site sales are down (Full Version)

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robble -> site sales are down (3/7/2002 20:36:07)

Hi, Let me know if there's something obvious in my site www.lydan.com thats scaring customers away. Things were running well untill about 4 weeks ago when orders dried up. www.lydan.com Also some people tell me they did not realize my prices are in Canadian Dollars. Would making it even more obviuos be insulting the intelligence of every one else.

 

Edited by - robble on 03/07/2002 20:41:30

Edited by - robble on 03/07/2002 20:42:14

Edited by - robble on 03/18/2002 19:24:50

Edited by - robble on 03/18/2002 19:29:10



Kokomo -> RE: site sales are down (3/8/2002 8:20:02)

After a quick perusal of your site, I can't see any problem with the site itself that would cause a drop in orders. (Your site is VERY nice, by the way). Have your checked your search engine placement? That could have changed enough to affect sales. (Google in particular is notorious for dropping sites for no apparent reason). Or perhaps an unusual number of people have given up fitness gear for Lent.




godshall2 -> RE: site sales are down (3/8/2002 15:24:14)

I too saw nothing that would indicate a decline in orders.
Do you have detailed stat reports so you can see if and from where any traffic may have dried up...

Maybe its just the obvious, a poor ecomony.

Troy | www.aplustemplates.com

 



john40004 -> RE: site sales are down (3/8/2002 16:09:56)

Hi Robble,
Looked at your site with XE, IE 6.0, 28.8 on 56K modem and resolution of 800 X 600.

I saw nothing unusual as to the site. Looked fine and loaded well, even with my slow connection.

One thing you failed to mention - did you make any changes to the website over the past four weeks which would result in changes to user responses?

I've been traveling to Canada frequently over the past few months and have been using this currency converter: http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic?expr2=&lang=en&SUBMIT=Convert%20Now&language=en&date_fmt=us&script=..%2Fconvert%2Fclassic&exch=USD&exch2=&value=1&margin_fixed=0&date=02%2F10%2F02&expr=CAD Perhaps a converter on the site would help? The current exchange rate could prove to be a shock, $1.50 coffee Canadian was $0.94 U.S. on my last trip. Be careful however, as to the conversion website you use, they differ greatly. I use the one above for consistency, but it does not always agree with the conversion rate used by my credit card company. Checking with your local bank may help.

John

I only do what the voices in my head tell me to.



SuperConductor -> RE: site sales are down (3/8/2002 16:25:37)

Robble,

As far as noting the 'Canadian' prices, I did have trouble finding where it stated the currency type...and I was looking for it. I think the problem is that I was looking for it next to where the price is displayed and not at the top of the page...it may be that I'm just an old coot.

I always put something like 'Prices in USD', or something equivalent, next to the price. Don't know if that is possible with the Cart you are using.

Also, if you are interested, check out www.mals-e.com. It's a free cart and easy to use. I know it's late in the game for that, but you had expressed interest in the shopping cart I used on www.theknifeshoppe.com. I've used it before and it's great...I didn't on this site because I needed some customized pieces for the 'Referral' that most packaged carts don't offer. (I used Mals on www.mischievousmichelles.com)

Best of Luck

SuperConductor

If hindsight were foresight...I'd be a friggin' genius!

Edited by - SuperConductor on 03/08/2002 16:26:50



Mike54 -> RE: site sales are down (3/8/2002 17:33:43)

robble,

There isn't anything I can see that should drive people away. It's a nice clean site, easily navigated, etc. Maybe as suggested just the poor economy. I've got three company sites where traffic dropped in the last month, hey, it was a short month, but then there was one that dropped considerably more than the others. After checking closely I found I have serious work to do to get back in the good graces of the search engines for that site.

ah reckon, tharfo'e ah's, ah reckon.




dfradin -> RE: site sales are down (3/8/2002 20:19:31)

Hi,

Your site does look very good so I don't really know why the site traffic dropped.

There are some things that would personally distract me and possibly not have me come back:

-I'm viewing on 800x600 screen and the catalog seems really small since it is framed. If you could compress everything or make the top and left nav bars smaller, the catalog will stand out a lot more. I feel kind of cramped and I don't get a full idea of your selection.
-The navigation is somewhat confusing. I see where I am, but I had to think too much about how to get back to a certain page. As an example, if you click to enlarge a pic then you have to hit the "Back" button to go back. I think ideally you would like to have a "Back" icon to make it easier.
-Once you add something to your order, the shopping cart isn't instantly and readily available, i.e. always on top. I had to scroll to get to it which is only slightly annoying.
-The quantity default is blank rather than 1 to make it just a little easier to purchase.
-When I clicked on the top horizontal navigation, it opened another window. I really don't like that because if I'm on one site I'd like to only deal with one screen.

Believe me, I'm very anal about things and the above points are only my opinion. Your site is clean and without major flaws. It sounds like those things don't bother other people, but quite honestly, I'd probably not shop on your site because it isn't what I am expecting.

Hope this helps.

Dan

_________________
www.keada.com



Paula -> RE: site sales are down (3/8/2002 20:37:20)

Hi,
I think it's a really nice looking site, it looks clean and is pretty easy to navigate. That being said I think that it might be a little off-putting to some people that the shopping cart doesn't "match" the frame it comes up in. I don't really know, but I guess that's a possibility. I also think the US versus Canadian dollar issue is valid, I don't think anyone would be insulted if you do something to clarify that. I agree with godshall2 maybe it's just the economy. Things are starting to look up now, so let's hope that will make a difference. I don't think I'd change too much about the actual design because it's really good. Best regards.

Paula
The more I learn the less I seem to know.



robble -> RE: site sales are down (3/11/2002 21:04:58)

Wow, Great feedback. I think the currency issue is a valid one. I definitely need to put it right beside the price. Also the issue is not traffic levels as I have been setting records , it's the conversion rate to sales that have plummeted. The other sort of contentious issue is that the products are sort of mixed mens and womens together and that has confused some customers.

 

Edited by - robble on 03/11/2002 21:05:42



robble -> RE: site sales are down (3/11/2002 21:38:48)

I changed the product pages to say Canadian dollars. Thanks for the suggestion

Rob L.

 

Edited by - robble on 03/11/2002 21:39:08



SuperConductor -> RE: site sales are down (3/12/2002 1:06:45)

Robble,

Perfect fix on the 'Canadian price' issue...it's not obtrusive and certainly doesn't insult anyone's intelligence.

SuperConductor

If hindsight were foresight...I'd be a friggin' genius!



robble -> RE: site sales are down (3/13/2002 21:01:10)

Hey now, Three orders since I made the change cool.




LB -> RE: site sales are down (3/14/2002 0:32:39)

The drought is over -- hurray!

I know that having the Canadian exchange rate is a real plus to me when I'm shopping. Here's to a good month of sales for you.

Linda



Michael45 -> RE: site sales are down (3/14/2002 6:22:22)

Hi Robbl
Realy nice site.
I think I would have $(CA)135.00 notation to indicate the currency(I'm not sure CA is Canadian dollars but you get the idea). Are you interested in overseas sales because I thought your product was great and a lot of people are looking for an alternative to Nike et al if you are maybe a currency exchange rate link would be great. You may have one but I didnt see it.
Also I didnt realise that you needed to click on the item to purchase most sites have a BUY button beside the item I didnt see it. Well I got a bit confused but having said that if I wanted the item i would have solved the problem.
You must be scratching your head with record hits but falling sales it doesnt make sence does it.
Its a great site and great product. Almost makes you feel like getting fit (I said ALMOST).
Regards
Michael45



robble -> RE: site sales are down (3/14/2002 22:04:37)

Thanks Mike, The cart I use store front does not add a default qty of 1 to the buy qty box. I don;t know why. So far as shipping overseas we have shipped orders to folks in the UK, Ireland and Finland. People seem to enjoy paying less all over the world.

 



LB -> RE: site sales are down (3/17/2002 0:19:53)

Maybe it is the site? It's a nice template, but overall set up of the site doesn't seem to work as well for me as your old site. I hadn't looked recently and just assumed the site itself was basically the same.

Do you have a copy of your old site you could put back up as a test to see if sales increase? Or if it would be outdated, possibly put it up as a subweb for us to take a look at?

Linda



tarheel -> RE: site sales are down (3/17/2002 4:30:04)

You really need a good traffic analysis program. I do not have any intense e-commerce customers in my design biz, so I only use the hitbox freebie which gives me plenty of info, but you must use something.

Have you tested your shopping cart to make sure it didn't go down for a while?

Did the permissions in your shopping cart CGI-bin change somehow? This is especially a problem on a Windows based server.

When you see a sudden change like that, test these kinds of things first. Also, be sure people have a conduit to contact you if they have trouble buying something. We recently went to an increase in security and started requiring the CVV number from credit cards and business dropped immediately. Turns out the field was screwed up for that form.

Check all your little technical ditties before asking "Where'd everybody go" questions.

One thing I noticed is that your product pictures are poor. Way too small and rather dark. You should give people the ability to see a full-screen photo of the excellent products you sell.

Otherwise, great site! What shopping cart are you using, and is there a brick-and-mortar store? If so, are you connecting your store-inventory database with the on-line database? I'm getting ready to dive into that project and I'm not looking forward to it.

Graet job otherwise!

Phil

"If God is not a Tar Heel, then why are hyperlinks default-colored Carolina blue?"
http://1awebhosting.com
1A Web Hosting for Frontpage.



robble -> RE: site sales are down (3/17/2002 22:17:08)

Hi, Thanks for the advice. First to Linda's point. I don't think it's the site because I have had good results with this site in the past. I did have some added sales in the last two days so I think the suggestions Micheal45 made are helping, especially since two sales were to U.S. based customers which is not were most of my customers come from. To Phils point I have to agree that my product pictues are poor. I'm not much of a graphic artist and it shows. My cart is Storefront 5.0 SE from Lagarde. If any one wants to try the cart feel free you can go all the way to the last check-out page before anything happens and it's easy for me to delete any test user names you may put in give it a try www.lydan.com

 

Edited by - robble on 03/17/2002 22:24:26



robble -> RE: site sales are down (3/18/2002 19:35:09)

On the topic of currency and number coversion. Does anyone know how to imbed calculating fields in HTML table. I seem to remember seeing something like that.,

 

Edited by - robble on 03/18/2002 19:35:37



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