Question

Topic: Website Critique

Wine Web Site

Posted by Anonymous on 2/27/2008 at 1:01 PM ET 125 Points
We are a wine retailer in New York City, and we've had a web presence since 1999. In order to get the most out of our site, we use a vendor that specializes in wine web sites for our back end, and to provide content (individual wine descriptions, reviews, etc.)

We are changing vendors, and taking this opportunity to upgrade our site. Website Grader gives our existing web site a score of 89. I am very happy with the traffic I'm generating, but very unhappy with the conversion rate and the time on site is down year over year.

Please take a look at the existing site (https://www.67wine.com) and the new one (inactive link removed). We are still tweaking the left nav bar, and still have to port over a lot of content. We also have some font rendering issues. The main image will change on a regular basis. The image there now was one we used last summer. We are also adding a link into the right hand column, with an image, to original articles from our staff. We have about a dozen articles on our existing site.

Am I moving in the right direction to improve conversions? Clearly, I've added action items. Do I need to put some kind of intro statement on the front page - something to tell who we are and why to choose us over someone else? We've put a link to our shipping policy into the top line. What else can I do to improve conversions?

I'd appreciate any feedback. I've been impressed with the feedback others have received.



[Moderator: Inactive link removed from post. 2/14/2011]
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Levon on 2/27/2008 at 1:13 PM Member
    I would give something away for free in order to build a list directly from your site. What you give away doesn't have to be expensive...you can simply create a wine report containing "the best wines of 2008" or a "how to" guide to tasting wine. Offer it for free for opting-in to your e-mail list. From your email communications you can fire out wine specials and wines of the month and work on converting from there.
  • Posted on 2/27/2008 at 1:49 PM Author
    Thank you Levon. We currently have a mailing list of about 8000 names. We are going to work a separate program to increase the size of our list. We've already made it a little easier to sign up by putting it right up front.

    Your idea of a give-away is a good one. I would need to do some writing if I were to give away some useful content.

    Right now, I'm pretty much wrapped up with the redesign and porting content. If there is any specific type of content you think would help boost conversions, I'd love to hear about it.
  • Posted by Levon on 2/27/2008 at 3:48 PM Accepted
    I would split test a "how to" manual as a give-away (run for a few months) and then push the "Best Wines of 2008" guide a bit later and see which opt-in device pulls the most names. My bet would be on the first one, but split testing will confirm that.

    Both can be given to those already on your list as a gesture of appreciation (a bonding mechanism). Or you can use it as a tool for a tell-a-friend program. Again, I think the conversion will happen in your email communications farther down the line as you push wines of the month, new specials, just-in and short concise reviews on the latest wines hitting your inventory.

    I would even consider triggering some price manipulation and offering some wines at a very low margin in the beginning e-mail communications just to stir up orders. This will get the people who are not converting an excuse to order. In-fact you can target these discounts to those on your list that have yet to make a single purchase. However, a much widespread promotion may be just as effective too. Again, I would split test.

  • Posted on 2/27/2008 at 4:49 PM Author
    Mark,

    I've read your critique, and have several questions.

    Sell vs. Pre-Sell: How can I pre-sell wine? I don't see wine (except for the collectibles) as being a multi-visit purchase. Are you saying that I should put content on the front page, or just position my links better? That was one of the things I asked about in the primary question. Do I need an introduction to our store on the first page?

    Layout/Design: On the inside pages, my design is exactly as you suggest, with navigation on the left. Do you think I need to put the left navigation on the front page as well?

    I also see the front page differently than you, and I wonder how other people see it. I see two columns. On the left, beneath the navigation, I have my focal point. That is, I have a large image showing the web site's focus for the month. Beneath that, I have a "wines of the month" feature, with three items. Below that, I have a "buyer's selections" with three selections that will change rapidly - hopefully daily. We have more than three buyers, so as people make new purchases, I'm going to try to get them upfront.

    On the right, I have links to our original content and services. As I read your critique, you think that this needs to be on the left. Am I reading it correctly?

    "The SEO - search engine optimization practices you have in your page design are obsolete and incomplete to be effective.": To this point, we haven't done any optimization, per se. I've done some of that with the articles, but not with the homepage. As a rule, I would rather drive optimized traffic to the product pages and not the home page. That is the way most of my search engine traffic comes in. Of the 604 visits (tracked from search engines) to the existing site yesterday, only 101 landed on the home page. Of the other 500, only 22 landed at a page other than a product page. For example, from Google, I had five visits from the keyword “grey goose liquor”. All five landed on the Grey Goose Vodka product page. The three visits fro keyword “blood orange vodka” all landed on the Charbay Blood Orange Vodka product page.

    I appreciate any and all help. I just want to be clear on how I would implement those suggestions.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 2/27/2008 at 7:32 PM Accepted
    It's good that you're studying the numbers (traffic vs. conversions). However, it sounds like your problem isn't your home page per se. I'd focus first on the traffic that goes directly to your product page and doesn't convert. Do you have a pricing issue? A lack of a guarantee?

    A simple suggestion is to make the Add To Basket button more obvious. Consider changing it to a contrasting color and centering the button in the shaded box next to the price. For example, take a look at Amazon's order area - they've studied well to get the wording and color and placement "just right" based on solid analytics.

    Also, when people bounce out from a product page - have they bounced after ordering or before? If it's after visiting the shopping cart, then you have additional issues to make people comfortable with the process. For example, if someone leaves your shopping cart w/o placing an order, what's their experience?

    For your home page - the issue you have is that you can't provide every option for everyone. You're guessing that people coming to your home page is looking for a gift (since you have categories based on price). You could equivalently focus on region, wine type, etc. All these can be studied using a multivariate test. However, as a minimum, get rid of the major graphics on the right side (Organiically & Biodynamically Grown, etc.). The graphics are competing too much for the other part of your site. Take the idea of the graphics, and combine them with the existing categories: icons based on size/color/region/etc.
  • Posted on 2/28/2008 at 7:53 AM Accepted
    Hello, I visited the two versions of your website.

    I tried to evaluate it according to the following aspects:

    1. Navigation
    2. Content
    3. Feel
    4. Commerce: security payment, instructions on the shippment.
    5. Community: interactivity and participation of visitors and customers

    Navigation: browsing seems very easy, it's easy to orient, I can quickly find the area of interest, thanks to the many quick links.

    Content: the contents are numerous, I found many interesting facts, and very detailed. I really like the division of wines for the occasion of use or purchase, or . There are also numerous pictures that make it more "real" product. Maybe you could increase the number of photos of the bottles, along with that label.
    A brief comment on the maintenance of the temperature of wine, which I could not find.
    However, the contents my opinion is very positive.

    Feel: With feel mean the ability of the site to arouse emotions in visitors. It is a very important element to stimulate the first purchase. In fact internet, as surely know, competitors are one click away, and if you can not transform visit the site in a more pleasant experience as they go forward, a potential buyer could boring and not buy you but by someone else or not at all.
    Your site in the main pages doesn’t offer a particular feel experience
    I think you should commit insert in multimedia and interesting elements.
    Some suggestions:
    • video tastings can be inserted in home page, or in one section, and updated periodically.
    • background images that recall vineyards,
    • convey the idea that wine is not just something to drink, but it’s something “cool” & “elegant” at the same time.


    Commerce: I found a very detailed section on the shippment policy, while I didn’t find information on payment methods, such as credit cards accepted discounts on quantity, unlike bid for a restaurant or private, etc..

    Community.: The community is a very important element of internet marketing. Making participate visitors, let theme communicate with each other, giving them the opportunity to exchange recipes or experience of tasting wine, or other topics related to wine, can be a strong incentive to sales. It is also a way to capture the opinions of potential customers on the products offered by your company or your service.
    The Disel has created a site where the community is so hard to have created their own lifestyle, which not only speaks about Jeans, but where Jeans are always the element connector, and become the subject of belonging.
    I believe that the wine is a product with such potential, the potential to create a set of lovers.
    Always tries to give space to their views and be present to provide answers.

    I hope that I gave good advice to ensure that visitors are transformed into customers (loyal customers would be even better)
  • Posted on 2/28/2008 at 2:05 PM Author
    It’s interesting how the professional opinions here differ from the lay people who have seen the new site.

    It seems that the consensus here is that the graphics on the right are a negative. The responses I’ve had from others are that they like them, the graphics make the site “prettier”. I guess pretty doesn’t sell! I’m going to leave them in for now, and see how it tracks. We are trying to position ourselves as the place to go for Organic and Biodynamic wines, so I want to keep that prominent.

    Jay, the price issue isn’t necessarily about gifts. When selling wine in the store, the very first question is “How much do you want to spend?” The idea (and it’s true) is that there are good wines in every price category. With over 4000 wines on hand, that is the best way to start narrowing the field. Wine Spectator does a “Wine of the Day” feature, and they do it the same way.

    Some of the things suggested I’m going to have done right away. Changing the “add to cart” button color is simple, and if that’s going to help, I see no reason not to do it. Adding something to say we accept credit cards would be easy as well. Isn’t that a given, though?

    Vittorio, my entrée into some type of community building will be to start to push our blog. The plan is to tell people about the wines we are buying, and to invite comments. One of the things that separate our store from most others is that we don’t centralize buying. Each of our salespeople is responsible for buying one or more sections. I’m going to have them write up their tastings, so people can get to know them individually. Rather than just call it “blog”, we’re going to call it “Life at a Great Wine Store – Daily News”

    Thank you everyone for your help.

    Paul
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