Website Review Please!

[spotty]

Would love some feedback on the website that I have recently taken over. I am almost certain that I will look at getting a new one as I'm struggling with the layout of this - the things I want to do, I can't which is very frustrating.

One example, at the moment is I am having to manually tick off the add tax option on each individual product (500 of them loaded atm) - very time consuming to say the least, where as my old site with a previous business was just tick one box and add it at check out.

Another huge issue was the newsletter sign up (that I have now removed) that existed for 2 yrs gave no clear indication of where the information obtained was stored or went to. I was going crazy trying to locate it in the backend and thought I was losing my mind. The previous owner assumed no one had ever signed up, but I had twice with different addresses, so called the hosting company and they couldn't give me any idea either???????

[Benedict]

Hi again Spotty

Without trying to be upsetting (I know sales theory says I am supposed to flatter you first) I think it would be a disservice to suggest that the layout of the existing site is helping you much at all.

I think before you commit to any kind of change then take a bit of time to address the needs of the site users. Customers and then Admin. If you have all the skills to do this yourself then great. If not hire in a pro. The money and time spent should come back to you with interest. Otherwise your opportunity-cost will be in lost customers.

:-)

[spotty]

I hear you, however the site is very successful and has built a database base of 600 customers in two years with a large percentage of those being repeats. I have only had ownership for three days and have been surprised to be getting orders from the very first night (just waiting on the stock to arrive from SA). There was virtually no SEO on the site at all, I have done a little bit but that is the main focus for next week (after stock arrives and gets sorted, with existing orders being sent). Additionally there has been no marketing to speak of, which I will be changing very quickly! I really just want it to be a little more automated than what it is at the moment before I start getting the word out to the target market. Thanks for your thoughts though and definitely no offence taken. All feedback is good feedback as far as I am concerned

[FionaFell]

If you are going to start fresh, let your current database of customers now that changes are in the pipeline.

You don't want to scare them off when they come back to place their next order, only to have the whole place look, feel and react differently.

Manage this change over time. And get feedback from this existing pool of people who love the products.

Ask them what they need, and look for an "automated" shopping cart/content management system that can handle as much of it as possible to make it easy to scale as your businesss grows.

[Benedict]

Fiona is right, if you have existing users a radical change (even for the better) can freak people out.

Having a good set of customers already is great news not only for your pocket but to suggest that with a better approach more sales should be achieved.

Get to know who your best customers are and work out why they like Spotty - is it for the unique product (and the store hasn't deterred them) or is it that they feel comfortable here (and a better looking store would make them uncomfortable)?

:-)

[Warren Cottis]

Hi Spotty

I was originally going to support Benedict's thread of "imagine how good your NEW business could be if you improved your marketing and your website and your customer interaction".

Fiona also made a great point about getting to know your database before doing anything radical.

So I thought I would have a look at your website since you feel the site is very successful and has built a database base of 600 customers in two years... and I clicked on over.

Well Spotty... I have to tell you that I am going to sue you for damages.

I cannot get up off the floor and my ribs hurt... now, sure I am old and grumpy but I have never ever seen a website "Closed for School Holidays"... did you say your bought this business three days ago?

OMG.... I am too old for such shocks & humour at the same time

I am sorry if you now hate me Spotty but "I just had to say something"

[internetretailing.com.au]

Hi Spotty

I tend to agree with the above comment, closed for holidays is a bit disconcerting. Websites never close, are up and trading 24/7/365.

Website design follows builiding design in that form follows function. Some of the most successful small business sites don't look great yet they do very well, whereas some fantastic and expensive agency designed sites perform dismally.

If I were you I would contact some of your customers by phone once they have bought from you and ask them what they like and dont like about your site, and what would they like to see on the site. Making assumptions based on your model of the world is a risky undertaking. Only after you have spoken to at least 30 -50 people will you even get an inkling of whats right or wrong about the site. Until then don't change anything cosmetically.

On the back end your newsletter sign ups are probably sitting in a database table. FInd out what platform your CMS is and ask the developer or if its open source start reading forums or seek some help. Your host knows very little about your data even if they understand your platform. There could be some valuable contacts in that database. Also why would you want people to stop subscribing to your site. Email database are very valuable.

Best of luck

Mark
internetretailing.com.au

[spotty]

May I ask Warren what you would have done whilst sending stock from one side of Australia to the other, which took five days. Then needing time to unpack and sort 1000 stock items???? Even with the closed sign which will come off today I have still managed to end up with five orders sitting on my desk. Spotty prides itself on great customer service and fast delivery, knowing we couldn't trust couriers and their timeframes we felt it was the best thing to do to ensure the customer service side of things wasn't affected by the handover/move.

[FionaFell]

Re: Closing the website during the move

While moving the business (taking your estimated 5 days, or even more), I would personally contact, by phone, any person who ordered during that time and let them know that the business was moving location and their order/items would be delayed: and let them cancel the order if the anticipated time frame was too long.

Or pop a simple message like 'we're moving house; some items may be delayed prior to shipping' at the top of the order pages to let people know up front, especially if they are making a last minute order for their specials someone celebration.

Keep everyone in the loop, make friends by being upfront, instead of enemies by delivering late.

[The message above is a hypothetical "what I would do in your shoes"; but you are wearing the shoes so you can disregard the above, especially now if the move has completed, and you have sorted out all the stock levels]

[Steveo]

Hi Spotty,

I have to say I think you're suffering the classic "If it ain't broke don't fix it" syndrome (not exactly sure it is a syndrome, but its something).

I agree with Benedict in that the current site is probably not performing well. If you haven't got analytics on there, get it asap, and start setting some goals, then you can monitor your 'conversion rate', this will give you a MUCH better sense for how you're site is performing. If you're getting a double digit conversion rate then you're right there is nothing wrong with it, but it you're getting pretty much the average of between 2 and 4% or less then its doing you a dis-service and there is plenty of room for improvement.

You need to get you're site performing well in terms of conversions before you even consider marketing imho, or in fact before spending time and money on SEO, otherwise you could simply be throwing money down the drain.

The fact that you have a fairly descent customer base should help you in improving what you have and moving forward.

Hope this helps...

Cheers, Steve.