be a huge business but it's been a fun side project of mine which I will eventually pass on to my wife to take over should she wish to.

Steps made:

- Website built with Woocommerce with a focus on low maintenance/easy updates
- Custom design as a child theme of Storefront
- Blue colour scheme was chosen based on research of target market (toy store websites)
- The only thing I didn't do was design the logo. Paid $50 to the logo designer
- Big focus on clear CTA/the user experience - clutter free, white space etc
- Created a PSD template for product images in order to keep them consistent
- SEO (structure)

Not yet worked on:

- SEO (page titles/meta descriptions mostly default)
- Speed optimisation/image compression

PS: Keen eyed members will remember a business for sale a couple of months ago. I tried to get involved with the seller to work together. In the end we couldn't come to a deal so I created my own competing business. Those who saw the original thread and said it's a labour intense business were 100% correct. The plan is that this business will provide my wife the opportunity to take it over (replacing her 1 day a week job).

Thanks

 

[fisicx]

Mobile, mobile, mobile! I'd put money on almost all visitors will be using a phone (or possibly a tablet).

Which means you need to make the homepage the charm categories.

I'd also consider doing variants. This page for example would be better as variants:

Anime Shoe Charms

Anime Shoe Charms

shoesacharm.com

Or give the charms proper names: Anime 1 could be 'Midnight Assassin'. If you can't be bothered to do that at least remove the words 'shoe charm' from every product. It looks fake (and Google will agree).

An other reason form using variants is it means you won't then have the same description for every product (which Google also doesn't like).

On the bulk buy page you have the same image for all and that image has way more than 25 charms.

The related products aren't. The Fish is apparently related to PacMan?

But the main thing is to get the categories on the homepage.

 

[UKSBD]

You should create a subscription service
5 new surprise charms a month for a monthly subscription

 

[zomex]

Mobile, mobile, mobile! I'd put money on almost all visitors will be using a phone (or possibly a tablet).

Which means you need to make the homepage the charm categories.

I'd also consider doing variants. This page for example would be better as variants:

Anime Shoe Charms

Anime Shoe Charms

shoesacharm.com

Or give the charms proper names: Anime 1 could be 'Midnight Assassin'. If you can't be bothered to do that at least remove the words 'shoe charm' from every product. It looks fake (and Google will agree).

An other reason form using variants is it means you won't then have the same description for every product (which Google also doesn't like).

On the bulk buy page you have the same image for all and that image has way more than 25 charms.

The related products aren't. The Fish is apparently related to PacMan?

But the main thing is to get the categories on the homepage.

Absolutely love the feedback.

Agree that mobile is going to be the most common. I will look at tweaking the content on the homepage.

At this stage it has been a matter of time vs growth. As the sales increase I will be able to invest more time into the site. There's a lot I can do but so far the sales have not justified more time.

I disagree about variants. My belief is the current category pages with seperate products is far easier for a user to find the design they want. A variant would require them to one by one select a new design to compare. Also from a SEO standpoint separate products for each charm is the way to go. Most of my traffic is coming from Google Shopping free listings.

Also disagree about Shoe Charm on the end of titles. As a h1 I believe "Thophy Shoe Charm" is better than "Thophy" for example.

Yes the 1, 2, 3 is all for speed of listings. I have added many with unique names such as:

Basketball Shoe Charms

Basketball Shoe Charms

shoesacharm.com

But the extra time can't be justified yet. If that changes I will happily spend the extra time with unique names.

Agree about the description. But I also believe Google in this day and age will ignore that it's mostly duplicated.

Haha yeah the related products are terrible That's default Woocommerce/Storefront. I have the option to manually set related for each product (or add another plugin which I like to avoid) but the sales don't justify the time just yet.

You should create a subscription service
5 new surprise charms a month for a monthly subscription

That's a fantastic idea that didn't even cross my mind until you mentioned it. I'm going to implement and make this a big focus of the business.

 

[fisicx]

Make the category page the homepage (there are some good shortcodes for this).

Disable the related products.

Pay someone to rename the products.

The problem with the duplication is there isn’t enough differentiation for Google to index and rank everything. I’m assuming you bulk uploaded everything, would take much work to do some updating.

 

[zomex]

Ok. But make the category page the homepage.

Will be doing that tomorrow. Sets page will be removed and categories will be moved to the homepage.

Makes complete sense thanks for the suggestion.

 

[UKSBD]

Absolutely love the feedback.

Agree that mobile is going to be the most common. I will look at tweaking the content on the homepage.

At this stage it has been a matter of time vs growth. As the sales increase I will be able to invest more time into the site. There's a lot I can do but so far the sales have not justified more time.

I disagree about variants. My belief is the current category pages with seperate products is far easier for a user to find the design they want. A variant would require them to one by one select a new design to compare. Also from a SEO standpoint separate products for each charm is the way to go. Most of my traffic is coming from Google Shopping free listings.

Also disagree about Shoe Charm on the end of titles. As a h1 I believe "Thophy Shoe Charm" is better than "Thophy" for example.

Yes the 1, 2, 3 is all for speed of listings. I have added many with unique names such as:

Basketball Shoe Charms

Basketball Shoe Charms

shoesacharm.com

But the extra time can't be justified yet. If that changes I will happily spend the extra time with unique names.

Agree about the description. But I also believe Google in this day and age will ignore that it's mostly duplicated.

Haha yeah the related products are terrible That's default Woocommerce/Storefront. I have the option to manually set related for each product (or add another plugin which I like to avoid) but the sales don't justify the time just yet.



That's a fantastic idea that didn't even cross my mind until you mentioned it. I'm going to implement and make this a big focus of the business.

Use something like PayPal for the subscription, make it cheap enough that people don't notice, you then have an income stream for as long as they can't be bothered to go and find out how to cancel it.

I was paying for Club Penguin for 5 years without my kids even using it

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Slightly off topic - isn't there a member who does reasonably well at this stuff and looking to sell?

 

[fisicx]

Slightly off topic - isn't there a member who does reasonably well at this stuff and looking to sell?

Yes. But he wanted a bonkers amount for a garage full of stock that wasn't ever going to sell.

 

[AlanJ1]

Yes. But he wanted a bonkers amount for a garage full of stock that wasn't ever going to sell.

Bonkers is an understatement.

 

[DontAsk]

Slightly off topic - isn't there a member who does reasonably well at this stuff and looking to sell?

Yes, as stated in the PS to the first message.

 

[antropy]

The website looks good actually.

My only comment is that the "levels" on some of the photographs aren't great and so they look quite dark/low contrast, even a bit blurry.

You could easily fix this in Photoshop, GIMP, Photopea, or similar:

Sale Shoe Charms

Sale Shoe Charms

shoesacharm.com

Paul.

 

[japancool]

PS: Keen eyed members will remember a business for sale a couple of months ago. I tried to get involved with the seller to work together. In the end we couldn't come to a deal so I created my own competing business. Those who saw the original thread and said it's a labour intense business were 100% correct. The plan is that this business will provide my wife the opportunity to take it over (replacing her 1 day a week job).

Yes, I remember that thread and the ever-so-charming seller.

 

[DoolallyTap]

To all the critics and Mr. Negativity among you, you may all like to know The Shoe Charm Shop sold for a very fair and reasonable price in January. The interest during the 2 months the site was advertised was huge, tyre kickers, people with dreams but no finance, idiots with silly proposals and seriously interested people who visited and discussed in detail what was available and what it could achieve with more commitment. With four very serious bidders the sale completed mid January with a very happy buyer now taking the site to a new level.

More than one person wanted me to send them all the stock, and then run the site and send me the cash after taking a commission, these people became upset when they could not understand the lack of interest. Silly people asking stupid questions, others being clever critics, almost no-one offering anything positive, no wonder some straight talking took place and how oh! so sensitive some people are.

Since retiring in 2007 and getting older this is the 4th micro business I have built and sold, now the next one is just starting.

 

[zomex]

Once again thanks everyone for the feedback. I’ve made some good updates to the site based on a lot of your suggestions:

- moved the categories from the sets page to the homepage. Removed the sets page
- Linked the homepage button and the Shop menu button to the homepage categories as an anchor link.
- Welcome to ShoesACharm section on the homepage changed to Latest Charms. Products reduced from 15 to 5 with a button added to display all.
- @fisicx while I disagreed about using variants overall I do think it made sense for the bulk purchases. So all 5x, 10x etc have been condensed into 1 product using variants.
- I have created the subscription product. Currently not functioning as I need to select a paid plugin to add subscriptions to Woocommerce
- Added new links to the menu with subscribe being highlighted as the focus. Removed the Random link and integrated it next to the search bar.

 

[zomex]

The website looks good actually.

My only comment is that the "levels" on some of the photographs aren't great and so they look quite dark/low contrast, even a bit blurry.

You could easily fix this in Photoshop, GIMP, Photopea, or similar:

Sale Shoe Charms

Sale Shoe Charms

shoesacharm.com

Paul.

Thanks for your kind words.

Completely agree about the images. It's been a challenge to keep them as consistent as possible using just a phone and no lighting. I believe I've got some of the better images vs the competition even with this poor setup but there is a lot of room for improvement.

As the business expands I will invest in a proper photo/light setup.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

As the business expands I will invest in a proper photo/light setup.

£50-£100 will get something ideal and worth the investment now.

 

[antropy]

£50-£100 will get something ideal and worth the investment now.

I agree it could be done on that kind of budget with a diffused light and a background.

But, even without, some post-processing in Photopea would work wonders.

Paul.

 

[DontAsk]

For photographing small items look at Big Clive's "Tuppercam" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6sAS-y21xA

Warning, you may end up spending hours on his site.

 

[fisicx]

Warning, you may end up spending hours on his site.

I’ve had to drag myself away….

 

[DontAsk]

Some of his sodastream experiments are fun.

 

[fisicx]

- I have created the subscription product. Currently not functioning as I need to select a paid plugin to add subscriptions to Woocommerce

Write your own. I've built a number of woo extensions for clients over the years. The documentation is very good so it's not that difficult.

Or just use the freebie:

Subscriptions for WooCommerce

With WooCommerce Subscription, turn your physical or online store into a WooCommerce product subscription store and avail recurring revenue.

wordpress.org

 

[zomex]

Write your own. I've built a number of woo extensions for clients over the years. The documentation is very good so it's not that difficult.

Or just use the freebie:

Subscriptions for WooCommerce

With WooCommerce Subscription, turn your physical or online store into a WooCommerce product subscription store and avail recurring revenue.

wordpress.org

My knowledge is mostly front end development. I have some understanding of PHP but not enough to work with PayPal's API for example.

Found that plugin, only issue is using variants isn't supported with the free version.

I think what I'll do is keep everything as is for now. The subscribe is a one-time payment but will function. Once I get a couple of subscribers I will then purchase the premium version of the plugin you mentioned.

 

[zomex]

And the biggest risk of this business has come to light. My biggest concern of starting the business:

It was fun while it lasted. Also you guys who said this is a job not a business were 100% correct. A lot of manual work for very low margins. A lot of dead stock because naturally only 10% of designs are actively selling.

This is why I started my own site instead of even dreaming of spending money buying an existing such.