Should I be concerned..?

[bottlemaster]

I currently have a bounce rate on my website of 43%. So 43% of my visitors are leaving without going any further than my home page.

I'm wondering whether displaying the price of my products right there on the home page is putting people off going any further. If they were to read a little more, they may understand a bit better the work that goes into them, and be a little bit more understanding of the price.

Might it be worth removing the prices from the homepage to 'force' people to go further into the website, or is this a big no-no?

 

[cholland]

I always like to see the price as soon as possible and not search to find out its out of my budget etc...

Why not try split testing it?

 

[castus]

43% is not amazingly high. But, You could try adding the prices. It depends on if your prices are low though. If they aren't competitive, your bounce rate may go up.

You also have to take into acount that not everyone lands straight on your homepage. They may go straight to a product page from a search engine. If the search result isn't quite right for what they searched for, they will bounce.

In essence, don't worry about it. Concentrate on getting more visitors and turning those visitors into customers.

 

[deniser]

I would imagine a fair few of them are people on here having a look at your site in relation to the questions you are posting on this forum.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Whilst it is worrying to see this figure, it might just be because once they do not like and want to continue (BTW, I think they are great!).

As you have a very focussed product, the same stats that apply to mass retail would not apply! I believe it is more black & white!

 

[castus]

After looking at your site. There are a few points.

1: It took me a little while to work out what you were selling.
2: I think everything is right there on the homepage for me to decide whether or not I want to purchase your product. All of your products, a rough description, image and price.

 

[Piqueperfumes]

Our bounce rate tends to be around 43% although it is dropping. We are not worrying too much about it and trying more to increase turning visitors into buyers. We have tried to mix up our home page to display a variety of different price products as we range from £2.99 to over £60.00.

 

[Mike Glorfindel]

Hi, maybe try setting up goals in analytics &, as per another post in this thread, try splitting 2 variations with no prices on the front & maybe even a better description with the header of your site.

I love the look & feel of your site but there is little info about the product above the fold so people may be landing on the homepage & not getting it.

let us know what you decide to do.

Good luck

 

[Mike Glorfindel]

Oh yeah, just one more thing. Are the bottles selling? If they are then you can dismiss the bounce rate & carry on.

So long as you are covering all costs & making enough to live on then you are going in the right direction.

 

[bottlemaster]

there is little info about the product above the fold

This sounds like tech speak to me - can anybody translate?

 

[drounding]

Info that can be seen above the bottom of the page without having to scroll.

 

[Mike Glorfindel]

This sounds like tech speak to me - can anybody translate?

Sorry, I will explain.

Above/below the fold is a phrase brought over to web design from print.

In this case, it means that when a visitor lands on your page, the first thing they see is your images & prices but they have to scroll down before they see anything about your product ie. description, sales pitch etc.

This may be something to do with your bounce rate (although it may be unrelated) as they land on the site from a search, don't know what they are looking at & leave.

What we must try & remember is that internet users are always in a hurry, they don't like too much text, they don't like scrolling & they dont like any site that does not give them what they want in more than 3 clicks.

Hope that makes sense.

Mike

 

[tony84]

I went on your website the other day, althought your product was quirky is was about £100.
I dont know much about your product but i wouldnt pay £100 for a quirky gift - for £100 your getting to the realms of a nice piece of jewellry or something.

This isnt to say your product isnt worth the price, that was just my first opinion and i only went on your site as someone said the design was nice.

 

[omnivore]

a lot depends on the context in which customers arrive at your site (ie specific key words search or semi random `gift ideas type search) but the main issue is the photography / site design which makes the actual nature of the offer/item very obscure

its hard to `get` whats on offer so no wonder folks click off fast

you need to give up the information and benefit FAST or you are done for

it took me over 30 seconds to understand what the product was

 

[castus]

I went on your website the other day, althought your product was quirky is was about £100.
I dont know much about your product but i wouldnt pay £100 for a quirky gift - for £100 your getting to the realms of a nice piece of jewellry or something.

This isnt to say your product isnt worth the price, that was just my first opinion and i only went on your site as someone said the design was nice.

Seemed expensive to me too. Although, I have no idea how much this kind of thing would be.

 

[thecyclingartist]

Above the fold: the first visible section of information on screen, before you have to scroll down.

 

[EH7]

It's almost like a pack of playing cards in a glass bottle for £60 - £120 isn't appealing to anyone, how very strange.

 

[bottlemaster]

It's almost like a pack of playing cards in a glass bottle for £60 - £120 isn't appealing to anyone, how very strange.

Yes how very strange, especially considering I've just had an order for 4!

 

[darren atkinson]

I currently have a bounce rate on my website of 43%. So 43% of my visitors are leaving without going any further than my home page.

No one has asked the question of how many total visitors are you getting?

43% of 10 - 20 a day is a completely different problem than 43% of 1000 visitors per day.

You also need to segment your visitors to see the bounce rates from different sources to make any kind of sense of the numbers.

Without doing this anything else is just blind guesswork.

Regards.

 

[Locksmith London]

'Above The Fold' is the part on a web page that is visible prior to having to scroll down. Depending on the users screen resolution, they may only be seeing your top banner and the titles of each bottle. Try reducing the top banner to around 1/3 of it's height and see if that make a difference.

Also try making the prices stand out a bit more as it's difficult to see how much they cost at first glance as the eye is drawn first to the bottle, then the Buy Now button. Maybe re-position the prices to the left of the Buy Now button and make them a bit bigger and more contrasted against the background.

As someone here has already mentioned, try split testing changes to your website so 50% of your visitors see the original content and 50% see the changes. That way you can measure conversion rates separately for each variation and get make an informed decision on your websites design.

 

[Locksmith London]

43% of 10 - 20 a day is a completely different problem than 43% of 1000 visitors per day.

Actually mathematically it's exactly the same! However you are right, segmenting where visitors come from and seeing if there is a pattern of higher bounce rates from a particular source could be insightful.

Also bear in mind that the bounce rate is the number of people that enter your site on a particular page (in this case the home page) and then leave without going to any other pages on the site. You are giving a lot of info about your products on the home page, so it could be that 43% of visitors have no need to click further into your site. They can see all the products and their prices (when they hunt for them, see my earlier post) all on the one page.

Also 43% bounce rate isn't actually that bad. Apparently 40% is around the average for all ecommerce sites. Bear in mind that a certain percentage of people will just be browsing, comparing products, prices, etc. Also some visitors will visit one day then return another day to purchase.

To get an idea of how your site is performing for other key metrics, take a look at the Fireclick Index (Google 'Fireclick Index' to get the URL)

 

[EH7]

Yes how very strange, especially considering I've just had an order for 4!

Wow 4 orders, pretty successful business.

 

[Adam_Watson]

Take a help from your seo expert they will defiantly help you...

 

[bottlemaster]

Wow 4 orders, pretty successful business.

Considering I have a highly niche product and the website has only been live for about a month, I'm very pleased actually! I thought it would take much longer to get a sale.

Thankfully I have a day-job and this isn't my only source of income!

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

Yes, price will be a big factor here. For a majority of people it will be too expensive and only few will have the income to perceive it differently. That's a big chunk of your visitors vanishing into thin air already.

Next up, how do you market your site? Adwords? SEO? If you use Adwords, then I'd actually advise adding your price to the ad and then testing it for a while. That way, you should get a much higher percentage of visitors who are prepared to pay that sort of price.

Strange idea though especially with that sort of price. At least a ship in a bottle can look quite fancy and actually look expensive. This is just a pack of cards in a bottle.

 

[FLAUK]

I have several ecommerce sites and the average bounce rate is 40%. Would be interested to hear from others here what their bounce rate is.

Now tell us how you are getting those things into the bottles!

 

[EH7]

Thankfully I have a day-job and this isn't my only source of income!

Thankfully indeed.

 

[PMSToys]

Bounce rate averages around 40% over the month for our incense site, incenselodge.co.uk

We also sell adult toys on another, pleasuremesextoys.co.uk Bounce rate on that is lower.

It depends on what time range you look at as well. Bounce rates can seem higher if you're looking at a daily rate. If you've only been up and running for a month or two, you won't have a lot of stats to reflect over either.

We found that by using highly targetted keywords with Google Adwords, we got our bounce rate down. It also means that we're paying for clicks that are more likely to generate sales.

If you're in a high niche market then that's a good thing. You're likely to appear way up top on the search engine results when people come looking for your types of products.

If your bounce rate is in the low 40s, I wouldn't be concerned. I might throw open 20 sites to compare prices when I'm buying but then again, I like a good deal!

 

[SEO Lady]

I went on your website the other day, althought your product was quirky is was about £100.
I dont know much about your product but i wouldnt pay £100 for a quirky gift - for £100 your getting to the realms of a nice piece of jewellry or something.

This isnt to say your product isnt worth the price, that was just my first opinion and i only went on your site as someone said the design was nice.

My thoughts exactly, although they are stunning works of art, I would not part with that much cash. Maybe think about adding a lower priced gift range?

 

[FreelanceSoftwareDeveloper]

Strange idea though especially with that sort of price. At least a ship in a bottle can look quite fancy and actually look expensive. This is just a pack of cards in a bottle.

I think it's the mix of modern art and magic. Won't appeal to everyone but then it's like an abstract painting compared to a watercolour landscape, I wouldn't have landscape paintings in my living room but do have some abstract oils pieces.

I get it, I think they are interesting and a talking point. Regarding the price, what do other charge per hours work and how long do you think it would take to create such an item!

Don't worry about bounce rate, it's not overly relevant especially for a new site. You need to see what is taking visitors to you site and look at in more detail but for a new site. I expect you have had quite a few visits from UKBF just having a nosey. You do pretty much give all the info on the home page, you might consider taking the price off so they read the more detailed product text before seeing it but really you just making more work for the customer, if it's too much it's too much for them.

I agree with Scott if you were to try Adwords put the price in the ad, then you only get visits from people wanting to buy at that price and less from people trying to find information.

 

[sarah deng]

may i know what products you offer? quote=bottlemaster;1268631]I'm wondering whether displaying the price of my products right there on the home page is putting people off going any further. [/quote]