Really struggling to get customers!!!

stefan-west1

Free Member
Sep 7, 2013
12
0
Hi all, I was hoping someone may have some advice for me. Basically I set up a business last august, bought some stock in, built a website etc. and have been trying my hardest to get out there. The problem I've got is I'm still to yet get my first order! The website is www. care4cars.co.uk The items are as cheap as I can possibly make them, and so is the postage. I've avoided eBay and Amazon due to how much they charge! I've tried using promo codes to attract visitors, I've used facebook and twitter campaigns to get people to visit the social media pages and hopefully go to the website from there, I am using Google Adwords where around 99% of my traffic is coming from but still nobody is yet to order and I am a bit stumped as to why. I am cheaper than most companies so the only possible explanation is that maybe people just do not trust the website? I don't know. So i'm hoping maybe someone can point out where I am going wrong?

Any help is greatly appreciated!
 

bostontd5

Free Member
Oct 16, 2013
5
0
Hi hope you are well and well done posting the question, one or two things if I may point out.

The website did not grab my attention when I just looked at nothing made me want to stop on there, what's your bounce rate?

When I look at the links page and clicked on centre sales that made me want to look more at what they had to offer, with the pictures and the bright colours etc.

Also when you click on your homepage it does not have an arrow that points to scroll down to show the products.

But the thing that made me click off the site is there is not enough products to keep me looking at the site, being honest.

If the car after market is your target market you need to offer something other people do not, things like a de-icer or an air freshener are impulse at the till kind of buys not a main shopping item unless it is unique?

If I can give you one bit of advice try looking on places like Alibaba or the alike for different products that nobody else offers in the UK, there is loads of companies out there across Europe so you don't have the risks of buying from China. Become an agent for these companies little if any outlay and you maybe surprised how willing companies are wanting to get there products to market in the UK and don't have the route to do so.

Hope you don't mind the comments and most of all stay postive!!
 
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stefan-west1

Free Member
Sep 7, 2013
12
0
Thank you for the advice, I have just added the address to the website. The bounce rate is only around 2% as for things like an arrow and things to show people to scroll down, I will look into that, the website is done by one of these online companies that make it for you as the old website I made myself wasn't very good aha. But I can edit the html coding so will have to give that a go. I will definitely look into adding more products etc. The only thing I struggle with for that is having the funds to order some in to keep in stock. An option was to place products on the website and buy them as we sell them but then it's down to how much I can trust the suppliers as have had some bad experience so far. But thank you for the advice it really helps I will definitely look to improve on what you said :)
 
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bostontd5

Free Member
Oct 16, 2013
5
0
Other thing to try is looking at trade shows across Europe and visit them, low cost flights I visit some of my suppliers in a day there and back yes can be a long day but as I said before you may be surprised that how many large companies do not have a presence in the UK but are big in other parts of Europe. Flights booked far enough in advance are cheap with the biggest cost being the airport parking.
 
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stefan-west1

Free Member
Sep 7, 2013
12
0
Well I've taken on your advice and added a photo to the header to make it look more attractive and added a few more products, not much but a little, although I don't have them in stock right now I know in the event of an order I am able to go get them personally as they are based just down the road, also I can monitor their stock levels so I know whether it will be in stock or not and adjust accordingly on my website. I know it's not ideal but the funds are not there to buy more stock at the moment. Thank you again though for your advice
 
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B

Billmccallum

pricing is questionable, didn't go through everything, but the Karcher K2 Compact Car pressure washer can be bought for as little as £95.

most of your products can be bought at most local car spare shops, so there's no incentive to buy from the web IMO.
 
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stefan-west1

Free Member
Sep 7, 2013
12
0
The main problem I have there with prices is the postage. Although I'm only charging £3.95 postage on the website, obviously to send that will cost a lot more so I have to add it onto the price. If I can find some way of getting the postage cheaper then I will be able to reduce the price
 
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B

Billmccallum

pricing is questionable, didn't go through everything, but the Karcher K2 Compact Car pressure washer can be bought for as little as £95.

most of your products can be bought at most local car spare shops, so there's no incentive to buy from the web IMO.

The main problem I have there with prices is the postage. Although I'm only charging £3.95 postage on the website, obviously to send that will cost a lot more so I have to add it onto the price. If I can find some way of getting the postage cheaper then I will be able to reduce the price

That just does not make sense!!!! A karcher K2 can be bought for £95 including postage, yet your price is £149 + £3.95 postage.

You are clearly looking for too much margin or are buying from the wrong place, which brings us back to your first post "The problem I've got is I'm still to yet get my first order!".
 
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stefan-west1

Free Member
Sep 7, 2013
12
0
The cheapest I can find the K2 compact with all the lances and cleaning products etc. is around £120. The cheaper ones are either not the compact or they do not come with the extra things. Again with that It's the postage. It would cost me around £40-£50 to post it. I an still trying to find a cheaper way of posting it. Once I've done that I should be able to drop it down to around those prices. As for the way the price is written there's not much I can do about that. I don't particularly like it either but I'm unable to change that.
 
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stefan-west1

Free Member
Sep 7, 2013
12
0
Ok. A bit weird. Went onto the postage website again and the prices are completely different to yesterday with the same details. Not sure why, but anyway I've changed the price down to £99.99 which when comparing to other sites who, like I said for this exact version have it at around £120 is a massive undercut.
 
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Chris Ashdown

Free Member
  • Dec 7, 2003
    13,380
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    Delivery costs are only affected by volume of orders with all companies except the Post Office so if you use as courier the more you send out the lower your prices

    I think you need to look at your plan and maybe pick lower cost items where you can become a specialist, suggestions of the sort of thing I am talking about are say

    Touch up paint for cars, Car repair books,Spark plugs for Vintage cars, Upholstery repair kits, replacement side mirrors, all relatively low cost easy to stock and cheap to post, Spray Paint by Courier not allowed by PO

    I dont know the name of your site so just responding by what i read on this post, but good luck

    I will send you a personal message about a supplier who may be of use to you
     
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    The Wholesaler

    Free Member
    Nov 7, 2007
    166
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    Warwickshire
    To be blunt I'm really having trouble understanding this business, with a very limited range of products you are trying to compete with Halfords, every independent motor factor, most garages and the likes of GSF and Euro Car Parts.

    Why would a customer want to buy from your site when they have so many other quicker, simpler, better known and possibly cheaper options?

    A 5 litre can of oil is going to be expensive to post, the likes of GSF can offer this type of product online because they are probably already shipping other heavier parts to the same customer so in many cases will not have so much effect on the overall shipping cost.
     
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    stefan-west1

    Free Member
    Sep 7, 2013
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    Well yes I realise I'm trying to compete with big companies. I never thought it was going to be easy but still because of how I've done it a lot of the items are cheaper than Halfords, euro car parts etc. but obviously that's where I am stuck, because people don't trust it because it's small they don't order, but if they don't order it'll never get bigger!

    I am looking into specialising a bit more, it's things like finding suppliers etc. I've got a few suppliers who are basically trade centres etc. but of course for more specialist suppliers that's where I need to be ordering in bulk which just isn't worth it at this stage. I'm trying to grow the business a bit first.

    And with the postage, obviously I need to send more to save more but again I need the orders to be able to send stuff.

    All I want is just to get those first few orders in. I'm looking into doing things like the car shows etc. and have booked a couple but only little ones which cost around £40 for a 6x6 stand. I don't want to be spending any more than that really as I'm unsure as to whether I would be able to make enough profit to cover the cost but I'm hoping it gets the name out there a bit and get people to know the business
     
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    Anonymouse72

    Free Member
    Jun 16, 2012
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    have you approached any of the owners forums/clubs online (& off), the one i use allows official company reps to post offering advice & special offers/discounts for members. there might be an admin/sponsorship cost involved but this should be offset by potential orders from members.
     
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    The Wholesaler

    Free Member
    Nov 7, 2007
    166
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    Warwickshire
    You have got to specialise more and possibly have a wider range of products. At present you are hoping that someone who needs to buy some oil also fancies buying a Jelly Bean air freshener!

    Surely a better mix would be for example oil and oil filter packages, although you wouldn't have a full retailers margin on the filter you could order on demand from your trade supplier.
     
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    japancool

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  • Jul 11, 2013
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    For heaven's sake, get rid of the "That's all we have" strapline at the bottom of the page.

    With your limited range of products, it looks like you're sticking two fingers up at the customer and saying "That's all we've got, take it or leave it". It is not a virtue, and it's not going to make anyone want to buy from you, quite the opposite.
     
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    RapidFormations

    Free Member
    Mar 13, 2014
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    London
    As others have said you are working in a fairly competitive market with limited stock - you have fewer than 20 items and 1 is unavailable. Most of your items can easily be picked up at a local store for roughly the same price. The unfortunate reality is that you would need to undercut significantly for anyone to take a chance and order from you rather than going to a local store and getting it quicker.

    You are selling Carlube Triple R there for £14.99 + postage - a quick search shows that I could buy it on Amazon for £9.99. Obviously, it's difficult to compete with that...you will probably have to go more specialist to attract customers. You may want to consider combining items to help with postage costs and maybe encourage sales - i.e. car care kits including various items.
     
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    stefan-west1

    Free Member
    Sep 7, 2013
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    I hadn't actually thought about the forums but will give it a go. And I'm trying to get rid of that bar at the bottom I've always hated it. I will Definitely look into trying to make some more sort of kits and things available. Just of course that won't be immediate as I need to find where to buy the stock etc.
     
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    japancool

    Free Member
  • Jul 11, 2013
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    I hadn't actually thought about the forums but will give it a go. And I'm trying to get rid of that bar at the bottom I've always hated it. I will Definitely look into trying to make some more sort of kits and things available. Just of course that won't be immediate as I need to find where to buy the stock etc.

    It's not the bar - it's the text in it.

    Rather than trying to buy in stock which may or may not sell, have you considered trying to find a supplier who will drop-ship for you? That would allow you to expand your range immediately with no outlay, and you can always start buying in stock once you have identified what will sell and you have visitors.

    Also, I suggest you drop the Adwords for the moment. It's giving you no return so you need to work on other, more cost effective and more productive methods of advertising.
     
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    Ste Hughes

    Free Member
    Nov 27, 2010
    249
    59
    England.
    Your first problem is this:

    http://gyazo.com/55b838d8567947768d816f501e7483f4

    What is what I saw when I first entered, no products, no clues on what you actually do, nothing. Just a huge crappy header, a very forgettable logo and no text or words. What is your bounce rate? It must be huge because in all honesty I would just exit straight away.

    I've a little experience in this area of cars and ecommerce.

    One of my first web design clients wanted an ecommerce store for car performance parts. I charged him mega cheap money because I did not know any better and he is closing in on 6 figure turn over every year now.

    He got involved in the community behind car enthusiasts and I would advise you to do the same. A lot of people are really into their cars and really is a way of life for them. They spend £1000's, they are happy to represent their brands by putting stickers on their cars, they hang out on forums and turn up at events all round the country.

    Get involved! turn up at a few events and hand out flyers, sponsor a forum, run a contests on facebook and get some fans.... you can do 100's of things and advertising to these people is not hard at all if your willing to spend a little money.

    But firstly you need a site redesign because that one is awful. You are turning away more people than you are attracting. You must have built it yourself as no web designer I know would do that!
     
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    Ste Hughes

    Free Member
    Nov 27, 2010
    249
    59
    England.
    Also actually looking at your products, nothing stands out.

    Tesco stocks most of it.... You seem to have products for the average car owner. they won't go online to buy stuff they will just go to tesco/halfords...

    Niche out a little more, look at car mods and car performance parts. Successful ecommerce websites are not selling general stuff, they are niche specific and cater to a very small number of people compared to what your aiming at.
     
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    S

    StaffingAgency

    I have close connections from various forms of car enthusiasts. I would echo what others have said, maybe look into attracting a certain sector of the whole car owning community.

    Modified Cars
    Classic Cars
    American Cars
    French Cars
    VW Beetles
    Retro VW Camper vans.
    I could go on, they all have their own clubs, shows, magazines, fans, etc.

    The classic car and modified car scenes have a huge following especially. Both have huge events taking over tracks, or exhibition halls. So an opportunity to get a exhibitor spot should finances allow in the future. The VW Campers scene is also rather popular as well.

    Obviously each sector also hold smaller get togethers, which in turn will lead to cheaper costs to exhibit for you, until you can move onto the bigger shows.

    Seen many people start off with small stands at small shows, then move onto the bigger shows.

    Then of course, you have all the free ways of getting your name out there. Each sector (modified, classic, French, etc) usually have forums, facebook pages, twitter accounts. All good ways of increasing your profile within your targeted market. All at no cost to you.

    However the key is to ensure once they know about you, your prices and good quality products make them spend again and again.

    I am not a car owner, so can not comment on how your prices etc compare to others. But going by the comments of others, then your current products do not stand out enough to warrant a customer using you and not a current competitor.

    However what I do know despite not being a car owner personally. Is that, people with say a classic car, or a modified car do not buy most of their products from the likes of Halfords, Tesco, etc who can easily beat you on price etc on those "everyday car items." They go looking for these smaller avenues who deal in items aimed at their interest/hobby.

    So once again, I echo the comments of others. Look into targeting a certain sector of the market. If that proves successful then you can always expand into others.

    You may start off targeting classic car owners for example. Within your available products, you have a range of good quality, well priced, polishes, waxes, and cleaning cloths for example. These products will also be wanted by other sectors as well.
     
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    stefan-west1

    Free Member
    Sep 7, 2013
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    0
    I would love to expand out into things like performance parts etc. as a I am an avid enthusiast myself, it's trying to find the suppliers, obviously getting this going isn't an overnight job, but thank you again for the advice, it is really beginning to help, I know the website isn't great and I'm doing all I can to improve it, and compared to how it was originally when I posted this it has changed quite a bit, the problem I have is I'm having to learn how to do all this as I go along. But thanks
     
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    Ste Hughes

    Free Member
    Nov 27, 2010
    249
    59
    England.
    Stefan, if you can't afford a web designer there are other options.

    For £40 you will get a nice solid theme from themeforest.com

    Woocommerce and opencart are two very friendly options for you.

    Also you want to ignore you blogger site, move your blog to your site or you will be generating 0 benefit for yourself.
     
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    E

    Excel Expert

    Why avoid Amazon and Ebay? Sure it is more about selling in bulk at a lower margin but it is far better than selling nothing at a high margin. If you set up a sub brand you could sell on ebay and Amazon at lower prices without impacting on your websites brand and pricing.

    I would abandon sites like Tictail and pay for some hosting (£30-£40), install Wordpress and buy a premium theme (£30-£60). I presume the layout you have at the moment is based on one of their in house templates - it is clearly not designed to sell automotive stuff. I cant think of one automotive shop or any online shop where you have to actually scroll before you see any products. Wordpress is easy once you get to use and there is a load of free support out there for it in the form of forums etc.

    If in doubt think how experts like Amazon lay their site out. No thrills, no big arty images taking up half the page, just plain straight forward selling. Half your front page is taken up by a picture of a car and then you get to the menus. Amazon do all of that and more in 80% less space.

    The next half of the page is taken up by a slideshow of 3 featured items. Again a lot of real estate lost here as only one product is on show at a time. Amazon dont do this, instead they have a row of featured products side by side meaning 3 times as many products are front of the visitor at anyone time.

    For me I would also divide the products up more. So you would have all the oils together then on the next row the electrical stuff, on the next car mats etc. It would make the page taller and you will have a bit of white space but the products would be better laid out and the site would be easier to follow.
     
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    stefan-west1

    Free Member
    Sep 7, 2013
    12
    0
    I would abandon sites like Tictail and pay for some hosting (£30-£40), install Wordpress and buy a premium theme (£30-£60). I presume the layout you have at the moment is based on one of their in house templates - it is clearly not designed to sell automotive stuff. I cant think of one automotive shop or any online shop where you have to actually scroll before you see any products. Wordpress is easy once you get to use and there is a load of free support out there for it in the form of forums etc.

    Ok, well I will look into wordpress. I don't quite understand it at the moment but will definitely look at it. Do you have any idea what would be a good theme? Also with Tictail I can design my own themes and use still use Tictail for having the catalogue of products and to handle things like payments etc. I would much rather do that as I do like the way Tictail works, its purely just the themes on there I would like to change
     
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    E

    Excel Expert

    Themeforest is a good source of themes. It is best to look for an ecommerce one with a responsive design so it works on mobile devices.

    The thing to weigh up when you say you like the way Tictail works, is does it work so well for your potential clients as well?. Going by the OP I would say that was a "No". The back end of a website can be the easiest and simplest in the world to operate, but if the frontend is a nightmare and unattractive to site visitors it is a waste of time and money.

    Something else to look at are the open source shopping cart solutions like OpenCart. Again its free and you can add themes and features as needed.
     
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    Peter Bowen

    Free Member
    Jul 2, 2007
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    Isle of Wight
    Forgive me for being blunt but I suspect your business model is fatally flawed. It looks like you're trying to out Amazon Amazon (or out Halfords Halfords if you prefer).

    If the only strategy you've got is selling easily obtainable identically branded goods cheaper than anyone else you're going to get caught in a race to the bottom. The big established players have all the advantages. (I get all excited about the AdWords implications of this here but the principle is the same no matter how you're trying to get your clients: http://www.pete-bowen.com/google-adwords/things-you-should-never-advertise-on-google)
     
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    E

    Excel Expert

    The products he is selling are not ones you can increase the price on to make up for the fees. There is far too much competition for it. If anything the OP should look at shifting bulk on ebay at lower margins. Lots of sales at a low margin is far better than no sales (stacking it high and selling it cheap hasnt done the supermarkets any harm)
     
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    Tech4Homes

    Free Member
    Sep 30, 2012
    461
    63
    Hmmm the problem is as already stated really, 1) your site does not portray any trust or realism and I would click off before even seeing any products, if I did see products I wouldn't buy from the site and 2) you have completely the wrong products. Firstly they are all low value low margin, how many cans of WD40 will you need to sell to make a living? Which brings the second point, no one goes online to buy WD40, De-Icer or the other items you're selling.

    People may buy them online at Halfords or big motor factors along with various other things on the same order, but no one will buy WD40 from you, as you've proved over the past year.

    I don't want to be negative but you're going about it all wrong, as was I when I first started in the e-commerce game. You need to go out and find a niche, find some products that you can properly market, make profit on and also be competitive with. You'll need a new website as well really, either go down the Opencart and theme route as suggested or look at something like Magento Go, at least their themes seem more "real" and trustworthy to a customers perspective.

    Stop the AdWords for now, you must have a very high bounce rate, I'm not sure where you get 2% from, as you say that you're paying for traffic but getting no sales would indicate to me (both from what you say, and my experience of your site) a very high bounce rate. You can pay for people to go to the site until you have to re-mortgage the house and have nothing left, but ultimately however many people that gets you on the site, they aren't going to buy from you so you won't get a return on your investment at present.

    On the plus side! The name "care 4 cars" has potential I think, it has keywords, it is what it says... how about you try and find out the best car care products like detailers would use, detailing tools, foam lances, buckets with stone guards and other foam accessories, clay bars etc.

    Then fill the site with information, how to's, guides, links and other useful content then concentrate on that product range. As also mentioned you then have a clear audience - car enthusiasts.... there are many ways to market, but at least then you would have a clear and concise and fairly niche market to start targeting (if you get the products right).

    Ignore the "me to" stuff, WD40? forget it. Find that niche, go where the customers are, invest in a trustworthy site. When you get enough traffic and enough conversions you can start to add in some of the cheaper, but related, upsell items.
     
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    E

    Excel Expert

    On the niche front, most of the products on your site are available in large supermarkets, garages and in local stores. When products are that low priced and that available I, myself wouldnt look to buy them online. I would just go out and pick them up (no waiting, no delivery charges, no having to be in when the delivery is made).

    Which got me thinking, what about making packs of cleaning kits or maintenance kits. This should reduce the overall cost of packaging, removing one of the objections. Different kits can be made up (low cost, medium and expensive).

    Even then I dont think it will be a big seller but it may help get some sales
     
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    houseofdecals

    Free Member
    Feb 16, 2014
    43
    1
    Id get on ebay if I was you the charges are a necessary evil. I know the prices on there are really competitive but you will make more sales overall than your site will ever do.

    Hit facebook and twitter try get word out and work on the web sites appearance a bit more.

    good luck
     
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    There is hardly any information i look on the first page and review in two seconds. One thing that stands out is there is a homepage but no information its an advert straight away. A great example was given by matt cutts google head of webspam. starbucks but what does it coffee would be good. There is no call to action tell people with your pictures what to do.
     
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