Question

Topic: Website Critique

Online Sales And Diffentiation

Posted by ian on 3/28/2013 at 4:52 PM ET 250 Points
We launched the site in 2012 in October with good initial success. Clear marketing Niche ie The youth market for surf skate and snow, communication and products targeted to that segment. Problem 1 - No capital input so organic growth was the only way. Our sales have dropped to 0 for the last two months and we have optimised our site as page load was a problem. We thought this may have been the problem.
Our largest competitor does over $60 million a year and our strategy was to attack there weakest points.
Our pricing is competitive, our range ok but expanding, Our site is well designed. We worked on SEO, keywords etc blogs .

Our business model is innovative for our suppliers but we are not generating the traffic or sales that we originally planned.
I'm now thinking of moving from a product / market approach to a lifestyle / product.

I would appreciate any assistance in questioning the Differentiation and also the viability of the site

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/28/2013 at 5:05 PM Accepted
    So what happened between Oct 2012 and now? Have you talked to your past clients to better understand their feelings about your company/offering?

    If you've got strong competition, then you're right to attack a weak point - but only if that point is hard for them to address, important in the minds of the public, and something you can excel at. At this point, they've got the brand recognition/trust. Before you change direction, it sounds like you need to better understand your perception in the marketplace and the needs of your target audience. Look before you take a leap.
  • Posted on 3/28/2013 at 5:22 PM Accepted
    I agree with Jay. Instead of bailing on your initial strategy, figure out what happened to cause the dramatic decline in sales. THEN you can make the right changes without spinning your wheels. Otherwise you might make a bunch of changes to things that ARE working and completely miss what is NOT working.

    This problem is more common than you probably realize. Many/most businesses fail to meet their initial objectives, and the owners are tempted to "change something, because this is clearly not working." When this occurs they make changes based on a roll of the dice ("Things can't get much worse ...") and results either stay the same or get worse. And more often than not they are out of business within a year.

    You are right to take this seriously, but panic is not the solution. Best if you can hire a marketing expert who can diagnose and fix the real problem.
  • Posted by ian on 3/28/2013 at 5:23 PM Author
    Yes thats good advice. We are in the sports action market so seasonality does occurr , but not this much. We generated sales initially from local contacts etc
    These guys are certainly outspending, out SEO etc .Bottom line smothering. Additionally we now have vendors / suppliers also offering online?
    So I really struggling with "Whats our point of Difference" Im too close to it to
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 3/28/2013 at 5:39 PM Accepted
    Got a link?

    What kind of offline and online banner advertising have you done? Link exchanges work well. Likewise anything that helps your ranking through social media.

    What kinds of offline magazines do your ideal buyers read and how often are the same advertisers advertising in the listings in the back pages? Multiple insertions over many months from the same advertisers are a good indication that there are buyers.

    If your main competitor is doing $60 million they may have few weak spots for your to attack. When you DID attack, what did you do and where? What was its effect. When traffic was coming in, where was it coming to you from?

    Page-rank wise, what work have you done to your site and where, again in terms of page rank, does your competitor rank? Do you know for a fact that the key words you're using are allowing you to rank and rank well? If your key word and key phrase strategy doesn't mesh with terms you can rank for easily, your site may not appear in the top search engine results. PPC might help with this.
  • Posted by ian on 3/28/2013 at 5:47 PM Author
    Maybe I should post the URL so you can see?
  • Posted by Moriarty on 3/28/2013 at 6:16 PM Accepted
    Good evening, Ian.

    Firstly a business doing $60m is not very large. Were they doing $60bn my ears would prick when weak spots are mentioned. My first inclination is to say that you shouldn't look for their weakspots - but to look at the areas they aren't serving. That way your businesses become complementary not competitive. Sure, it won't stop competition and it won't stop them trying to erode your position.

    You are playing the minnow here. Perhaps they realized what was going on and sealed the leaks in their systems that you were drinking from? What changes did they make during the period August/September/October 2012? I have a hunch that they kicked back. Were you on any of their mailing lists?

    PPC has been mentioned - and this is a fast and versatile method of defining a niche for yourself in a difficult marketplace. What's more, it can also tell you when the marketplace isn't worth the candle, and will do so for only a few bucks of investment. Because you have proved that you can do SEO - which is the basis of PPC. Even if you give up on this enterprise, there are literally thousands of opportunities for guys like you with some serious cred with SEO - and the business acumen to get it moving. Let's face it, you made some real money and that is something that many internet marketers completely fail to do.

    Those skills are way more valuable than the things you are selling. With a little time you could probably hire yourselves out as consultants and make 10x what you were making for half the work - and five times as much fun.
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 3/28/2013 at 7:03 PM Accepted
    Aloha Ian,

    Yes, post your url. It will help us help you.
  • Posted by ian on 3/28/2013 at 8:39 PM Author
    Our URL is www.TheGrom.com.au
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 3/28/2013 at 8:43 PM Member
    (First, if you are Ian Cairns or Ian Walsh my total respect and apologies up front.)

    I have way too many decades of experience in the surfing industry both with my own start-ups and as a vendor or adviser to many action sports brands. Just a few questions ...

    1) What does "good initial success" look like in the action sports industry (surf/skate/snow)? Please describe/quantify what you mean?

    2) Your statement of having a "clear marketing niche" just means you have the "words" that define the niche/segment. What you need is a "clear marketing strategy". I would estimate that hundreds of fledging entrepreneurs have identified the surf/skate/snow category as a quick road to riches through "rad" images, logo design and lifestyle branding. Maybe a couple eventually achieve any real success, why do you think this is true of these many attempts to launch a new brand in this market?

    3) Regarding ... "Our largest competitor does over $60 million a year and our strategy was to attack there weakest points". Which competitor (brand) are you talking about? And what are their WEAK points? Quikilver (ZQK), the global leader in surf/skate/snow, had $2 billion in revenue last year. What is Quiksilver's strategic weakness that you plan to exploit?

    The leaders in this segment are mostly licensing companies. Many do R&D on their equipment, so product development and great design do count as benefit differentiators. But there is another factor at work here. Bob Hurley was a good surfboard shaper in Orange County who became the man behind one of the biggest action sports brands in history. Why?

    If it were me, I would go to the North Shore's Triple Crown surf contest series this fall and just experience it all first hand. Talk with everybody. Get a sense of what it's like late in 2013. And then see what ideas you come up with for the 2014 season.

    Should you like to discuss further, you will find my email address in my profile.
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 3/28/2013 at 8:50 PM Member
    oops ... just saw you posted the url as I was posting. I'll look it over.

    The Bell's contest is on now:
    https://live.ripcurl.com/bells-beach-home-2013.html#popup-1
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 3/28/2013 at 8:51 PM Member
    no pop-up https://live.ripcurl.com/bells-beach-home-2013.html
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 3/28/2013 at 10:43 PM Accepted
    $60 million in annual sales works out at $6,849.31 in sales PER HOUR ... EVERY HOUR ... EVERY DAY, over 365 days.
  • Posted by ian on 3/28/2013 at 11:03 PM Author
    Thanks for the response . Just to clarify that our largest online compeitor is Surfstitch which is owned by billabong.
    We are not building branded products but distributing a range of products from various manufacturers that satisfy that target market.
    The problem we are solving is that there is no store ie bricks and mortar nor online that carries a depth of products for this market. We have been involved in surfing for many years abd this solution has been our experience when purchasing and many others.
    One size , one colour etc . This may articulate our Business Proposition More clearly
    Thank you
  • Posted by ian on 3/28/2013 at 11:58 PM Author
    Yep. And they establishing a du
  • Posted by ian on 3/29/2013 at 12:10 AM Author
    iPhone dropped out. Yes and they have established a euro position as well selling and marketing multiple brands for those companies exact conpaniesc that you spoke off.
    Here is the gotcha . These companies are now so highly reliant on this online business to ship product. Tail wagging the dog.
    I understand where you are coming from in terns of the questions that you ask .
    Appreciate all your insights and advice .
    Steve I will send a email off line if that's ok .
    Thanks
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 3/29/2013 at 1:47 AM Member
    Ian,

    I understand your situation much better after seing your site. And I am familiar with Surfstitch.
    Looking forward to your email. Steve
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 3/29/2013 at 9:22 AM Member
    You might want to review your source code. I'm no coder but a quick look at your code and a comparison between it and most other sites (and what good looking codes looks like) and your code looks incredibly dense. https://css-tricks.com/what-beautiful-html-code-looks-like/
  • Posted by Moriarty on 3/29/2013 at 11:41 AM Member
    Ian, firstly Steve sounds your guy to speak to. However I have a few thoughts that you might usefully bring into the discussion.

    One is when you say that the competition isn't supplying enough diversity - this is the kind of "in" I was looking for. I have a hunch that your competition having wrapped up the market (as far as they see it) means that they can cut a few corners. Be careful and you can grab a nice slice for yourself.

    Having taken a look at your site - **your product descriptions are way too short**. You're a surfer, so tell the reader what it's like to surf that board, get some reviews and so-on. All this pleases the search engines. If you're pressed for time, take your best sellers and get their descriptions sorted first - that way you're making the most of your time. Around 500 words is the minimum you should have, and since you're a surfer describing the board shouldn't pose problems.

    As to the code, that's not such a problem as you're on Wordpress and the Googlebot heads straight for your database - and attacks the product descriptions. Your homepage loads extremely quickly, which is something that is important for the surfing community who are mobile friendly. Mind you, the size of your page (1.3Mb) may be a problem with mobile devices being limited on usage (you will know more about this than I - it's just something else to consider).
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