Traffic Doubled, but Sales Stayed The Same

I'm Obviously doing Something Wrong

[Planet13]

I am obviously missing something here...

Traffic has doubled to my ecommerce site when I compare year over year traffic numbers.

However, the number of sales in February of this year was the same as last year.

My site has a blog (not a whole lot of traffic) as well as several articles related to our products, along with the ecommerce pages. The articles get the lion's share of the traffic.

The conversion rate from those articles has apparently fallen in half (since twice the traffic and the same number of sales must mean a reduction in half of the conversion rate).

Lots of people read the articles, add a product to their shopping basket, and then leave, without going through the checkout process.

Is the basket contents page (where they are taken to when they add a product to heir shopping basket) scaring them off? Or are they just looky-Lous who weren't realloy interested in buying anything anyway?

Just don't know where to look to fix this. I'm staring at my google analytics and just not coming up with ideas.

Thanks in advance.

[Soma]

Are your shipping policies/rates easy to determine before the checkout process? If not, perhaps they enter the item into the basket, see a shipping amount higher than anticipated, then say "No way, Jose" and leave.

Or are you inserting a link to purchase the item in your article in a way that's confusing? Meaning they click on the link thinking it will take them to a page with more info, not understanding it's a link to purchase the item.

Does the article contain all the information the customer would to see about the product, in an easy to read format? If not, maybe they are clicking on the item in an attempt to see more details, not in attempt to buy.

Are you products priced competitively? If they're higher than other sites' and it's easy to compare the items you sell, perhaps you need to add more unique content/more customer service to justify the higher price. Otherwise, they just get it somewhere else cheaper.

[Planet13]

@ Soma:

thanks for taking the time to read and respond:

Are your shipping policies/rates easy to determine before the checkout process?

yes, relatively easy. When they click the add to basket button, it takes them to the basket page, where it lists the shipping rate (if they are in the US, which most customers are). So there are no "surprises" in the shipping charge when they go through the checkout page.

Or are you inserting a link to purchase the item in your article in a way that's confusing?

I think it is pretty clear. The items are off to the side, and there is a photo of the item, and there is an Add to basket button, so they should have a pretty good idea of what will happen when they click it.

Does the article contain all the information the customer would to see about the product, in an easy to read format? If not, maybe they are clicking on the item in an attempt to see more details, not in attempt to buy.

Well, not exactly. Say the article is about widgets in general. There will be three or four specific widget products on that page. They all have the same format; a thumbnail picture and the name of the product, followed by the price and an add to basket button.

If they click on the photo of the item, it will take them to the ecommerce product details of that item.

Maybe that isn't clear enough? Maybe when they click on the add to basket button, they are actually really just wanting to get more info about the product? I thought that since the name and photo of the item are both links to the product detail page, they would be able to figure that out though.

Are you products priced competitively?

I think so. Because the products are somewhat artistic, it is hard to compare them apples to apples with other products on other sites. And there is no universal product number or SKU they could easily look up.

There are a few sites that do carry pretty much the exact same item, but it would probably have a different name than what we use, and we sell them for less (usually 10% to 15% less).

On the competitors' sites, the shipping charge is either not divulged until going through the checkout process. On one competitor's site, they do drop shipping, so they state in red letters that the shipping takes longer and is more expensive than most of the other items they sell. I would think this would be a big turnoff to their customers.

[Soma]

When they click the add to basket button, it takes them to the basket page, where it lists the shipping rate (if they are in the US, which most customers are). So there are no "surprises" in the shipping charge when they go through the checkout page.

Are the shipping rates easily viewable before getting to the basket? Like an easily seen link on each page. If not, that could lead to some people abandoning the basket after finally seeing the shipping info once at the basket.

If they click on the photo of the item, it will take them to the ecommerce product details of that item.

When I click a picture it's with the intent of seeing a larger view of that picture. Of course I don't know for sure but I assume that most people do the same. So when they click your picture and are taken to a separate page, even if it is product details, it may confuse or frustrate them. Maybe look at that product page to see if there's anything leading them astray and causing them to abandon the basket. Or just nip that in the bud and have the picture click to a larger view. And if they want to see product details have a text link beneath the picture somewhere with a simple enough label that they know exactly what they'll see if they click it.

[Planet13]

@ Soma:

Again, many thanks for reading through and offering suggestions.

Are the shipping rates easily viewable before getting to the basket?

Unfortunately, no. They basically will have to add a product to their basket to see how much the shipping charges are.

But I see your point, so I will look into finding a way to do that so they can preview the shipping costs before clicking the add to basket button.

When I click a picture it's with the intent of seeing a larger view of that picture.

Yeah, I see your point. I hadn't thought about that because the ecommerce system uses category pages with thumbnail photos of the products, and when you click those, it takes them to the product pages.

So I think I was trying to duplicate that interface with the article pages.

So I will look into making it clearer for visitors on the article pages to know what each link does.

[RhinoFish]

"The articles get the lion's share of the traffic."

maybe your honeypot is attracting learners, not buyers.

[Planet13]

@ RhinoFish:

maybe your honeypot is attracting learners, not buyers.

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head.

I sometimes think about redoing my site. I would move the articles to another site, and set myself up as an affiliate for promoting workshops related to the subject (as well as try out adsense and be an affiliate for publishing houses that publish books related to the topic.)

The only thing I then worry about is whether my ecommerce site will tank in the rankings because I will lose so much inbound link juice if I move the articles to a different site.

[RhinoFish]

the branding and seo value of good content trumps the lowered conversion rate, cuz you are getting incremental traffic, some of which will buy, link, recommend, etc.

conversion rate segmentation needed. :-)