Just launched my first web store!

[RealOG]

Hey Folks,

Today we launched our first foray into the newfangled interweb. Please take a look at our site, www.urbantrike.com, and give me your feedback.

Looking for feedback on the following:

1. Look and feel of site
2. Navigability
3. Relevance of content and marketing messages
4. Opinion on our product and price point
5. Products or options you would like to see added
6. Other things that would help drive you to make a purchase decision

Thanks team! Looking forward to your feedback!

RealOG

 

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[Amail]

Very cool! I was too old for Big Wheels when they came out, but my sister who was five years younger was just in time. I was always bummed I didn't have one. So much fun.

You misspelled "Tchotchkes". I'm a stickler for spelling and grammar, and mistakes like that really stand out for me. Other than that, I like the site, I like the concept, and I really hope you do well with this.

 

[Milkanic]

The good:
Solid design and logo. Very clean and professional and I think it fits well with your target market.

The bad:
You are selling the trike and not the emotion. All of you pictures should be people having a blast on these things and you should focus on social media like no other. Get the cast of Jackass on these and put it on youtube. Offer free trikes to a couple famous bachelors via twitter/facebook.

You need to scroll down the "Get One" section and you have to find it. This should be the biggest call to action on the site.

The configurator sucks. It is 2012 and people expect to configure everything on one screen. I want to see visually the exact trike I will be getting.

I clicked on a color and it opened the image in a new tab. I shouldn't have to look at the color and then select it from a dropdown. Let me click the frame and choose the color from a javascript popup.

Why is there an event calendar when I'm trying to configure a trike? Do you want to lose me and start looking at events?

 

[The-J]

Haha, pretty cool. Do you guys own a B+M trike store?

 

[Yussef]

The good:
Solid design and logo. Very clean and professional and I think it fits well with your target market.

The bad:
You are selling the trike and not the emotion. All of you pictures should be people having a blast on these things and you should focus on social media like no other. Get the cast of Jackass on these and put it on youtube. Offer free trikes to a couple famous bachelors via twitter/facebook.

You need to scroll down the "Get One" section and you have to find it. This should be the biggest call to action on the site.

The configurator sucks. It is 2012 and people expect to configure everything on one screen. I want to see visually the exact trike I will be getting.

I clicked on a color and it opened the image in a new tab. I shouldn't have to look at the color and then select it from a dropdown. Let me click the frame and choose the color from a javascript popup.

Why is there an event calendar when I'm trying to configure a trike? Do you want to lose me and start looking at events?

Yep. I see what your saying eastbay does it with every pair of shoes. I am a big fan of copying any idea that works. You get a full 360 degree view of any style and color you choose. The zoom in feature is nice as well I think the feature are powerd by adobe scene7.

 

[CryptO]

The good:
Solid design and logo. Very clean and professional and I think it fits well with your target market.

The bad:
You are selling the trike and not the emotion. All of you pictures should be people having a blast on these things and you should focus on social media like no other. Get the cast of Jackass on these and put it on youtube. Offer free trikes to a couple famous bachelors via twitter/facebook.

You need to scroll down the "Get One" section and you have to find it. This should be the biggest call to action on the site.

The configurator sucks. It is 2012 and people expect to configure everything on one screen. I want to see visually the exact trike I will be getting.

I clicked on a color and it opened the image in a new tab. I shouldn't have to look at the color and then select it from a dropdown. Let me click the frame and choose the color from a javascript popup.

Why is there an event calendar when I'm trying to configure a trike? Do you want to lose me and start looking at events?

Deffinately hit the nail on the head with regards to the selling the trike should be the main thing plus the configeration modules could be simplified and interactive without menus etc.

Also, I got a very laid back and cool feeling from the website. Urban cool I suppose. Is that what you are trying to push?

If the answer is yes. Then you did that well and I would be tempted to buy one of these to buy into that lifestyle. If you do get photos and vids of a bunch of people jumping arround on these things then that laid back cool vibe goes out the window. Personally I like what you have in terms of feel. But you should make it easier and more obvious to purchase the thing you are selling.

 

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[RealOG]

I read you on the configurator. I had wanted to build something like the following:

But didn't want to invest a lot of money into a webproject like this until I knew people want what we are selling. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can get one of these built cheaply? I am fairly handy with coding, but none of what I know can pull this together.

What if I offer some basic models with one or two options to change. I have three models I could post and just remove the customizability all together until I get the configurator up and running.

As for the laid back feeling, yes, that is exactly what we are going for. We have a pretty high price point, so expecting young professionals with no kids to be the backbone of our customer base. Not much we can patent to give us a lock against competition, so we need to pump up the brand and sell the experience.

Thanks for your input all, keep it coming.

 

[PatrickP]

The good:
Solid design and logo. Very clean and professional and I think it fits well with your target market.

The bad:
You are selling the trike and not the emotion. All of you pictures should be people having a blast on these things and you should focus on social media like no other. Get the cast of Jackass on these and put it on youtube. Offer free trikes to a couple famous bachelors via twitter/facebook.

You need to scroll down the "Get One" section and you have to find it. This should be the biggest call to action on the site.

The configurator sucks. It is 2012 and people expect to configure everything on one screen. I want to see visually the exact trike I will be getting.

I clicked on a color and it opened the image in a new tab. I shouldn't have to look at the color and then select it from a dropdown. Let me click the frame and choose the color from a javascript popup.

Why is there an event calendar when I'm trying to configure a trike? Do you want to lose me and start looking at events?

GREAT post!

Sell the experience get these in the hands of real people get pics up on the site as well as videos.

 

[tincho1492]

But didn't want to invest a lot of money into a webproject like this until I knew people want what we are selling. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can get one of these built cheaply? I am fairly handy with coding, but none of what I know can pull this together.

You could create a one page form with checkboxes that on each label shows the customization option. For example: in the bike model, on each label you put a background image instead of text.

HTML:
------------

<label for="model_one" class="model_one"></label>
<input type="checkbox" id="model_one" name="model" value="Model One" />

CSS:
------------

label.model_one {
background: url('images/model_one') no-repeat;
display: block;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
}

IMO this is what you can create very fast and without too much development.

 

[biophase]

Yo Mike,

Your main picture is way too big at 1 meg.
Don't make the images on this page clickable (Step 1: Body Color : Urbantrike Adult Big Wheel | Drift Trike For Adults). I kept click on them to choose the color. I didn't see the pull down menu below my fold.
Did you mean to put "mettle"?
You shouldn't have any add to cart buttons until the final page.
You could use a wordpress contact us form instead of just putting your email on the contact us page.

 

[deepestblue]

Tight product bro. Have fun!

 

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[RealOG]

You misspelled "Tchotchkes".

Fixed, good looking out. I checked spelling on that before I posted it originally. Guess I shouldn't rely on urbandictionary.com to provide proper spellings...

You are selling the trike and not the emotion.

Was this evident through the pictures as well as the verbage? We are trying to sell experience, dont have the proper photos yet.

Why is there an event calendar when I'm trying to configure a trike?

Fixed.

Do you guys own a B+M trike store?

No B&M. Just a product, we are testing sales online first to get an idea of the interest in something like this. If successful, we will roll it out to bike stores. Not interested in creating our own retail shop.

You get a full 360 degree view of any style and color you choose.

This I can rectify fairly simply, just need to 86 the super long configurator. I think we will go to selling specific models for now since I dont have the tech to do a slick looking configurator.

Personally I like what you have in terms of feel. But you should make it easier and more obvious to purchase the thing you are selling.

Tru dat.

Your main picture is way too big at 1 meg.

They were all PNG files. Changed them to JPGs and it cut the size down by 75%.

Don't make the images on this page clickable

Fixed.

Did you mean to put "mettle"?

Yeah, the idea was "mettle" means "spirit and stick-to-it-ness, the ability to handle adversity". Was that a little too much. Trying to be clever, but not come across as a douche

You shouldn't have any add to cart buttons until the final page.

Unfortunately the software I am using, marketpress, doesnt allow for that type of customization. Maybe you can swing by this Sunday and show me in return for tickets to Battleship?

 

[DreamPursuit]

Really digging the Atticus trike. Do you know you have a blank box above the search box?

 

[DeletedUser2]

your opening picture should use your tagline

A Three-wheeled Portal to your Childhood.

this is copy gold.


Sell the emotional gut kick. right out of the gate.


Looks Great.
hope you crush it fast!
Z

 

[RealOG]

Okay, removed the customization option because it was just too cludgy. Now we are offering 3 different product types:

Drake | Bailey | Atticus​

Still want to offer the customization option, but it detracts from the site until we can get something slicker in place. We will see if we can get any of these sold.

Any feedback on the price points?

 

[RealOG]

Update 10/16/12:

Made a lot of changes to the site and started selling urbantrikes. Today I launched the customization app. It's only beta, but if you want to try creating your own adult big wheel, try it out - Customize - Urbantrike

 

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[AgonI]

Site looks good. What are you doing to bring in traffic to the site? Paid advertising, or you're focusing on SEO?

 

[MMatt]

Unfortunately I can't give you much insight on the website etc. as I don't have that experience. But with that being said, I have been into bikes and mountain bikes much of my life. Only problem I'm seeing is the price. If i can buy a decently spec'd urban mountain bike for around 500 bucks I don't see much advantage to a trike? I think people around my age at least like the agility of the two wheel bike. Seems the trike may be geared pretty low as you can only get 1:1 gear ratio out of it. Heck, maybe I'm being over critical and there's more market for it than I am seeing. This is just an opinion but maybe others in my age group agree. (20-30yrs)

 

[RealOG]

Well folks, fast forward to end of the year and I have an update:

• We modified the website based on all your input - www.urbantrike.com
• We changed the marketing messages. Amped them up a bit and focused our attention on specific crowds who will buy our product
• We have sold a lot more than we expected, including 10 inside of 2 weeks.
• We are looking to expand and bring costs down so we can capitalize on higher margins and make this a much more legit business
• We have had two major articles written about us and adult big wheels: one in Car & Driver, and another in the Wall Street Journal - great press and generated a lot of sales for us

Next year we plan on moving to retail. We will start with a couple local stores and expand out from there.

RealOG

 

[BubbleTeaJelly]

congrats on the articles and looks like things are going well

how have you been generating traffic otherwise?

 

[RealOG]

Hey all, thought I would throw out an update.

Business has ramped rapidly. We have blown our projections away and are on track to sell a buttload of trikes this year. The new issue is production. We cannot build them fast enough and are pissing off a lot of customers by missing shipping deadlines. We are working to outsource some of this stuff, we should have a solution within the month.

Some notable things that happened - we have built custom trikes for marketing events. We actually built them for a popular cable television show called "Duck Dynasty". Stressful, but successful. Check out our facebook if you know the show and want to see the cast members riding them.

We improved our site, Urbantrike - Custom-Maker of the Adult Big Wheel Tricycle : Urbantrike. Added some of the article notes and comments from media. It seems to have helped add credibility to our site.

New thing I could use your help on: since we are selling an experience and a brand, we want to add t-shirts with our trikes. Then we are going to have riders wear them and send us a photo with them on the trike. What I could use your help with is the messaging we put on the tee.

I am starting a separate thread with the taglines for our t-shirts. Let me know which one resonates with you and why.

Thanks! RealOG

 

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[Kingmaker]

Man, those trikes look absolutely fun and awesome! Website is nice and clean looking, gets the point across well and is easy to use.

I thought the youtube video showing the trikes in action under the Atticus model is a nice touch as well.

Looks like you are doing great!

 

[ALSL]

Hey! I was actually following your original thread about your urban trike store! I was just wondering how you were able to draw attention to your site? Was it strictly ppc advertising or did you try free methods like friends and friends of friends spreading word of mouth?

I am almost about to launch my own site, and was fussing over free ways to advertise and you seem like you've had success in your new start-up so I'd love to hear what you did 😀

 

[RealOG]

We have really done zero marketing. We have simply SEO'd for two niche terms.

We spent time looking at various terms using Market Samurai and looking at the competition for those terms. First term we did a while back and it brought us to about 100 visitors daily. The second term we went after will bring us past the 500 mark, though the traffic will be less convertible than the first term we chose.

It helps that our website is the dominant and most professional in our niche. It makes it easier for folks to make the decision that we are legit and not some garage business.

 

[tchandy]

On your FAQs page, I didn't understand this.

Why are you so awesome?
Actually, a team of graduate students wrote a 600 page thesis on this. We’re only on page 12, but will let you know when we’re done.

Tom

 

[CommonCents]

Awesome! I bet you'd do well at sturgis and daytona bike week with a couple hotties pedaling the chopper versions around. I'd think you'd get interest from harley, OCC, or jesse james etc..to do a line for them as well.

Also college logo bikes would be great for college football tailgating. Nascar etc....

A nice accessory sell would be the tall safety flags for visibility since the trikes are low, or some LED lights. Flags could be logo'd as well.

for a women's Tshirt theme, I'd do "Menage a TRIKE"

 

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[RealOG]

Been a while since I posted here, but thought I would update ya'll.

Things are really progressing well for us and our tricycle business is at a tipping point. I have somewhat abandoned the webstore for now. It made sense when we were proving the concept, but now I realize that selling a few trikes a week was taking up time needed to scale our business. We have shifted our strategy.

We are outsourcing a small production run of trikes from China. I met with a bicycle supplier out in Shanghai earlier in the year and they are in the process of making samples. At the same time, we are gearing up for a kickstarter campaign to raise funds and build an initial customer based to sell through this first run.

I took down my store and replaced it with a launch page to build an email list. We are also papering the hell out of media outlets to make sure we have a strong push on launch day. I had a Clarity.fm call with a kickstarter guru and it was incredibly helpful.

We also shot a ton of cool footage over memorial day which we are using for our Kickstarter vid as well a teasers to build awareness for our campaign.

Been a lot of fun, a lot of work, but I think we are getting close to validating the scale of this business.

 

[tincho1492]

Love the video!

 

[RealOG]

T-minus 7 days until we launch our Kickstarter campaign. It's funny how this stuff works, but the more you learn about Kickstarter, the farther you actually are from being done! You keep learning what you haven't done but need to.

Have learned a lot from folks in these past few weeks: scheduled a clarity.fm call with a kickstarter expert who helped with our campaign, met with four successful KS campaign runners, pinged tons of bloggers and websites with personal emails about our campaign and how we could provide a cool story to help drive traffic to their site.

Been a lot of stress and a lot of fun. I will post the test site on here next week so ya'll can see what we did and follow our campaign's progress. Thanks to everyone for your help and feedback. Been crucial to forming our campaign!

 

[Eskil]

Very exciting progress here. Speed+

For the guys on here who have their own physical products or inventions on here, I often recommend posting to Geekologie if you have a cool or different product/site. Well today I couldn't help but notice that they made a post about something similar to yours:
www [dot] forcesofgeek [dot] com/2013/08/the-adult-big-wheel-is-here-and-this.html
(I am making this a non-link for a reason)

I left a comment there, recommending they should check out the superior UrbanTrike instead. Maybe more people here can chip in with some comments to that post.