Your thoughts on my website please!

[Deon]

Hey guys,

I've read TMF a couple of years ago, right after reading the 4HWW and these two books radically changed the way I view entrepreneurship and my future.

I have started a website some time ago, and created a Facebook page in the beginning just to gauge the interest of people.

It is a website that allows people to see what their local farms are offering and place an order to them through me. The farms we have on the website only have the best quality meat, meaning pasture raised, grass-fed, real free-range, no hormones, GMOs, etc...

Here are the issues I have:

- Most farms do not offer shipping and it's not easy to convince them, since they have to have ice packs and insulated boxes to ship the merchandise, and most are not convinced yet that they will see a return on their money. But shipping is something that could change dramatically the odds of my website succeeding, since most people won't necessarily want to order online to go pick up the meat. Farms can also steal the customers by asking them to order directly from them the next time. (The commandment of CONTROL is so violated I know)

- The way the website is set up right now, the customer places an order, from which I don't take money, so it's more like a "request for a quote". then I talk to the farm, and get back to the customer via phone or email to set up a "pick up/delivery" time. I then send the customer a payment email they can pay through. Also, ordering half a cow for example is not a set price, since each cow weighs differently, and thus doesn't count the same, so i can't just put a price to be paid on the website.

There are a couple more issues, but I would appreciate if you guys gave me your impressions just by browsing the website.

Thank you!

 

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[DaRK9]

I like it. Neat idea too. Last time I ordered a bunch of grass fed beef it came in by train. Bought 1/2 of a cow. LOL

 

[Weavie]

The site needs an "about" page where you explain how things work.

I wouldn't put "not available" next to the phone number. If you don't have a phone, don't mention it.

 

[Tiago]

Like the idea! And yes, a very visual "How this works" would be great.On the "Contact Us" page, the top section seems weird. The "Details" and your email address are just adding to unnecessary information in my opinion.

 

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[BUFFALOBT]

Is there competition for this service? I don't think the farmers will want to go direct to your customers, as long as you are providing lots of value and of course new customers for them...that they wouldn't have otherwise.

If you can somehow simplify the ordering process, you may have something you can scale up.

Good luck!

 

[Jakeeck]

Great idea I've always wanted to buy raw milk or grass-fed beef from a local farmer, but I never know where to start. Do I just go around asking farms 1 by 1 lol? I would use this.

Also, I'm not sure I see the value of having the farmers ship the stuff. If there's a local farm near the person searching then they could just go pick it up. I'd assume each of the farms you have in your database offers the same kind of stuff.

What's the benefit of having things shipped? Do you not have many farms to pick from?

 

[Deon]

Thank you for the input guys.

Yes, the phone number, and contact info was there on the website template, but i was planning on removing it.

@BUFFALOBT Yes, there is some competition. The biggest only has a couple of farms in the same region, that ship throughout the US. The inventory of those farms is all theirs so they control prices, shipping, etc much better. But it is not local, which is the concept of my website. There's another website that does the same thing as me, but it's so poorly made and confusing to use.

@Jakeeck Glad to see you like it man. I'm thinking the option of shipping would just add to the convenience of users receiving their meat to their homes, while sometimes the nearest farm is sometimes 150 miles away, etc.

EDIT: Plus, like I said before, with customers going to the farms, the farms can ask them to just order directly form them next time.

 

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[Deon]

Okay guys, thanks again for your input

I have made the suggested changes:

• Added a very clear "How it works" section on the main page with three simple steps to using the website.
• Removed the phone number from the bottom, replaced it with social media icons
• Removed the "details" part from the Contact Us page, and it now includes just the form.

I removed the name of my website from this thread, as I head bad things about people who have posted it in the past. I might bring it back once the website is more into the process.

Next Steps:

• Set up an email auto-responder, that will allow me to capture email addresses. I already have a pop-up set-up that will let people "Join The Club" in order to get the latest news from the farms, etc
• Announce on the Facebook page the new website redesign.
• Google Adwords campaign