I'm not surprised you were losing money on your adwords.
Unless you know exactly what you want it's almost impossible to find anything on the site. Everything seems to be categorised they you organise things. I tried to find a ballcock but you don't seem to sell any. I then looked for a new pump for the power shower and you don't any of these either. I searched for a 2 port valve and the results showed me a 3 port valve.
The prices aren't that good, the categories aren't easy to follow and the product pages are very weak.
You also have an 0800 number and no address on the page (it's all about trust). The navigation is in all the wrong places and the UX isn't very good on a phone.
And I'd rethink the product range. If I need a ball float it because mine is broken today. You may only be 79p but it's going to take 2-3 days and £3 delivery to get to me. I can be back from B&Q in an hour.
When you ran the adwords were you sending people to the exact product page? Did you have an advert for each product your sell?
The checkout is naff as well. Why two fields form my name? Why do you need a password? Why all the fields for stuff that doesn't apply to me (eg fax and company).
And now the biggie. Why would I buy from you? I can google the products and find the best price. I can use ebay and look for deals. I can go to my local plumbing supplier and be back home before you have even processed my order. What is the incentive to buy a tap washer from you and not homebase?
Thanks for taking the time to review, could I have a bit more detail so that I can pin point the problems?
How would you suggest we format the categories? We have broad categories along the top which lead to sub categories. There are also big visuals on the home page which lead down the same route. Unfortunately there are often several different ways of describing the same item, especially in this industry.......riddled with jargon. We call a ballcock a ballvalve, so maybe we need to look at how we can integrate alternative descriptions without making the site appear condescending. The search for the 2 port valve brings up both 2 and 3 port valves, not sure why that is, but will delve deeper. Our address is kept within the contact details at the bottom of each page to avoid clutter, but you think it would be better displayed more clearly?
Where would you position the navigation? currently it is along the top as well as down the side (on a desk top)
Our prices are roughly 20% cheaper than Screwfix and very competitive with our peers, unless you have examples of sites which prove the opposite?
I understand the point about postage and the fact that people can buy locally cheaper, although there are many people whose time is worth more than £3 for the hour round trip to a local merchant and that's our target audience, same as any other online retailer.
Good point about the Adwords landing page........it was set up by a third party as I didn't understand it, but I did notice that the landing page was the home page rather than the actual product which I thought was odd and should have delved deeper. I have been meaning to learn more about that myself, so will get straight onto that.
You don't need a password to checkout, that option is for registered customers, you can check out as a guest and leave irrelevant fields blank, but surely the option should be there for customers who need it?
One of our USP's is that we have a wide range of toilet spares, broader than any local merchant. Most merchants, including the big ones, will generally only sell one or two different syphons or flush valves..........at very inflated prices as well. You could drive round town all day looking for the right part.
Our main business is b2b sales and our customers use our site for their procurement and it's a fair size business but having spent ££££ on the website it would be nice to leverage the retail opportunities.
