Pageviews And Traffic UP = Sales Way Down :(

[Planet13]

Hi all;

We have seen a big year-over-year boost in traffic, yet our sales are tanking...

for our ECOMMERCE PAGES for July 2014 compared to last year (July 2013) we are:

+60% Pageviews
+30% UNIQUE Pageviews
+17% Entrances

Additionally, bounce rate dropped from 53% to 27%

And exit rate went from 28% to 22% (which I THOUGHT should have a green arrow)

Yet page value overall is down by 20%

We get most of out traffic from google organic, and many of the best performing products / categories got a BIG boost in traffic from google organic:

#1 Page (Category Level): +286% Pageviews / - 71% Page VALUE
#2 Page (Our Index Page): +136% Pageviews / - 83% Page VALUE
#3 Page (Particular Product page): +244% Pageviews / - 77% Page VALUE

I was SO HAPPY when we were released by Penguin and had a big jump in traffic. But sales didn't pick up at all.

I just recently added demographic tracking to GA, so I can't check if there has been a big shift in demographics from last year to this year.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[HRoth]

This past year I have seen a decrease in sales (10%) together with an increase in traffic, no evil eye. Partly, people have always used my site as a reference instead of for shopping, but I have talked to someone else in my niche, and he has seen a massive drop in sales since 2013. We both think that people do not have jobs, don't have discretionary income, are scared, and credit is not loosey goosey. Now there are going to be people chiming in that they are doing the best ever. That's fine. What I have especially noticed for my shop is a greater division between the larger order and the small ones. It is like the middle ones have disappeared. I think this too is a sign of a lack of employment, fear, lack of too-easy credit, etc. I am very seriously working on other, non-ecommerce income.

[brotherhood of LAN]

Make sure your hosting is dealing with an increase in traffic, particularly if there's a correlation between bounce rate and peak times of day.

[Planet13]

@ HRoth

Thanks for the input.

It seems strange because in the US, the economy is SUPPOSED to be getting better (isn't it?!?!?!)

"I am very seriously working on other, non-ecommerce income."

I am trying to do that too, but I am spread SO THIN it isn't even funny...

@ brotherhood of LAN

"Make sure your hosting is dealing with an increase in traffic, particularly if there's a correlation between bounce rate and peak times of day."

Thanks for the reminder. I will double check.

I have gone and removed the dynamic social media buttons from my site and am trying to implement static ones instead. They seemed (to me, at least) to really slow things down.

~~~~

Another problem for me is that my shopping cart vendor is not going to have any responsive templates for our shopping cart for a few more months now, and while they are good, they are almost always behind schedule. So it may mean that through this upcoming holiday shopping period I will be stuck with a site that still looks like crap on mobile devices.

[dpd1]

A good economy/bad economy, is all relative in my mind. It depends on a lot of things. I actually did better in the worst years past. Not as well in these last couple years. It all depends on what you sell. My theory is that many people have in fact been spending more money, but possibly on big stuff... cars, vacation and so on.

[Planet13]

"My theory is that many people have in fact been spending more money, but possibly on big stuff... cars, vacation and so on."

I think you might be right about that.

[Planet13]

This is weird.

We saw a big INCREASE in sales for the month of June

This makes sense because we had a big traffic jump after Panda 4.0 in late May.

But July sales fell off the edge of the world, even though July had +6% visitors over June.

~~~~~

So to summarize our sales:

June 2014 = Best Month Since December 2012 (which was before we were hit by Phantom / Penguin / Panda / Whatever)

July 2014 = Worst Sales EVER (Even though we had a 6% increase in visitors over July).

~~~~

I just went through my checkout process and everything looks fine; the SSL certificate is working fine, the little SSL graphic is fine, the checkout interface, although a bit clunky, is the same as before.

Yet only half the number of people started the checkout process in July when compared to June. And of those who started, in June, 60% went on to complete the checkout process, and in July, only 40% went on to complete the checkout process.

[HRoth]

July is always a very slow month for me (for 14 years), but this July was extra slow. Not the worst, but close. I think, though, that in July people go on vacation and even if they are not taking off somewhere, they need extra money for parties and things. I have noticed also customers saying they are already seeing back-to-school sales, so they might be spending money on that when in the past they would wait until August. I too, though, have noticed people not even using the cart. But on my site, they stick around and read.

[Planet13]

"I have noticed also customers saying they are already seeing back-to-school sales..."

I know! I started seeing ads for them like two weeks ago. What the hey?

"I too, though, have noticed people not even using the cart. But on my site, they stick around and read."

sort of the opposite for me.

My information pages get the Lion's share of traffic, but the bounce rate is nearly 80%.

My ecommerce pages have a bounce rate of less than 30%

People are coming to the ecommerce pages and really kicking the tires...

[dpd1]

And usually that's an indication they're making a mental note for later. I've had tons of questions, and a lot of people saying they'll be back later. Just a particularly bad summer this year. All the lists and forums are slow, and even the spam is way down. All indications that people are just doing other stuff. Unfortunately, Murphy's law usually has this happen AFTER you spend a boatload of money to restock. Never fails. People always want what you don't have, then don't want it anymore once you get it.

[minnapple]

When conversions are low, we kick up our remarketing campaigns focusing on abandoned carts users on specific product lines. 10% coupons codes help, and if you can offer the same coupons after a user is on the site x-amount of time on the site, that help also.

[Planet13]

@ minnapple:

Thanks very much for the practical advice. I will look into it. I need to brush up on my adwords skills because in the past, when I have used adwords, I always had my ass handed to me.

[HRoth]

I just heard a news report the other day that said although people are returning to work, they are getting jobs that pay substantially less than they had before. This makes complete sense to me in terms of what I see people spending. Something to consider, then, is whether to aim at the big spenders or what. I try to do both; I have some items that are $3.00 plus shipping. Others are $150.

[Planet13]

@ HRoth

Thanks for the input.

yeah, heard something along those lines on the news this morning.

Crazy thing is, where I am, housing prices and apartment rents are skyrocketing.

But even in our brick and mortar stores, people will say something like, "Try this card first, and if it doesn't work, I'll see if I have another that does work."

Maybe people are just maxed out and trying to wait until their credit card balances come down?

[dpd1]

I think there's going to be plenty of people messed up financially, no matter what the overall outlook is. So I'm not sure that's a good gauge as far as what is going on. I've had 20-something neighbors that I know barely make anything, and they have Amazon boxes outside their house every other day. All that stuff is going right on the card. Honestly, I think it's something that most people go through in their lives. Some learn, others never do.

I was watching a show the other day about an airline. This woman is getting ready to fly back home, and they tell her she needs to break up the stuff in her bag, it's too big. They said they have bags she can buy for $20. This woman is on a vacation, has obviously spent tons of money on clothes, and she says she doesn't have $20. They said they take cards... She says she can't do that. A stranger actually gave her the $20, just to get the line going. So here you have a person who obviously has no money, with maxed out cards, still taking a vacation and spending tons of money on stuff... to the point where she doesn't have $20 to her name. God only knows what she would have done if the flight was cancelled. You have to wonder how people live like that, but millions do.

[Planet13]

@ dpd1:

Thanks for the stories about the neighbours and about the airline baggage.

[Planet13]

WARNING: RANT TO FOLLOW:

I help out at my wife's clothing boutiques and one of the things that burns me is when someone will come in wearing a pair of $300 jeans that are mass-produced in a factory and China, and they will look at one of our skirts that are certified fair-trade organic cotton that we sell for $55, and they will say, "Oh, this is too expensive!"

I try SO HARD not to be a smart ass about it. I really do. I so badly want to say to them, "Well, you could have bought six of those skirts in different colors if you hadn't paid for pretend designer jeans... but I see you are willing to do stupid things for peer approval."

But I hold my tongue instead...

[HRoth]

I hate to say it, but I have faced this issue over and over as a merchant. I faced it 10 years ago when I made the decision not to sell anything that was mass produced and provided by (then) 3 different distributors (erroneously referred to as "wholesalers") in my niche. I decided that for this business to be more enjoyable for me and more of a unique shop, I would make and/or package all my stuff. At the time, one of the widgets in my niche was commonly selling for $1.99 (and worth every cent, as the saying goes). Merchants would buy it from the distributor for a dollar plus shipping(!). I priced mine with great trepidation at $5.00. I well remember a conversation with a customer who wanted to know exactly why she should pay $5.00 for my widget when she could get the same thing for $1.99 elsewhere! "Because mine is better," I said and tried to explain why. I remember thinking that day about lowering my prices. Those same items are now $13.50 and underpriced, IMO. The mass-produced crap is selling at $5.99.

I now sell a widget that takes two years to produce and is almost entirely unique in this country. I price these from $150-275. Usually they sell out pretty quick, but I do get people who want to know if I have this item and become almost enraged that my cheapest one is $150. Like who do I think I am. It baffles me. Nobody needs to have this thing to live. It is a once-in-a-lifetime type thing, something to boast about. You cannot buy it on Amazon or at the mall. And yet, yes, I guess they should be mass producing them in China so people could get them at WalMart when they go pick up a 12-pack of toilet paper. Sheesh.

[dpd1]

The public is never going to make sense, especially not these days. Most people are fully into the... 'it's all about me' mindset. If you have higher prices for made in US stuff, they'll claim you're "gouging" people. The concept of $1.50 an hour vs $12 an hour, doesn't seem to sink in. They can't comprehend that you are actually making LESS money by not outsourcing, yet... you're the bad guy, not the good guy. Then they'll whine about no good paying jobs. I've found that the most successful people, usually don't care what people think. They know that it doesn't matter that some people don't like something... just the people who DO like something, matter. Easier said than done though.

I have a couple products that take virtually the same amount of time to make, which is A LOT. But one is 3' long and the other about twice that. In reality, you are talking about maybe $7 difference in materials. I charge $239 for the big one, and $169 for the small one. I would love to charge more for the small one, because it takes me just as much time to make. But I have seen so many negative comments on the price, I don't dare. The large one... No negative comments.

There's no rhyme or reason. I've seen many people in the public say that business owners should always be honest, and that will get sales. When in reality, it's almost the exact opposite.

[dpd1]

Holy crap, now I'm getting hit. Summers are always slow, but this is really painful. Traffic is still the same or even above average. Usually that means a busy wave is on the way. But nothing so far. Every time you think you're out of the woods and over with this kind of stuff, it always rears its ugly head again.

[ACapetola]

Could be due to a heavy reliance on Organic traffic. Anyone having trouble with actual sales/profits for eCommerce stores should seriously consider marketing with Google Shopping

[HRoth]

This summer really sucked for me, dpd1. Even this past month, which is typically when things pick up for me, has been extremely slow. Sheesh. I hate to say it, but I am looking forward to starting to get early Social Security benefits in a year's time.

[dpd1]

I picked up a bit. Got a big order yesterday. Seems like it goes all over the place now, up and down. I think the key is that you just have to keep adding more stuff, and branch into new areas. You have to get bigger and improve the odds of sales. It's the only way. But it's difficult to come up with new items.

[HRoth]

I have noticed that USUALLY I do get more sales when I introduce new items. Other times it's a bust. I can't figure it out.