Why not my site?

[gemd89]

NVI and eMerchant offer the best advice.Sort your supply side out and dress up your shop window. The template / store front could be better...

Care to elaborate on what you wouold change? Im quite biased on the site so apart from the help above i do need specific advice. Im working on all other changes - its taking time but i feel im getting there!

Any other advice is very welcomed, would you buy or not? If not why not?

Gemma

 

For me the site design itself doesn't grab me, its fairly pale and whilst I love pink it doesn't really fit with the overall product theme, its a bit too childish design wise in a way. The text is very hard going as its quite small and the images need to be bolder.

Personally I think a fancy dress site should be a bit livelier and more fun, it should convey entertainment.

I like http://www.abfab.co.uk/ and http://www.daydreamersfancydress.co.uk/ as examples of what I mean.

http://www.joke.co.uk is quite a good example of a slightly more grown up theme website, but is still clear and well laid out

 

[SillyJokes]

There's lots of good suggestions here, but basically you could find you are really up against some very stiff competition. When we started out 10 years ago we were like you, working from home. But we were one of only about 4 online fancy dress stores. Now there are hundreds and they come and go all the time.

Smiffy's stuff is ubiquitous and even though they tried to stop people selling their products on ebay dirt cheap you'll probably still have that problem, even though you are trying to gain sales by dropping your prices.

You've got some great advice on this thread which you'll benefit from if you action it.

 

[gemd89]

Thanks both for the advice all taken onboard and layout is being worked on

Gemma

 

[gemd89]

Another thing i need advice on is i am trying to import my products into google base but i have the page up - where do i go from here, how can i make a file of my products to submit to google base?

Help appreciated

Gemma

 

[emerchant]

Another thing i need advice on is i am trying to import my products into google base but i have the page up - where do i go from here, how can i make a file of my products to submit to google base?

Help appreciated

Gemma

Looks like you are using a hosted storefront system, do they have an automatic Base feed? (most do) if not I assume they have a product spreadsheet export (again most do) you could output then "re-jig" into a base friendly format then upload manually

 

[ideas]

Hi Gemma,,

To answer your initial question about drawing traffic to your website, there could be various methods to do so,

1) You can subscribe to the various SCE's (Shopping Comparison Engines),
lately, the traffic on the shopping comparison sites, have gone upwards, drastically, and these can bring you more qualified leads on your website, to explain, if i am going to a SCE to find out about fancy dresses, and if i encounter your site, i am more likely to buy, than a visitor you might get from facebook... thats because, i am ready to purchase and have managed to reach you, instead of you reaching me. One example of this is shopping.com, however there are many, and these all work on the pay per click arrangement.

2) Second way to bring traffic to your website, could be by using secondary selling channels like ebay, ebid, amazon, while these will generate direct sales (which will be costlier than sales from your websites ofcourse), however you will get many leads, you can use all thse places to divert traffic to your site, again more ripe and qualified leads.

3) You can use the good old print media,,, beacuse the chances are, if i am looking for fancy dress, i am might just pick up, yell or thomson local, to find out a company like you, also these days, they get huge clicks for searches on yell.com and thomsonlocal.com

4) You can run a ppc campaign on google, its again very effective and you can have full control on costs and budgets.

Hope this helps, if you think this was any good, and have any more questions in specific,. feel free to give a shout.

Regards,
Ideas

 

[gemd89]

Im going to add products to ebay now to generate some leads and also get more traffic, ive also added more products to make it a more wardrobe place- every item that would be in a wardrobe.

http://www.fantasywardrobe.co.uk

 

[love2hire]

there is something missing in your site, a bit more colour would help, its all a bit drab and more description to your items, i like a lengthy description when i buy things and a short sentence is too short.

 

[gemd89]

Im still going through adding more descriptons, i have 1000 products so takes time, you will see all handbags have lengthy desciptions.

Gemma

 

[gemd89]

Yes your right it does need jazzying up but in order to pay for that i need sales and traffic, its a vicious circle.

Gemma

 

[love2hire]

i know its not easy but keep at it and you'll get there!

 

[gemd89]

I am, just gets so frustrating sometimes when you put all your time in and dont see the rewards

Gemma

 

[love2hire]

i've been there and there are times when you feel you are doing this for nothing. What about hiring out the costumes too, a lot of people feel this is a better option than buying especially at the moment. This would allow people to get to know you and what you offer and can then either buy or hire. There are so many different occasions that buying becomes very expensive especially if you have 3 or 4 kids.
Worth a thought!

 

[gemd89]

I couldnt really afford to hire them out and have them dry cleaned each time - the price would increase significantly, cheaper for customers to buy - the big shops charge double the price i do and they supply the same thing from the same place!!

Gemma

 

[Snowrider]

Hi Gemma,
I checked a bit your site and looked at your source code. I can't find any tracking????
On the ranking you are 2,607,747 and in the UK 124,399 - you have no news and no links.
the keywords that are driving customers to your site are: (can you see the misspelling?)
spongebob squarepants lingirie
spongebob squarepants lingerie
gold gino
inflatable wardrobe
noddy fancy dress
kids fancydress

Hope that helps a bit

 

[gemd89]

Hi Gemma,
I checked a bit your site and looked at your source code. I can't find any tracking????
On the ranking you are 2,607,747 and in the UK 124,399 - you have no news and no links.
the keywords that are driving customers to your site are: (can you see the misspelling?)
spongebob squarepants lingirie
spongebob squarepants lingerie
gold gino
inflatable wardrobe
noddy fancy dress
kids fancydress

Hope that helps a bit

Dont mean to sound stupid but this is my first business, i have no idea of creating websites and SEO so what was the point of the above?

I do have backlinks, but i dont link to other businesses - is that bad? I do have a news page? Does it need more on it or is that not the news you were on about? And what is tracking?

If you could offer any other advice that would be great

Gemma

 

[Snowrider]

First thing is to know what is happening on your site, it means being able to "track" how your customers look at your pages and then you can make some adjustment to your strategy. You want for example to sell Bob, how do you know that customers are going onto that page (apart of the one who are buying it), you need to find out how do they "use" your site, put some tracking onto your pages and build funnels (that is a very old sales technique) that leads the customer where you want him. If you have a high bounce rate, which you can monitor through your tracking, then you will know, what keywords the customers are using, where they land (landing page) where they go after that. You don't want people wandering away, so your offer needs to be exactly what they are looking for.
your bounce rate is:
1 month avg 66.7%
3 month avg 52.2%
3 month change 265% +
Its getting higher instead of going down - that mean the keywords are not what people are looking for.
People spend on average 2.3 minutes.
Linking to sites (quality links) will bring you referral and that will again increase your page ranking.
Do you want me to PM you more indices?
regards
Bruno

 

[gemd89]

Yes please a PM would be useful - nice to know im spending more time and its getting worse!

Gemma

 

[gemd89]

So i have a links page and link to www.bbc.co.uk - that would be good?

Any potential customer views would also be great?

Would it help to have a sort of forum on the site for people to chat about evenings out/fashion etc?

Gemma

 

[gemd89]

Any other useful advice before i set the design guys on to do the work?

Gemma

 

[That Guy]

Are your products listed on:

- Google Base (shopping)
- FreeIndex.co.uk
- shopmania.co.uk
- Twitter
- shopsafe.co.uk
- Submit you sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools


Not sure how much of that you have already done but this is what helped us

 

[gemd89]

3 out of 6 so far, will work on the other 3

Thanks
Gemma

 

I love that people think they can set up a basic website, publish it on the web and the business will just show up and buy.

You need to run an adwords campaign. SEO and organic listings can take 12months to get you onto the first page in a competitive industry!

IMO the site is poor and I personally wouldn't buy from it simply based on it's look. It looks very dated and I would worry how safe it was putting my card details into a badly designed site.

Excuse the honest and sometimes blunt feedback but really you ought to do your homework on the WWW and SEO/Internet marketing. How can you expect to run a profitable e-biz when you have zero knowledge about the industry? :|

 

[love2hire]

is there really a need for that. Sorry but what makes you the queen of business?
There is being honest and giving feedback but i think you have crossed the line a bit. Sorry just being honest!

 

is there really a need for that. Sorry but what makes you the queen of business?
There is being honest and giving feedback but i think you have crossed the line a bit. Sorry just being honest!

What is your problem. You keep criticising my posts! If someone doesn't want REAL advice then don't ask. I didn't say I was the queen of business, that was you.

 

[quikshop]

is there really a need for that. Sorry but what makes you the queen of business?
There is being honest and giving feedback but i think you have crossed the line a bit. Sorry just being honest!

10 visitors a day, old fashioned website, vast number of competitors all selling from the same supplier, reality is it will take a massive and sustained effort to turn this website into a genuine cashflow positive business.

Sometimes good honest harsh advice is exactly what's needed to introduce a reality check into a business idea.

 

[love2hire]

ha ha ha!!! I wouldn't need to criticise your posts if you weren't constantly negative towards people but you need to remember that they may not be as experienced as you nor have the same budget as you.
Everyone deserves a chance and it doesn't help to be put down in such a harsh manner, of course you can give your opinions thats what we are here for but there are ways of doing it nicely!
So lets wipe the slate clean and start afresh

Well, we'd all like to be queen wouldn't we

 

It's not negative. It's honest advice. People running businesses need to not become so emotionally embroiled in it all. You are trying to run a business, it isn't a hobby. The aim is to make money if i'm not mistaken.

I think if more people were honest to small businesses in their birthing period there wouldn't be so many in the failed businesses grave yard. People need to be more realistic and not come and use the business forums to massage their own egos but to expect honest and sometimes frank advice from people who have a little more experience that they do.

You can borrow my crown after once i'm done. I do play nice.... sometimes! x

 

[gemd89]

Thanks guys, Maybe thats what i needed. Im here on this forum for the advice and experience and feedback whether good or bad!

Im 20 years old so dont expect to know everything but i am prepared to learn.

Rome wasnt built in a day i know. Im working on all the improvements and hopefully you'll like it soon.

Maybe the last few posters could be constructively critical?

Gemma

 

You're 20?! Well fair play to you hun! I think what you are doing is great especially at your age. (without sounding too patronising). I was partying 4 nights a week when I was 20. :redface:

Good luck to you and yes I might be a tad blunt but it's done with your best interests in mind.

 

[gessoandgold]

You know the old maxim, 'you're not selling the product, you're selling the story'. You need to create 'the story', which in this case is an atmosphere, an air of excitement, so people will enjoy the experience of looking through the site.

A forum won't do that, customers don't want to create their own story, they want it presented to them prettily ( or playfully, mysteriously, romantically, efficiently ... whatever would best suit your purposes).

You don't need to scrub the lingerie, you need to veil it so folk have to deliberately click on the adult section to see it, then parents won't instantly run away, kids in tow.

I'm engaged in sorting my own site out at the minute. It's a real pain, this thread is great for me ( closet technophobe ) but it's no use setting up any big marketing efforts till the site's in place.

I was going to use Paypal but will now look at the other options. I'm not planning to sell mainly from the site but I want to get it as good as I can because I don't like dealing with it.

 

[willitbe]

E-commerce is a painfully slow business to get spot-on, it takes huge amounts of time and effort to even get anywhere near profitable, even more-so, should you be flogging an everyday, easy to obtain product. It isn't a case of selling it cheaper than everyone else either, that's naive short term thinking.

Having a website is probably 5 percent of the whole picture, if you get anywhere near 10 percent of the picture, I will eat my hat!

I ran a website for 5 years, it took huge amounts of sleepless nights to get to a stage where it was performing, huge amounts of effort, an unaccountable amount of time and stacks of hard earned money. It ranked number 1 for most of the profitable keyphrases in an ever increasing market. Even once I had sold it, it was still only at about 75 percent of the whole picture, I don't think I could have stomached another 5 years of complete grief and commitment to bring it to 100 percent!.

So if there are a few people on here giving honest, frank advice, it isn't because they are being obstructive, they are really being honest and taking a little of whats been said onboard will help you in the long run!

 

[gemd89]

Yeah im 20, studied business and management at college and my strongpoints are really maths and accounting - i then went to work full time, fell pregnant and started the business this april while on maternity leave - went back to work part time in may and now pregnant with m second child due to go on maternity leave from work in december again from my proper job and looking to start this up while on maternity so i dont need to go back to work and i can stay at home with the kids and my partner can continue to work full time

Gemma

 

[gemd89]

Well im 6 months in so obviously dont expect the results straight away. I do realise the site needs more work and am concentrating on that at the moment but its hard when its been made that way to have an objective viewpoint and thats what im here to find.

So how do you get to 100% then, would be interested to know what makes up that 100%?

Thanks guys, your all great

Gemma

 

[willitbe]

Well im 6 months in so obviously dont expect the results straight away. I do realise the site needs more work and am concentrating on that at the moment but its hard when its been made that way to have an objective viewpoint and thats what im here to find.

So how do you get to 100% then, would be interested to know what makes up that 100%?

Thanks guys, your all great

Gemma

Dunno, never got the chance to try...Thank god!

 

[gemd89]

Ok, thanks i guess.

Just looked at your site michelle, lovely layout

Gemma

 

[ICU_Clean]

What is your problem. You keep criticising my posts! If someone doesn't want REAL advice then don't ask. I didn't say I was the queen of business, that was you.

I agree with you 100% Michelle.

This forum is supposed to be about business and business advice. I have read so much drivel on these boards that i prefer to not post in a lot of threads as i would come accross as some sort of meanie compared to the rubbish that gets posted.

There are a couple of women members here especially who clearly have no idea about what is involved in setting up or even running a business who do nothing more than offer soothing words but nothing in terms of meaningful advice. It dumbs down this site so much when you have that sort of calibre of advice from peoplke who are not even running a business.

I just been reading through your posts, and while you don't pull your punches your advice is right on the money, and i think this forum desperately needs more members like you.

 

[A Party Shop]

There are a couple of women members here

It's not just the women members

 

[fisicx]

Back to the site again....

Had another look and the lingerie seems to have gone but many of your products still look cheap and nasty. You are now sellings bags, tops and all sorts of other tat which means the site has no real focus or direction.

I would never buy from you because you appear not to care about your visitors. The product descriptions are almost non existant, the page layout is disastrous, the call to action in the wrong place and the images of such low quality that I can't properly see what I get for my money.

Right back at the start you said you were the cheapest. That's not a good USP. It should be the right product at the right price. And you need to sell me the product, convince me that my life would end if I didn't buy the fancy dress outfit. All you are doing at the moment is displaying the goods, you haven't convinced me that I can trust you, that your products are of decent quality and I'm going to look good at the party in my spongebob outfit.

BTW - since you only have a PO Box address, a mobile number and no email your trust score just took a nose dive.