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Silk Origins

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Hi.

 

I'm hoping someone can help me. My silk bedding website was finished 2 months ago but no sales. I don't understand what is wrong with it. Not even one purchase has been made. It is not ranked anywhere visible on google but it is ranked number 2 on yahoo for a 'silk comforter' search. Is the page loading too slow? Is there many errors that I can't see on my computer. Is it difficult to navigate. Please help.

 

Here is the link to my site: SilkOrigins

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I'm hoping someone can help me. My silk bedding website was finished 2 months ago but no sales. I don't understand what is wrong with it.

 

You don't have SSL.

My advice comes in two flavors- Pick the one that won't offend you.

 

Hard and Cynical: How to Make a Horrible osCommerce Site

 

Warm and Fuzzy: How to Make an Awesome osCommerce Site

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Hi.

 

I'm hoping someone can help me. My silk bedding website was finished 2 months ago but no sales. I don't understand what is wrong with it. Not even one purchase has been made. It is not ranked anywhere visible on google but it is ranked number 2 on yahoo for a 'silk comforter' search. Is the page loading too slow? Is there many errors that I can't see on my computer. Is it difficult to navigate. Please help.

 

Here is the link to my site: SilkOrigins

 

2 months is not that long and next to that you are operating in a more expensive segment with a very limited luxury good stock (if I see correct you only have six base products). The lack of SSL, as already mentioned, is not a good thing.

The shop itself is a job very well done although after browsing it a while I got the feeling it is a bit overdone. I have to click too much to get to the point and eventhough the shop is visually very appealing it seems like a method to hide the lack of stock.

Just my 2cts.

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2 months is not that long and next to that you are operating in a more expensive segment with a very limited luxury good stock (if I see correct you only have six base products). The lack of SSL, as already mentioned, is not a good thing.

The shop itself is a job very well done although after browsing it a while I got the feeling it is a bit overdone. I have to click too much to get to the point and eventhough the shop is visually very appealing it seems like a method to hide the lack of stock.

Just my 2cts.

My opinion is that you have built a really nice looking site. However there is no way around the lack of SSL, I have learned that you really do need it in today's e-commerce aware world.

 

Secondly and probably a minor point that has little to do with sales, I noticed that on your product pages there is no price shown. Am I missing something and if not why did you choose to do this?

 

Mike

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Secondly and probably a minor point that has little to do with sales, I noticed that on your product pages there is no price shown. Am I missing something and if not why did you choose to do this?

 

Mike

Prices are there alright but harder to spot on quick look. On your right hand there a a couple of clickable options which reveal all kinds of information.

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Hi.

 

I'm hoping someone can help me. My silk bedding website was finished 2 months ago but no sales. I don't understand what is wrong with it. Not even one purchase has been made. It is not ranked anywhere visible on google but it is ranked number 2 on yahoo for a 'silk comforter' search. Is the page loading too slow? Is there many errors that I can't see on my computer. Is it difficult to navigate. Please help.

 

Here is the link to my site: SilkOrigins

 

What kind of traffic are you receiving? I was surprised to see you site is not yet in Googles database after two months. In addition to the other suggestions, you need to get busy doing some promoting. See what you can do to have your site listed on other sites so that Google can find you. Consider other forms of promotion such as pay per click.

 

You also need to consider your competition, what is it that will set you apart from them? I must be honest and say you are in a difficult market for a small business. Place one of your products on "mega auction house", it will give you an idea of what the public might be willing to pay for your products.

 

Be well,

Tina

If you're not having fun you're not doing it right

 

Teach a person to fish rather than give them a loaf of bread or however that saying goes.

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The site and design is very nice, load time is also fairly good.

 

I can not see any special reasons why you have any customers/sales yet.

 

The mention of ssl is ofcourse a factor, but not necessarily a crucial one...i have set up several sites without ssl doing good in sales.

 

The one ting i did notice and which others also have pointed out is that your product_info page "hides" the price info...The price should be clearly visible at all time on this page.

 

 

Since i do not know these products/marked in details its hard to say if your offerings are competitive and attractive to the buying public. As Tina suggested maybe its a good idea to do some tryes at some auctions to see what prices people are willing to pay for these products...

 

 

About traffic and sales ratio....

 

If you use target advertaizment , you should be able to get over 1% in covertion rate..ie. 100 unike visitors equals atleast 1 sale.

 

If you do not use targetet advertaizment and just relies on "organic" search traffic you would probably end up at between 0.25 and 0.5 % convertion ratio.. ie. 400 unike visitors would give you 1 to 2 sales.

 

Att. This is not click or hits we are talking about , but unike individual visitors to your site.

 

 

In relation to Google, they do usually use 3-4 months before listing new sites in any relevant position in the search.

 

Yahoo and Msn on the other hand does not have such a delay, and if you have optimaized your site you will show in their results fairly quick.

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You have no Google PR and no ranking on Alexa so that tells a picture in itself.... the site is very nice but its all about MARKETING. Dont be afrais to invest money on some good submission tools etc... ineedhits.com is very good and well prices.

 

SSL... a must...

Dan

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Nice site, well done on that score.

 

SSL is a must and is very cheap to obtain. Speak to your host and see what they offer.

 

You must be patient with google. They are very slow in getting sites listed. If you cant wait, do some paid advertising.

 

My only comment about your site would be that you have not centered the shop. Its easy to do, and will look so much better. Also in your product listings, make the prices easier to see, even if it is an example price. Without seeing the price, no one will take the next step and click on the add to cart button. Lets face it would you.

 

Add an all products page.

 

Good luck and i hope things pick up for you

REMEMBER BACKUP, BACKUP AND BACKUP

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2 months is not that long and next to that you are operating in a more expensive segment with a very limited luxury good stock (if I see correct you only have six base products). The lack of SSL, as already mentioned, is not a good thing.

The shop itself is a job very well done although after browsing it a while I got the feeling it is a bit overdone. I have to click too much to get to the point and eventhough the shop is visually very appealing it seems like a method to hide the lack of stock.

Just my 2cts.

 

good observations. i was trying to make the site appear more complete and full by adding more information since we do only have a few selections offered online at the moment. I tried to reduce as much clicks as i could. Where do you think i could reduce it even further? Thanks again.

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Nice site, well done on that score.

 

SSL is a must and is very cheap to obtain. Speak to your host and see what they offer.

 

You must be patient with google. They are very slow in getting sites listed. If you cant wait, do some paid advertising.

 

My only comment about your site would be that you have not centered the shop. Its easy to do, and will look so much better. Also in your product listings, make the prices easier to see, even if it is an example price. Without seeing the price, no one will take the next step and click on the add to cart button. Lets face it would you.

 

Add an all products page.

 

Good luck and i hope things pick up for you

 

Thank you all for your feedback. Basically it seems that SSL and having prices readily visible in the product page are important. I have not started marketing much for the site but I will start looking into that. Much appreciated for everyones help.

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good observations. i was trying to make the site appear more complete and full by adding more information since we do only have a few selections offered online at the moment. I tried to reduce as much clicks as i could. Where do you think i could reduce it even further? Thanks again.

 

Now I am looking again it already feels more familiar which is what you also want. What I do miss is the prices on product info level directly. I know they are in between all the clickable options on the right side but as one remark already showed it is not always obvious to find (and saves one click).

A part of the problem was that I viewed your site with my browser window set to 800x600 (so not full screen). That doesn't reveal that with the info pages all information is already there, you just have to scroll down. Instead you just see a nice and large picture with a few links to, what you think at first, other pages and you start clicking and clicking. Maybe a different setup of those pages with at least the first paragraph of text more visible would already be better for impatient bypassers like me who also might have a different viewpoint as for which you designed the site.

Apart from, or besides, that I can't say enough that you have a wonderful site :thumbsup: Give it some more time and products and you should have a winner.

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Now I am looking again it already feels more familiar which is what you also want. What I do miss is the prices on product info level directly. I know they are in between all the clickable options on the right side but as one remark already showed it is not always obvious to find (and saves one click).

A part of the problem was that I viewed your site with my browser window set to 800x600 (so not full screen). That doesn't reveal that with the info pages all information is already there, you just have to scroll down. Instead you just see a nice and large picture with a few links to, what you think at first, other pages and you start clicking and clicking. Maybe a different setup of those pages with at least the first paragraph of text more visible would already be better for impatient bypassers like me who also might have a different viewpoint as for which you designed the site.

Apart from, or besides, that I can't say enough that you have a wonderful site :thumbsup: Give it some more time and products and you should have a winner.

 

I just finished changing the product_info page so that the first thing seen are the prices rather than the description. That is very true that I would probably be impatient searching for the price myself instead of having it clearly visible. I hope with more time and more products it does become a winner. Thanks again for taking the time to help me out. :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Very nice design site indeed! :thumbsup:

 

Just from a viewer point...

 

1. You have a fixed width, nice but why not place the column in the center insteed of on the left?

 

2. Perhaps put a few or at least one product with price on the front page, perhaps just one special/promotion item. If the item is attrative, it will generate interest for visitors to click into it and explore further.

 

3. Some broken links and viewing problem in the customer service page. I am using FireFox.

 

4. Submitting your URL to google is not enough. U need to promote it in some other related forums that talk about your products. (Googlebot crawl mysite more than 30MB last month, I just launched my site on Christmas 2005 :P)

 

Again, very nice site! :thumbsup:

Best regards,

Koh Kho King

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SILK COMFORTERS... EQUALS 3 LETTERS, TTB, BRB!

 

(If you didn't get it, Time To Buy, Be Right Back)

 

Really... the site looks nice, looks very elegant and smooth. So yeah, nice job on it.

Installed Contributions: AJAX Menu, AJAX Attributed Manager, AP URL ReWriting, Credit Class and Gift Vouchers, CCGV Report, Date of Birth PullDown, FCKEditor for Product Desc., Monthly Installment Payments, More Pictures 6, MSRP Savings, Must Agree to Terms on Checkout, Order Editor, Payment Method Fee, PopUp Promo, Private Messages, Purchase Order, Purchase Order Application, Secure Admin Login-Logout, STS Plus, SugarCRM Integration, Supertracker, Tax Exempt and Organization Discounts, Your Recent History.

 

23 Total Contributions Installed :)

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Diane, I hope you have received a ton of orders by now. I must admit this is a favorite site design. Very attractive.

 

Can you tell us what contributions you used in the osCommerce piece?

 

Good luck!

 

Micah

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Diane, I hope you have received a ton of orders by now. I must admit this is a favorite site design. Very attractive.

 

Can you tell us what contributions you used in the osCommerce piece?

 

Good luck!

 

Micah

 

I am also digging the design, did you do it all yourself silk? You definately need to treat the customer as if they are the most important thing on earth. Hand holding, security, customer first type stuff.

 

Great job so far!

 

Clint

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  • 2 weeks later...
Diane, I hope you have received a ton of orders by now. I must admit this is a favorite site design. Very attractive.

 

Can you tell us what contributions you used in the osCommerce piece?

 

Good luck!

 

Micah

 

 

Sorry for the late reply, Ive been working on another silk bedding site. I used a lot of contributions. I don't remember them all but here are the ones I do remember:

 

CCGV 5.15_1_2

Purchase Without Account

LinksManager_V_1.10

xsell_v2.2_1

ultra_image_html_package_1.2

 

I have some sales but not much yet. If you have any questions I would be happy to help.

 

Diana

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Sorry, I dont have time to read this entire thread. But read your original post and some of the replies. Here's my two cents.

 

If your sales were lagging SSL would be a way to improve your sales. But if your site has been up for 2 months and you have NO sales, then obviously you're not getting enough traffic to your website. Optimize it.

 

Ultimate SEO URLs

Google XML Sitemap

Froogle Data Feeder

Header Tags Controller

AllProds

Remove SIDs

 

Do the above and you'll get better results in the search engines. You might also want to do some PPC advertising. google adwords or overture.

 

If you design oscommerce for other people please contact me [email protected]

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I agree with what others have said about the design. That is that generaly it is quite attractive.

I also think it should be centred. Trading links with other sites should help your search engine listings. This is one area that people often miss. Take the time to write an email template that conacts other sites and offers a reciprical link exchange.

 

Good work on the site it looks great!!

Backup before making changes. Backup before making changes! Backup before making changes!!

 

You did do a backup? eh?

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More help please... I was just informed by someone who was on my site that a lot of the links were broken. I don't see any broken links with my browser which is IE 6....If you use a different browser and have the time I would greatly appreciate if you could browse around my site to see if the links are okay. I also wonder if Mac computers see the site okay too...hmm...

 

Here are some shots of what it should look like.

 

1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg

 

thanks everyone for helping!

-diana-

============================

 

Sean416,

thanks for the info! all i use now is ppc...i will try the other methods you listed

 

ddp,

thanks for the feedback. i just might center it now after a few ppl have said they prefer it centered...i was just being lazy...

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Is silk comforter the right term to target? Seriously I thought those were things you gave to a baby to keep it quiet :-)

 

From the pictures and some of the information it seems as if you are selling bedding - duvets or quilts.

 

Really though what is a comforter? Is it a pillow?

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your site is done nicely, but you haven't done any marketing. your traffic is extremely low. Remember that regular store's conversion rate is about 1 to 2 percent on targetted audiences.

 

your site is not very seo friendly, you have javascript navi, iframes, etc... in my opinion, any sites that sell products should be straight to the point, show the categories on the first page, show the products after one or two clicks, let' them see and buy, 1-2-3.

 

but you don't get sales most because you have no traffic, not because something is wrong.

 

do get that ssl though, no one going to enter their credit card info on your site without it.

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  • 2 months later...

First things first, this is one the most best designed oscommerce stores I have seen - well done for showing the forum that you can take oscommerce to a new level with a bit of time and determination.

 

Someone complained to me because I kept using the word 'stock' when leaving feedback for stores, but if they could open there eyes and stop complaining and actually see your site they will understand how powerful oscommerce can be if time and effort are applied.

 

There is not much wrong with the site... but a few improvements can be made.

 

For example, the iframe or frame within frame does work depending on what is on display. It doesn't look good in your contact us page because of the excessive scrolling but has that 80-85% look good factor in the product info.php. It doesn't seem right to scroll that much on the iframe in the product info page because it can be off putting.

 

If you aren't getting anything sold it could be (amongst many things) down to search engine ratings, so add a metatags contribution :-)

 

I really think the designer deserves a pat on the back because it really is on its way to being a top store. Hopefully customers will flock to it when they become aware of it.

Upon receiving fixes and advice, too many people don't bother to post updates informing the forum of how it went. Until of course they need help again on other issues and they come running back!

 

Why receive the information you require in good faith for free, only to then have the attitude to ignore the people who gave it to you?

 

There's no harm in saying, 'Thanks, it worked'. On the contrary, it creates a better atmosphere.

 

CHOOCH

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