Website advice please? Traffic but no sales!

[Njones]

I have my website setup a few months now and am getting a half decent amount of traffic through it,.. but almost zero sales.

Improvements must be made,.. but I'm too close to see the problems!
Please have a look at the facebook page & shop too as they aren't creating sales either.

Thanks in advance for your helpful comments!

www.meadowsorganic.com

http://www.facebook.com/MeadowsOrganic

 

[Tabitha]

I can give you my opinion, but that is all it will be; my opinion.

Your site looks clean, comforting and professional.

What do you think sets your soap/site apart from the other 10,000 handmade soap websites online? Why should I buy your chocolate lip balm or lavender soap when 10,000 other people are selling the exact same product?

In my opinion you don't have a gimmick. I think everyone needs a gimmick to set themselves apart from every other soap maker on the web.

EX) You lip balms are names unflavored, chocolate, strawberry & passion fruit. I think the unflavored lip balm would be more attractive named naked, sheer, etc.

Think about your customer base. I would not call middle America my customer base. Middle America is bath & body works and victoria's secrets customer base. Find your customer base & hone in on them. Are they hippes? If so call your lavender oatmeal soap the summer of oats, if they are punk rockers call your lavender oatmeal soap purple haze, if they are country girls, call it cowgirl-up if they are sports nuts, left field lavender, etc. Make your photos relfect your customer base too. You have nice pictures of nice soap, but you can buy soap at wallmart. You are selling more than soap, you are selling a life-style.

Your gimmick can be the state you live in, a play on words, a period in history, country french, aqautic, polka-dots, sports, anything that might appeal to your specific customers.

Find something that will make people remember you.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

Hi Njones,

I just took a look at your site. I may not be an expert in soaping, but I'm nearly an expert in shopping lol so 'as a customer' I tell you what I thought....

firstly i loved the simplicity of the website, I think it was fairly easy to follow and the colours were nice. I prentended to purchase and it was easy to nagivate around the store.

However I think you need to be 'talking up' your soaps a little more. Because your soaps are fairly simple design wise, I'm guessing your target customer is someone who wants all the benefits of natural soap without the fuss - but I didnt feel your passion in your descriptions.
I also couldnt find any list of ingredients I think if you want to get people interested in the benefits of your soap you need to tell them whats in it, and how that will benefit them.

Remember your selling the soap not just listing it.

Maybe the front page was a bit busy? I dont know, I never read home pages, I always head straight to the buying section.

Aside from all that the pictures and the site are fab, and its a good site

 

[American Valkyrie]

I know this is a really minor thing, but it stood out to me.

There are some style inconsistencies, mostly capitalization. I noticed it most in the Soap Bars section. Parts of the title were capitalized while others weren't.

Like I said, it's really minor. Some people won't even notice it. But I'm a writer and avid reader, so it stood out immediately and was indicative of an amateur designer. But then, when someone uses "quotation marks" or apostraphe's (I meant to do that) in the wrong place, it also speaks to me of being rushed and unprofessional.

 

[Maria]

The site is lovely but not optimized for traffic. The first word in the title bar is welcome. Not too many people searching for that term. The header tags need some help also.
An easy way to start is to make a list of keywords or phrases one would use to search for your product assuming they do not know who you are. Google the keywords/phrases and identify sites who rank highly for the terms. Take a little time and analyze how the highly ranking sites are optimized and it will help you rework your own.
Keep doing this until your site is on page 1. Then ask a friend to make a list of terms and repeat.
It never hurts to re-read google guidelines for webmasters every now and then to make sure you are in compliance.

 

[Relle]

I agree with busymakinsoap that a list of ingrediants for each bar is a must. Thats what I look for more than anything else, especially if you are promoting no scent, colour etc for people with sensitive skin.

Relle.

 

[Njones]

Really appreciate all your helpful advise & will make a start on the suggested changes over the weekend.

Any more ideas?

 

[nattynoo]

I looked at your site earlier today but didn't want to be first to comment...laugh!!
I liked your site. I thought it looked pro. Maybe a tiny bit busy on the front page.
One thing that bugged me was the where to buy link...only there's nowhere to buy. Not even a market location monthly. :cry:
I think sales will increase as your customer base increases too. Repeat customers or word of mouth customers. I think if your just aiming at repeat customers your site will work fine for you but if your trying to grab new customers it lacks lustre.....well for me anyway... but I might not be who you are aiming at. IYKWIM.
I hope you do well and wish you much success.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I like the soft colouring but I don't like the moving tabs at the top, makes me dizzy.

Need list of ingredients for each product.

Isn't Ireland in a recession? What is your current unemployment rate? This may have something to do with it too. People who can't afford to buy food are not going to spend too much money on soap.

Having said that, I remember during our last recession, Streets Ice-cream launched a luxury ice-cream bar which was selling at twice the going rate of ordinary ice-creams and it sold better than anything else where I worked. It was all in the advertising campaigns.

Look at other peoples' soap websites and you may get some ideas on jazzing things up a bit. :wink:

 

[Njones]

Really appreciate the comments. I've added ingredients lists to the facebook shop but not to the website yet,.. will do that this evening.

I'm not sure what to do about the homepage, but I will make an effort at simplifying it too,.. I had been thinking along those lines but wasn't sure.

As for the "unique selling point" mentioned,.. I was hoping that 100% organic was enough because I know of very few other soapmakers that are all organic in ireland,.. but I guess I'm aiming at a worldwide market really so I might need a bit more of a hook?

 

[spicyjem]

I'm not here to tell you what to do or how to change anything, because you learn all that as you go. I just wanted to encourage you with some thoughts.

One of the biggest successes in online business is having the right mindset. Do NOT be discouraged when first starting out. I cannot stress that enough. Your site may look professional, but if people have never heard of you before, or have no past history, they get leery shopping with someone new.

Remember, the vast majority of successful online businesses didn't start with a big splash. It was word of mouth and a returning customer base which starts a snowball effect that gets bigger and bigger over time.

So one customer will turn into two. Two will turn into four. Four into eight, etc. I always tell myself with each business idea I start to not expect a real return of investment (ROI) for 3 years. I ask myself, "Am I willing to invest three years of my life and effort into this, knowing that it may not work?" If the answer is yes, I proceed forward.

I started an online business (non-soap related) in 2004. By the second year, I was pretty much in debt about 50K due to all the inventory I was buying. Talk about discouraging!! For example, for every sale that I made, that profit went right back into the business to buy MORE stuff to help grow the business.

My first MONTH of online sales, I did a whopping $36.00! My second month, I did $47.00. The third month, I only did $10.00. TEN BUCKS! What happened? Who knows but it massively dropped off, probably because a competitor was having some special deals that I couldn't afford to have.

It wasn't until the END of year three that I actually got out of business debt, and by year four, I was paying myself a TINY paycheck. Now in 2011, we are in the process of incorporating, and expanding to hire people. I try to shoot now for $40,000 a month in sales (a far cry from the $10.00 a month when we first started)!

My point is that at any point along the way, it's easy to get discouraged because "sales aren't coming in." This is especially frustrating when you have the website, have the product, but no one to ship it to! But if you got the right mindset, it will all come together. I think your site looks very professional. Now it's a matter of networking. Getting people to come. Offer contests, giveaways, and get people active with the site. Sales should almost be an afterthought because it's a byproduct of all the other efforts you put into it.

Just my two cents! I really hope it works out for you! I think the site looks great, and I totally encourage you to stay positive!

 

[SudsyKat]

I really like the site design - I like the colors, the way it all comes together. I even like the way the tabs at the top move. Overall, I think the design works well and looks professional.

On the down side, I read your home page, which mentions hair care products, but could not find any on your site. Also, I think you could rework your tabs at the top so that they are more practical. In other words, you list "soap bars", which is great. If I'm looking for soap, I'll click on that. But why would lip balms and shaving stuff be under the "offers" section? It makes more sense to me to have a tab for, "other bath and body" or something like that. "Offers" makes me think that that's a place where the stuff you normally sell is on sale, as opposed to a place to find more unique products to buy.

I think your angle - the" organic and responsibly sourced" angle, is great. I would address that some more. Find ways to make people think about that in many other places on your site. In the ingredients list is one obvious place you can bring it to mind again. In your descriptions, you can throw in the "O" word whenever it feels good. Use lots of words that go with that idea - like "natural", "whole", "pure", etc.

Again, that's just constructive criticism because you asked. I really like the site overall - congratulations and good luck!

 

[Njones]

Really appreciate all your comments. Have to say how impressed I am by what a friendly & helpful forum this is.

 

[Midnight Rowan]

The only thing I can really think of to add to what others have said is to have another look at product packaging. I'm sure it's a massive undertaking to completely revamp packaging, but personally (as an online shopper), I'm much more drawn in by a cohesiveness between site design and product packaging that shows through in product photos. There's a pretty big difference in style between your existing packaging, and the site design/fonts, etc. You might think of using those photos to advantage by layering a cohesive style that way. I think it would go a long way toward successful branding.

That being said, I really liked the calm feel of the site design, and if you did decide to revamp packaging I'd go with that rather than changing your site to match current packaging. The site visuals are very soothing and professional looking, as others have said.

 

[Njones]

OK,.. major changes have been made.

I've added a facebook comment box to each product page for direct customer feedback & interaction.

I've gone through the site & tried to sort out any misplaced capitalisation (a personal weakness of mine!)

I've re-arranged the menu tabs to something more user friendly. There are a few items duplicated on different pages, but I'll be adding new products soon to fix this problem.

I've removed some superfluous text (I had "View Cart" in text on every page as well as a button that said "view cart",.. why??!!)

I've simplified the home page.

I've added ingredients lists to all the product pages.

I've added market locations to the buy link.


If you have chance can you look again & let me know if its looking better? Thank you again!