Sales Down For 3 Months - Help?

[Growth & Learn]

Hey all,
Perhaps someone can share some insight? I'm lost and don't know how to fix this thing. I've been running this online business for 3 years. It's been consistent. In fact, our conversions have improved as we've gotten better at our process and added more products.

Something weird started happening in April. Sales have dropped over 60% for all products and all funnels are now converting at approx. 60% less. It continues to this day. For the life of me I can't figure out why?

I've tested and tested too. Site speed, buttons, email sign up forms, links, etc. They're all working.

Gone through analytics and can't find anything that screams holy ___ this is different or this is broke.

Our traffic is down by about 10% which isn't alarming but the part that I'm just lost on is why conversions for EVERY product are down approx. 60%.

Can anybody recommend some solutions? I'm confuses and feel like I'm twiddling my thumbs while we're losing money. I'm losing sleep and it sucks!

Should I hire a consultant? Where would I find a good one? Start changing our marketing even though it's worked solidly for 2 years?

Any advice from experience people who've been here before would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

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[mws87]

Is there always going to be a need for your product? Have you checked out competition? Have you gotten a "bad rap" somewhere online? What were the sources of your traffic/sales before?

Remember, insanity: if you're doing the same thing over and over again with only the same results, do something different.

 

[Growth & Learn]

Is there always going to be a need for your product? Have you checked out competition? Have you gotten a "bad rap" somewhere online? What were the sources of your traffic/sales before?

Remember, insanity: if you're doing the same thing over and over again with only the same results, do something different.

Good question. Need is a funny thing. I'm not selling food or shelter but there has been demand for this product for years. We haven't gotten a bad rap as far as I can tell. Done a lot of searching for that as well and can't find anything.

Traffic and sales came mostly from SEO and word of mouth.

For the most part I think competition remains consistent but hard to say 100%.

I have found 1 new competitor but they are very very early stages…i.e. small traffic and brand awareness currently. Plus, every time I check them out their offer prices and model have changed drastically (not from an A/B testing perspective either.) They're still just trying to figure out what they're doing I think.

 

[mws87]

Good question. Need is a funny thing. I'm not selling food or shelter but there has been demand for this product for years. We haven't gotten a bad rap as far as I can tell. Done a lot of searching for that as well and can't find anything.

Traffic and sales came mostly from SEO and word of mouth.

For the most part I think competition remains consistent but hard to say 100%.

I have found 1 new competitor but they are very very early stages…i.e. small traffic and brand awareness currently. Plus, every time I check them out their offer prices and model have changed drastically (not from an A/B testing perspective either.) They're still just trying to figure out what they're doing I think.

I'm still a newb and am by no means a marketing expert or anything so please excuse me if my questions are super obvious.

So your traffic is coming from search results then, right? Any funnel system set up? I'd say if you have some money to invest, try buying some ad space on Facebook (if you guys have a Facebook page). Just grind out a few new things.

There are allllll kinds of things going on, but try pushing a little more and see if any differences come about.

 

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[RBefort]

Welp, I am by no means a business expert, but have been following Grant Cardone for a bit now. I am in no way affiliated with him, but the guy is nutso about sales. Looks like you gotta gain more attention. Follow up with past customers, see if you can offer them any other products you have. Start finding people who don't have your product and have one of your competitors...see how they like it and if you can help them with anything. Start asking past customers if they know anyone who might need your product as well. Use Facebook, Meerkat/Periscope, twitter, instagram, on and on. Start doing things for free in relation to your product that helps people, and at the same time pitches your product. Really generalized because I don't know what you sell, but just going off of lessons I've learned from Grant. Also, how much did each customer spend with you? What would the 10% loss in traffic realistically lose you in conversions and sales numbers?

 

[mws87]

Welp, I am by no means a business expert, but have been following Grant Cardone for a bit now. I am in no way affiliated with him, but the guy is nutso about sales. Looks like you gotta gain more attention. Follow up with past customers, see if you can offer them any other products you have. Start finding people who don't have your product and have one of your competitors...see how they like it and if you can help them with anything. Start asking past customers if they know anyone who might need your product as well. Use Facebook, Meerkat/Periscope, twitter, instagram, on and on. Start doing things for free in relation to your product that helps people, and at the same time pitches your product. Really generalized because I don't know what you sell, but just going off of lessons I've learned from Grant. Also, how much did each customer spend with you? What would the 10% loss in traffic realistically lose you in conversions and sales numbers?

^^ good ideas here. Another thing to add: surveys. Setup a small quick survey. Let your customers know its to improve service and to hear what they have to say. Don't make it a long never ending survey, focus on the key things

 

[ZCP]

Without knowing your product niche...... Here are some things to check:
- market is saturated (everyone has one and they last too long)
- there is a leak in the funnel..... Could be a longer load time on a page, broken link, payment issue....
- you are out of style
- you got complacent and stale
- analyze your sales..... Were they all to a few users that have moved on our had a bad experience

Check the funnel from every direction and reskin / rebrand at the same time.

 

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[Growth & Learn]

Without knowing your product niche...... Here are some things to check:
- market is saturated (everyone has one and they last too long)
- there is a leak in the funnel..... Could be a longer load time on a page, broken link, payment issue....
- you are out of style
- you got complacent and stale
- analyze your sales..... Were they all to a few users that have moved on our had a bad experience

Check the funnel from every direction and reskin / rebrand at the same time.

Thanks for feedback. The product is mostly evergreen.

So, how would I know if product is out of style? Also, how would I know if I got complacent and stale? These are some of the things I'm having issues with tracking/understanding?

I mean part of me wants to do a page and an offer redesign but the products converted for 19 months like clockwork…then bam everything fell out.

I understand why that would happen on a product that is the latest trend in fashion or taste but again this is an evergreen product.

Still stumped and looking for data driven solutions.

 

[piesandak47]

So sales have been consistent month after month prior to April?

I find it hard to believe that something just dips 60% for no reason whatsoever, and very hard to say without know other details.

Unless you're saying you've been getting 3 sales per day prior to april and it dipped to 1 sale per day...then that's a different story.

 

[Growth & Learn]

So sales have been consistent month after month prior to April?

I find it hard to believe that something just dips 60% for no reason whatsoever, and very hard to say without know other details.

Unless you're saying you've been getting 3 sales per day prior to april and it dipped to 1 sale per day...then that's a different story.

I agree. There has to be a reason…I can't figure out why though. Yes, that is approx correct. approx. 3 sales per day on most items…now down to 0-1 sales per day for 10 different products.

 

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[piesandak47]

I agree. There has to be a reason…I can't figure out why though. Yes, that is approx correct. approx. 3 sales per day on most items…now down to 0-1 sales per day for 10 different products.

3 total or 3 for each product (in other words - 30 sales per day)?

Are these big ticket items?

 

[Iwokeup]

I agree. There has to be a reason…I can't figure out why though. Yes, that is approx correct. approx. 3 sales per day on most items…now down to 0-1 sales per day for 10 different products.

Unless all of your items were nearly the same (like, blue versus red versus green versions of the same product)...

this makes me think that there's a leak in your funnel or some sort of problem that you're not seeing (As @ZCP said).

 

[ZCP]

Are input volumes the same or did you lose a traffic source? Is the customer base finite in size and hit saturation? Up your bids / spend, try a fresh skin on LP's, and start coming up with a new and/or branch product.

 

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[ZCP]

@Andy Black

 

[Growth & Learn]

Unless all of your items were nearly the same (like, blue versus red versus green versions of the same product)...

this makes me think that there's a leak in your funnel or some sort of problem that you're not seeing (As @ZCP said).

Thanks for the tip. Great stuff. I just looked and noticed less people are reaching the checkout page step in the funnel. Need to further investigate why that might be happening.

Maybe a slow checkout page load or content being rendered improperly in certain browsers…need to comb through that more…I'm decent at analytics but not a data scientist.

If anybody has any other ideas from a strategy perspective I'm all ears.

 

[tafy]

Put inspectlet on your site and watch how people interact with it, they have a free version so its easy for you, just make sure you set it up so you dont see their CC details when they type it in.

Im thinking you have some kinda error somewhere on your site, i would pay for inspectlet personally and watch EVERY visitor and what they do, you will be amazed!

Another thought could be that the items recently been added to ebay/amazon for cheaper prices?

 

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[Boo Blizzi]

This is what im thinking... if you are getting traffic from SEO and have become an authority in the niche there may be people targeting your checkout page with PPV. (thats just one idea)

The next thing is to check GA and make sure you are still getting traffic from the same keyword/sources you were before the dip. If the source of traffic changed or Google did one of their updates, then you may not still be getting the same quality of traffic.

 

[Andy Black]

Traffic down 10%, and conversion rate down 60%, over a long time span, with the change happening over-night?

Sounds like a leak in your funnel as others have mentioned.

You think less people are getting to your checkout page too, so they are leaking out somewhere further up.

First step is to not make any hasty changes. Nothing's so screwed up you can't make it worse.

Look at conversion rates at each step in your funnel (obvious I know, but you didn't spot less people proportionally getting to your checkout page).

Other thoughts:

1) Why is traffic down 10%, and what is it made up of?
Did it drop overnight too? Or has this been dropping slowly over time?

Can you see what keywords (search terms), people are coming in on. Has that changed significantly? Maybe you suddenly got more of the browsing and comparison type of searchers and less of the buying searches. It seems odd that this would be overnight.

Check your top buying search term, has its volume changed significantly? Did it fall off a cliff around the time your conversion rate dropped?

80/20 analysis sir. Find what was bringing in most of your sales and spend most of your time analysing what, if anything, happened with that.

2) Google PLA listings?
I don't do eCommerce, but did Google change the SERP so that there are more listings appearing? It's odd that traffic dropped only 10%, but maybe people are suddenly seeing prices in the SERP, and your prices on your landing page don't compare favourably, or by seeing prices Google has turned people into comparison shoppers.

3) Paid search?
If you find one search term driving most of your sales then try doing AdWords paid search ads (with exact match on said search term), and Google PLA ads (which I have never run so can't comment).

 

[Andy Black]

( First step actually is to rule out any changes your side. Did you make ANY changes around about that time? Install a plugin, change copy, change a price, change images, etc.

When I was IT support helping to manage large mission critical systems, and something keeled over, or we got a critical alert come through, we all stopped what we were doing and sounded off whatever changes we had just made. Nothing's so screwed up you can't make it worse. Rule out your side first.)

 

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[Luke12321]

Similar issue with my site, for any eComm guys who have experienced anything like this.

The site/domain has been around for over a decade. Running on Volusion currently.

We have not changed anything. Can't put our finger on why the sales dropped off so dramatically over the last 2 months. (Hits and Orders below)

Jan 997 37
Feb 967 43
March 1145 55
April 1055 39
May 941 22

June has been even worse, only 7 orders so far.

They are no new competitor, our pricing, inventory availability has all been per the usual. No cart issues, abandoned carts higher than normal per reporting.

Where should I start to figure out what has caused the sales to drop so dramatically?

Thanks in advance guys. And not trying to hijack the thread, seems like we are similar boats though.

 

[ZCP]

What happened June of last year? Summer seasonal slowdown?

 

[Growth & Learn]

What happened June of last year? Summer seasonal slowdown?

I looked into that. No, there wasn't really a summer season slowdown last June.

 

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[Growth & Learn]

( First step actually is to rule out any changes your side. Did you make ANY changes around about that time? Install a plugin, change copy, change a price, change images, etc.

When I was IT support helping to manage large mission critical systems, and something keeled over, or we got a critical alert come through, we all stopped what we were doing and sounded off whatever changes we had just made. Nothing's so screwed up you can't make it worse. Rule out your side first.)

That's a great point Andy. It's a fairly popular site so there's always little stuff that changes on it. It's hard to pin down 100%. I'm digging through analytics though and noticed a few interesting things

#1. Normally the funnel progression from sales page to checkout page converts at around around 5%. Recently they've been at 2.5%. So, there's probably a leak right there. Can't figure out why yet.

#2. Safari is converting like shit this month. Other browsers are down too but Safari has taken the biggest nose dive.

#3. Certain screen resolutions have also taken a shit too. Like 80% lower. Some are smaller screen but the thing I find most interesting is that larger screen sizes have been hit as well.

Was there some sort of big update with Safari or certain browsers in the last 1-3 months?


Any insights as to wtf would cause issues with the list above would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[JamesSJ]

#2. Safari is converting like shit this month. Other browsers are down too but Safari has taken the biggest nose dive.

#3. Certain screen resolutions have also taken a shit too. Like 80% lower. Some are smaller screen but the thing I find most interesting is that larger screen sizes have been hit as well.

Google slapped sites that are not mobile ready from mid April - Check your conversions/traffic for mobile devices from organic traffic.

Do you have a screen recorder or heat map set up? Run it for a few days and then see what your audience is up to (Hotjar is pretty good).

What is your page loading time for each page in the checkout process?

Are your products on popular torrent sites? People may find your product in the SERPS near your own link.

What was the conversion rate this month last year and what is it this month?

It would be very valuable if you could tell us more about the actual product. Video or ebook, what niche etc...

 

[Kevin Peter]

Have you considered Google Dance?

 

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[blackhat]

Put inspectlet on your site and watch how people interact with it, they have a free version so its easy for you, just make sure you set it up so you dont see their CC details when they type it in.

Im thinking you have some kinda error somewhere on your site, i would pay for inspectlet personally and watch EVERY visitor and what they do, you will be amazed!

Another thought could be that the items recently been added to ebay/amazon for cheaper prices?

Whoa, this is great! Thanks for sharing. Just tired it on my site and it has already showed my exactly why someone left.

@Growth & Learn, if you haven't already, give this a try.

 

[biophase]

Jan 997 37
Feb 967 43
March 1145 55
April 1055 39
May 941 22

No enough data here to say you had a slowdown in sales. Your April numbers at inline with your January numbers. You can say that May should have had 12 more sales based on your numbers, but that is 12 people who did not hit checkout. If your numbers had an extra zero and 120 people did not buy then maybe I'd start to worry. But 12 people is so tiny you just can't panic and change things yet.

 

[Growth & Learn]

Whoa, this is great! Thanks for sharing. Just tired it on my site and it has already showed my exactly why someone left.

@Growth & Learn, if you haven't already, give this a try.

Yeah I'm installing it now. Thanks and hope this solves some issues.

 

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[Andy Black]

No enough data here to say you had a slowdown in sales. Your April numbers at inline with your January numbers. You can say that May should have had 12 more sales based on your numbers, but that is 12 people who did not hit checkout. If your numbers had an extra zero and 120 people did not buy then maybe I'd start to worry. But 12 people is so tiny you just can't panic and change things yet.

TBH.. I didn't really spot the numbers in the OP. My bad.

I'll repeat it again: "Nothing's so screwed up you can't make it worse."

 

[EN_VY]

Is your site mobile friendly? How is your site ranking? Starting April, Google uses that as a ranking factor.