Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Why Is No One Buying From My Webstore?

Posted by Anonymous on 6/20/2013 at 2:45 PM ET 250 Points
I created this site in August of 2012 to make up for my older site that apple closed when iweb got shut down. I have been getting about 30-40 visitors a day and more than one person claiming the site looks beautiful, sleek and well kept. But for some reason I have made almost no sales on the actual site, only on ebay and others. Customers are not buying anything from me, they just look at the pages (stats confirm this) but they dont end up buying.

I would love to understand why this is happening,any help would be really helpful.

Any constructive criticism could potentially make me realize my mistakes and improve.

Thank you!
coinsnnotes.tk





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  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 6/20/2013 at 3:09 PM Accepted
    Maybe because the people who visit your site aren't truly your prospective customers. How do people find your site? Stating that you're a high school student may not build trust - and is likely to be irrelevant to your website visitors. Finally - who is it that you're trying to attract? Your home page doesn't make it clear what you offer, to who, or why they should explore your site further.
  • Posted by Moriarty on 6/20/2013 at 5:19 PM Accepted
    Let's take this in another direction - you're making sales on ebay and the like. So what are you doing on ebay that you aren't doing on your website?

    For one thing, I'm sure that you'll get far more viewings on your ebay listings than you get on your website. Do you have a link to your website from ebay, do you promote your website on ebay - through information links and the like. Nor do you have a newsletter, which is the standard of online marketing: with a niche of your kind, there's always something new to discover. Your 50 piastres coin from Somalia (Sudan??) is one such - a little info from Wikipedia and some of your own insights would go down a treat with readers, even if they aren't directly interested.

    Once signed up, and interested, they remain potential buyers for life. That's way better than ebay - and means ebay becomes a resource for your website as well as a point of sale.

    You can also promote your website through ppc - Google adwords and its display network. Howie Jacobson's Adwords for Dummies will get you going and only costs in the region of $25. Read and implemented with the care with which it was written will establish your business for good. Measure the costs carefully against ebay - which is your current business standard. Work out which leads are good and which not. Spending a couple of dollars a day - or even a week - will bring you customers and a huge amount of data that will translate back to ebay and onto your site. You can fine tune both operations to meet the needs of your customers. You'll have a three-way interplay that reinforces itself to give you a firm foothold in your marketplace.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 6/20/2013 at 6:44 PM Accepted
    ... because, sadly, you have no clear sales path.

    FIRST, I commend you on at least getting something up and online. That takes stones. Well done.

    That's the good news. The bad news is that you offer no solid reasons to buy from you, right now, and because you're offering zero benefits and value.

    Your home page text waffles, warbles, and apologizes. Your buyer's initial reaction is that you are flustered, unorganized, and that you have nothing of value to them to offer.

    Your images take the viewer to Flickr. You don't seem to have a pricing structure, a shopping cart, a way for people to buy from you, and your site is visually unappealing (black backgrounds and white text are difficult to read).

    I urge you to find similar sites in your niche ands to take a look at how they do it. Then, do the same thing with e-commerce sites in other niches.

    How do their graphics look? How does their sales copy sound? Who is their buyer? Figure all of this out, then retool and regroup.

    Good luck to you.
  • Posted on 6/21/2013 at 4:39 PM Author
    Jay:
    You raise a good point, and ill tweak the "about me page" I just wish you could have gone further with that last statement. Thank you anyways for that advice.

    Moriarty:
    I totally agree that giving each coin and banknote with its own story will go great, and I'll be working on that, but in terms of advertising I doubt I need to go for that just now. There are more important things to get fixed.
    Thank you!

    Gary:
    I'm on it. I think I've fixed the first problem. The funny thing is, its what I've been doing for several months and some elements even from the start of my passion with this idea, but I never ended up telling people about it on the site (yes, I do realize how unproductive that was). Now that I graduated from high school I can devote several months on this project.

    "Welcome to the coinsnnotes website. Our goal is to make numismatic items available in a way the competition simply can't beat. The income generated goes to building on the collection and helping those who need it most (read more on "about me"). Our inventory can be sold at the real market price because there are almost no bills to pay. Furthermore, we really care about fellow collectors therefore grading and appraising is available completely free of charge. We try to use as many apps and online services to help you indulge in an experience like no other. So remember when browsing; not only do you get fairly priced inventory from a trusted, non-profit driven member of the numismatic community, you get so much more bang for your buck."

    It was really time to update that. Anyways, I beg to differ on the "feel" of the site, Ive been told that my strongest point that other numismatic sites just havent come to par (better make the best of it). Besides, I have to fix the content, not the visuals. Then with flickr, whats wrong with flickr? Thirdly there is a very good structure set up on the site, shopping carts and all.

    That being said, you gave a good answer.

    --------------
    Everyone:
    Overall, all of your answers have given me some insight as to what to do, thank you! Ill be monitoring this thread for the next 10 days or so, hoping there will be more concrete answers and detailed advice before I pick the winner.
  • Posted on 6/23/2013 at 2:28 AM Accepted
    To be honest I'd have to agree with what Jay has said. The hits you're getting on your site don't appear to be from prospective customers.

    You can put some of this down to simple SEO. People will buy from you on eBay because they're searching for a particular item (or browsing a category) and stumble across something you stock - but your website doesn't allow me to do this due to poor (non-existent) SEO.

    If for example, I'm wanting to pick up a certificate from the B&O Railway Co that you're selling on your site - I'm going to have a hard time finding that you stock it, unless it's listed on eBay. You have an image, and a text description of '100 shares x100 1938 33319 Price: 250 EUR'. It doesn't tell me much - and tells Google even less. There's no indexable product name, alt-text for the picture. The whole page is simply i-framed from Weebly, so you've lost all your link juice right there. Even the Alt-text on for the images on Weebly simply states 'Picture'. Think about improving your SEO so you (and your products) become searchable.

    I'd also recommend condensing your site. If you're wanting it to be primarily an e-commerce site, then start with the cart and build the site from there. Launch directly into featured products from the home page. Lose the 'about us' off the home page. If you make it clear that from the outset that you're selling currency to collectors you don't need it - and frankly, your customers don't care. It's taking up valuable real estate on your homepage.

    Each product should have its own product page with a product description - check out your competition for their approach e.g. https://www.coins-and-banknotes.com/ - not the greatest of examples, but you can guarantee their selling product - and they are easy to find.

    Lastly - do you really need a separate online store? What is its purpose above that which eBay provides? If you're making money on eBay that's fantastic, people are buying from you in a marketplace where your competitors are highly visible. I'd wager your eBay listings are generating exponentially more hits than your site. eBay's SEO is in-built, so it's easy for customers to find and purchase your products - markedly more than on your website.

    Think about what you're trying to accomplish - and what avenue (at least for now) best offers that path.

    Good luck.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 6/25/2013 at 7:46 AM Member
    This forum and the advice its contributors give is not about winning, it's about help. By all means, beg to differ until the cows come home, but as you do, know this:

    What you think of your site is irrelevant.

    You are not buying from you, other people are (or rather, they are not).

    This is because your site is visually unappealing, you do not anchor the elements of trust and authority that you need to instill in buyers, and probably because you are either listening to the opinions of friends and family and what they thing of your site, or becauce the customers you may have polled are not telling you the truth in order to spare your feelings.

    There may be structure on your site, but there is no clear PATH. Structure without clear instructions is merely a pretty matrix. Having spent the last 28 years creating sales material and graphic design I can assure you that black text on a white background is visually unappealing and diffifcult to read.

    As for Flickr, here's the thing: by directing traffic away from your site you tell would be buyers that you have nothing to sell. You direct them elsewhere and then, from that place (Flickr) unless you took all those photos, there appears to be no reason or link to drive traffic BACK to your site, to a SALES page, from which people can buy.

    Delve into the following: why would anyone buy from you? What is the incentive to do business with you and ONLY with you? What are you selling? (and here you may think you're selling currency but th reality is that this is not what people are buying, were they buying from you, which they don't appear to be).

    Look at other sites in your niche and list everything that they are doing that you are not doing (and vice versa), then, and based on what you've learned, redesign your site AND YOUR SALES PATH from the ground up, page by page, link by link. You'd also do well to look into your tags and page descriptions; the more relevant information you give to search engines, the more those platforms will repay you with higher rankings.

    Your sales path MUST be free and clear of obstacles. It MUST make the process of buying from you easy and enjoyable, and it must instill confidence on the part of your buyer.
  • Posted on 7/14/2013 at 3:20 AM Member
    I think that wise strategy is in need. You should focus on right people, it is more difficult to do than to say. And you do not need to forget the "number game" , may be 40 people is nothing, and you ned 400 or 4000 visitors to accumulate sales?
    You may want to check the link and see how many people are visiting it, and have some fun studying.
    https://www.sfi4.com/12147595/Real2
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