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Getting Sales

charst46charst46 subscriber Posts: 1
edited June 2007 in Sales
We have a web site up and running. Several of our vendors have commented that they really like the site. I had several people from work look it over as well and they liked its look and the layout.
My problem is even though we have this really good click through, approximately 50%, but for a couple of weeks it was at 80%, we do not have anyone actually pulling the trigger. No Sales are happening.
Has anyone had this happen before? How to deal with this.....
 
Charst46

Comments

  • charst46charst46 subscriber Posts: 1
    Sorry,
     
    The addy is www.bodegabaybazaar.com</A>
    Would really appreciate any feed back.
    Thanks.
    Charlie
     
     
  • blondieblueblondieblue subscriber Posts: 9
    There is no consistancy within the site. Pager layouts vary all over the place. It is very confusing to figure out what and where everything is ...
    And worst of all ... you create a pop-up for the store.
    IMHO, trash the site and start fresh. You have great products ... but a lousy layout, lousy functionality, a shopping cart that is cumbersome.
    Go back to the drawing board. (Get a relative to go to the site ... stand behind them ... don`t say a word ... and ask them to go shopping. ... you will very quickly discover what I`m saying.)
    Imagine that you have walked into the La Borgado in Scottsdale, AZ (I`m sure Rich Sloan can give his input here) and you want to go shopping ...
    That is exactly how the flow of you "mall type envioronment" should flow .... casual, elegant, ...yet with functionality .... not here, there and everywhere, as you have now.blondieblue2007-6-13 19:38:59
  • DaleKingDaleKing subscriber Posts: 141
    I really don`t mean to hurt your feelings, so I`ll apologize in advance.
    However,  there`s really no nice way to say this.
    Whoever told you that your site was nicely designed and laid out didn`t know what they were talking about.
    I found the design of your site to be very unattractive and laid out like the proverbial pin ball machine...all over the place.
    My advice: I think you should scrap the site and start all over again from scratch.
    There are just too many glaring problems.
    Start all over with a nice clean, attractive design, and give your site a clearly defined focus.
    Right now it`s confusing as hell.
    That`s why prospects aren`t buying.
    Dale King
     DKing2007-6-14 7:38:18
  • charst46charst46 subscriber Posts: 1
    To one and all who have responded.
    First of all , thank you for the honest appraisal. I wondered about the responses simply because of the `I don`t want to hurt your feelings`. However, as you have pointed out, that is not getting sales.
    We were trying for the mall look as we are running on a shoestring budget. Obviously, wrong place/promotion strategy. 
    We will probably split the coffee/tea off from the rest of the site. That makes a lot of sense as it does not fit with the rest of the site.Will look at how to present the rest of the site without having to purchase the talents of a web site designer.
    You have given us a lot to think about.
    Charlie
  • blondieblueblondieblue subscriber Posts: 9

    We were trying for the mall look as we are running on a shoestring budget. Obviously, wrong place/promotion strategy. 
    We will probably split the coffee/tea off from the rest of the site. That makes a lot of sense as it does not fit with the rest of the site.Will look at how to present the rest of the site without having to purchase the talents of a web site designer.

    Wrong, wrong, wrong !!! Right idea, just lousy execution !! The "Mall" look is exactly what you should pursue !! Don`t spin off anything !!
    But this time ... go out and get part time jobs delivering pizzas or cutting grass or whatever to raise the money to have a professional design the site !!
  • blondieblueblondieblue subscriber Posts: 9

    Whats the overall objective of your site?
    And...who is your ideal customer? Are they distributors who come and purchase your products in bulk for resell? Or are they individuals looking to buy one of your products?
    Depending on your overall object....the mall idea could be wrong all together. You can`t be all things to everybody --- but this really depends on your objective.
    Please elaborate?
    Cartess

    Cartess, go through his products, they are upscale products ... what a great concept. An upscale mall is just the thing ... kinda the Gavalia Coffe bit ... but even more ... don`t you see it ??? !!!!!
    He has the right look .. just needs funtionality to the upscale mall concept ...
    I say go for it .. but first you need the money to do it .. so go out and get those part time jobs and raise the money !!!!
  • blondieblueblondieblue subscriber Posts: 9
    I`m sorry ... but I still disagree !!
    I honestly believe that the concept of up-scale products in an up-scale "Borgata" mall environment is a niche market.
    And isn`t that what whats his name was talking about ... selling up-scale, more expensive products ... that soooo many of you agreed with?
    The current look of his web site reminded me right away of the Borgata of Scottsdale.
    http://borgata.com</A>
    http://www.guideaz.com/video/borgatamov.html</A>
    And with that snazzy ZenCart it should work great .... or better yet ... use the new AppleCart Mutiple Data Base Desktop Management System ... and he can control everyone of the store data bases .. right from a single off-line management control panel !! And have all your vendors drop-ship too.
    I say ...
    Go for the gusto, man ... !!
    Oh, I forgot ... he doesn`t have any money..
    Well, tell you what ... I believe in the project that I`m willing to put my money  where my mouth is ... and help fund the project !! (Private Message me if you have the "eye of the tiger" to go for the brass ring .)
    Now, how`s that for SuN entrepreneurship??
    Has Jeff or Rich ever made that offer out here in the open before?blondieblue2007-6-14 13:25:52
  • charst46charst46 subscriber Posts: 1
    Once again, thank you one and all for your response.
    As for our target market. We are aiming for that `shopper` who has the money but not the time for looking all over the net (if they are doing the net search, they obviously do not have the time for a foot search or yellowpages serach).
    We were trying to simplify that for them by presenting several exellent choices at one spot. The coffee portion tied in as I was already doing that work locally and most of my clients liked my home delivery, roasted to individual tastes. Most of those people are docs, lawyers and such where the husband is one and the wife the other. In short, very busy with no time for shopping.
    If my local market (Colorado Springs, Pueblo-these are actually kind of back water locations) has this opportunity, what about the rest of the country and who knows where else. And I know the Albuquerque market as well, although not as well. There has been some interest in the coffee set up there.
    As for being specific and targeting, being very cheap at the moment (living off some loans as I complete my PhD), we are constantly at the moment scanning the web sites of those `stores` that are first on the differing search engines, looking at their metatags and key words and making sure, where possible, that our site has those or can realistically incorporate them. While both my wife and I are relatively computer literate, neither of use are (as you can tell) web designers.
    So we reasoned, if a mall works, why not a web mall. If we can target each individual store so that it appears in the search engines, why should we not draw in that customer. We already have had some sales, but not as much as our traffic would indicate we should be getting. Hence, my original question.
    My apologies for not being more specific.
    Obviously I thought that the concept was good. I thought (being rookies, you can make that error) we could even shoestring this as we are both bright and hard working (which does not automatically equate to success), we could do this concept.
    So, we are still open to ideas.....
    Charlie & Cheryl
  • MissHissyMissHissy subscriber Posts: 1
    Maybe I`m wrong here as I`m definitely not a SEO expert. Assume you have a landing page for each shop in your mall. Say you had a silk flower shop. When you clicked the silk flower shop button on the home page you then go to the silk flower shop landing page. That landing page would(could) rank highly in searches for "Silk flowers" right? The home page may not but the silk flower shop landing page would. So you would still get the traffic from searches for "Silk flowers" even with a mall concept because that page is 100% relevant to the search words.
    I love the mall concept personally because I would go there whenever I was looking for an upscale gift and I wasn`t sure what I wanted. I would keep it. But, the brown is really depressing and boring. There`s no contrast. You need to use a good pre-designed template or get a professional to help you.
  • MissHissyMissHissy subscriber Posts: 1
    And some graphics/photos on the home page instead of just text on buttons illustrating what each shop offers would be good.
  • blondieblueblondieblue subscriber Posts: 9
    There you have it from the horses mouth ....
    Charlie and Cheryl, congrats !!
    Bootstrap that wonderful idea .... bust your butt and it`ll take off.
    Since you are in CO, Vince Creazzo of Spads.com, http://spads.com</A> , is the man you want to see about your dream.
    He`s in Littleton ... (Denver area)
    He`s got the software and the data base that`ll do everything you need ... and the right design team to put the site together. (And he`s fair and honest.)
  • blondieblueblondieblue subscriber Posts: 9

    Good for you...
    But I think the smarter marketer would wait to hear it from the horses mouth prior to giving all types of advice without all the facts.
    Cartess

    Not when you grasp the VISION, the DREAM, and PASSION from visiting their web site. The minute I saw the site , and spent time viewing the product selections, the store names, and the overall concept ... I could "see and feel" the finalized and revised web site.
    They`ll do just fine ... as long as they keep the PASSION ... and stay away from some of the nay-sayers here at SuN.blondieblue2007-6-14 16:49:44
  • blondieblueblondieblue subscriber Posts: 9

    Well I can`t wait to see the results...
    And I don`t think there were any nay-sayers who responded to the post. Everyone provided quality feedback/advice...whether you agreed with them or not. I went back over and reviewed all of the posts..but couldn`t find the nay-sayers you make mention of (unless you call those who provide a critique you don`t agree with "nay-sayers").
    My-my, I never said that anyone that posted on this thread was a nay-sayer, did I? You assume something ... when in reality it is the farthest thing from what I said. However, if you automatically ass-u-me-d that is what I said ... then I`m confident you realize the consequences from that action.
    I`ll just let the comment stand as it is ... "They (Charlie & Cheryl) will do just fine, provided ...they stay away from some of the nay-sayers here at SuN". (or anywhere else)
    It reminds me of a song that Frank Sinatra sang (written by the Gershwins) entitled ... "They All Laughed" .... (part of the lyrics) ...
    They all laughed at Christopher ColumbusWhen he said the world was roundThey all laughed when Edison recorded soundThey all laughed at Wilbur and his brotherWhen they said that man could flyThey told MarconiWireless was a phonyIt`s the same old cry ...
    IMHO, There are some here at SuN that fall into this category ... either the ones that are laughing or the ones being laughed at ... but ..remember the song ends with ...
    For ho, ho, ho!Who`s got the last laugh?Hee, hee, hee!Let`s at the past laughHa, ha, ha!Who`s got the last laugh now?
  • charst46charst46 subscriber Posts: 1
    To all who posted,
    We have taken much of what was said here to heart. We are going to redesign the look (too dark is right, will go with a white & blue schema). The first page will go more towards explaining who we are and pics of the various shops; ie, less words and more `action`.
    Thank you much. And next time will post in the web site eval area.......
    Charlie
  • charst46charst46 subscriber Posts: 1
    Also looked at the vid for Borgata Mall. Clear, crisp-clean. Very airy and light. If you compare that to the first page of our site, the difference is pretty stark. We need a lot fewer words, more color and pics, not a lot, but pics would work better.
    Charlie
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