Good Traffic - Few Conversions

Orders have increased dramatically since I did some fine tuning but I'm still losing about 8 out of 10 orders due to paypal. People are just scared of being ripped off.

But I have just been approved for my merchant account and should be accepting CC orders directly on my site in the next 48 hours or so.

I did set up a custom "customers who bought this also bought this" system and people are staying on the site far longer also.

I'll post how much of a difference accepting payments on the site is once I have some data. But I am betting, at least hoping, that it will make a major difference.

I really like the design a lot. Excellent customization job on your part. : )

One thing I would recommend though is to have the "Enter here to win" or "Sign Up" In large colored font clearly visible. Im sure a lot of people don't understand how to roll over text especially when it's the same color as the description.

Also, what are you doing to promote this giveaway? When I launch my site im planning on doing a giveaway of my own and i'm curious what methods you have used to "get the word out"

Thanks, it's still a work in progress. The left menu could use some brick work or something of the nature. I have quite a bit of coding customization also. Such as adding the refering URL to the "whos online" in the admin.
Most of my visitors come from Google and I can easily see what they searched for. Similiar items banner on the side and so on. (this increased people's stay time significantly)

Though I believe my sales are farily good considering the vast competition (between 5 and 10 orders per day), most drop off at payment time. Again and again I see them drop when thy get to paypal. About 8 out of 10.
I just got my merchant account so I am hoping I can at least capture half of the paypal drops. (4 x 10 = 40 additional orders per day)

Here's what I found out about the giveaway, No one cares. LOL
I'm using a "long tail" keyword strategy and most people come with a mission, finding a specific product or products.
I may have gotten a couple of newsletter signups because of it but I would be willing to bet that they are not buyers.

I ran across a similar situation on a poker portal I recently sold. The people that signed up for the "freerolls" (enter for free and win money) stayed that way, never spending any money. Where the people that joined to play in the buy in games repeatedly spent money. I think the same holds true for the giveaway. People are signing up just for a chance at something for free. and most likely will never come back.
I think the free 2 day shipping is a good trigger for buyers though.

Here's an excerpt I just got from one of my customers that purchased something they thought was something different.
This is an area I think will make the big difference.

"I want to THANK YOU so much for your quick response and great attitude!!! Good customer service is fading fast and when I find it, I like to let a person know how much I appreciate them. Please know that I will continue to surf your web site and look for other products of interest. I will also tell my friends what a wonderful experience I had with you. I know that if you treat your other customers as you have me, your business will be a success. "What goes around, comes around." Have a great week"

The way I generate traffic is to constantly network with other similiar sites.
I'm on here 16 hours per day working with HCG or my other store (a toy store not yet published)
Also, with 70,000 products I have a LOT of long tail keywords. I am all over Google. I'm also starting to move up in the short tail keywords but I imagine it will be quite some time before I appear towards the top searching "video games"

I think after the drawing is over I am going to concentrate on "Customer Rewards". I think "purchase points that can be applied towards discounts" or something of that nature.

I just got my login for my merchant account. :clap:
I do hope this goes smoothly.

Ken

Onsite CC purchasing all set up, tested, and money obtained by the test.
:clap:

pukman:

On my sites I try not to mention creating accounts and try to make feel like checkout.

Great idea. I changed mine to feel like typical Billing information with order tracking abilities.

I may modify the email a bit also.

Well, let's see how well it performs now.

Thanks for all of the great feedback. I'll post conversion results within a couple of days.

Ken

Im not quite sure how much money you have to play with but it might be worth starting an adwords campaign for the giveaway. If you type in "Free wii" or "wii giveaway" in google you'll see that there's front page potential. I know when I was broke and needy i searched all over for free wii programs (albeit most of them are shady refferal schemes). You're probably right. These people won't come back to buy merchandise but they could help you in other ways. Getting people to talk about your site is a good thing. Maybe folks would post the link on their blog or something increasing your SE rankings. Im almost positive that paypal is cutting your sales. I'll be using paypal payments pro when Im all set so that they will never leave my site to make a CC payment.

I'll probably keep the quarterly giveaways going for appearance sake.
It looks "fun" to have some sort of giveaway going on.

I do use adwords for xbox 360 and such. I do get some traffic from them.

I hit front page on MSN search for win wii, free wii etc.. Not one of the people that signed up through this has purchased anything though :)
My traffic has been quite good. from 400 to 500 unique hits per day according to Google Analytics.
My bounce rate was terrible until I set up similiar products. (80%)
After setting this up it has dropped down to around 60%
I'm showing about 10,000 page hits per day according to the Zen Cart admin. Though bots do register as a hit.

Of course with the US economy in the state it is, it's a wonder anyone buys anything at all.

first impression at checkout--
your check out page is VERY busy with the graphic logos, small extensive type.

the linked images (paypal, continue) are the smallest. at first site i looked top left, thinking i was going to create the shipping info.

because of your blk/white theme, perhaps your logo to CONTINUE could be a different color / bigger to really stand out.

perhaps you could screen (photoshop) the advertising logos for cc to they have a slight faded look, not so bold.

or perhaps move the advantages content info;
"When you pay through Home Computer Games you will be able to track the status..." ,
"Many people now desire to use their PayPal accounts for purchases over the Internet and HCG wants to provide you the safest options when it comes to your...",
"Use the PayPal Express Checkout button below if you want to pay with either a..."
into a side box link for information or advantages of different ways to purchase.
You do have flashing cc logo, pp logo twice,secure cert ad on the right side box too.

the whole purpose of this page is to SIGN IN, express pay w/ PAYPAL, or CONTINUE!

i would try to keep it very simple.

my 2 cents
have enjoyed the followup information you continue to provide
best wishes

Hi fashions,
Yes, I still have a lot of work to do. I have gotten the drop rate down considerabley but nowhere near single digit percentages.

Between dealing with orders, customers, and marketing it seems I find little time for much else. I upgraded my hosting from virtual host to dedicated and then stripped the server down to essential processes. I have daily pricing updates that slowed the vh hosting pretty baddly.
I just added a dropdown box to select categories when searching from the sidebox. This seems to be getting utilized quite a bit. It speeds the searches up 1000%. (138,000 products)

Here's a funny thing about what happened when I got my merchant account and perhaps something of interest.
Not only did I get increased sales by direct use, My PayPal Express sales doubled and are often greater during a day than CC purchases. I'm sure a lot has to do with my product type. (computer geeks and such)
But I think the acceptance of credit cards directly on the site was a "comfort blanket" for many of the PayPal users. Though dealing with these "merchant services" can be a pain they do seem to be worth it.

My background has been mainly related to the Internet gambling group so dealing with products sure has been a learning experience. Sometimes seems it was easier to get someone to gamble $50K than to spend $50 on a game.

Damn crooks are the biggest hassle though. ALWAYS someone trying to get you for a dime or a dollar. :censored:

I do agree with what you have to say about the checkout.
I'm going to have to devote a few days to such things soon.

Keep Well,
Ken

Hey Kendur, I just found this thread again and was wondering how your sales are doing now? You said you got about 5-10 orders without the merchant account and now that you're all set up how has it been for ya? The reason I ask is because I'm very close to launching and your success is very inspirational.. especially considering the very competitive market you are in. Speaking of that, what are you using for marketing anyways.. Adwords, SEO? something else? Don't worry, im not in direct competition with you :P (i'm selling automotive tools and hardware) but any tips that you've learned and want to share would be much appreciated!

Hey aeternal,
For the time of year and considering the economy, sales are doing ok.
Low end is 10 sales per day.
Highest has been 48 sales in a day. (not counting ebay store)

I will hit 4 months old on the 16th so I am assuming I am doing ok for that short time with a limited budget.

As for marketing I use "long tail" strategy for my SEO as it will take awhile before I rank for "computer games" and such. Though I do move up daily and am at page 11 for that phrase last time I checked.

I also use adwords but I don't bid high enough to get my ads in the searches.
For my area the lowest bid is $1 per click with any phrase with "game" in it. My highest bid is $0.15
But my ads do make the ad network traffic giving me about 12,000 exposures per day. I average about 10 to 15 hits per day from that at about $0.12 per hit.
I also found that these ads are showing up in MSN and Yahoo searches via the various sites they appear on.

I also opened an ebay store last week for the exposure.
This seems to be bringing in some traffic to my site.
I don't spam but I let it be known I have a website.
http://stores.ebay.com/HomeComputerGames

I only have 23 products there at the moment but intend to add about 1000 in total. I haven't done any design with it yet but should get to it soon.
The store costs $15.95 per month with fairly low insertion fees ($0.3 - $0.5 plus Ebays end sale fees) I have sold a few items this past week there but it takes a bit of work to get the listing up.

Google Products is your best friend in the beginning I believe. Just be sure to stay straight with their rules or they will pull all of your products off.

My total sales for the 4 months is $15,683 at this moment. That's sales.not profits :)
All in all I am making enough to pay for dedicated server, merchant fees, adwords and have enough cash flow going to start hitting the larger wholesale auctions. So it's going in the right direction I believe.

I have a toy store I'm hoping to launch soon. https://www.kidstoys1.com
I did stop work on it for a bit to learn the tricks in Ebay. I suspect I won't ever make much more than pocket change from Ebay but rather will use it for the exposure.

Actually I have several Ebay stores that come to my website(HCG) for products and a couple of computer sales stores come for parts.

So it goes to show that us little people can compete with the big dogs. Though as I said, I do work with my business daily. Most of the time 12 hours or more.
Be it marketing, coding, planning, learning or just interacting with my customers. I get about 5 phone calls per day regarding products. I have 0 dissatisfied customers and plan to keep it that way.
I do get daily fraud attempts. So keep a close eye on that and check every order. I've had them try and order games as low as $11! I guess they figure I won't bother checking on a low order. Bu t I check them all.

If you do not have a merchant account you will need one. But read up on them. Learn about "Reserves", "chargebacks" and all the rest. I had to learn the hard way.
The reserves took me by surprise ($650). But I finally got them all back.

I have been trying to keep this post up to date so others new to this can see what goes into creating a store. I think many people watch too much TV and get it in their minds that they can put up a website and sit back and rake in the money. LOL
If I was getting paid by the hour for working with my store I would be a wealthy man by now. :lookaroun

the best of luck with your venture.

Ken

G'day,

To some extent I see the same sort of problem. Just recently I got hold of the guide "20 Surefire Ways to Increase Sales Using Zen Cart" from http://www.zencartoptimization.com.

It has some interesting thoughts on how to tackle this signup, shopping cart problem. Some changes to the layouts, combined with a different pitch and positioning of the process to the customer.

I think these ideas might go a long way towards solving the problem. But I haven't tried them yet.

Best Regards, Lloyd Borrett.

kendur:

Orders have increased dramatically since I did some fine tuning but I'm still losing about 8 out of 10 orders due to paypal. People are just scared of being ripped off.

But I have just been approved for my merchant account and should be accepting CC orders directly on my site in the next 48 hours or so.

I did set up a custom "customers who bought this also bought this" system and people are staying on the site far longer also.

I'll post how much of a difference accepting payments on the site is once I have some data. But I am betting, at least hoping, that it will make a major difference.

Can you elaborate on how you did the custome "customers who bought this also bought this" system? I have been enjoying this thread and hearing of your results! I would love to do the same. I have many who come but my conversion rate is low even though I have tried to optimize. Any advice on my cart would be greatly appreciated! The Doodlebuckets site is my main and most busy site with my best Google placement.

lloyd_borrett:

G'day,

To some extent I see the same sort of problem. Just recently I got hold of the guide "20 Surefire Ways to Increase Sales Using Zen Cart" from http://www.zencartoptimization.com.

It has some interesting thoughts on how to tackle this signup, shopping cart problem. Some changes to the layouts, combined with a different pitch and positioning of the process to the customer.

I agree. He has what sound like some good ideas about navigation and wording. Well worth reading. He also offers a set of template files for what seems to be a fair price.

Hi Doodlebuckets,
The first thing I notice on your sites is that most information is "below the fold".
Meaning when someone clicks on an item people have to scroll down in order to see details. I noticed an increase in sales when I moved most of the details for my products above the fold. And I am currently rethinking the design in order to get another inch or so moved up and putting the Search feature at the top right in the empty area.

I recently read a study performed by clickz that pointed out that even though people said they considered security as a top priority on a website, that in reality design was their number 1 issue when it came to deciding to purchase from a certain site or not.

In my opinion I think you need a redesign that is a bit softer and has more information above the fold. The best way to get ideas is to look at the pros.
These people have spent large sums of money on research and development.
So why not learn from them?
http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=2255957

Compare product pages:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2738050

http://www.doodlebuckets.com/store/first-love-white-blend-boy-gift-basket-p-2275.html

Notice how all of the information is right there.

By moving your category menu to the left you would free up a lot of space.
I would also suggest a logo that would identify you. Something like:
"DoodleBuckets" Placed with a stork carrying a baby in a bucket or some such thing.

For color ideas search "baby colors" in Google Images.
You will see that most items are soft pastels.

You might also try removing the entire right menu for the products pages. It does seem a little busy.
"Who's Online" is of little relevance I believe. Also showing a persons IP is not needed.

The best of luck to you.

Ken

You need an SSL
Good luck!

kendur:

Hi Doodlebuckets,
The first thing I notice on your sites is that most information is "below the fold".

In my opinion I think you need a redesign that is a bit softer and has more information above the fold. The best way to get ideas is to look at the pros.
These people have spent large sums of money on research and development.
So why not learn from them?
http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=2255957

Compare product pages:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2738050

http://www.doodlebuckets.com/store/first-love-white-blend-boy-gift-basket-p-2275.html

Notice how all of the information is right there.

By moving your category menu to the left you would free up a lot of space.
I would also suggest a logo that would identify you. Something like:
"DoodleBuckets" Placed with a stork carrying a baby in a bucket or some such thing.

For color ideas search "baby colors" in Google Images.
You will see that most items are soft pastels.

You might also try removing the entire right menu for the products pages. It does seem a little busy.
"Who's Online" is of little relevance I believe. Also showing a persons IP is not needed.

The best of luck to you.

Ken

Thanks Ken! Can you take a look at what I've been up to? I have tried to replicate the Toysrus product page, but I just made things worse! For a product like this one with so many attributes: http://www.doodlebuckets.com/store/ultimate-sweat-suit-coolest-baby-gift-p-1261.html , I find that the stacked product page looks best, to me anyway.

I took all of the categories out of the header and did the dropdown menu in the sidebox. I don't know that I want to do all baby colors since many of my customers are men and corporate types. My more "manly" Gifts of Character site doesn't get so much traffic yet, so I think I need to keep Doodlebuckets more gender/age neutral.

Oh, yeah, I also put a Free shipping banner up...what do you think of it? I am also trying to get my site HTML validated but have a few errors left I don't know what to do about. But other than that, I'm feeling like I'm getting things tweaked in a good way :)

I've revamped things even more, if anyone wants to see! http://www.doodlebuckets.com I am quite happy with the results!

Hi!
Sorry I haven't been active here as of late.
I've been creating several new templates for my store. I'm getting ready to do some testing on various appearances. White backgrounds, new headers, layout variations etc... to see how this impacts sales.
With all of the customization I have it's becoming quite a chore.

Your site looks MUCH better! :)

I see you are getting some decent traffic and unique pageviews are doing well.
Is there any reflection on your sales?

Ken

Just a quick note on the menu...

Your Gift Baskets selection goes far below the pageline on MOST displays and cannot be easily navigated as it is a true challenge for most to keep the mouse on online to select a menu selection near the bottom of a long menu like "Gift Baskets". I know to use my arrows, but most shoppers do not.

~Melanie

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I do get a good amount of traffic but my conversions are lower than I would like. I did discover yesterday, after getting a response from my Recover Cart Sales inquiry (great mod, by the way), that many of my shoppers are corporate people who want to buy baskets for their employees but we didn't take Amex and were losing sales because of it. I added Amex yesterday and had 2 Amex sales almost immediately! It pays to find out what customers want!