Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

Your best way is to refine this using some paid advertising - especially Google adwords (or their attendant display network). This isn't just for sales, but to know where those sales came from. Because the people who buy from you will buy for a reason, and if you know what that reason is you can catch them early.

Critique:

if you have someone as a picture, make sure they're not sharply defined (yours is outlined in black!). It doesn't leave much to the imagination. Believe me, that's the one thing you want to coax in your visitors. So make sure your image is in some way lacking in detail. As ever my favourite here is https://jpeterman.com who use out of focus paintings for their advertising. I do too. But then, I write like they do.

You don't seem to have a newsletter. You're missing out on LOTS of sales without this tool. Most people buy on a return visit. Remind them you're there with stories about girls wearing a new shoe or something like that.

You are using Joost's SEO plugin - which can still help even Post Panda.

Your copy is - crap. "These fun color heels are a great way to make a statement. The cool color-blocking effect is made even more dramatic by the thick platform and high heels" don't describe it as if it were a slice of meat on the slab. These are fun things - and girls who wear them will want to have fun. So describe how they can have fun, don't just tell 'em to go out there and find it for themselves. Again, J Peterman is my steer on this issue. It's also what I do best, copy wise.

Your cart software is slow - however it doesn't offend people by asking them to login first :-) after they've signed in and the rest, you can enquire if they want to join your newsletter too. That'll get you returning visitors.

Any help? What are your thoughts on this?

Answers

1) Yes, you have a lot of content on your pages which the search engines will like (after all they need to check you're a good match for your keyword). The customer experience won't be that fantastic.

2) I mean the girl on your homepage with a credit card. Take a picture of one of your secretaries with a credit card stuck in her slingbacks ;-) Then make a painting of it using a commercial artist.

3-5 great that you're on the ball.

I can do imaginative copy if you wish: it's my forte.

I'll be back later - I've just done a rush job at high speed and I'm a little snow blind right now!

One thought - have people in your shoes and the shoe on its own as backup along with the others.

The lack of focus on the photo is good. It allows the imagination to fill in the details ;-) It's one way to establish "engagement".

How much traffic are you getting? It may be that 1% is great conversion for your current number of visitors.

As far as your offerings, why should someone purchase from you? Is it your free global shipping? An incredible returns policy? Do you offer styles/brands/materials that no one else does? Unusual sizes/widths? Guaranteed lowest prices?

You may want to look at a goal of increasing sales, not specifically increasing conversions. Increasing conversions may be part of the way to reach that goal, but there may also be other way.

1% may or may not be bad. I don't have specific data, but I think most web sites are in low single digit conversation rates. So there may be room for improvement there, but expecting a 20% conversion rate is unrealistic.

So, to increase sales you can either:
1) increase conversion rates
2) increase the number of visitors that go to the site.

To increase conversion rates, improve your offering. Give a better offer on the site (all of those things in Jay's questions in his second paragraph) and you can increase conversions. Do other sites for shoes provide better returns? Buying online, I am sure it is important to the customer to be able to return easily and inexpensively when it doesn't fit just right. Do these other sites have better product selections? How are your prices in comparison (very important if the same shoes you offer are available on other sites.?


If you continue to convert 1% of your traffic, but you double your traffic, you will double your sales. Advertise, and you increase the number of visitors. Better SEO and you also increase visitors.

You could also look at who is finding you and find a way to optimize this so that more people who are potential customers come to you. Target the ads very well (so people who are potential customers are the ones who come to you), and you increase both conversion rates and traffic.

But of course, all of these have costs. If you increase your return policy from the current 30 days to 1 year, then it is likely that you will have more returns, which costs money.