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E-Commerce Site - Declining traffic/sales

by lbgeckos
7 replies
Hey Guys!! First of all this is my first post and finding this forum has been a god send.

I am making this post because I am finding myself stuck and I could really use some help.

I was brought into a start-up to clean up the mistakes of the guy before me and grow our start-up. I am seeing declining traffic and sales at my web store www dot makerskit dot com

I think my major focus needs to be quality traffic.


WHAT I HAVE TRIED:
I have fixed the website which has fixed our conversion rates, TOS, and pageviews.

I have optimized FB ads and we are growing our page at about 400-500 new likes a day.

I have brought on a great agency to handle SEO and PPC campaigns but we are in the research stage.

I am managing our retargeting campaign which is returning well(relatively speaking)

I have used promo's to boost sales, and contests to grow our email list but it seems futile with such low traffic.

The only thing that has really been driving traffic is Reddit and FB but they have yet to convert to sales for me.

WHAT I HAVE NOT TRIED

Heavy Content Marketing -- I know which content does well but pumping out interesting, quality content regularly is an issue.

Purchasing Traffic in my space -- I have looked into web traffic geeks and I can target my industry pretty well through them but unsure if I should pull the trigger.

PR Hacking -- Been thinking about it but have not actually done it. PR write ups drive small amounts of traffic.


If you guys had any ideas on top of this or just some feedback in general I would be so so thankful!

Thanks everyone
#declining #ecommerce #site #store #traffic or sales
  • Profile picture of the author neralu
    80% of the sales will come from 20% of the item...

    Following are some of the tips...
    1) Identify those sales items...
    2) Boost the promotion by creating a contest -- Have u tried this?
    3) Have you built the list? Roll out a special referal scheme...
    Eg: Some one refers their friend to become a member of your site, you offer certain amount of coupons or discount on the next sale etc..
    4) Do you have mobile app created for your site? if so, offer them some amount of offer to download them..

    Hope these kind of things would help...
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    • Profile picture of the author lbgeckos
      Originally Posted by neralu View Post

      80% of the sales will come from 20% of the item...

      Following are some of the tips...
      1) Identify those sales items...
      2) Boost the promotion by creating a contest -- Have u tried this?
      3) Have you built the list? Roll out a special referal scheme...
      Eg: Some one refers their friend to become a member of your site, you offer certain amount of coupons or discount on the next sale etc..
      4) Do you have mobile app created for your site? if so, offer them some amount of offer to download them..

      Hope these kind of things would help...
      Wow that first part hit. I think that is an insanely valuable piece of advice. We deffintitily have some clear winners and I have been trying to push all products but I will try pushing the heavy hitters.
      2) My PR girl has been doing some contests for email adress. Last months went well. Curious if you had any other promo strategies for sales other than emails? Maybe like a raffle after purchase?
      3) Looking into referral programs now.
      4) No mobile app but thinking it could be a cool thing for us. Might have to wait till we are in the black for that tho.

      Thanks for the response! Really got me thinking. Like I said, that first part was like WOAHHHH hahah
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      • Profile picture of the author rfrawley91
        Have you tried creating an online promotional video and running it on Adwords TrueView (youtube videos ads). Youtube is huge for DIY (I'm always searching new mounts to make for my GroPro haha). Pinterest is also another great social media site that is pretty big on DIY.
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  • Profile picture of the author salehoo
    Hi lbgeckos,

    Great looking website. You're doing a lot of things right from what I can see. Good to see you've got things like reviews there, great for user-generated content that could help you to rank for some long-tail keywords.

    I've got an SEO mistakes post here I was going to run by you: The 11 E-Commerce SEO Mistakes You Don't Know You're Making But it looks like you're pretty darn onto it already.

    "I have used promo's to boost sales, and contests to grow our email list" Ever tried solo ads to build your mailing list? Have you got an opt-in-bribe of some kind?
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    Salehoo
    http://www.salehoo.com

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    • Profile picture of the author lbgeckos
      Originally Posted by salehoo View Post

      Hi lbgeckos,

      Great looking website. You're doing a lot of things right from what I can see. Good to see you've got things like reviews there, great for user-generated content that could help you to rank for some long-tail keywords.

      I've got an SEO mistakes post here I was going to run by you: The 11 E-Commerce SEO Mistakes You Don't Know You're Making But it looks like you're pretty darn onto it already.

      "I have used promo's to boost sales, and contests to grow our email list" Ever tried solo ads to build your mailing list? Have you got an opt-in-bribe of some kind?
      Hey thanks! its always hard to feel like things are going right but I take my wins. Solo ads for mailing list is actually something I have not thought about. We do have an e-book that is kind of popular that I can turn into a digital download and try that. Maybe some sort of digital reward? Will have to mull that one over but I think you are onto something there.
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  • Profile picture of the author JakeThePeg
    Originally Posted by lbgeckos View Post

    I have fixed the website which has fixed our conversion rates, TOS, and pageviews.
    Have the site conversion rates risen since you made these changes? I would be focusing on maximising the conversion rates before you focus on increasing traffic - it's way easier to double sales from the traffic you have, than it is to try and double the traffic
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    • Profile picture of the author lbgeckos
      Originally Posted by JakeThePeg View Post

      Have the site conversion rates risen since you made these changes? I would be focusing on maximising the conversion rates before you focus on increasing traffic - it's way easier to double sales from the traffic you have, than it is to try and double the traffic
      Conversion rates are slow to rise but coming up since I made made the effort. Seen the average raise in 1 month by about .2% but still not in that sweet spot just yet. I think that makes a lot of sense but I am having a hard time testing with traffic being so low. I have a service to watch people use the site and I am finding a lot of browsing goes on. A good % of add to cart and % hit check out but people seem to bounce right after. I even have free shipping on $x but its slow to convice. Maybe they dont see the notification? SMH. need to work on that. Was thinking of looking into a service to offer discount codes on social sharing for that visit to increase urgency. Will probobly test that in the coming week to see if i cant get it to move faster. Might also drop the $ amount for free shipping. Just gotta make sure we are breaking even with that strategy. SO MUCH TO TRY HAHAH thanks for the question you got me thinking
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