Competing with Suppliers & Recession UK

[bekyed]

Hi.

Can anyone help here please?

We have a store in our profile that is basically dying of death in the UK.
One of the problems is we are competing with our suppliers as they retail their products too and are higher than us on Google for our main search term, they are at no1 for most searches, we are at 3 maybe 4
We get around 10,000 visitors per month to the store, this converts around 2 sales per day now and not enough to keep us going.
The other problem is we cannot find another supplier with cheaper products.
What would you do in this situation here please to get more sales,the recession is obviously not helping either.

Thanks.
Bek.

[tangor]

If your supplier is your main competition you'll have difficulty in profitability. The best you can do is offer something they do not, such as free shipping (thus lower margin for you), or other service they do not offer (phone tech support for example). You will have to decide what profit margin works for you... and keeps your biz afloat... or get out of the biz. That simple.

[buckworks]

Look for ways to increase your traffic. What have you been doing to strengthen your long tail?

Look for ways to improve your conversion rates. What sort of on-site tweaks have you been testing with conversion in mind?

Improve customer followup so you can cultivate repeat sales to the same customer. Do you have a newsletter? Do you have related products you could promote to previous customers? Or even affiliate products that you could recommend?

[bekyed]

Thanks Tangor.

Do you run ecommerce sites too?
I think the recession in the UK doesn't help much though too.
I think our suppliers are feeling the pinch too.

Wayne.

[tangor]

@bekyed... yes as to ecommerce (US). Recession hurts here, too. When my suppliers fight me I find other suppliers, if possible. Shoestring sometimes works. Outlasting recessionary times on thin budget also works. Only you can make that decision.

buckworks makes excellent suggestions. I run a listserv for customers (double opt in and moderated AFTER the post, ie. open as it is here at WW, hosted on my server) which has been beneficial as the kiddies talk about what they got, how it was fun, and what they want to get next. About 1k members who generate about 80% of biz all by themselves. Not getting rich, but keeping me out of the poor house at the moment.

Not a large market, of course, but it is a market and it is a tad high value, but margins are thin, as are most high value items.

[bekyed]

Thanks guys for your input, I have sent you a sticky buckworks, hope you don't mind.
Not getting rich either here, running out of money fast, still posistive though.

Cheers.

[soccer1970]

we are competing with our suppliers

I've had this problem in the past, too.

This may not be what you want to hear, but I'm in the US and I have completely quit dealing with any supplier that is both wholesale and retail. It usually ends with bad feelings all around.

Things get confused ... they don't know who their "customer" is. Some wholesalers can handle it, but others get weird and unprofessional.

Can you go directly to Taiwan or wherever your supplier gets their goods?

[bekyed]

Hi Soccer.

Yes, we are trying to source suppliers for our products, unfortunately our suppliers make these items themselves and have shops too.

Bek.

[mattur]

strengthen your long tail

I'd second this advice: had a quick look at your website and you don't have individual product pages. So you're potentially missing out on a lot of more qualified/long-tail product-level search terms.

Also make sure your important call to action buttons stand out. The "checkout now" button on the basket blends in with the the other buttons - I'd make it bigger, clearer and use a more readable font. HTH.

[mattur]

Also, list your products in Google Products [google.co.uk] if you haven't already.

[bekyed]

Mattur.

Thank you for your advice.
We will take a look and make changes as appropriate.
We welcome any more comments on our site.

Bek.

[iambic9]

Hi bekyed, I own a UK based design company, we're product designers and are in the fashion industry and as such I have some experience selling products from an aesthetic standpoint online.

From my perspective having looked at your site I'd say the reason you're not converting more sales is down to your site structure and photography. For almost every product you have a just a single tiny photograph, no gorgeous details to get me excited about making a purchase – multiple image angles helping me to really feel and understand the product are non existent, and a tantalising description amounts to "A Product: £12.95"

Your photography is your biggest problem, if I were to reproduce your online sales style in the real world this is how it would go:

1) I would hand the customer a white A4 sheet of paper with a small letter box hole cut out. I would then ask a model wearing a nice pair of knickers to walk approximately 30 meters into the distance until she appears to be roughly 3 inches high through the paper view finder.

2) I would then say in the customers ear: "Nice Knickers, Nice Knickers(NK3301)... Knickers."

3) I would then hold my hand out in anticipation of £16.85.

I don't mean to sound cruel, but this is exactly what you are doing, if it doesn't cut it in the real world, don't expect it to work online. I see a lot of people making this same mistake, the only way you can ever compete with an individual or company that has a strategic advantage over you is if you're better than they are.

Pick 3 key products to start with, get some gorgeous models in, do a seriously detailed, sexy product shoot, use the products yourself and do a full write up, give those products an entire page each, with no less than 8 very large very beautiful product shots. Give samples to friends and get them to write reviews on each page. Repeat for the hundreds products you have and eventually you will make some seriously good money.

Remember unless you are selling discount batteries, paper plates or paperclips there is no easy way to build a successful competitive online store that doesn't require tons of effort.

[bekyed]

Thanks for this Iambic.

You have just helped me to make up my mind.

Thanks.

Bek.