No Sales - Some Advice On My Store. Thank You.

[Dahl99]

Hi,

 

could you good people out there please have a look at my website "click here to view" and advise me on what I need to do or I'm doing wrong because since I went live I've not had any sales (apart from the girlfriends test purchase).

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

 

P.S. I'm still adding products.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Dahl99 (see edit history)

[yaniv14]

Do you have traffic? no traffic = no sales

Do you have abandom carts? = maybe something wrong with check out proccess

Have you done any promotion? = $$$$$$

Did you advertise your site some where? = how can buyers knows about you

 

I don't see any problem with your site, but your site will sell when you'll have traffic, people need to know that you exist online.

You need to think how people will look up for you (google of course), I mean by search term, lets say you decide that most people will google for gift shop in devon so pick up that search term in your country/city in goolge and check your competitors and see how you can compete (price, variety of products, content).

 

technical things that you can do to help your shop.

 

1) promote your self in social networks (not only facebook), and add that to your site (gplus, like, twitt...)

2) try to add some juicy content for your products description (google is looking for content)

3) make sure your site is being crawled by search engines (sitemap, robot)

4) google analytic account

5) meta tags, open graph & rich snippets for products page

6) find a unique way to promote your self (special offers, goolge adwords, .....)

 

Good luck

[cocothecat]

Explains its all above ^

 

You can't put it online and expect people to find you and start making some money. The site will take time to get indexed and then its a constant battle within the serps

 

How are you marketing the site currently?

[Snade]

I bet you got INSANE bounce rate.

 

Dont want to sound rude, but this screamy green color is just unbelievably bad. In combination with the black just looks like some kid experiment with paint.

 

I really like how your real shop looks like in green/black, but thats not so good for your website, atleast not in this green. If you want to match your real store with your online store design, I suggest you to hire a proffesional web designer to do this for you.

[Dahl99]

Thank you yaniv14 for your advice.

 

Do you have traffic? no traffic = no sales

Do you have abandom carts? = maybe something wrong with check out proccess

Have you done any promotion? = $$$$$$

Did you advertise your site some where? = how can buyers knows about you

 

I don't see any problem with your site, but your site will sell when you'll have traffic, people need to know that you exist online.

You need to think how people will look up for you (google of course), I mean by search term, lets say you decide that most people will google for gift shop in devon so pick up that search term in your country/city in goolge and check your competitors and see how you can compete (price, variety of products, content).

 

technical things that you can do to help your shop.

 

1) promote your self in social networks (not only facebook), and add that to your site (gplus, like, twitt...)

2) try to add some juicy content for your products description (google is looking for content)

3) make sure your site is being crawled by search engines (sitemap, robot)

4) google analytic account

5) meta tags, open graph & rich snippets for products page

6) find a unique way to promote your self (special offers, goolge adwords, .....)

 

I'm getting visitors on a daily basis, no carts though, abandoned or otherwise, and I'm working on the marketing. Last night I signed up to Twitter and will look at G+ later today.

 

Pricing with competitors is really tricky. I look at other sites and wonder how they make any profit. I know some base it on volume sales but even so some are barely making any money.

 

I'm constantly adding and tweeking the meta tags to help people find me. I'm also adding more info to each product.

 

What do you mean by "open graph & rich snippets for products page"

 

Best wishes,

 

Dahl

[cocothecat]

Where is your traffic coming from now?

[Dahl99]

Thanks for the advice cocothecat.

 

Maybe it's just early days and need to do more marketing.

 

The majority is direct traffic according to the stats in the BO of PS.

 

Best wishes,

 

Dahl

Edited April 3, 2013 by Dahl99 (see edit history)

[cocothecat]

Do you have any stats set up? Id imagine most of the direct traffic is you / friends / family looking at the shop..

[Dahl99]

I bet you got INSANE bounce rate.

 

Dont want to sound rude, but this screamy green color is just unbelievably bad. In combination with the black just looks like some kid experiment with paint.

 

I really like how your real shop looks like in green/black, but thats not so good for your website, atleast not in this green. If you want to match your real store with your online store design, I suggest you to hire a proffesional web designer to do this for you.

 

Thanks Snade for your advice.

 

When you say "insane bounce rate" are you refering to the colour scheme? If so do you really think it will put people off the site instantly?

 

Can I find the bounce rate in the BO of PS?

 

The original theme that I purchased was a lot greener than it is now. I have been looking at toning down the header whilst maintaining the branding colour. I'll possibly change the header part but retain the block headings.

 

Best wishes,

 

Dahl

[Dahl99]

Do you have any stats set up? Id imagine most of the direct traffic is you / friends / family looking at the shop..

 

Yeah I have stats setup. The PS stats and my host provides stats too.

 

There maybe an element of friends/family looking but I'm getting 150 - 200 actual visits a day which is increasing on a daily basis. I also have various links from other sites.

[cocothecat]

Yeah but actual visits isnt the same as unique or return... Id install google Analytics for starters and then block out your IP from stats tracking. This will give you an idea of what your getting and from where anything else even within prestashop should not be trusted and don't get me going on hosted related stats (AWStats for example!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

[Dahl99]

OK I'll get Google Analytics sorted and see what the difference in figures are. Where and how do I input them in to my site?

[cocothecat]

You only need to put the account number into the module, look in the module admin for google analytics and you enter your UN-12345678 number

[Dahl99]

Oooops. Yep just realised and entered the ID number in the module. Just reading all the text below that now.

[yaniv14]

Also conect your site to google webmaster tools so you will see what pages you have index with google and where are you located in search results.

 

you asked before what is rich snippet, so read this http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=99170

and if you want to implant in your site, use this nice tutorial http://nemops.com/prestashop-google-rich-snippets/

 

for open graph, check one of your product pages here http://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug

[Dahl99]

you asked before what is rich snippet, so read this http://support.googl...en&answer=99170

and if you want to implant in your site, use this nice tutorial http://nemops.com/pr...-rich-snippets/

for open graph, check one of your product pages here http://developers.fa...com/tools/debug

 

Thank you for the info. I'll look in to these links.

 

I have setup Google Analytics, well I think I have, so we'll see what results I get from that.

[cocothecat]

Once you get some stats from that post up a screen shot or two then we can go from there...

[Dahl99]

Cheers cocothecat.

[Dahl99]

Changed the header, less green now.

 

Google analytics added. Just waiting for more stats.

 

I said in a previous post that I didn't have any abandoned carts. I think I must have been looking in the place for that info because from this screen shot it appears visitors are placing items in the cart then leaving. The only thing I can think of why this is happening is the postage unless anyone has any ideas.

 

Edited April 5, 2013 by Dahl99 (see edit history)

[GoGoMo]

Which PS version are you using for your site? Don't take this personal or get a offended. The site appears dated with the icons and the color scheme choice you're using. I'd suggest finding a more update template to use for whichever version of PS you're using for your online store.

[Dahl99]

No offense taken and appreciate your comment.

 

I'm using version 1.4.1

 

How any site looks is a tough one because what one person likes another won't but I have taken on board what you've said and may change the theme. Out of interest have you any themes in mind.

 

My main concern at the moment is the lack of sales and abandoned carts. I can't seem to workout if there is an issue with the site, checkout etc.

[Paulito]

Good Morning,

 

Your website is exactly the same as your physical store, if it looks untidy, dirty etc then people will not want to stay long. Their are some very nice themes HERE for PS 1.4

 

As for visits and abandoned carts, do you have stats in your cpanel (if using) are the visits from robots, is this just a recent problem

 

Paul

[Dahl99]

Thanks Paul for the link. I actually bought my theme from this site and adapted it (it was way to green).

 

What did you mean by "if it looks untidy, dirty etc". The site, shop or both lol.

 

I don't think it's robots. This is screen grab is from the stats in the BO of PS.

 

[Paulito]

Whoops, I did not mean your physical store, just imagine you have two cake shops one is full of flies in the front window the other is not, where you buy from. Your landing/home page is the front window of your store, it needs to look inviting.

 

As for the stats you are showing, it does not mean much, their have been many comments as to whether ps stats are really good enough.

 

You are better to use your cpanel, this will tell you all and of course google

 

Paul

[yaniv14]

Paul is right,

 

You better make your home page more inviting, maybe make it one column instead of three.

wider slide show, big pictures with special deal or top products.

 

Did you check the entire order process that is working fine (registeration, add to cart, check out, payment, order confirmation email, payment approval (paypal)).?

 

Check that your server is running fast in connection from your area (potential buyers location).

 

Check Google analytic to get your acctual stats.

[Dahl99]

Lol. Just installed a new theme, OT ValuPat, but not enabled it and now I have nothing, just a blank page. Obviously some new file has done something.

 

Thanks for the advice about the shop front I'll look at other themes (once I've sorted this problem out).

[Dahl99]

This is really strange but since adding Google Analytics traffic to my site has decreased significantly and where as before I would appear on page 2/3 for certain searches I've dropped way off.

 

I found this, is there some truth in this?

 

 

By adding Google analytics Google will know what your website traffic is and that could affect your search rankings.

 

If google sees little or no activity on your website they can shift your search result pages for sites that have more users. So if you are trying to build traffic adding google analytics could have the reverse effect and actually cost you traffic and prevent any growth.

 

Google uses the data to help their search data, so knowing your site is not popular helps them move it from the results and improve their search results at your expense.

[Paulito]

So, you have learned a valuable lesson, google does what google does and that is to find relevant search results for searchers, if you have found that your rankings have dropped after installing google analyticis then they were probably not as high as you thought they were.

 

It is a good idea to read about Panda and Penguin, get on the social media market and get talked about, get people liking you, talking about you and above all play by googles rules

 

Paul

[Dahl99]

Cheers Paul for the info. I found on some forums that about a week after removing Google Analytics some peoples sites regained their page positions.

 

Still working on the flies in the shop window, lol.

[todaytonight]

It is very normal to take sometime to get first sale for a new shop. My shop took about couple of mouth to get first sale.

[BWT]

Do you have traffic? no traffic = no sales

Do you have abandom carts? = maybe something wrong with check out proccess

Have you done any promotion? = $$$$$$

Did you advertise your site some where? = how can buyers knows about you

 

I don't see any problem with your site, but your site will sell when you'll have traffic, people need to know that you exist online.

You need to think how people will look up for you (google of course), I mean by search term, lets say you decide that most people will google for gift shop in devon so pick up that search term in your country/city in goolge and check your competitors and see how you can compete (price, variety of products, content).

 

technical things that you can do to help your shop.

 

1) promote your self in social networks (not only facebook), and add that to your site (gplus, like, twitt...)

2) try to add some juicy content for your products description (google is looking for content)

3) make sure your site is being crawled by search engines (sitemap, robot)

4) google analytic account

5) meta tags, open graph & rich snippets for products page

6) find a unique way to promote your self (special offers, goolge adwords, .....)

 

Good luck

 

It's a lot of work but that's part of being an entrepreneur right? Everything in the quote is what you need to do. I suggest submitting sitemap to webmaster tools and maybe building google product feed for your products then promote those products via ADwords, this is also a lot of work but you do see results + it also depends on your products are they a "Need to have"? or have some sort of proprietary to them? Last suggestion (not related to marketing) maybe adding images to your subcategories

[lina007]

il est bien votre site je ne comprends pas. Le mien

www.lombok-shop que je viens de mettre en ligne a des visites mais pas la moindre tentative d'achat. dur dur ...

 

Courage et Patience !!...

[Dahl99]

Thank you all for the advice which I will work on.

 

I have completely revamped the look of the theme (hopefully got rid of the flies Paul, lol). Click here to see the new look.

[Paulito]

Just checked on android and it looks as though the flies have gone

Paul

[Dahl99]

Cheers Paul.

 

I'm so much happier with the new look. It looks cleaner, crisper and more enticing. Now lets hope the sales start.

[BWT]

looks great!

[Esteri]

Hi

 

A couple of years ago, when I built my first web-site for my small industrial services providing company, I was so excited to notice, how many people visited the site from the very beginning. I got easily some 100-150 hits daily, even still making layout modifications.

 

Then, when I got the pages done something unusual happened. My visitors stayed away. Null, nada, niente, nichts.

It took me some days to first understand what just had happened... The illusion of hundreds of people visiting my page was all the time actually me myself checking how my done modifications would look like. It was a terrible disappointment.

 

To my experience a page needs at least a couple of months, before it starts to find the customers. And it is not only marketing through Google what you would need, but also some advertising outside the www, among the people you would recognize as your target group.

 

I built recently my current page, I am actually still finetuning it. We are working on a very special niche of renewable energies and bio gas, so I would never expect thousands of visitors on daily basis. At the moment after having the site up a week or so, I get daily 3-5 visitors. And no surprise: We didn't sell anything until now.

 

Good luck with your web service,

esteri

[tuk66]

Your shop is offline, so no sales is the expected result.