Zero conversion rate ?? Why ??

[Red_Stafford]

Hi all, we run a website offering phone & tablet repairs, over the past month we have had over 600 website visits but NO sales, how can I find out what we are doing wrong and why people are not buying from us ??

Can I post a link to our website or is this against rules ??

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Ninja Commerce]

Hi there.

I think that you have to be a paid member to post a link (as a paid member you can add a link in your signature).

 

[Ninja Commerce]

I can try to give you some generic advice though...

I think it's pretty common for new websites to have much lower sales than they expect. Making sales is really difficult and you are likely to need a fair degree of optimising before you start to improve that.

Possible causes are:

Your products are too expensive or not the right ones
Your traffic isn't relevant enough
Your website has usability issues
Your website looks ugly

I would try to address all of these concerns.

Check the competition to see how competitive you are. I suspect in your niche price is important, but it's not a niche I know intimately.

Also, I don't know how you are getting traffic, but if it is via PPC, consider only targeting VERY specific phrases. Don't bid on "phone accessories" because that phrase will get you browsing visitors.

Instead, target things like "iphone 4c silicon case"...

Wherever possible ads should go directly to the relevant product page or a very relevant category page.

These "long-tail" phrases will convert much better and may be cheaper to bid on. You will certainly get less traffic from each one, but if you target as many as possible those numbers will add up.

Next, get some feedback on your website, it's worth paying to be a member to get some constructive feedback, but failing that, ask people for their very honest opinions.

Don't ask family and friends who are likely to sugar coat their answers.

Consider using "5 second test" (Google it) to get some brutally honest feedback.

Also, set up Analytics and consider using "Clicky" analytics to get heatmap data, which may give you more clues as to what your visitors are doing.

Hope that helps to get you started.
Regards, Alex.

 

[RepricerExpress]

Hard to give advice without viewing the website but what Alex says seems like sound advice. Good luck.

 

[Matt Thorpe]

Good advice from Alex.


If you haven't had any sales yet then it is could be a case of the following:

1. Receiving un-targeted visitor traffic

I would firstly check your analytics to see where people are coming from. I have recently noticed that there are far more bots visiting sites these days which gives a bit of a boost in traffic. Obviously, this isn't genuine so exclude these.

Next, look at where the genuine people are coming from. Are the sources of traffic and their search terms they are using relevant? If not, review your SEO to reach people who need your services.


2. Get the word out

Devise a marketing strategy to target websites where your customers would visit. Gain exposure through PR, special offers, opinion pieces, videos, etc. You need to let everyone know how great your service is, what benefits you can offer and why you are better than the competition.

Think outside the box. Rather than focus on the standard tech websites, think about other people who may need your service – e.g Retired people who are now heavy tablet users, Mums who’s young kids may have damaged their iPad or Building companies who all source iPad for their employees. Also look at running special offers with sports clubs and organisations with larger membership bases.


3. Product Pages

Are your product pages clear and precise? Do they reflect the quality of your service? Do you have display images and videos? Do you list the benefits of your service? Is your description waffle or does it get to the point? Do you address the pain factor and sell the benefits?


4. Your site is untrustworthy

Trust is the key factor when shipping online. You need to make new visitors feel comfortable so they can see you are a genuine site that they can trust. Don’t hide your postage costs, shipping & returns policy, contact details, etc. Display payment options (card logos, PayPal, etc) and show visitors that your site is safe and secure. Make everything clear and easy to understand. FAQs are a good way to ensure clarity. Also add testimonials and reviews. These are key factors.


5. Your checkout is causing issues

The checkout is one of the major parts of your site. You need to make this as quick and easy as possible. Do you have lots of unnecessary form fields? Are your postage costs hidden until the end? Are they fair? Does your checkout look secure?


6. Is your site mobile friendly?

If your site isn’t usable on mobile devices then you will immediately lose business. Most people don’t have patience work hard to make a purchase. If your site isn’t responsive with small text and awkward entry fields then you are probably neglecting 30-40% of your site visitors. Google will also show no mercy to your site in this instance because it delivers a poor user experience.

Make sure your site uses a fully responsive design and test it.


There are many factors that affect a website’s conversion rate and much of it is trial and error. Keep working on your site to make it a clean, quick and easy purchasing experience.

I hope these points help.

 

[Jeff FV]

If you join as a full member (approx £35 + VAT iirc) you can ask for a website review.

These can be a bit brutal (honest!) but that's probably what you want.

May turn out to be £40 well spent.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Great advice so far.

 

[Alan]

A sad thing I discovered when doing e-commerce was price is so sensitive.

Selling something at £20.00 when competitors sell at £19.95 = no sales.

Selling at £19.90 when competitors sell at £19.95 = lots of sales.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Price & delivery time are the deal breakers in Ecommerce.

 

[Benjie_P]

Have you already considered uploading videos to youtube? e.g. if you are offering repair service maybe you can create videos that one of your techs is fixing tablets or phones etc. You can also create videos for your products in there. Maybe offering some tutorials that you may know about tablets, phones etc. and on the description box below the video put the link to your website.

A lot of people go to youtube for tutorials on whatever they may be interested in. And since you are in the retail and repair service for mobile devices then you can offer tutorials you may know about these devices.

 

[Don]

Some decent advice here already and one thing I can tell you is that Google Analytics (assuming you're using that), sadly shows that you are getting more visits than you are actually truly getting.

I recently started a new website and without no promotion, Google Analytics shows it getting around 40 to 50 sessions per day. Basically I know it's all spam traffic. All of it is direct and referral traffic from websites like 4websites.org etc.

It's become a royal pain for low traffic sites as it gives you less accuracy so you will want to get filters up and running in Analytics for starters to block visits from these referral sites at the least.