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Website Feedback - Dog Related

Deangiroir

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Hello all!

I've created an eCommerce site that sells t-shirts to dog owners. It's called Rusty's Puppy Emporium. All the t-shirts are screen printed by me and are original designs.

I've started running Facebook ads and have pretty good conversions when it comes to people clicking the link and going to my site. However, I'm still waiting on my 1st sale. Please go to my site and tell me anything that you think could be a potential issue as it pertains to lack of sales.

The website is www.rustyspuppyemporium.com

Be honest and let me have it!
 
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MJ DeMarco

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At first glance, I'd say $25 seems a little steep for non-branded t-shirts.
 

minivanman

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If you choose to stick with this.... all types of bulldogs are very popular ya know. What if everyone that has looked at your site has a pitbull.... they don't want a doberman shirt. Or if they have a collie they don't care about a pug. If you are going to cater to dog lovers you need to cater to them all and not just 7. And get good pictures, not stock looking pictures. If I'm paying that high of a price for a shirt, that thing better bark when I call it's name.

I realize you are just starting out but 12 items for sale is not exactly what I call an emporium. I'm sure the visitors expected lots of stuff for puppies. Speaking of puppies, most of the pictures are not of puppies...?? I'd definitely say the visitors went looking for one thing and found.... almost nothing at all.
 
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Bekit

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Hello all!

I've created an eCommerce site that sells t-shirts to dog owners. It's called Rusty's Puppy Emporium. All the t-shirts are screen printed by me and are original designs.

I've started running Facebook ads and have pretty good conversions when it comes to people clicking the link and going to my site. However, I'm still waiting on my 1st sale. Please go to my site and tell me anything that you think could be a potential issue as it pertains to lack of sales.

The website is www.rustyspuppyemporium.com

Be honest and let me have it!

Couple of first reactions:
  1. Site is extremely slow to load. This will hurt you a lot. I would have bounced if I wasn't planning to stay around and do a quick audit. I bet you can speed up your site by taking down all the images and re-uploading them as compressed versions of themselves. Use "save for web" on photoshop if you have it, or google an alternative.
  2. Shirts have no product descriptions other than the generic bulleted list followed by your guarantee. This is table stakes. Of COURSE your shirts have to have this.
    • 100% preshrunk ringspun cotton
    • 65% polyester 35% cotton
    • ¾" rib knit collar
    • Double-needle stitched sleeves and bottom hem
    • Taped neck and shoulders​
    What you need is about 100 words of some enticing copy that tells a story of why the shirt is awesome. This will accomplish a lot of things: (1) It will appeal to the readers (not just the lookers) on your page. (2) It will give you a chance to make an emotional appeal, not just a bland logical one. (3) It will help your SEO on the page so that you can start to rank for keywords like "pug life t-shirt," "pug owner t-shirt," or "pug design t-shirt." Example:
    Tell the world how much you love your pugs every time you pull on this super-soft t-shirt. You'll be proud to show off the monochromatic pug design, and you'll have a chance to brag about your pug every time people ask about the Pug Life. For all the pug lovers in your life, this 100% preshrunk ringspun cotton t-shirt is the perfect gift item, and for everyone else who just doesn't understand pugs, well, more's the pity.​
    Better yet, have the shirt description written in "Rusty's" voice, with tons of humor and maybe even a Yorkshire Terrier's opinion of pugs. There's a reason that the Twitter account "Thoughts of Dog" is so popular.
  3. It looks like your images have descriptive filenames but not alt image tags. Again, this is a simple thing you can do to the site to boost your SEO, this time when people are conducting an image search for your prime keywords.
  4. While the price seems a bit steep, I think it's not about the price. All over your site, there are offers for a 20% discount. But until I'm bought in to the idea of buying these shirts (at ANY price), I don't care.
  5. Your site has no "trust symbols" in prominent places. The 4 icons that you have under "4 GREAT REASONS TO BUY FROM US" are the closest thing you have, but they are too small to really understand what you're seeing, especially if you're scanning fast. Try putting them in a row that spans the full width of the page. Examples of trust symbols:
    • Reviews
    • "As seen in" notices
    • Celebrities wearing the shirts
    • Real people wearing the shirts in everyday life ("spotted in the wild" vs. posed)​
    If you don't have any of these things, give your friends some shirts for free in exchange for a review, an instagram post, etc. until you can accumulate a good number of items. People look for "social proof." They want to think it's a thriving site before they buy.
  6. There is no business address listed on the contact page. This makes you look like less of a "real" business and therefore less trustworthy. How do I know I'll get my stuff? However, I dug a little deeper and found an address in your privacy policy, which, upon looking a little deeper, appears to be your home address (at least, it's a residential address). It's not expensive to get a UPS store mailbox to solve this so that you're not displaying your home address to the world. Also, it's super simple to set up a Google voice phone number for free so that you have a contact number.
  7. Your business name is confusing. Puppy Emporium sounds too close to "puppy mill" and definitely doesn't evoke a place where a person would buy shirts.
Marketing thoughts...
  • Check out Sea Dog | Shop the Original Store for ideas (their store is similar)
  • Get your friends to write you some testimonials ASAP
  • Go onto dog forums and facebook groups to get the language people are using about their dobermans or labs or whatever, and borrow copy fragments from them to sprinkle into your product descriptions.
  • Amp up the emotion. People LOVE their dogs. Tap in to that.
  • Tell more stories. Stories will carry the brand forward and enhance people's perception of the value of the shirts. Maybe it's the story of the girl who loved her wine and her lab. Maybe it's the story of the 4-legged boss. You get the idea. You've already got a ton of amazing story prompts, right on the front of your shirts.
  • Look up the concept of "Social Proof" by Robert Cialdini and try to incorporate more of that on your site.
 
Last edited:

RazorCut

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Pretty much everthing @Bekit and @minivanman said apart from I agree with @MJ DeMarco, I think the price is rather steep for a basic t-shirt with a black or white logo. I can get quality polo shirts printed up for a fraction of that price and I'm in the UK. Love the colour range though I see I cannot order a logo in any colour for some reason?

Maybe drop the annoying newsletter ad and the tiny promo code at the top and just reduce your prices by the 20% the ad is offering. This gives people one less loop to jump through if they don't see the tiny top banner and they probably wouldn't sign up for the newsletter anyway unless they wanted the 20% off so you won't lose out on email signups as you will capture them during the payment process.

I would make the reduction in price a Christmas sale rather than just change the regular price. This creates a scarcity value as it indicates the prices will go up once the sale is over. Plus it makes people think they are getting a deal. (quick pic below)

I would also redo the images for your banner. They really don't look that appealing. I'd see if you can find a rusty lookalike and have some pictures taken laying prone with the dog (or dogs) on a carpet or sofa so you have an attractive and engaging landscape image rather than a portrait on a plain background. A warm fuzzy picture. Make it a full on photo shoot and you will have lots of media you can use to keep your facebook ads fresh.

EDIT Oh one more thing, I'd make it MUCH clearer that it's free shipping. Prominently at the top of your home page and in the description of each item. At the moment it's below the fold so easily overlooked and that is a major cost saving, therefore customer benefit, right there.

What is your click through rate like on Facebook?
 

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Xeon

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Hello all!

I've created an eCommerce site that sells t-shirts to dog owners. It's called Rusty's Puppy Emporium. All the t-shirts are screen printed by me and are original designs.

I've started running Facebook ads and have pretty good conversions when it comes to people clicking the link and going to my site. However, I'm still waiting on my 1st sale. Please go to my site and tell me anything that you think could be a potential issue as it pertains to lack of sales.

The website is www.rustyspuppyemporium.com

Be honest and let me have it!

Lots of valuable advice from others (especially Bekit), so I'll just post my random thoughts when I browsed through your site:

1) The blue mail icon at the top-left corner of your site. That is a weird place to put that kind of widget. If you really need to put that (which I personally won't), the lower-left corner of the site is a better place.

2) Logo looks amateurish and too clip-artish, no offense. I would move the logo to the left of the header, then the nav links to the right of the site, then push everything up to replace that previous space so more of the content is above the fold.

3) Banner images are really ugly. What's with the badly photoshopped lady against a bright green background....
The first banner which screams "20% OFF EVERYTHING" makes the site looks really cheap. Like a discount stall. The more I study, the more I feel running big discounts like these cheapens whatever brand you're trying to build, and that discounts = a short-term fix to a long-term issue. Discounts = training your customers to expect cheap stuff from you.

4) A lot of the images on the site looks really blurry and low-res.

5) Domain name and business name is too long long long.....

6) Since you're on Shopify, if you've money to spare, I suggest to get the Booster Theme. It looks way better than your current one, and more importantly, has many widgets in place for conversion, especially on the single product page.

7) I like the designs on the t-shirts, looks really good. The only thing is that, on many of the t-shirts, the top of the graphic starts too close to the crew neck line.

8) If you're serious about this, I would consider a good photographer to do what Sea Dog Shop (suggested by Bekit) has done. If you compare their site and yours, theirs actually looks like a real shop. The "mock-ups" style of selling t-shirt screams cheap to me.

9) Personally, I feel the t-shirt prices are ok. If people can sell garbage for $50 from NYC just by packaging it up nicely, price is not a real issue. Plus, dog lovers would spend $$$ if the t-shirt reasonates with them.

10) Single product page has a lot of things that can be improved, but for content wise, check out J Peterman and what kind of content they use in their single product page: Authentic Baseball Sleeves

11) The home page, at the bottom, should have a nicely-done banner or box with a teaser about your story. When clicked, it will take the user to your About page.

12) You have a touching story. Probably need to put a little spin on that and dramatize it further. I feel this has a lot of potential.
Check out some sites similar to yours :
- I'd Rather Be With My Dog | Apparel for Dog Lovers
- https://www.dogisgood.com
- Apparel & Gifts For Animal Lovers - Animal Hearted Apparel

Hope this inspires you :D
 
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Deangiroir

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At first glance, I'd say $25 seems a little steep for non-branded t-shirts.
Thanks MJ! You've written a great book in the Millionaire Fast lane. It's already one of my favorite books and I've read a lot. Unscripted is next.

You're response definitely has me thinking...

I feel I could do one of 2 things:

1. Lower the price (duh) Maybe between $15 - $20
2. Work on my branding/shirt quality to justify the price.

On the right track?
 

Deangiroir

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If you choose to stick with this.... all types of bulldogs are very popular ya know. What if everyone that has looked at your site has a pitbull.... they don't want a doberman shirt. Or if they have a collie they don't care about a pug. If you are going to cater to dog lovers you need to cater to them all and not just 7. And get good pictures, not stock looking pictures. If I'm paying that high of a price for a shirt, that thing better bark when I call it's name.

I realize you are just starting out but 12 items for sale is not exactly what I call an emporium. I'm sure the visitors expected lots of stuff for puppies. Speaking of puppies, most of the pictures are not of puppies...?? I'd definitely say the visitors went looking for one thing and found.... almost nothing at all.

Wow! These are all great points! Thank you so much for being honest!

The big picture plan is definitely to have different types of items. Not just shirts. Since I can screen print everything myself, my plan is to offer mugs, koozies, aprons, etc.

Maybe I should focus on introducing some of those items to justify the "emporium" title...

Or, change the domain name...

As for the lack of puppy items for sale... I can't believe I overlooked this one (duh)

Thank you again for your honesty! This really has helped me in knowing what to work on.
 
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Deangiroir

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Couple of first reactions:
  1. Site is extremely slow to load. This will hurt you a lot. I would have bounced if I wasn't planning to stay around and do a quick audit. I bet you can speed up your site by taking down all the images and re-uploading them as compressed versions of themselves. Use "save for web" on photoshop if you have it, or google an alternative.
  2. Shirts have no product descriptions other than the generic bulleted list followed by your guarantee. This is table stakes. Of COURSE your shirts have to have this.
    • 100% preshrunk ringspun cotton
    • 65% polyester 35% cotton
    • ¾" rib knit collar
    • Double-needle stitched sleeves and bottom hem
    • Taped neck and shoulders​
    What you need is about 100 words of some enticing copy that tells a story of why the shirt is awesome. This will accomplish a lot of things: (1) It will appeal to the readers (not just the lookers) on your page. (2) It will give you a chance to make an emotional appeal, not just a bland logical one. (3) It will help your SEO on the page so that you can start to rank for keywords like "pug life t-shirt," "pug owner t-shirt," or "pug design t-shirt." Example:
    Tell the world how much you love your pugs every time you pull on this super-soft t-shirt. You'll be proud to show off the monochromatic pug design, and you'll have a chance to brag about your pug every time people ask about the Pug Life. For all the pug lovers in your life, this 100% preshrunk ringspun cotton t-shirt is the perfect gift item, and for everyone else who just doesn't understand pugs, well, more's the pity.​
    Better yet, have the shirt description written in "Rusty's" voice, with tons of humor and maybe even a Yorkshire Terrier's opinion of pugs. There's a reason that the Twitter account "Thoughts of Dog" is so popular.
  3. It looks like your images have descriptive filenames but not alt image tags. Again, this is a simple thing you can do to the site to boost your SEO, this time when people are conducting an image search for your prime keywords.
  4. While the price seems a bit steep, I think it's not about the price. All over your site, there are offers for a 20% discount. But until I'm bought in to the idea of buying these shirts (at ANY price), I don't care.
  5. Your site has no "trust symbols" in prominent places. The 4 icons that you have under "4 GREAT REASONS TO BUY FROM US" are the closest thing you have, but they are too small to really understand what you're seeing, especially if you're scanning fast. Try putting them in a row that spans the full width of the page. Examples of trust symbols:
    • Reviews
    • "As seen in" notices
    • Celebrities wearing the shirts
    • Real people wearing the shirts in everyday life ("spotted in the wild" vs. posed)​
    If you don't have any of these things, give your friends some shirts for free in exchange for a review, an instagram post, etc. until you can accumulate a good number of items. People look for "social proof." They want to think it's a thriving site before they buy.
  6. There is no business address listed on the contact page. This makes you look like less of a "real" business and therefore less trustworthy. How do I know I'll get my stuff? However, I dug a little deeper and found an address in your privacy policy, which, upon looking a little deeper, appears to be your home address (at least, it's a residential address). It's not expensive to get a UPS store mailbox to solve this so that you're not displaying your home address to the world. Also, it's super simple to set up a Google voice phone number for free so that you have a contact number.
  7. Your business name is confusing. Puppy Emporium sounds too close to "puppy mill" and definitely doesn't evoke a place where a person would buy shirts.
Marketing thoughts...
  • Check out Sea Dog | Shop the Original Store for ideas (their store is similar)
  • Get your friends to write you some testimonials ASAP
  • Go onto dog forums and facebook groups to get the language people are using about their dobermans or labs or whatever, and borrow copy fragments from them to sprinkle into your product descriptions.
  • Amp up the emotion. People LOVE their dogs. Tap in to that.
  • Tell more stories. Stories will carry the brand forward and enhance people's perception of the value of the shirts. Maybe it's the story of the girl who loved her wine and her lab. Maybe it's the story of the 4-legged boss. You get the idea. You've already got a ton of amazing story prompts, right on the front of your shirts.
  • Look up the concept of "Social Proof" by Robert Cialdini and try to incorporate more of that on your site.
Wow! This is so much great advice I'm actually at a loss for words. All I can really say is thank you for taking the time to audit my site and you've potentially saved me a lot of time and money. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
 

DragoonDB

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Great feedback from the forum! I'll go on a slightly different route.

Each shirt has a "4 Great Reasons to Buy From Us" call out; one is "Easy Returning".

I noticed, though, when going to your return policy (hey, I want to check this out if it's so easy) that it looks stock, and hasn't been geared for your business. Here's a few examples that are going to confuse me as a customer, and make me lose confidence in your great reasons:
  • "Several types of goods are exempt from being returned. Perishable goods such as flowers, newpapers..." This is a site for shirts - why is this listed in your return policy?
  • "Additional non-returnable items: Gift cards, downloadable software products..." Again, not pertinent to your site.
  • "There are certain situations where only partial refunds are granted (if applicable): Book with obvious signs of use, CD, DVD..." Again, not pertinent to your site.
My point being that if you're putting special emphasis on returns as one of your selling points or calls to action (have confidence, returns are no sweat), then this only confuses the customer and actually erodes your great reasons to be unreliable.
 

Deangiroir

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Pretty much everthing @Bekit and @minivanman said apart from I agree with @MJ DeMarco, I think the price is rather steep for a basic t-shirt with a black or white logo. I can get quality polo shirts printed up for a fraction of that price and I'm in the UK. Love the colour range though I see I cannot order a logo in any colour for some reason?

Maybe drop the annoying newsletter ad and the tiny promo code at the top and just reduce your prices by the 20% the ad is offering. This gives people one less loop to jump through if they don't see the tiny top banner and they probably wouldn't sign up for the newsletter anyway unless they wanted the 20% off so you won't lose out on email signups as you will capture them during the payment process.

I would make the reduction in price a Christmas sale rather than just change the regular price. This creates a scarcity value as it indicates the prices will go up once the sale is over. Plus it makes people think they are getting a deal. (quick pic below)

I would also redo the images for your banner. They really don't look that appealing. I'd see if you can find a rusty lookalike and have some pictures taken laying prone with the dog (or dogs) on a carpet or sofa so you have an attractive and engaging landscape image rather than a portrait on a plain background. A warm fuzzy picture. Make it a full on photo shoot and you will have lots of media you can use to keep your facebook ads fresh.

EDIT Oh one more thing, I'd make it MUCH clearer that it's free shipping. Prominently at the top of your home page and in the description of each item. At the moment it's below the fold so easily overlooked and that is a major cost saving, therefore customer benefit, right there.

What is your click through rate like on Facebook?
Once again, just some amazing advice... I'll be implementing all of this. Thank you!

My CTR on the Facebook Ad is currently:

CTR (all): 1.94%
CTR (Link to Website): 1.38%
 
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Deangiroir

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Lots of valuable advice from others (especially Bekit), so I'll just post my random thoughts when I browsed through your site:

1) The blue mail icon at the top-left corner of your site. That is a weird place to put that kind of widget. If you really need to put that (which I personally won't), the lower-left corner of the site is a better place.

2) Logo looks amateurish and too clip-artish, no offense. I would move the logo to the left of the header, then the nav links to the right of the site, then push everything up to replace that previous space so more of the content is above the fold.

3) Banner images are really ugly. What's with the badly photoshopped lady against a bright green background....
The first banner which screams "20% OFF EVERYTHING" makes the site looks really cheap. Like a discount stall. The more I study, the more I feel running big discounts like these cheapens whatever brand you're trying to build, and that discounts = a short-term fix to a long-term issue. Discounts = training your customers to expect cheap stuff from you.

4) A lot of the images on the site looks really blurry and low-res.

5) Domain name and business name is too long long long.....

6) Since you're on Shopify, if you've money to spare, I suggest to get the Booster Theme. It looks way better than your current one, and more importantly, has many widgets in place for conversion, especially on the single product page.

7) I like the designs on the t-shirts, looks really good. The only thing is that, on many of the t-shirts, the top of the graphic starts too close to the crew neck line.

8) If you're serious about this, I would consider a good photographer to do what Sea Dog Shop (suggested by Bekit) has done. If you compare their site and yours, theirs actually looks like a real shop. The "mock-ups" style of selling t-shirt screams cheap to me.

9) Personally, I feel the t-shirt prices are ok. If people can sell garbage for $50 from NYC just by packaging it up nicely, price is not a real issue. Plus, dog lovers would spend $$$ if the t-shirt reasonates with them.

10) Single product page has a lot of things that can be improved, but for content wise, check out J Peterman and what kind of content they use in their single product page: Authentic Baseball Sleeves

11) The home page, at the bottom, should have a nicely-done banner or box with a teaser about your story. When clicked, it will take the user to your About page.

12) You have a touching story. Probably need to put a little spin on that and dramatize it further. I feel this has a lot of potential.
Check out some sites similar to yours :
- I'd Rather Be With My Dog | Apparel for Dog Lovers
- https://www.dogisgood.com
- Apparel & Gifts For Animal Lovers - Animal Hearted Apparel

Hope this inspires you :D
This is great stuff! Definitely has inspired me. Especially, getting the booster theme idea. This could save me a lot of time in the long run. Can't wait to implement all of this great advice! Thanks!
 

RazorCut

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This is great stuff! Definitely has inspired me. Especially, getting the booster theme idea. This could save me a lot of time in the long run. Can't wait to implement all of this great advice! Thanks!


Where do you want us to send the invoice? :rofl:

My CTR on the Facebook Ad is currently:

CTR (all): 1.94%
CTR (Link to Website): 1.38%

That's not bad stats at all.
 

Deangiroir

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Great feedback from the forum! I'll go on a slightly different route.

Each shirt has a "4 Great Reasons to Buy From Us" call out; one is "Easy Returning".

I noticed, though, when going to your return policy (hey, I want to check this out if it's so easy) that it looks stock, and hasn't been geared for your business. Here's a few examples that are going to confuse me as a customer, and make me lose confidence in your great reasons:
  • "Several types of goods are exempt from being returned. Perishable goods such as flowers, newpapers..." This is a site for shirts - why is this listed in your return policy?
  • "Additional non-returnable items: Gift cards, downloadable software products..." Again, not pertinent to your site.
  • "There are certain situations where only partial refunds are granted (if applicable): Book with obvious signs of use, CD, DVD..." Again, not pertinent to your site.
My point being that if you're putting special emphasis on returns as one of your selling points or calls to action (have confidence, returns are no sweat), then this only confuses the customer and actually erodes your great reasons to be unreliable.
Well, there is a reason why the return policy looks stock... because it is. LOL
Another great piece of advice and something for me to work on. Thank you!
 
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Chris25

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Those bright saturated colors are the thing that bothered me the most. It does not look professional imo.

Can I ask, what is the name of the widget you use for e-mail signups? It looks good, but maybe it shouldn't pop up everywhere.
 

Deangiroir

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Those bright saturated colors are the thing that bothered me the most. It does not look professional imo.

Can I ask, what is the name of the widget you use for e-mail signups? It looks good, but maybe it shouldn't pop up everywhere.
Thanks for your insight!

The email signup widget is a Shopify app called Privy.
 
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Roli

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You've had some great feedback here, a lot of which I would have covered myself, so I'll just add in a couple of extra things.

First of all that little mail symbol at the corner with a "message" in it, is annoying and it pops up on every page.

Plus you are offering 20% off if people subscribe to your mailing list, however you boldly state there is a 20% sale. This is a bad tactic and will put people off, plus I have no way of knowing if you've just added 20% to your prices, just so you can discount them.

I have no idea about the quality of the shirts, this description below is confusing to me.

  • 100% preshrunk ringspun cotton
  • 65% polyester 35% cotton
  • ¾" rib knit collar
  • Double-needle stitched sleeves and bottom hem
  • Taped neck and shoulders
How can something be 100% cotton and 65% polyester?

I personally would not pay $25 for a polyester T-shirt.

The fact is you can charge $100 if you tell a good enough story and use quality materials, however these look as if they are Fruit of The Loom $2 shirts.

For me, the biggest thing harming sales is the name, and the branding. Rusty was clearly a great dog, however in the video you show him wearing doggie clothes.

Even before seeing that video I thought with a name and logo like that, you were selling doggie Ts.

Pros

I love 'Pug Life', I think that is really cool, and even without a pug I might consider one myself.

The idea is a nice one and could catch on.

What I would change.

The T-shirt quality needs to go up, 100% cotton and 0% polyester.

Branding on the actual T-shirt should be added, at the moment it's just a picture, where's your logo?

Get rid of the 20% sale, tell them they get money off on multiple purchases, make 'em work for that discount!

Perhaps add some doggie clothes in there as well, as this would fit much more in with the brand. In fact they should be front and centre, and a matching human one is an afterthought.

Also by doing doggie shirts, you can really narrow down what will be popular. Doberman, Pug, Staffordshire Terrier, all of these are short haired dogs that will get cold in the winter.

If you do stick to human shirts, change the name to Rusty's Ts or something more fitting with what you do.
 

whiz

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I have really good notes from a guy who's been successful with selling these type of "identity items".

I say "identity items" because that's really what they are... just a way for people to externally express their identity to let others know who they are/what they're about.

Stay away from gimmicky/humorous/emotionless shit - go for the things that really tie in with people's identity and strike emotion.

I think he does mainly wallet cases, blankets, stuff like that.

Just take whatever you can apply to your biz.

Here are the typo-ridden, long-winded notes that I found to be super helpful. English is not his first language, but you get the point of what he's trying to say:


---

i took time to read about my audience and list down their activities.. etc.. lifestyle .. and so on.. you'd find the most in that then design back



not every one likes all complicated designs... most sells with very simple but classic or elegant look..making it look expennsive



Also, its not what you think you want.. remove the "might want" give a reason to say why they will buy it.. say this is designed to super moms like you in the creative.. making them feel great about them selve



the like this want one really works as eye catcher. it makes everyone feel I want one without thinking.. the next is to solidify the engagement.. I fish my audience by 1. good mockup.. 3sec eye cather, don't make audience think or assume what the product is..2. A good headline with nice emoticon Like This? Want One? making them curious what is the product since you asked.. then place them on a King/Queen Seating!"Supermoms Like You Deserve This Exclusive Design" then 3 bullets of what you think they will ask immediately.. ex.☑Available in all latest phone models, ☑Soft leather etc.. ☑RFID protected.. then your closure.. GET THIS TODAY ➡ http.... then scarcity.. Hurry, limited time only offer!... Hope this makes sense



I only use free themes in my pages.. "simple" or "debut" in shopify.. few items to have it a "HERO" picture of the product, the best picture but not a mockup.. plain old white background.. they already seen your mock up in the creative so no point showing them again.. let their eye focus on the product.. a good name with a maximum of 3-4 words "Supermom Exclusive Wallet Case" continue to feed their feeling of being a super mom... then a tag line at the start of the product description .. You know you deserve only the best thats why we created this exclusively for you!.. then your bullet points for description.. then the store policy like // we ship in 2-4 week, multiple package may be shipped separately for faster shipment. We ship as soon as we complete production per item" then.. a review.. at least 2 reviews.. ask your friend on what they will benefit if they buy the product and what will they say.. then add that to the product description.. making it look like a script... My kid would love these for me - Mary... note that Mary is a real person since she's your friend.. up until you get actual reviews for your product.. then that solidify the product with proof.. now go scarcity.. use a timer like hurrify.. say "sale ends when timer hits zero" use 30-40 mins.. remember we want to get impulse buyers.. (love them later during customer service and retarget) then of couse the trust badges... the similar items are by collection so if you group the product by niche then it wikll show up right.. IF you see anything on your page tha looks odd.. remove it... you dont want to lose the buyers atttention.. make it look as an expensive page... dont go fancy with colors.. I get my color inspiration from top ecom stores like amazon,ebay google etc.. I use mostly their color combination.. notice that almost all of them have same color schema?? it works.. not too heavy on eyes and general.. Hope this helps..



No matter what the product might be.. aim for at least $20-30 margin.. this way it can fund back your tests and give you enough profit..at $30 you can fund 10 ads of $10 easily next day afer you sold at least 3 on your day 1 test.. or dup 2 the next day on your single sale on day 1.



for WC.. sell with wallet.. cheaper sell faster.. i play impulse buying.. it gies ou a lockdown of the audience niche also,, the design they like reflects the things they want.. its just that not everyone uses wallet cases..but at least you can start with this..



I dont focus on fun designs.. not that it looks cute they will buy.. yeah you get alot of link click.. buy no buyer..I focus on the feeling, make them feel good owning it..



Save the turtle is a like.. Supermom is a feeling … Hero Firefighter, Best Doctor, Awesome Nurse..





awareness is an option.. like a charity drive.. will you or will you not... but if you say, For the wonderful daughter.. focused on awareness.. probably would work.. like for cancer awareness.. Im stronger everyday.. didnt mention any about cancer but gives moral help to buyer..



cool is a like for me.. it doesnt present the urgency.. you may have sale but not for long run.. it dies like a fad



focus on what they do daily.. do not make your product a sunday dress.. else, you just get the "maybe" buyers



Sell wallet case for firefighter with moral booster slogan.. sell hoodie blanket to Scouts for their camping.. Sell watch with bitcoin logo for the bitcoin players, they would love to flaunt their bitcoin... hope this makes sense



you see there its focused on the need, then design follows... Alot focus on design then need.. I do different



audience size matters alot in the long run.. I dont get the small ones now as you plan to look to scale.. I tried the small group, didnt lasted long sold alot.. all effort in building it or scaling is limited.. List down big groups like, nurses, doctors, firefighter, etc.. who does these professionally then break down into small subgroups like family nurses, registered nurses, licenses nurses, nursing aide. So mainly, look for BIG main niche group then break down.. if you do it reverse and focus on the small then you'd be limited long run.. its like hoping when you try to expand



dig deeper.. stay away from the common..this puts you in a better spot.. I design for my audience.. it like the feeling of buying gift for a special someone.. design it that way.. then do ads to "prove" your design.. its not just testing to see.. its aiming to prove that you made it specially for them.. sale will come after



**position it that way.. "specially made for Super moms like you" these is where I understood why custom made products are bought even if costly to produce..



use 3 photos using mockup and 1 vid. Usually photos work best for me in ad spend since vids are highly clickable due to curiousity to see the vid.. while photo speak direct



your adset will elect best performing after a day.. kill those ads that doesnt perfome and duplicat adset with the working ads



try it too.. audience will give indication on who works best.. better to be confident to show different angles of ad creative..



Im from the Philippines.. have the same.. doesn't make any difference where you are from.. if you don't spend to invest you won't get profit. its a risk but all businesses you need to invest. its like education, I too still attends training whenever possible. overly dreaming it kills you, aim to target reachable goals, for now, go invest to get money coming in just enough to pay for your learnings and ads, don't, look at the profit yet. when you get to sell one item that's a winner, it would be enough to fund your next product testing and so on.. what I do is when I sold an item on day one, I reinvest the profit on ads for the next day. that way I don't spend much just to learn. count the time you spend searching, reading and learning but not acting enough to try it, you actually lose more than the fear of losing actual money investing in your self, its time spent wasted and the supposed early learnings and profit gets delayed, in return, you spend more since you are slowing down on learning. If you think you don't see your self really into this, my advice is not to continue early on. The "try" mentality will not get you anywhere but just like a casino player, its not supposed to be like gambling but if you do, gable in your learning. Simply says. invest in your self, see people posting profits as inspiration, they too have gone more than you can imagine just to get there, not saying its very difficult but you can learn it. I don't want you to stop, the more you need to get this working since as you say, we are in a 3rd world and you may end up being in the best position to helping back your community to teach everyone to make a profit. else, where would you end up?



Use your fear to walk on thin ice. Make it your strength to keep cautious on your approach, you have an advantage. a lot do this like gambling, just putting ads out there without logic, hoping it sells. I did that too but knowing to spend wisely is the game. its profit not number of sales.



My designs are mostly plain no slogan. This enables my design to reach worldwide audience without race nor ethnicity issue. Goes well for scaling since its acceptable by most
 

whiz

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In regards to my post above, the most important thing he said was:

Save the turtle is a like.. Supermom is a feeling … Hero Firefighter, Best Doctor, Awesome Nurse..

I've run a bunch of FB ads and this is so true.

You can run ads and get 1298731 likes and 29833 shares but no buys.

There are some quotes that give people enough of a feeling to click a button.

Then there are quotes that create so much emotion that they get off the couch and grab their credit card.

It can be quotes, photos - whatever.

It just has to hit like a truck when they are exposed to the idea/concept.
 
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Fastlane Liam

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Honestly you should post them on Redbubble. I posted a few spam designs years ago and a few dollars show up in my paypal every now and then. I literally forget it exists and did 0 work years ago but they still sell.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Some really GREAT feedback here, appreciate everyone who chimed in.

12) You have a touching story. Probably need to put a little spin on that and dramatize it further. I feel this has a lot of potential.
Check out some sites similar to yours :
- I'd Rather Be With My Dog | Apparel for Dog Lovers
- https://www.dogisgood.com
- Apparel & Gifts For Animal Lovers - Animal Hearted Apparel

Another thing I might note...

At first glance (besides the price) I don't see a business; I see someone trying to make money.

It just *feels* like someone started this after he read a book and wanted to start a money making venture.

This is because you lack a brand and a story. If you examine the websites above and compare, they all convey a business with a mood and a theme. I don't see (feel) that here.

Also, there's no way in hell I'd pay $25 for a t-shirt that had polyester in it. And i'm not even that cheap.
 

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To me, the shirt designs look cheap. They are like clip art designs that you can get for free. I think you need some originals or to vet them more. I agree with everyone else that commented above, but even if all those changes were made, the shirts just look like $10 t-shirts.
 
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To me, the shirt designs look cheap. They are like clip art designs that you can get for free. I think you need some originals or to vet them more. I agree with everyone else that commented above, but even if all those changes were made, the shirts just look like $10 t-shirts.
Can you give me an example of a t-shirt design that looks "not cheap"?

I'm actually interested...
 

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Can you give me an example of a t-shirt design that looks "not cheap"

I'm actually interested...

I like these, you can see that the print and the T look more blended, plus I can really tell the quality of the maroon one.


EDIT: Huh, don't seem to be working, check out this website, about halfway down.
https://www.harrods.com/en-gb/designers/stefano-ricci
imgres


url
 

Deangiroir

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I like these, you can see that the print and the T look more blended, plus I can really tell the quality of the maroon one.


EDIT: Huh, don't seem to be working, check out this website, about halfway down.
https://www.harrods.com/en-gb/designers/stefano-ricci
imgres


url
Ok. Thanks for the example.

However,

1. These are embroidered shirts. I'm looking for screen printed shirt examples. Should've been more specific

2. $545!!!!!! For a t-shirt! Brand or not $545 is ridiculous for a t-shirt that was just embroidered. In comparison, how is my $25 shirt a worse deal!? Just saying...
 
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MTEE1985

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In comparison, how is my $25 shirt a worse deal!? Just saying...

after a cursory 2 minutes of googling and fake buying it may not be a worse deal than a $545 shirt, but it is a (much) worse deal than this shirt:
Pug Life Dog T-Shirt | 6DollarShirts

I believe that is what @biophase is referring to in regards to your artwork. You say it is “original” but...it isn’t. In the space you are entering it is either a race to the bottom on price i.e. $6 shirts ($11 with shipping but still pretty cheap) or you need a compelling story/mission like this: Pawz ® for a Cause Shirts

I’m sure Rusty was a wonderful dog but your About Us basically says “we miss our dog and now we sell dog shirts” Share stories about Rusty on there, or photos, personalize it more toward being a brand than being just another Shopify site selling dog t-shirts.

Why should anybody buy your shirts? If you can answer that and communicate it on your site then you will be miles ahead of your competition.
 
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Deangiroir

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after a cursory 2 minutes of googling and fake buying it may not be a worse deal than a $545 shirt, but it is a (much) worse deal than this shirt:
Pug Life Dog T-Shirt | 6DollarShirts

I believe that is what @biophase is referring to in regards to your artwork. You say it is “original” but...it isn’t. In the space you are entering it is either a race to the bottom on price i.e. $6 shirts ($11 with shipping but still pretty cheap) or you need a compelling story/mission like this: Pawz ® for a Cause Shirts

I’m sure Rusty was a wonderful dog but your About Us basically says “we miss our dog and now we sell dog shirts” Share stories about Rusty on there, or photos, personalize it more toward being a brand than being just another Shopify site selling dog t-shirts.
after a cursory 2 minutes of googling and fake buying it may not be a worse deal than a $545 shirt, but it is a (much) worse deal than this shirt:
Pug Life Dog T-Shirt | 6DollarShirts

I believe that is what @biophase is referring to in regards to your artwork. You say it is “original” but...it isn’t. In the space you are entering it is either a race to the bottom on price i.e. $6 shirts ($11 with shipping but still pretty cheap) or you need a compelling story/mission like this: Pawz ® for a Cause Shirts

I’m sure Rusty was a wonderful dog but your About Us basically says “we miss our dog and now we sell dog shirts” Share stories about Rusty on there, or photos, personalize it more toward being a brand than being just another Shopify site selling dog t-shirts. Why should anybody buy your shirts? If you can answer that and communicate it on your site then you will be miles ahead of your competition.

$545 (Harrods) vs $25 (My Site) = $520 difference
$25 (My Site) vs $17 (6DollarShirts includes shipping) = $8 difference

Once again, is my shirt really that (much) worse of a deal?

I totally understand my site needs A LOT of work (branding, images, description, etc.) I really knew that before starting this thread. And I'm grateful for the advice. However, I just don't see the comparison in this situation.
 

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