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Need brutal honesty

Idea threads

Mark Horrocks

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I have a online business which has been running for 3 years.


I know the market but to be quite honest after analysing conversions it is not scaling as
I thought.

We rank organically and use PPC.

Any comments on the website and be brutal if you have to I have thick skin.

Thanks,

Mark
 
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circleme

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Hi Mark,

to really get feedback for your scaling problem here, I think some metrics are missing. In the end, you are only asking for feedback on the appearance of the store (UI). But that is only one part of what you should pay attention to. If you are only interested in feedback on your store UI, then forget what I am writing here. I don't know much about UX/UI. If not, then things like...
  • AOV
  • ROAS (after you run PPC)
  • Conv. rate (sales conversions as well as ATCs).
  • Do you run email marketing: if so, what is the CTR and subsequent sales CR here?
  • General traffic split: you describe organic & PPC. What exactly do you mean by this? SEO & Google Ads/Facebook Ads/...? What is the ratio here and why did you choose these two channels?
  • ...
are crucial to know in order to give some feedback.
 

Andy Black

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You can't judge a landing page in isolation. You need to know who is visiting, how, and why.

 

xxx22

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Why are you putting 2 cheap caramel biscuits and few bags of Twinings in your gift boxes; are these loose? If I wanted to buy this gift box for my partner (English teacher and a massive Austen fan) I'd say this is insulting and she'd consider 4 loose bags of Twinings a joke, nobody wants to feel taken advantage off and this would feel like it.

Also checked the prices for books you are offering especially the foreign editions- book in Polish costs £9.99 at your shop, Amazon sells that for £2.77 with RRP of £6.50. No Polish person in the UK will buy this off you, in Poland that book retails at around £3, no chance in hell someone will buy this for £9.99 + International postage.

Sorry to say this but feels like a money grab.
Brutal honesty from someone in your target market, sorry.
 
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Last edited:

heavy_industry

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Without looking at the numbers and seeing the whole picture, it's almost impossible to tell where the problem is and what could be done to scale up this business.

But here are some things to consider. This is just scratching the surface:

Target audience
I've analyzed the market interest for "Jane Austen" and it seems like there's an international audience for this and it's not limited only to the UK. You might want to consider using a different TLD if you ship worldwide.

Signal to noise ratio
How many of those products sell well?
In most businesses, the bulk of the revenue comes from a few products only. Figure out what those products are and put them at the forefront of the store. Remove the garbage that doesn't sell to have a better signal to noise ration.

Free gifts
Since this lady was an author, books should probably be the main thing people are looking for. Make a special books section to stand out very clearly from the rest of the store.
  • Every book should come with a free "Jane Austen" pen, candle, notebook or any cheap product that costs you less than $1 to get.
  • Every book bundle should also come with some other free item (~$5-10) production cost.

The blog
Make it look nicer, and add at least 1 link to a product sold in the shop. With pictures, not just boring links.

Overall appearance
In today's world, anyone can buy anything from amazon. Just search "Jane Austen" and see what happens. Better prices, better delivery, better trust, better anything.

The only way to stand out from the rest of the cookie cutter ecommerce websites is to make your store look more alive and have a more personal touch to it. Like an actual fan site for people interested in this particular writer.
 

heavy_industry

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Why are you putting 2 cheap caramel biscuits and few bags of Twinings in your gift boxes; are these loose? If I wanted to buy this gift box for my partner (English teacher and a massive Austen fan) I'd say this is insulting and she'd consider 4 loose bags of Twinings a joke, nobody wants to feel taken advantage off and this would feel like it. Brutal honesty from someone in your target market, sorry.
Actually I think this is a brilliant idea.

Just don't make it seem as if the tea and biscuits are for sale in any way, don't make them part of the deal. Just have them added in the box as a surprise gift.

It adds a lot of personality and warmth to the whole thing, and that's exactly what a fan site should aim for.
 

xxx22

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Actually I think this is a brilliant idea.

Just don't make it seem as if the tea and biscuits are for sale in any way, don't make them part of the deal. Just have them added in the box as a surprise gift.

It adds a lot of personality and warmth to the whole thing, and that's exactly what a fan site should aim
Actually I think this is a brilliant idea.

Just don't make it seem as if the tea and biscuits are for sale in any way, don't make them part of the deal. Just have them added in the box as a surprise gift.

It adds a lot of personality and warmth to the whole thing, and that's exactly what a fan site should aim for.

Okay - for £28 I get a book (£6.5 RRP so margin and tax inc.), it's paperback btw, a bookmark, a key ring, a cushion cover (a picture shows an actual cushion though!) and a coaster (value maybe £8 RRP same as above), to this you add brilliant according to you 2 biscuits that retail at £11 for 200 (value 10p) and 4 bags of cheap tee - £11 for 48 (value 50p), this isn't brilliant, this is taking the piss. Agreed if those items were nice/luxury brands but this feels again like a present from Mr Scrooge
 
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JAJT

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My first thought when I hit your link was "this looks like a cheap etsy shop."

Then I thought "oh, wait, I bet he linked us to a sub-page for an 'all items' search or something" but then I saw I was actually on your home page after all.

The website has zero personality and the items displayed seem really cheap when displayed like that. The first impression when a new visitor hits your page is "here's all the shit I have for sale".

There's no lifestyle photos to inspire emotion, no color to warm things up, no real information on who Jane Austen was, why your store exists, who you are appealing to, etc.

I'd honestly do some experimenting with other themes and throw some effort into warming things up a bit with some really impactful product/lifestyle photos. There's not even one photo of Jane Austen herself!

Check out some of the top shopify pages out there and compare them to your own - the top pages all have lots of life, emotion, draw, information, stories, lifestyle appeal, etc.

Some other notes:

- Your product photos aren't standardized. I clicked your candle photo and it took up maybe 1/8th of the page, then I clicked your bookmark photo and it took over the entire page full-screen. That's off-putting.

- Lots of your photos a really blurry. If the entire point of this bookmark you offer is the cool quote, why can I barely read it? This is the best zoom you offer for this product:

51c7nybH0oL_2048x2048.jpg


- Your "about" page is all about you. Why on earth would your customers care about you? You've been a fan since 13, opened a shop, and one day hope to own a first edition. Neat. This isn't a dating site - this is about your customers. Talk about why they should care about Jane Austen!

- Why does your coffee mug cost more than your jewelry?

- No social media presence listed, at all.

Don't misunderstand me - I'm not trying to be mean. This is the kind of brutal honesty I think you need to hear. The more I look at your site, the more issues I find with it. I think it needs a major overhaul.
 

Mark Horrocks

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My first thought when I hit your link was "this looks like a cheap etsy shop."

Then I thought "oh, wait, I bet he linked us to a sub-page for an 'all items' search or something" but then I saw I was actually on your home page after all.

The website has zero personality and the items displayed seem really cheap when displayed like that. The first impression when a new visitor hits your page is "here's all the shit I have for sale".

There's no lifestyle photos to inspire emotion, no color to warm things up, no real information on who Jane Austen was, why your store exists, who you are appealing to, etc.

I'd honestly do some experimenting with other themes and throw some effort into warming things up a bit with some really impactful product/lifestyle photos. There's not even one photo of Jane Austen herself!

Check out some of the top shopify pages out there and compare them to your own - the top pages all have lots of life, emotion, draw, information, stories, lifestyle appeal, etc.

Some other notes:

- Your product photos aren't standardized. I clicked your candle photo and it took up maybe 1/8th of the page, then I clicked your bookmark photo and it took over the entire page full-screen. That's off-putting.

- Lots of your photos a really blurry. If the entire point of this bookmark you offer is the cool quote, why can I barely read it? This is the best zoom you offer for this product:

51c7nybH0oL_2048x2048.jpg


- Your "about" page is all about you. Why on earth would your customers care about you? You've been a fan since 13, opened a shop, and one day hope to own a first edition. Neat. This isn't a dating site - this is about your customers. Talk about why they should care about Jane Austen!

- Why does your coffee mug cost more than your jewelry?

- No social media presence listed, at all.

Don't misunderstand me - I'm not trying to be mean. This is the kind of brutal honesty I think you need to hear. The more I look at your site, the more issues I find with it. I think it needs a major overhaul.
Thanks your honesty is what I need. Mark
 

heavy_industry

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@Prusak I didn't say that the pricing is right, nor did I say that selling a box of random garbage is a good idea.

All I said is that small gifts (e.g. tea and biscuits in this case) and "Thank you" cards can add a lot of value to the customer experience for very little cost.

Why do you think every hotel in this world offers free soap bars and every airline gives free snacks to the passengers?
 
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xxx22

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@Prusak I didn't say that the pricing is right, nor did I say that selling a box of random garbage is a good idea.

All I said is that small gifts (e.g. tea and biscuits in this case) and "Thank you" cards can add a lot of value to the customer experience for very little cost.

Why do you think every hotel in this world offers free soap bars and every airline gives free snacks to the passengers?

Fair enough, they are selling garbage in the box though and pricing is off too which is my point, your point makes sense too, it's just not what they are doing.
 

Stargazer

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The site does not look very Jane Austenish.

When you read her books you are immersed in her world. Fans love that world on top of the fact the stories are great. They love the romance and pretty much all of your visitors will be fans. So it feels like you are not in the right place when you land on your site.

Here is your card Jane Austen Card | thejaneaustenshop.co.uk

And here is the museums card Jane Austen's Novels in Six Postcards

All the museums products look as if they are staged furniture that she would have had.

You can do this by popping into Antique shops and asking if you can take some snaps of your products on their Georgian/Regency furniture in exchange for a little something.

By the way if you can do a deal with an antique shop you could do a 'Buy this chair/table' at the same time if you get international visitors. Americans love this stuff.

The guy above is right. Your site looks more like a bunch of themed products on a trestle table in the village hall bring and buy sale. A bit Spartan. And like he said, axe what doesn't sell well if at all and give the descriptions a bit of oomph

Dan
 

Johnny boy

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Right now the only people who can buy from you are people who are actively searching out Jane Austin products to buy.

You need more people seeing the site. Attract them with something that has a similar interest but cast a wider net by offering value.

People who would totally buy this stuff but never see it because instead of having the idea to search “Jane Austin stuff for sale” they search Instagram for “Jane Austin fan page” and you could’ve been the person running that page who sometimes posts their products for sale.
 
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