Online store conversions

[billett05]

Hi,

Im struggling to get conversions on my site and to be totally honest driving traffic their also.

I started selling on eBay little over a year ago and seem to have a slow paced but healthy sale rate, 1-2 sales a day (be mindful i started this with £50 and had a £3k turnover in year 1 -profit was nothing as it was reinvested in stock).

This is not a sustainable business plan for me long term as the profit margins are low, so i see my eBay store as more of a marketing venture for my website. I place business cards in my parcels for the website, I offer the same products as lower prices and the buyers who receive these also get free delivery making the package better for them to buy again via my website - web sales this was so far '0'!

I have a facebook page - i run competitions and give away products and branded stickers from brands i sell. This has pulled in so far only 140 followers.

I also post products on facebook groups, and pages in response to people's questions for certain items. All in all sales from this - '0'!!

I'm struggling to get customers on the site and im very short on ideas at this stage.

Open to suggestions!

Thanks

Chris

 

[G7VIX]

Oh dear oh dear your doing it all wrong.

Ebay shouldnt be a way to market your website LOLz

Find an online advertising agency / freelance marketer to market your website.

 

[fisicx]

I place business cards in my parcels for the website, I offer the same products as lower prices and the buyers who receive these also get free delivery making the package better for them to buy again via my website - web sales this was so far '0'!

I have a facebook page - i run competitions and give away products and branded stickers from brands i sell. This has pulled in so far only 140 followers.

I also post products on facebook groups, and pages in response to people's questions for certain items. All in all sales from this - '0'!!

And the reason is: people who buy from ebay buy from ebay. If they want another widget they go back to ebay. There is no brand loyalty and probably won't even remember who they brought their last widget from. If you aren't making any profit and the business isn't growing maybe it's time to stop and do something else.

 

[NewGardenStyle]

You need to advertise...Google shopping / product feed would be the obvious one. However, if you are struggling to absorb eBay fees then it sounds like your margins are too low to play.

 

[billett05]

You need to advertise...Google shopping / product feed would be the obvious one. However, if you are struggling to absorb eBay fees then it sounds like your margins are too low to play.

I am making profit from eBay, just my margins are lower than my website.

And the reason is: people who buy from ebay buy from ebay. If they want another widget they go back to ebay. There is no brand loyalty and probably won't even remember who they brought their last widget from. If you aren't making any profit and the business isn't growing maybe it's time to stop and do something else.

The business is making profit, i'm just choosing to invest it into my stock, as i said I started with £50 a year ago, I now have about £1k of stock and double in cash.

I have thought about a google product feed, what about AdWords? it seems a little expensive, do the benefits outway the cost for a small business?

 

[NewGardenStyle]

I am making profit from eBay, just my margins are lower than my website.

Point I was making is that you will have to give away some of that margin from your website sales in order to fund your marketing. How much of that margin can you afford, and is it worth it? Only a properly considered marketing plan can answer that.

 

[fisicx]

Hmm, you seem to have a different opinion about what profit it to me.

Nevertheless, if you want sales outside eBay you need to spend money on marketing (which may include adwords, banner ads, etc) and making sure your website converts. Which may mean spending money getting expert help.

 

[dariadavis]

Hi there! It seems you have no marketing strategy at all, so let's discuss how to create it:

• Define your buyer persona. HubSpot has great templates to describe them, just google it and answer the questions in that template. It would be insightful, trust me!
• What is the target market for your product? Are you sure the market is growing and there is a piece of cake you could get from competitors? How much could be your potential revenue? It would be great in case you know the numbers.
• Who are your competitors? Create a SWOT table, create a positioning statement.
• What is your USP? How do you differentiate between your competitors?
• What are you messaging statements?

Go and test all that things using Facebook ads: test your audience, creatives, messaging or so.
Hope it helps. Feel free to ask any questions, I'm here to help.

 

[Paul Carmen]

You need a marketing plan for your business & website if you want to drive sales there. It's a common misconception that an initial sale on a website is cheaper than other platforms. The cost of sale on an ecommerce website normally has PPC/marketing costs, plus processing/fraud prevention fees & shipping costs.

This means its often more expensive, or at least similar for the first sale depending on your market.

Now over time a website often becomes the cheapest channel if done properly. This is because if you run an ecommerce business right you build your organic rankings via SEO & can then stop PPC for many search terms. You also should also build a marketing email list for repeat sales, plus you control all the options regards up selling/cross selling etc. However, this takes time to achieve, as you're usually competing against many strong players in most markets.

You need to have an website plan to supplement your overall business plan, this should looks at: -

1. Your products & services (including costs, market pricing & competitiveness)
2. Your customer demographic, target areas & what those customers search for online
3. How you rank organically for these, if poorly what you need to change to improve on & offsite
4. You your site performs; speed, offer/funnel, security/payment, basket conversion
5. How you can market your site; probably PPC search & Google Shopping in the short to medium term. I'd be wary of social media unless there is a strong market for that type of product on Facebook etc.
6. How you re-target customers & what longer term marketing (email) & up-sell look like
7. Rinse & repeat as you improve to make changes & maximise ROI

That's just for starters, as you need to think, short, medium & long term, looking at your budget & business positioning/profitability as you go along.

 

[Nochexman]

I place business cards in my parcels for the website, I offer the same products as lower prices and the buyers who receive these also get free delivery making the package better for them to buy again via my website - web sales this was so far '0'!

You have received a lot of advice already, so the only thing I would add is to look at your repeat business. How much are you getting and what do you need to get more. Repeat business should be easier to get than new, and if you can add to it, it should give you some leeway to work on building up your new business.