Question

Topic: Website Critique

Website - Tell Me What You Think - Few Buyers

Posted by stacey on 10/11/2010 at 9:04 AM ET 350 Points
Good morning!

We recently launched a new product and website - www.downspoutsafetycap.com.

I think the website looks great. I'm not sure about the shopping page though. We are getting hits, people are spending time but not many are actually purchasing the product (we've had 5 online orders since September).

I'd love to hear your feedback on the website, why you think people may not be buying, and anything I could be doing differently to increase the number of purchases.

Thank you in advance!!

Stacey
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by therightwebtools on 10/11/2010 at 9:19 AM Accepted
    As a home owner - I've actually never thought about capping like this... did you do research before creating the product... if so what did you get back.

    You may want to network with home contractors - handymans - even go to the companies who manufacture the drains.

    For contractors and handymen - maybe create an affiliate program - or - strategic alliance so you have advocates and evangelists out there selling for you.

    Hope that gets the juices flowing

    Alan
  • Posted by stacey on 10/11/2010 at 12:23 PM Author
    Hi Alan,

    Thank you for the suggestions. I like the affiliate idea and need to explore that further.

    We did do research first. We surveyed over 400 people, 80% of homeowners w/downspouts said they would purchase the caps for their homes. We also spoke w/potential retailers & contractors. We didn't get the final product in until September, so the season is almost over here in MN. We've got stores ready to take inventory in spring/2011.

    Until then I need to rely on online sales and widening our geographic area to include warmer weather climates.

    I did a some Google ads, which generated traffic, but didn't do a heavy campaign yet. Thought I should see what the professionals at KHE thought of the website and the shopping piece of it first.

    All the traffic in the world won't help if no one is willing to purchase. Again, we have had 5 online orders since September, so some one is willing, just not enough.

    Thank you!

    Stacey

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 10/11/2010 at 2:00 PM Accepted
    In your opinion, is the problem that you're not getting enough traffic, the wrong traffic (wrong keywords = quick bounce), or people aren't looking but not buying?

    Also, your website is mostly all pictures, which is invisible to search engines. As a mininum, use the alt-tags to duplicate the text that is seen by visitors to the search engines.
  • Posted on 10/11/2010 at 2:08 PM Accepted
    HI Stacey ,

    I like the site it is clean and easy to understand but my advice is to use real text and not text in the form of images so you will have a better chance of getting indexed by the search engines. As far as converting visitors into sales your dilemma might stem from various concerns. Please answer these questions so we can try to ascertain what can be remedied relative to conversions.

    1. What key phrases are you targeting/using ? Is your PPC campaign national/local? What is your conversion rate now? Bounce rate? How many items do you want to sell per month(conservatively)?

    2. Who is your target demographic? (as therightwebtools stated you should consider targeting contractors as a sales channel if you aren't doing this already.)

    3. Have you done A/B testing aka multivariate testing for your landing pages? ( I am assuming you are using Adwords and this can be found in your dashboard)

    ** If you are getting views on your purchase page this might mean you have created enough interest for them check out your pricing. Try to strengthen this by adding a call to action (something that will entice them to purchase)

  • Posted by timo kruskopf on 10/12/2010 at 3:03 AM Accepted
    You sell risk avoidance here Stacey!
    Think of small child happily running in the garden and suddenly hits drain, gets badly wounded and moms heart stops. Or pet hurting because of these awful things.
    Your main picture is front page down left corner; children running beside this.
    Fire alarms are comparable products to yours. Prepare for something bad that might happen in your home. Like Karen said, use numbers.
    Can anything so cheap be really good? Think of pricing.
    Does anyone have one downspout? Think of adding colour choices as separate on shop page, add amount selection and put a special "Neighbour package" with 40 something for the neighbor activists to get a good deal and shop for all.
    List all possible payment methods on shop page and let the checkout phase take care of the rest. That phase looks like a decent and familiar, Google logo to give security feeling needed.
    And again, think of the price: band aids cost more.
  • Posted by stacey on 10/12/2010 at 10:51 PM Author
    Wow - thank you for the great responses! I'm sorry for the delayed response. I did read your comments as they came it, but didn't have time to respond fully until tonight.

    Jay - It looks to me, with my limited knowledge of website statistics, that people are spending time, they're visiting the shop page and then leaving. Those who have purchased have spent quite a bit of time on the site before doing so.

    Webmaster - The "conversion" is somewhat inaccurate, since I'm not savvy enough to put the code on the actual post-checkout page, it's on the SHOP page, so I can at least see who's going there. One ad, that I stuck with had a 100% conversion rate. Keywords include: Downspout accessories, safety caps, downspout injury, home improvement, outdoor child safety. It's a national campaign.

    Two targeted demos: Hardware stores, contractors and installers and the other being moms. Moms seem to 'get' the product more quickly, but we'd get mass exposure more quickly through hardware and contractors. The 3 contract supplies companies I spoke w/all said the same thing - installers will not take the time to put them on - they want to move on to the next job and that's it.

    I've not done a/b testing w/the landing page and don't really have the capabilities to do that right now. I'm web-illiterate and don't have a large budget to work with.

    Karen - you're right on so many points regarding the home page. As far as the price, I've played w/it a bit. I based it on the 6/1 ratio and our cost.

    I do have a couple of YouTube videos that will be linked and are currently live on the FB page, but I agree needs to be on the site. I also have instructions on the FB page.

    Completely agree w/showing the different colors; I wasn't sure how to do that w/the Google cart and am looking into alternatives to improve the SHOP page.

    We've we recently in the NHRA newsletter, which is linked on the FB page. I keep going back to Facebook because I'm able to change and add content, which I'm not able to do w/the website. For that I'm at the mercy of the programmers time and my budget.

    I didn't realize the impact of a short domain life on SEO. I will change that.

    I'll add our location. The phone number is on each page, but there should be an email address. Got it.

    Timo - Good point on the homepage image and taking cues from a site similar to fire alarms, etc. Are you saying to add the Google logo to the SHOP page? Again on price, it's a recycled thermoplastic elastomer. If I saw it on its own, I don't know that I'd pay more than 2.99/pk and I the last thing I want is to have a customer order and feel they overpaid. That said, the value they bring in preventing injury and only needing to be purchased once increases the price. I can play w/the pricing and see what happens.

    Thank you again for your time and excellent questions/suggestions. I truly appreciate it!

    Stacey
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