Ask me anything about eCommerce (2012)

[Vespasian]

3) Take a look at my site: www.ceramipro.com while it looks good, its nothing like traditional ecommerce sites. An additional problem is, it is difficult to redesign/edit.. Since switching to my new site design, my conversions have dropped.

Site takes ages to load, it's completely unoptimized. The header picture alone is over 6mb.
Fast page loads are crucial when it comes to selling online. More info.

 

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[Lagron]

Oh wow! A 1 second delay in a eccommerce site leads to a 7% drop rate ie, if the site makes 100,000$ a day, that is a loss of 2.3 million dollars a year : /

I think I need to upgrade my hosting account/get rid of the few second delays.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lagron]

Site takes ages to load, it's completely unoptimized. The header picture alone is over 6mb.
Fast page loads are crucial when it comes to selling online. More info.

It did take a few seconds for the main header image, when that happens usually people just continue scrolling through the site, it was maybe 2-3 seconds delay on my end, I never really thought something like that would make much of an impact but I guess it is best to be safe if you can help doing so.

 

[Vespasian]

It did take a few seconds for the main header image, when that happens usually people just continue scrolling through the site, it was maybe 2-3 seconds delay on my end, I never really thought something like that would make much of an impact but I guess it is best to be safe if you can help doing so.

Took approx. 6 seconds for me to load with 100mbit connection.
Keep in mind that a lot of people still have shitty connections or use mobile devices to access your site.

Install luckyorange.com or any other similar tool to keep track of your visitors. They do have a free trial plan which allows you to record your visitors behavior on your site.

Edit:
http://ceramipro.com/product/ceramipro-signature-chef-knife-8-white/ << load time 7.10s, 9.0MB
http://ceramipro.com/product/5-black-ceramic-utility-knife/ << load time 4.71s, 1.5MB

It's not only the picture in the header. Product pictures are way too big as well.

 

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[stranger]

Hey Biophase, I have been thinking about ecommerce site designs, and conversions and I found something interesting.

1) When setting up my store, I focused on it being more modern/trendy, and good-looking.

2) After the fact, doing more research into high-converting ecommerce sites, I found that ecommerce stores like these: http://www.schwans.com/ do very well. In fact, Schwans boasts a 41% conversion ratio. Sure, that could be because most of their visitors are probably repeats, but who really knows. The fact is, these styles seem to be converting much better.

3) Take a look at my site: www.ceramipro.com while it looks good, its nothing like traditional ecommerce sites. An additional problem is, it is difficult to redesign/edit.. Since switching to my new site design, my conversions have dropped.

My question to you is, should I make it a priority switching to a new, more traditional styled ecommerce store? This is the theme I am thinking to purchase: http://demo.yithemes.com/bazar/home/home-vi/
I would be able to get it completed within 7 days.

Your site is super slow. It took me 17 seconds to download it.

 

[Genium]

Thanks guys! I have really really fast connection here my self so it is hard to know, I never thought about testing it. Going to go in and optimize all the pictures.

What do you guys think about changing the design? Its very hard to edit stuff in at this point. The best I can change the homepage is to show more info on the banner...

I want this: http://demo.yithemes.com/bazar/home/home-vi/# For a LOT of reasons that are obvious

 

[Phones]

Your site is super slow. It took me 17 seconds to download it.

Agreed, I checked this sooner in the day using my phone and I thought it was bad wireless signal but now on my main desktop it's really slow, specially the bigger main image.

Idk what platform you're using but you should check hosting with specific hosting solutions for your platform. I'm using magento and as I'm in Europe I'll be switching to https://www.edgehosting.co.uk/ .

It's cheaper than having a VPS, and some people even say it's better than having a dedicated solution because everything is made to work with that specific platform.

Idk about the theme but I would definitly reduce the big image, I have a 24" monitor and it still looks huge and I have to scroll down to start actually seeing content. I would push it up a little bit.

Edit: Also, your Call to Action button is in the bottom of everything, and you have a really big page :/

 

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[jon.a]

I used to be a Schwans guy. Didn't like the site as an employee don't like it as a customer. It's aged and slow. Their site looks traditional because they're branding themselves as an old fashioned company. 41% is low for their business model. Almost all Schwans customers are on a "sales route" visited every 2 weeks by their route manager. So, it's almost like a subscription model. Schwans site doesn't convert because it's the right style, it converts because customers like me want the 5% rewards points for using it and pre-ordering helps to insure that you get what you want on their next visit.

Hey Biophase, I have been thinking about ecommerce site designs, and conversions and I found something interesting.

1) When setting up my store, I focused on it being more modern/trendy, and good-looking.

2) After the fact, doing more research into high-converting ecommerce sites, I found that ecommerce stores like these: http://www.schwans.com/ do very well. In fact, Schwans boasts a 41% conversion ratio. Sure, that could be because most of their visitors are probably repeats, but who really knows. The fact is, these styles seem to be converting much better.

3) Take a look at my site: www.ceramipro.com while it looks good, its nothing like traditional ecommerce sites. An additional problem is, it is difficult to redesign/edit.. Since switching to my new site design, my conversions have dropped.

My question to you is, should I make it a priority switching to a new, more traditional styled ecommerce store? This is the theme I am thinking to purchase: http://demo.yithemes.com/bazar/home/home-vi/
I would be able to get it completed within 7 days.

 

[Vespasian]

Agreed, I checked this sooner in the day using my phone and I thought it was bad wireless signal but now on my main desktop it's really slow, specially the bigger main image.

Idk what platform you're using but you should check hosting with specific hosting solutions for your platform. I'm using magento and as I'm in Europe I'll be switching to https://www.edgehosting.co.uk/ .

It's cheaper than having a VPS, and some people even say it's better than having a dedicated solution because everything is made to work with that specific platform.

Idk about the theme but I would definitly reduce the big image, I have a 24" monitor and it still looks huge and I have to scroll down to start actually seeing content. I would push it up a little bit.

Edit: Also, your Call to Action button is in the bottom of everything, and you have a really big page :/

If you want to go with Magento, don't go to regular hosting companies, they usually know very little about the performance issues with Magento. Edgehosting.co.uk looks solid tho.

But please keep in mind that Magento is one of the most complex and definitely one of the most expensive shop CMS out there. Magento development is a bitch and finding a good developer for less than 80-90 USD an hour is hard (real developers who know the system, not the guys that throw together some xhtml and set it up as a theme). So if your budget is limited, I'd advise to check out better options. On the other hand it's a great system when you want to scale or have custom apps added.

 

[biophase]

With what seems like thousands of ecommerce stores out there for any niche you can imagine, how do you decide what to do differently? (I know the "find a need or problem", but what do you investigate to find the problem with competition?)

Just make a better store. I can't tell you what that means. It's something that you will need to figure out depending on what niche you are in. Maybe they don't have good videos, or their information sucks, of they ship slow...

 

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[biophase]

Have you had any success contacting big manufacturers? For example, you wanted to carry some Nike products. Did you do anything differently to get to them or was it basically the same process as usual?

I haven't tried to contact any of the big guys. Most of them will go through a distributor and not sell direct.

 

[biophase]

Biophase about niching, for an online store would you pick a niche in:

1. A major category i.e.; Toys

2. A niche i.e.; Toy Cars

3. Or a microniche i.e.; Ferrari Toy Cars

I would probably go Toy Cars.

 

[biophase]

Hey Biophase, I have been thinking about ecommerce site designs, and conversions and I found something interesting.

1) When setting up my store, I focused on it being more modern/trendy, and good-looking.

2) After the fact, doing more research into high-converting ecommerce sites, I found that ecommerce stores like these: http://www.schwans.com/ do very well. In fact, Schwans boasts a 41% conversion ratio. Sure, that could be because most of their visitors are probably repeats, but who really knows. The fact is, these styles seem to be converting much better.

3) Take a look at my site: www.ceramipro.com while it looks good, its nothing like traditional ecommerce sites. An additional problem is, it is difficult to redesign/edit.. Since switching to my new site design, my conversions have dropped.

My question to you is, should I make it a priority switching to a new, more traditional styled ecommerce store? This is the theme I am thinking to purchase: http://demo.yithemes.com/bazar/home/home-vi/
I would be able to get it completed within 7 days.

I couldn't find the products on your site on the first page. I guess clicking the banner brings you into the category. You don't have enough products to have a main page like that. I would go with a front page that looks like this (http://ceramipro.com/product-category/individual-knives/). What was your old page like?

The http://demo.yithemes.com/bazar/ template looks good but it's probably overkill for your 10 products.

 

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[biophase]

Thanks guys! I have really really fast connection here my self so it is hard to know, I never thought about testing it. Going to go in and optimize all the pictures.

What do you guys think about changing the design? Its very hard to edit stuff in at this point. The best I can change the homepage is to show more info on the banner...

I want this: http://demo.yithemes.com/bazar/home/home-vi/# For a LOT of reasons that are obvious

If you stick with the current design, can you make the 4 products show up under the main image instead of the 2 categories?

 

[Genium]

If you stick with the current design, can you make the 4 products show up under the main image instead of the 2 categories?

Definitely. I have 8 knives total, with the sizes and color variations. But, I can turn that into 4 product listings, for each size knife, and then they choose black or white color on the product page. Then i could put that on the homepage, replacing the broad categories that are there now. Instead of 3 clicks to get to one product page, it'll be one click.

 

[Keith Allen]

Hey. Thanks for everyone participating in this thread. I am new here and as a web developer and entrepreneur I am looking to hit the ground running and take on e-commerce.

I found the type of product I want to sell, but I am stuck on how deep to go in my niche.

For example if I were selling new basketball collectible cards (NOT high value serious collector area). Do I focus on basketball cards alone and only target basketball fans or do I focus on sports cards? Same product, same concept, but repackaged for a different sport.

Maybe because it's all the same product, build 3 sites all working together, but targeting a specific sport on each?

I know it's a basic question, but looking for a little insight.

 

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[naidyphoon]

Hi Biophase thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. I'm completely new to ecommerce and I'm wondering how much of an effect will country code extensions on domain names affect sales? Thank you

 

[Chazmania]

Snowbank isn't very technical and he started a web business that made $100k in the first week.

Impressive. I love this site, it has opened up my perspective like no other!

 

[TedM]

I found the type of product I want to sell, but I am stuck on how deep to go in my niche.

For example if I were selling new basketball collectible cards (NOT high value serious collector area). Do I focus on basketball cards alone and only target basketball fans or do I focus on sports cards? Same product, same concept, but repackaged for a different sport.

I'll stick in my 2 cents here, based on my personal experience.

It depends on how much money, time, and focus you have, and what your goals are.

Concentrating on a narrow niche is always easier than a broader one. I would advise you to go as narrow as possible - as long as there is a market large enough to meet your goals - instead of diffusing your efforts.

It's hard enough to establish a new business - it's best to be able to focus tightly. In particular, since this is your first business - make it easier on yourself.

 

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[GravyBoat]

Instead of 3 clicks to get to one product page, it'll be one click.

Genium, I remember looking at your site sever months ago, and I just wanted to let you know the site today looks 100 times better than what you had. Not sure if you were in the process of building or what, but I wanted to congratulate you on the awesome site you turned out! Speed +!

 

[biophase]

I thought that this may interest you guys. I took Roy's advanced SEO class about 4 years ago and it helped me alot. He is offering a free online ecommerce class in a few weeks.

http://www.seotrainingsw.com/2013/12/how-to-build-an-ecommerce-store-online-coaching/

 

[GravyBoat]

I thought that this may interest you guys.

Got my email on the list for the webinars. Looking forward to this. Just read the entire thread and WOW what a goldmine we have here!

Biophase, I just had one quick question. I am targeting a niche that is relatively "new," meaning some related products are being created by people very recently (Kickstarter campaigns, other means of development). This means, these people just put up their site to sell their own, newly created product (I'm talking like a year or less ago). I will have multiple other products on my site as well. The question is:

Q. How to I go about getting a "wholesale price" on newly created products? I assume these guys do not have the manufacturing capacity to roll off thousands of these things, but aside from that, what questions/propositions would you give them in order to insure that you can get their product (for cheaper) to sell on your site? You talk about margins and that you should be making $20-$50 PROFIT on smaller-medium ticket items, so how would I propose that to them?

Thanks again for your insight. So awesome that you're still replying to these questions almost 1.5 years later.

KICK a$$ THREAD!!!

 

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[biophase]

Got my email on the list for the webinars. Looking forward to this. Just read the entire thread and WOW what a goldmine we have here!

Biophase, I just had one quick question. I am targeting a niche that is relatively "new," meaning some related products are being created by people very recently (Kickstarter campaigns, other means of development). This means, these people just put up their site to sell their own, newly created product (I'm talking like a year or less ago). I will have multiple other products on my site as well. The question is:

Q. How to I go about getting a "wholesale price" on newly created products? I assume these guys do not have the manufacturing capacity to roll off thousands of these things, but aside from that, what questions/propositions would you give them in order to insure that you can get their product (for cheaper) to sell on your site? You talk about margins and that you should be making $20-$50 PROFIT on smaller-medium ticket items, so how would I propose that to them?

Thanks again for your insight. So awesome that you're still replying to these questions almost 1.5 years later.

KICK a$$ THREAD!!!

I think you may find out that those guys will probably not want to wholesale to you. You don't really provide them any value yet. If they are just starting out and they want to go out to retail, they will most likely want to wholesale to a larger store or someone with some traffic.

But it doesn't hurt to ask. What kind of proposition would you give them to make them want you to sell their product on your site?

 

[McCoyH]

@biophase - I've got a custom product being masnufactured that I'm pretty hands off with until the shipment arrives after the large order has been produced. I've got ample amount of experience in ecommerce, but really only in drop shipping and my own creations..

Here's my question:
I've got the capitol to invest to stock inventory. I'd be comfortable spending up to 5k on inventory total, but for sake of realizing that the first niche and group of manufacturers I go with isn;t 100% likely to be the niche that I have success in, I'd like your opinion on what you think I should do as far as finding my first niche to stock inventory with and things that I should specifically look out for (ie margins, MOQ, shipping speed, etc) when doing my due diligence.

Sorry if this seems dumb, would just like to approach this with the best knowledge possible as I'm not a fan of wasting $5k on a whim idea.

Thank man! Can't wait to hear your thoughts.

 

[biophase]

@biophase - I've got a custom product being manufactured that I'm pretty hands off with until the shipment arrives after the large order has been produced. I've got ample amount of experience in ecommerce, but really only in drop shipping and my own creations..

Here's my question:
I've got the capitol to invest to stock inventory. I'd be comfortable spending up to 5k on inventory total, but for sake of realizing that the first niche and group of manufacturers I go with isn't 100% likely to be the niche that I have success in, I'd like your opinion on what you think I should do as far as finding my first niche to stock inventory with and things that I should specifically look out for (ie margins, MOQ, shipping speed, etc) when doing my due diligence.

Sorry if this seems dumb, would just like to approach this with the best knowledge possible as I'm not a fan of wasting $5k on a whim idea.

Thank man! Can't wait to hear your thoughts.

I don't quite understand what you mean. Do you have an ecommerce store? Does this store dropship only? Is your custom product related to this same store? Are you looking to stock what you currently sell via dropshipping?

or

Are you looking to open up a whole new store in a new niche?

 

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[McCoyH]

I don't quite understand what you mean. Do you have an ecommerce store? Does this store dropship only? Is your custom product related to this same store? Are you looking to stock what you currently sell via dropshipping?

or

Are you looking to open up a whole new store in a new niche?

New store in a new niche. I have a few drop shipping stores as well as my primary project (my custom product) but now that I've got storage space and shelving/shipping area set up I'd like to stock other items for other stores... I just don't want to blow a ton on inventory that won't sell.

I like the idea and advantages of keeping a small/medium inventory as it raises the barrier to entry but I don't want to get into the wrong niche if I'm going to drop a couple thousand or more...

Hope that makes sense.

 

[biophase]

Why don't you start buying inventory for your current dropship stores? Is the price better? Will you be able to ship faster?

What about adding products that you weren't able to before because they wouldn't dropship? This would be a huge advantage against your competitors.

 

[McCoyH]

This is true. That's a good idea.

What would you say about starting an additional store though?
What should I be looking for when finding vendors and products.

 

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[biophase]

It's hard to say without knowing what store you want to start. Why not expanding your current one? Is the niche too narrow? I can't answer a question on what to look for because it's so general. It all depends on the product's price point and what quantity you need to order from the vendor.

$5,000 is not alot of money for inventory. If you have $50 product that costs $25. You can only carry 200 products. So assuming you have a store with 20 products, you have 10 in stock of each one, assuming each product only comes in one color or size.

IMO, you are doing it backwards and taking on all the risk. If $5000 is alot to you, you should open the store, dropship, then you'll figure out what sells, then purchase inventory based on your sales and then slow migrate away from dropshipping as your sales increase.

 

[McCoyH]

It's hard to say without knowing what store you want to start. Why not expanding your current one? Is the niche too narrow? I can't answer a question on what to look for because it's so general. It all depends on the product's price point and what quantity you need to order from the vendor.

$5,000 is not alot of money for inventory. If you have $50 product that costs $25. You can only carry 200 products. So assuming you have a store with 20 products, you have 10 in stock of each one, assuming each product only comes in one color or size.

IMO, you are doing it backwards and taking on all the risk. If $5000 is alot to you, you should open the store, dropship, then you'll figure out what sells, then purchase inventory based on your sales and then slow migrate away from dropshipping as your sales increase.

I appreciate it. do you ever import? id prefer to stay in the us because I dont want to sell junk. thanks again