Nonconverting traffic

what am I doing wrong?

[Essex_boy]

I hope someone here can help.

My store store receives around 100 visits a day and has been for about a year, the traffic we receive comes in via free engines and google adwords which ive just started, its all targeted and highly specific to the products we sell.

This is the problem, when we first started I received 3 orders almost straight away along with emails about our products etc.

Since the start of December 2002 Nothing, no emails about products and no sales. Zero.

Surfers spend around 20 minutes on each visit and the page views are approx 20 to one visit, with indepth photos been viewed.

We accpet paypal and standard credit cards, I upgraded to Oscommerce in April think that the problem was with my hand written site. Nothing stil.

Our prices compare with lower quality competitors, I have checked the site under various browsers on other peoples PC's no problem there.

Im at a total loss.

[Sinner_G]

Obvious, but is there a prominent link to the buying process?

[derekwong28]

I would suspect that it may have something to do with your products. Some just won't sell well on the Internet however much traffic you get or how well your site looks.

[Jenstar]

Sinner_G has a good point, many sites don't make it as easy as possible to order a product. If people are looking at those in-depth pictures, make sure you have a "buy now" link on those pages too. Don't make a potential buyer hunt around just to buy the product.

Also, are there clear shipping details - how long until you ship the product, how do you ship and how long it will take to arrive, what the shipping fees are, information on international ordering.

This is the number one reason why I do not order from a site, because this kind of information isn't readily available right from the get go. It should be viewable BEFORE placing anything in a shopping cart.

Do you require any sort of registration before people can start shopping? I am surprised at the number of sites that do this, and I leave those sites immediately.

[Essex_boy]

Yep there the buy now links are all there by the items cant be missed.

yep placed all shipping costs and delivery times on teh site, no you dont have to register before you buy.

My other sites do fine, Tv fan products and outdoor wear so I dont have a clue as to whats up.

[Essex_boy]

May have gotten to the bottom of this one, you see the catagory page has listings of products and stock codes so you have to click on the image to get the details like size etc.

However theres no note to tell anyone to do this, so all the customers see is the stock code price and a buy now button.

I wouldnt buy with out the details would you?

Ill edit the site and see what happens.

Watch this space.

[roitracker]

I had a look at your site...it's not crystal clear what you're offering. Is it a print? A painting? Something else? You need to spell it out. (I assume it's a painting BTW).

I know that pictures spell a thousand words, but they're not a replacement for actually having words! Adding descriptions will definitely help.

Your "contact us" could also do with an update - if you're not around to answer the phone like you say, don't tell them that! Just remove the phone number & leave your postal address.

Hope this helps.

P.S. Selling paintings online is not easy, so you've definitely got your work cut out! :)

[Essex_boy]

thanks for that Ill edit the details etc.

Interesting point about descriptions, and this is where I think im falling down.

There are descriptions of the products making sure that all the size details etc are there Buttttt its not blindingly obvious that they exist. As per your visit.

This is something that im now changing thanks for your help.

[aaronjf]

I would not take the phone number off. I had a friend with a site with no phone numbers. It really hurt her in the beginning b/c ppl don't want to pick up the phone, but they don't trust a site where they can't pick up the phone and call. I would make a bigger point out of an e-mail address.

Descriptions are supper important. In some cases more important that a picture when it comes to an ecom site. I have had customers e-mail us about a product that had a description without a picture, but never a picture that did not have much of a description. People want details, they want to know every little detail they can about the product they are about to purchase. On one of my sites I went so far as to post the approximate cost of the item in four different currencies b/c.

You could also use some more traffic - who doesn't want more traffic right. But, unless you are running a Niche site like for Ventriloquism or something where there is little competition and small numbers of traffic you will need more traffic. Out of 11 sites I have two Niche sites and those are the only ones I have ever seen get away with having less than 150 Uniques a day and having a steady order intake.

[roitracker]

Having looked at his site, I was suggesting that Essex_Boy should not literally tell people he's not around to answer the phone - before they even call!

So yes, keep the phone number on. Leave out the "chances are the answer phone will be on" stuff.

[Essex_boy]

Ok the traffic point is interesting - Overture here I come!

we do have the products priced in around 7 diffrent currencies so that points covered.

Point taken about the telephone number.

[onlineleben]

Regarding having the phone number on the site, we had an interesting discussion in following thread
It's your first store - do you provide a phone number? [webmasterworld.com]