I desperately need help understanding why my website isn't getting conversions.

62 replies
Sorry for the very long post. All info is necessary to understand my terrible situation.

I have invested a lot of my personal money into my dream, my hopes, and my lively hood. I'm on my last hopes and running out of time. I've spent all my money, my unemployment benefits from the government is running out, and I'm stressed out so much.

I'm looking for opinions, suggestions, help, support, just anything to keep me going now. Everyone I talk to suggests the Warrior Forum to me because they said its the best place for what could help me turn my business around and make some real money.

I started on eBay 3 years ago, and made some profits. I sold thousands per month. All profits I did make I put back into my business and registered it a LLC company, opened bank accounts, opened up a ebay store, and even gained access to hundreds of dropshippers as I built my portfolio. Btw, it's health, beauty, fashion and recently added wedding products that I now sell online.

About a year ago when I was doing taxes I realized that ebay took a lot of money of my sale, over $1200 a month I was paying in ebay fees when I started. As I noticed also that as the months went by, my sales were decreasing as more and more and more competition started coming. When I started, many of the products I was the only seller on there for that product, now searching, there's 10 other sellers with the same products just pennies cheaper then me.

I decided I wanted to move away from ebay so I started learning how to start my own eCommerce site, and I found Magento. I hired the same company that did my template for ebay to match it for Magento, and I spent a few weeks making tweaks. Then a few weeks more putting a few hundred products on.

I did everything from photos, titles, descriptions, short descriptions, prices/taxes, shipping methods, and most importantly, meta title, meta keywords, and meta description for SEO.

I set up promotions, banners, and did lots of graphic designs to prepare myself for advertising. Then finally I started. I tried a few different things.

Here is a list of everything I have done in the last 6 months. I have been working 60 hours a week by myself on this non stop.

-Facebook posts with promoting them. (without promotion they get 100 views total of my 6200 Facebook fans - promoting is the only way to ensure people see it)
-Facebook pay-per-click and impression advertising for targeted audience.
-Twitter posts.
-Google Adwords with around 10-15 different campaigns to test.
-Youtube promotional videos (made on Fiverr) - Even promoted for a few days on adwords.
-Created 3000 business cards on Vistaprint and put a coupon code on them and handed them out at dozens of stag & does for door prizes and events.
-Designed and created 25,000 double sided flyer and had them distributed to my city.
-Had 15 different Fiverr gigs hand out/post over a few thousands (in total) flyers at top universities and colleges in North America.
-Did 3 radio ads, aired 4 times each.
-Did over a dozen paid advertisements on Kijiji.
-Did 2 paid advertisements on Craigslist
-Did 1 paid advertisement on LinkedIN
-Did 1 Youtube Video Sponsorship with same-niche Vlogger that gets 800,000 views per video, we donated products to them in exchange for mentioning us in the video.
-We have done over a dozen press releases.
-We have been in our local newspaper.
-We have hundreds of P2 or higher backlinks to our site.
-We have been mentioned in several "supposedly" popular blogs

Basically in a nutshell, I've been working hard getting lots and lots of advertisements up and running to bring real traffic to my website. In the last 6 months I have had just over 105,000 visitors total. But here's my issue, I have 0 conversions so far, and only 10 signups.

Over the last 6 months by bounce rate's averaged out to 74%, which is very high!

I've been on many forums, got suggestions from professionals and many reviews of the site done (started 5 months ago). I've adjusted the advertising, branding, promotions, design etc as suggestions came in. Months went by, and months went by, and the changes didn't help.

-I've added a points & rewards system - with a higher giveback reward then any site I've seen.
-I've offered free products just for sign-ups.
-I've offered buy 2 get 1 free deals.
-I've offered free shipping.
-I've offered contests to giveaway $500 in free product (which got 3500 views around, and no participation)
-I've integrated Facebook for easier registration and log-in.
-I've got a toll free number and mailbox address for the business (when i started I didn't)
-I've re-written my 'about us', 'shipping' 'returns', etc pages to be more professional.
-I've added 'hot' products that were selling super good on ebay and offered at amazing prizes.
-I've added a live-chat button.
-I've added convenient social media sharing toolbar that floats on the right side.
-I've advertised on Pinterest, and Instagram Also.
-I've tried engaging social media followers, ocasionally of the 6200 likes on Facebook I get 1-2 people that participate, but then stop.
-I've read hundreds of how-to blog posts and even copied popular companies ideas, its not working.
-I've gotten litterly over 20 reviews saying that my website is great and should have no problems selling. But why aren't people buying anything?

Most of my products prices are cheaper then retail stores (even without coupons) and I'm always offering 10-30% off coupons almost at all times. PLUS a 10% off first order. After using a coupon, I think all my products are cheaper then even ebay sellers. But I still haven't even made 1 sale yet.

The one-page checkout and payment has been tested. It's not broken, buyers can pay using Paypal, or their credit card thru Paypal for buyer security.

We get over 100 views a day, generated from different traffic avenues, but still a 54-95% bounce rate. In fact, March 19th and March 20th both had over 150 visits and both were 95% bounce rate.

Page Speed tests show fine, A, and A+ ratings from some sources, and anywhere between 79%-91% ratings on others. Load speed is well below 4 seconds.

So in 6 months, $17,000 of my personal money went into this as I ran out of business money, and over $30,000 of my business money went into this. That doesn't include inventory. That money was only spent on site creation, optimization, and advertising/marketing.

Currently all profits made monthly on ebay are paying the monthly/yearly fees of running the website/mailbox/phone number/other services.

I have no more income coming in for myself or my new wife and newborn son. And I'm very very desperate to find out the reason why this isn't working because my money is running out fast.

The website in question is erikashealthandbeauty.net

I'm used to having my pride and never have asked for anything in my life, but I'm asking now, I really need help :/ I don't know what to do. Suggestions and opinions on where I am going wrong would be much much appreciated.

-Damien

I've started testing changes according to dozens of suggest, so it might look wacky now



--UPDATE-- - April 7th, 2013

I've had a chance to read through all 55+ replies and I thank everyone for suggestions and support. I'm going to take a step back and reflect on whats been said for a few days and see what I can do to salvage this in the future.

For now, I do have a new brand launching in USA and Canada for women cosmetics products and I can work on that with my trade shows and wholesale for now.

As for this online webstore; perhaps a simple host transfer to fix the slow load times and a complete template/color overhaul (from a cheap but crisp looking template) to fix the eyesore would be able to bandage this up for now and perhaps earn money at minimum costs. I think I've spent enough on advertising. And I think I've spent enough on professional design.
#conversions #desperately #understanding #website
  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Damien,
    The overall look of your site is quite amateurish. You need to look at your top competitors and see the design standard for your industry. Also, you need better product descriptions. You just list features. MAKE THE READER UNDERSTAND WHY they need to buy and why they need to BUY FROM YOU. Make sure your descriptions are SEO-compliant. Finally, make your blog work for you. It looks quite shallow in terms of impact.
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  • Profile picture of the author sb06
    Damien,

    While I’m an absolute newb and probably can’t offer you much advice on your current site, I just wanted to let you know that I read your post and am totally empathetic to your situation. You OBVIOUSLY have worked very hard to create your business and I really hope you get the help and answers you’re looking for!

    One piece of advice I have for you doesn’t have to do with how to get conversions on your current site… but my suggestion might help you create more income online. You said “Currently all profits made monthly on ebay are paying the monthly/yearly fees of running the website/mailbox/phone number/other services.” I’m not sure exactly HOW much that is… but you’re still making money online! After browsing the Warrior Forum for awhile, you’ll notice, (especially on the Warrior Special Offers Forum) that there is a HUGE market for people wanting to make money online! Since you’ve proven you’ve been successful with that (on ebay) my suggestion to you is how about you create your own product, (whether it be a video course or an ebook) and you can actually sell that as a WSO (Warrior Special Offer) here on Warrior Forum! There are also other websites such as Clickbank and JVzoo where you can sell your digital product as well.

    I know that’s not the advice you were looking for… but the fact that you’ve been successful with selling on ebay totally popped out in my mind, as something you can teach others and make money by doing so.

    Good luck with everything and much success to you!
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  • Profile picture of the author HarrieB
    1. Is there a demand for all these products in USA?

    2. Who are your competitors?

    3. What are your main keywords? Is there a demand for your keywords/products actually?

    4. Are people actually searching for things like
    Twill Labcoat 3 Pockets Solid Half Sleeve Plasic Buttons

    or

    Pleaser - 6" Heel Strappy Sling Back Cutout Platform Sandal

    Honestly speaking, I am not very impressed with the design of the ecommerce store.
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    • Originally Posted by writeaway View Post

      Damien,
      The overall look of your site is quite amateurish. You need to look at your top competitors and see the design standard for your industry. Also, you need better product descriptions. You just list features. MAKE THE READER UNDERSTAND WHY they need to buy and why they need to BUY FROM YOU. Make sure your descriptions are SEO-compliant. Finally, make your blog work for you. It looks quite shallow in terms of impact.

      I would like to know why it seems amateurish. Its a $2500 design before any tweaks. Compared to many of my competitors its more clean and professional. It is however geared more towards girlyness with the color scheme as my target audience is 16-34 yr old women.

      The blog absolutely needs works. Its new to the site, I had an outside blog before but was suggested to have one inside the site to improve SEO & page rankings with blog posts. The blog has 1 or 2 test posts I did and I havent really worked on it. My focus is short-term traffic right now to get sales today rather then long-term blog post traffic.

      With my high bounce rate, it appears no one even clicks on the blog link so I dont want to focus too too much time on the blog right now, but I will spend some time and see if I can improve that over the next couple days.

      Thank you.


      Originally Posted by sb06 View Post

      Damien,

      While I'm an absolute newb and probably can't offer you much advice on your current site, I just wanted to let you know that I read your post and am totally empathetic to your situation. You OBVIOUSLY have worked very hard to create your business and I really hope you get the help and answers you're looking for!

      One piece of advice I have for you doesn't have to do with how to get conversions on your current site... but my suggestion might help you create more income online. You said "Currently all profits made monthly on ebay are paying the monthly/yearly fees of running the website/mailbox/phone number/other services." I'm not sure exactly HOW much that is... but you're still making money online! After browsing the Warrior Forum for awhile, you'll notice, (especially on the Warrior Special Offers Forum) that there is a HUGE market for people wanting to make money online! Since you've proven you've been successful with that (on ebay) my suggestion to you is how about you create your own product, (whether it be a video course or an ebook) and you can actually sell that as a WSO (Warrior Special Offer) here on Warrior Forum! There are also other websites such as Clickbank and JVzoo where you can sell your digital product as well.

      I know that's not the advice you were looking for... but the fact that you've been successful with selling on ebay totally popped out in my mind, as something you can teach others and make money by doing so.

      Good luck with everything and much success to you!
      Thank you very much, its been a hard road!!


      Originally Posted by HarrieB View Post

      1. Is there a demand for all these products in USA?

      2. Who are your competitors?

      3. What are your main keywords? Is there a demand for your keywords/products actually?

      4. Are people actually searching for things like
      Twill Labcoat 3 Pockets Solid Half Sleeve Plasic Buttons

      or

      Pleaser - 6" Heel Strappy Sling Back Cutout Platform Sandal

      Honestly speaking, I am not very impressed with the design of the ecommerce store.
      For the shoes; there is a demand, I've been constantly monitoring ask/question sites and forums for my target audience. And Prom season is just ending. I sold dozens of prom dresses and just as many shoes on ebay. I added the shoes to my site to meet the need of buyers wanting shoes for their prom, I sold some on ebay.... but none on the site.

      For the medical labcoat/scrubs, those were added when I sent flyers to universities/colleges as they were handed out and posted to medical students who needed uniforms for school, my prices with the coupon code was cheaper then local wal-mart scrub/medical sets. I got views, but no buys.

      Being a multi-product line niche that sells products that complement the other niches, its hard to choose one type of competitor, definitely Forever21 is a competitor, once I get more prom dresses and teen clothing online for sure. But I think with offering ocasional coupon codes, I should be able to compete price-wise.

      I heavily believe my strongest issue is trust & unknowningness. I think once people start buying and word gets out that their experience is positive with us, we may be able to start growing, but I just don't know anymore.

      I would like to know why you believe the design isn't impressive. It's different than the typical online-store boring look. It's more brand oriented. The color-scheme/header matches our own product line labels which in-person sell good. I'm getting ready to launch our skincare & haircare brand line in North America which had positive test results in east asia last year and the branding matches our logo/color scheme. It also did well in local tests at physical sales.

      We came to this style/design/look based on hundreds of opinions and after getting to it, we've had many positive comments about how it looks good. I'm not sure if the design we have and the fact that people are not buying are connected.

      I have tradeshows lined up to launch our new product and Its really the last form of advertising for the website I havent tried yet. But I cant just rely on trade shows, I need the website to get popular to sell our own branded products. If it cant even sell a brand product like Loreal or Avon at half price, why would it sell our own brand product that no one knows about?

      I'm open to all suggestions and will reflect onto what you've said. It's very much appreciated.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheSalesBooster
    Hey Damien,

    Sorry to say, but you have a lot of problems going on here...

    First question, Who is Erika? Is that your wife?

    2nd question, Why call your site Erikashealthandbeauty.net where's the .com?

    These are just some tiny nuances I had to ask about, now on to the problems with the site.

    1. Your design is bad...

    A Black background is never a good idea.

    Half of the top of your page has a picture of a woman and text on the left that is barely readable. I'm guessing this woman is Erika, but why is she there looking at me? Point is, it's a waste of real estate.

    You have ads for other people's website on your site... You can't even get sales on your own site and your plastering ads all over it giving people a chance to leave it to go look at something else... That's a big NO NO.

    Overall the design is just cluttered and ugly. No sense of direction or reason WHY I should care about buying from your website.

    I could go on and on about this design, but I think you get the idea... It needs to be changed.



    2. Your site has no direction.

    Your site is like one big garage sale. You just found a bunch of products to toss on the site and your hoping someones going to come to your site and find something they like and buy it. That's a terrible business model. You need focus! You need to focus on being good at selling one thing, before you try and become good at selling everything.

    This is the main problem with your site. Nobody knows who Erika is and why they should buy from her. Use that waste of space at the top to give your site an opportunity to connect with the customer and tell them what they can do and find on the website...


    There are other things, but your main focus needs to be fixing the above problems before you do anything else...

    Good luck.
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    • Originally Posted by TheSalesBooster View Post

      Hey Damien,

      Sorry to say, but you have a lot of problems going on here...

      First question, Who is Erika? Is that your wife?

      2nd question, Why call your site Erikashealthandbeauty.net where's the .com?

      These are just some tiny nuances I had to ask about, now on to the problems with the site.

      1. Your design is bad...

      A Black background is never a good idea.

      Half of the top of your page has a picture of a woman and text on the left that is barely readable. I'm guessing this woman is Erika, but why is she there looking at me? Point is, it's a waste of real estate.

      You have ads for other people's website on your site... You can't even get sales on your own site and your plastering ads all over it giving people a chance to leave it to go look at something else... That's a big NO NO.

      Overall the design is just cluttered and ugly. No sense of direction or reason WHY I should care about buying from your website.

      I could go on and on about this design, but I think you get the idea... It needs to be changed.



      2. Your site has no direction.

      Your site is like one big garage sale. You just found a bunch of products to toss on the site and your hoping someones going to come to your site and find something they like and buy it. That's a terrible business model. You need focus! You need to focus on being good at selling one thing, before you try and become good at selling everything.

      This is the main problem with your site. Nobody knows who Erika is and why they should buy from her. Use that waste of space at the top to give your site an opportunity to connect with the customer and tell them what they can do and find on the website...


      There are other things, but your main focus needs to be fixing the above problems before you do anything else...

      Good luck.


      Much appreciated feedback. I'll have to think of something for the top overhead banner, maybe shrink it (the girl) , get rid of the slogan as it appears small on some screen sizes,

      As for the ads, the ads go to other companies I own, which make a lot of money already. But I cant tap into that money as its locked in. According to statistics, no one was clicking on them anyways. I just removed them from the site, thanks.

      Our focus is women products. Health, Beauty, Fashion, Wedding for women. Ages 16-40 at most. Health/Wellness/Vitamins for women. Beauty, Makeup, haircare, nailcare, bath & body for women. Fashion accessories, shoes, clothing purses etc for women. And recently, wedding products as women love to spend on wedding.

      All our products tie into 1 focus. Theres only 700 products right now added, that why it appears scattered. I have 130,000 more products to be added, but it takes over 25 minutes to prep each product from writing description, title, editing photo and sizing it, and doing all the keywords and SEO that needs done. On a good day I can add at most 40 products. I dont have a team yet that can do the data entry.

      On ebay I'm good at selling, I sell over 20 items a day.

      How can I make it look less cluttered? I'm having a issue with the coding where it wont scale the site to the size of screen. It wont seem to do it.

      I will see what happens when I adjust the background color to lighter. Thank you.
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      • Profile picture of the author PROBIZ7777
        Originally Posted by erikashealthandbeauty View Post

        Much appreciated feedback. I'll have to think of something for the top overhead banner, maybe shrink it (the girl) , get rid of the slogan as it appears small on some screen sizes,

        As for the ads, the ads go to other companies I own, which make a lot of money already. But I cant tap into that money as its locked in. According to statistics, no one was clicking on them anyways. I just removed them from the site, thanks.

        Our focus is women products. Health, Beauty, Fashion, Wedding for women. Ages 16-40 at most. Health/Wellness/Vitamins for women. Beauty, Makeup, haircare, nailcare, bath & body for women. Fashion accessories, shoes, clothing purses etc for women. And recently, wedding products as women love to spend on wedding.

        All our products tie into 1 focus. Theres only 700 products right now added, that why it appears scattered. I have 130,000 more products to be added, but it takes over 25 minutes to prep each product from writing description, title, editing photo and sizing it, and doing all the keywords and SEO that needs done. On a good day I can add at most 40 products. I dont have a team yet that can do the data entry.

        On ebay I'm good at selling, I sell over 20 items a day.

        How can I make it look less cluttered? I'm having a issue with the coding where it wont scale the site to the size of screen. It wont seem to do it.

        I will see what happens when I adjust the background color to lighter. Thank you.
        I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly. I'm trying to ask a question about the answer written by ERIKASHEALTHANDBEAUTY. Damien wrote "But I can't tap into that money as its locked in" Question: Why is the money locked in? There is also another problem in your answer. Damien wrote: 1) Other companies I own, which make A LOT OF MONEY ALREADY 2) No one was clicking on them anyway - Isn't this a contradiction?
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    • Profile picture of the author PookieThePirate
      Wait a second... you spent 30k on this website? As well as advertising? I think you got robbed.

      I understand you did this alone, but there is no way 30k should have been implemented. You put all your eggs into one basket without testing the waters so to speak...

      How is it you have facebook likes, twitter followers, but no buyers? That's a bit weird.

      Your site design and name are problems for me. Dark colors don't really make people buy things unless the buyer knows for sure what they want and don't care. I know that sounds weird, but especially for your niche, bright colors would work better. Go with white. I have seen some wordpress themes better than this template... for free...

      Also, why don't you try Etsy? It's like ebay only they sell the types of items you sell. It's more targeted that way IMO. They are also not that cheap there. I know the competition on ebay is ridiculous with these chinese sellers basically selling the same thing for pennies. Etsy has a higher standard it seems. Etsy loves handcrafted stuff too.

      A .com domain should be a must and it's not properly branded. You just have "erika's health and beauty" but the font was hard to read.

      Who is the asian woman at the top? Is that Erika, is that your wife? As soon as I saw that picture I thought I was at some asian spa store. It would be strange to have a name when trying to be personal with buyers, and then have a random woman at the top. That ain't Erika!

      Your items... you have lab coats, and then you have earrings. You just listed them, and as someone who tried to browse your website, I didn't even know what I was looking for. Things are very scattered. You are not showing any reason for why your buyers should shop at your website. I'm 21 years old and this is hard on my eyes.

      The banners are confusing, if they even had a border they would look less 90's.

      And then you have shoes selling at a health and beauty store?! Your website is all over the place. "Health and beauty" is very broad. Actually, those two subjects are broad. A broad and a broad don't make a niche lol.

      If I was in your situation, I'd just sell my stuff on amazon.com, you don't have to do their amazon webstore, even though they have this "buy on amazon" button that comes with it. When people see they can check out with amazon, there is this immediate sense of security people get. You can also be an amazon affiliate and put a search bar on the side and you'd still somehow get money if they use that amazon search bar. Or you can put that on your website but that's a different story.

      OR give all your stuff to amazon and be apart of their fulfillment program. I'm suggesting all this because I personally wouldn't have made a website for all the things you're selling. It's definitely ebay/amazon bound products. Or once again, try etsy.com.

      The thing with amazon fulfillment is that people once again, they see "Amazon PRIME" and love the fact that it comes from amazon's warehouse (you would ship your stuff to amazon, they sell for you when people buy), and that they can get it in 2 days if they are a prime member. Amazon handles the returns as well.

      I just searched more of your store. YOU ARE SELLING GUCCI AND CHANEL?! Go on amazon and be apart of their fulfillment program man, or etsy. Those are good alternatives to me. People are wary of buying online from people they don't know (though some people know they can get their money back with Paypal). You haven't built up a reputation, there are no reviews of your website on the internet I am assuming. People have no time to look up if you are legit, they'll just go on some other big name website where there's reviews and security they can get their money back. Also, did you add your website on alexa.com?

      I went to categories, then make up, then eye care, then... it didn't go any futher. You don't have your items listed by brand. The fact that you have gucci and chanel and you don't put it out there that you have that stuff in your store, I think that's a mistake. People like brand names, they want to see it. If I didn't search your store (you have a high bounce rate, no?) I wouldn't have known you were selling Gucci items.

      Your website is just not specific. Searching, I see lab coats, high brand named make up, shoes, then wedding products? Those are all niches by itself, another mistake trying to put it all at once.

      sorry if I was harsh, I really hoped I helped. I feel for you. I just realized though I didn't really say how to help with your website... I'm one of those people that if something doesn't work, I go in other directions lol. Without spending more, just fix the way it looks, though I would say to change the domain name but you would lose traffic even more. But if you wanna test some alternatives, once again amazon's fulfillment program or etsy.

      Also did you know you can add your store to google, and let's say someone searches for Chanel Make up eye cream.. whatever the heck that is, it can be see at the top of google. You have to pay for that though... but look up "add your store to google" on google. Product ads I believe is what it's called. Works like adwords, only it's products.
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      • Originally Posted by PookieThePirate View Post

        Wait a second... you spent 30k on this website? As well as advertising? I think you got robbed.

        I understand you did this alone, but there is no way 30k should have been implemented. You put all your eggs into one basket without testing the waters so to speak...
        I spent 47k including advertising and marketing. 80% was advertising costs, getting 105,000 people to the site costed around 36,000. 36 cents per visitor. google adwords keywords are 1.49-2.20 per click, and facebook is 0.55-1.20 per click ish, then I did flyer distribution as well.

        I appreciate all the feedback.

        I got to figure out how to change the background color still. I found the jpg files to alter the header and logo, so I can change the background in that area to a very very ver pale lite purple.

        The look I want to go for is the old "La Senza" look from last year where they were all black/dark red. But I want purples and a bit of black. On my screen the background looks medium purple. But everyone keeps commenting its black >.<
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        • Profile picture of the author PookieThePirate
          Originally Posted by erikashealthandbeauty View Post

          I spent 47k including advertising and marketing. 80% was advertising costs, getting 105,000 people to the site costed around 36,000. 36 cents per visitor. google adwords keywords are 1.49-2.20 per click, and facebook is 0.55-1.20 per click ish, then I did flyer distribution as well.

          I appreciate all the feedback.

          I got to figure out how to change the background color still. I found the jpg files to alter the header and logo, so I can change the background in that area to a very very ver pale lite purple.

          The look I want to go for is the old "La Senza" look from last year where they were all black/dark red. But I want purples and a bit of black. On my screen the background looks medium purple. But everyone keeps commenting its black >.<
          It is dark purple to me.

          Did you create the website? I see something on the bottom, someone designing it for you? It's connected to your ebay account in some way?

          you have 130k more items to add?!? you are trying to build an authority site with no audience.

          you plan to ship all that stuff from your house or warehouse? I feel like an amazon spokesperson everytime I keep saying to join their fulfillment program. You just list the items, send to them, and they basically sell for you. Then you collect the money every 2 weeks. I think if you got an amazon webstore, listed your items on amazon, you could basically have income on autopilot since they would ship it out. You just restock or check if things are okay.

          your handcrafted items would do well on etsy.com I think. Especially if they are nice photos... maybe brighten some a bit. They like professional looking pictures over there.
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          • Originally Posted by PookieThePirate View Post

            It is dark purple to me.

            Did you create the website? I see something on the bottom, someone designing it for you? It's connected to your ebay account in some way?

            you have 130k more items to add?!? you are trying to build an authority site with no audience.
            I edited the website and made tweaks.

            The design was created by a company who did my ebay template. And it looks the same almost identical - same 'darkness', same text, and I did over 250,000 in ebay sales in 2012. But thats not much profit, profit is 5-6% after paying ebay fees, paypal fees, and paying taxes, and the ocasional ebay scam buyer who finds a way to keep the product and get a refund at the same time. It does 15-18k in profit a year now thats it.

            Between my contacts I built over the last few years my collected portfolio has 130k products, wholesale and dropship just for the type of product I want to sell. I have a small warehouse in Canada that I ship all the handcrafted items from. But the rest are dropshipped from suppliers in North America, Australia, and East Asia countries. Each product description says "this product ships from a Canadian Warehouse", or "this product ships from a USA warehouses" etc etc.

            I have everything prepared to sell on Amazon, my website backend is integrated into Amazon so I can just export all products added to the site and it'll get uploaded to Amazon with the descriptions and pictures/prices the same. But I havent tested it yet, and I wanted to wait until I have much much more products to do the first transfer.



            I just put a quote request into my website designer for:

            - Changing the site to be scale-able for different size monitors (this will fix some small font issues and crowdedness)
            - Changing the background from Dark Purple to light/pale purple
            - Shrinking the header size so it doesn't take up as much space
            - Remove slogan from header
            - Change menu font style to be better readable
            - Maybe add a red color somewhere into the scheme so its not only purples. So it'll look better on the eyes
            - Put a scrolling feature product in
            - check price of adding a daily-deal feature product.
            - reduce clutter by making the website wider/more spaced out.


            However, all this will take many hours of work to do, looking at another $850-900 minimum plus costs of addons/modules to add to Magento.
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            • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
              Originally Posted by erikashealthandbeauty View Post

              The design was created by a company who did my ebay template.

              ----

              I just put a quote request into my website designer
              I would NOT recommend using the same web designer
              who created the current dog's dinner version of your
              poorly converting website.

              Why continue reward their design failures?

              For a start, if you want to improve the design of your
              site, then GET RID OF the black background with white
              text. It is a notoriously bad combination that is very
              hard for people to read.

              If they don't read your site, they sure as hell ain't gonna
              convert into paying customers. Any web designer worth
              their salt could tell you that - in advance.

              As a first step use black text on a white background
              for the majority of your site.

              I guess this is probably not what you want to hear but
              it is what you need to hear.

              Dedicated to mutual success,

              Shaun
              Signature

              .

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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Apart from one little comment, I can't add anything to posts #18 and #23 above, which have kind of "said it all".

          Originally Posted by erikashealthandbeauty View Post

          The look I want to go for is the old "La Senza" look from last year where they were all black/dark red. But I want purples and a bit of black.
          You want to copy something that someone else who's very successful has tested and abandoned? You're not concerned about why La Senza is no longer using that?
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          • Profile picture of the author esk
            Why would you use an asian woman in the header for the american market?
            This sends a couple of subliminal messages for example, "We are a chinese brand with low quality."

            Why would you spend 30k in advertising if you can't make a single sale?
            Seriously how can you justify that? You should stop immediately buying advertising and focus on the conversion part. Then you can buy advertising for $100 and if you can't make at least $100 in profit you should go back and work at the conversion part.

            Why would you use fonts you can hardly read? This is really a conversion killer.

            Why would you choose black as a background color? Especially if you want to sell to 16-31 year old women. They are going to think "I've landed on a hacker site"

            Domain Name is bad I've read your domain name a couple of times and was on your site three times now. I still can't remember anything else beside "Erika".

            small changes won't do it If you have something that is working as bad as your site, small changes won't do the trick. You need to make huge changes and see what works. If you've found something that is working continue doing small changes to further improve it.

            Have you tested to order something? I really can't believe that it is possible to get 100K visits and not make a single sale no matter how bad a site is.
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  • Profile picture of the author sanhal
    Personally black sites put totally put me off. Purple & black may be cool but I would not associate these colors with health & beauty.

    When I started in IM I was told by a number of coaches to use black text on a white background.

    Your site looks too busy. You can't see the wood for the trees.

    Pinterest is good for traffic. Your images would look great on there and you can add your prices. The images link back to your site but if your site is not great it may not help with the conversions. Just have a look at how others are doing it on Pinterest.

    Good luck

    Sandy
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  • Profile picture of the author MartinPlatt
    You sites looks a bit too busy to me, and I think needs to be cleaner and simpler - not sure the pink is the go - it needs to be toned down a bit, so it doesn't give people a migraine. Doesn't look overly professional to me - no offence - the logos are cool, and with a few tweaks you could improve it a lot.

    The fonts whilst funky, as not very readable, which make it look a little more unprofessional.

    Also, it's a pure shopfront - there's nothing beneficial that is immediately obvious that would make me go to your store. No reviews, discounts, or whatever. I think I'd just go to Amazon or eBay, "because I know them". You need to look credible. You need to add value somehow, and you need traffic, so you need something to pull that traffic in.

    Your front page says nothing about why I would buy from you, and you're not a household name, so I think you need to spell it out.

    I'd possibly also consider a slider control in there somewhere for featured products as that would probably be more engaging to your users. Also if you do discounts, put them in there too...

    I was in charge of a huge telecommunications sales platform that was similar - just if you need to know where my experience is coming from. That was white, with grey highlights, and the odd subtle blue, then the actual things your selling stand out, rather than the web site selling them?

    If you need any other help, just let me know!
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  • Profile picture of the author Ashley Walker
    Based on my quick look of only 10 second, the prime time. here is my evaluation:
    1. the words is too small, I don't what is that site is all about
    2. The theme is dark but it promote accessory, I don't think that is matching, (my opinion as a girl)
    3. too crowded, can you make it simpler?
    there is no TOP product or something that is highlighted. and there is no review about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Youronlinestuff
    OP the problem you have is you think because you have 'worked hard' and invested 'a lot of money' you are entitled to certain results. I'm sorry to tell you this but 'hard work' and 'investment' are very relative terms and the universe dosen't care what you personally think you have put in and what you should have got in return, all that matters is the results.

    you are like edison in that you've found lots of ways how not to make a lightbulb.
    you now have to keep on trying, while using your intelligence, until you find how to get the results you want. no one can do this for you.
    If i were you i'd get a job, save up money and start again this time applying everything i've have learned from my previous failures.
    yes that's probably not what you want to hear, but it's just the way it is, or you can just give up and quit.
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  • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
    If your header is going to take up half the screen it needs to show your viewers what your site is about. A girl looking pensive tells me nothing. Either have a very shallow header or showcase a selection of your products there.

    The font is really hard to read. Use a plain font. Site visitors rarely award points out of 10 for design - they want to know at one glance what the site is about. Take a look at Buy High Quality Vitamins, Minerals and Herbal Supplements Online | Holland & Barrett - the UK's Leading Health Retailer a well known UK site. The font is plain. The background is white and a wide selection of products are visible at a single glance.
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  • Profile picture of the author marco005
    Hi,

    Have I understand you right- you have an ebay shop with 700 products and you sell 20 items a day?

    That is a dream, in europe this is not possible, with an ebay shop with 700 products you will make max. 30-40 sales in a month! With products with a 7 euro profit marge (exclude all ebay fees) you make 210-280 euros in month.

    Why? I have no answer. The europe market is not so buyer firendly than the us market? ???


    best wishes
    marco005
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  • Profile picture of the author sprucehill
    Originally Posted by erikashealthandbeauty View Post


    I just put a quote request into my website designer for:

    - Changing the site to be scale-able for different size monitors (this will fix some small font issues and crowdedness)
    - Changing the background from Dark Purple to light/pale purple
    - Shrinking the header size so it doesn't take up as much space
    - Remove slogan from header
    - Change menu font style to be better readable
    - Maybe add a red color somewhere into the scheme so its not only purples. So it'll look better on the eyes
    - Put a scrolling feature product in
    - check price of adding a daily-deal feature product.
    - reduce clutter by making the website wider/more spaced out.
    All these things will help. I looked at your site, and frankly, it almost gave me a migraine. I clicked away immediately, and I suspect others are doing that for the same reasons. The dark purple is very off-putting, the font on the menu buttons is nearly impossible to read, and the whole site is too dark, too cluttered and too busy. It just looks like a big mess.

    If I were a shopper, it would take way more time than I was willing to spend, just to try and find anything, or even to try to read the menus. Lose the dark background and try for a light, clean, un-cluttered look. The lighter the background, the better.

    Everything definitely needs to be wider spaced. If you are going to have only 3 columns of products, which is fine, the columns need to be much wider, with larger pictures so the visitor can see the products better without having to squint, and good product descriptions. The central 3-column product area should be much bigger, and the sidebars much smaller and not so overpowering.

    Good luck.
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    • Profile picture of the author Lateef Olajide
      Two Issues:

      1. Your Advertisement

      Your advertising are probably not focused on a product or category on your site. They are probably brand ads.

      2. Your page

      If the ads are brand ads then sending brand ad to page like yours is not best decision.

      Conclussion:

      You are learn a lot from AMAZON and ecommerce sites like it - no matter what you r category is.

      Amazon pages are neat and when they advertise they promote specific product or category.
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      • Profile picture of the author SurrealPSD
        Im sorry to hear about your plight.. Im with the others, ditch the designer immediately - go for clean, preferrably white as suggested by the Warriors. Let the products do the talking, go for a more minimal aesthetic.

        I have a dark background website, but my target demographic is predominantly 18-45 yr old males interested in Horror and Sci-Fi, in that context it works. Put together a 'mood-board' of all succesfull competitor sites, and feed that info to your new designer for reference material.

        Best of luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author mmh3
    My opinion is it looks like an asian designed website, which would be fine for the asian market... but americans are scared a bit, especially women of being scammed. I think you sold well on ebay, because ebay or paypal is who offered confidence in doing the actual monetary exchange. Also, to me the product pictures seem cheaply done. I'm thinking it needs a total re-design by americans, if that is who you sell to. Or needs to look more american... good luck to you! And total respect to you for all you have put into this so far
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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    Your website colours give me a headache and it looks amateur. Get a new designer ASAP and have it redesigned.

    You're selling far too many different things in different niches. Work out what sells best and focus on, in one area. No one goes to a site to buy shoes, make up and lab coats and it'll just put people off seeing so much different stuff on there.

    I think you're better off working with ebay, amazon and etsy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    Btw have you asked your visitors and FB fans etc why they are visiting and not purchasing? Would be the first step to getting some feedback really.
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  • Profile picture of the author carlo_sim
    You have a good marketing plan but...

    Problem #1: Your niche is too broad... Are you selling health products? Beauty Products? Or clothes?

    Solution: Try to target a certain niche. If you are going for beauty then focus on beauty related products. (ex. anti aging, pimple removers, make up, etc.) This way, it would also be easier for you to market your brand since you have a targeted audience.

    Problem #2: You have a forgettable branding

    Solution: Build a brand in your niche and get a .com site (Builds more trust). For example, if you are targeting the beauty niche then you might want to get BeautyCompanion.com. Get a designer to make you a nice logo!

    Problem#3: You need to improve your website design to build the trust of your audience.

    Solution: Check out other sites in your niche and check their design. Take notes and implement them in your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicnac03
    You need to change your color ASAP. It makes it hard on the eyes to read light text on a black background. Also those white boxes you put your products in really makes it hard to browse your site against that black background. This could be accounting for your high bounce rate. Look at the mainstream retailers out there for women. They all have a white background for a reason.

    No questions about it. Change it.

    Also, change the custom text on your tabs. Having "stylish, girly" text doesn't help with conversions. Keep it clean and professional.
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  • I appreciate all the answers. Wow thanks.

    Heres the thing, I might not want to hear it, but I have no choice. If 20 people are saying the same exact thing, i got to be listening. And I am listening very well and appreciate everything said.

    Is there a design company that I can go to that can make some changes for me at a reasonable cost and trustworthy? Can you guys recommend some of your designers?
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  • Profile picture of the author ceenote100
    The overall design of the site is bad. The font is quite hard to read and the background is way too dark.
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  • Profile picture of the author ecoverartist
    I do conversion optimization and website reviews. I've done a quick 5 minute review of your site, and like many people have said - purple + black doesn't do much to sell beauty products. What's more, there's no clear organization to the items you have on your site. It seems to range from uniforms to shoes to jewelry to natural beauty products. There's no rhyme or reason.

    You don't need another designer... not in the traditional web design sense. You need someone who can look at your site AND look at your audience and ask "what would make them buy - from you specifically?" Right now, your site doesn't answer that question.

    I applaud your advertising efforts. It seems you're putting a lot of work into this, but if it is all being funneled to a site that doesn't convert, you might as well flush that money (it hurts to hear that, I know - but knowing this will make you stronger and help your business grow from here on out!)

    You're getting a good bit of traffic. The key is going to be getting that existing traffic to buy from you and give them every reason to take action now.
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    • Originally Posted by ecoverartist View Post

      I do conversion optimization and website reviews. I've done a quick 5 minute review of your site, and like many people have said - purple + black doesn't do much to sell beauty products. What's more, there's no clear organization to the items you have on your site. It seems to range from uniforms to shoes to jewelry to natural beauty products. There's no rhyme or reason.

      You don't need another designer... not in the traditional web design sense. You need someone who can look at your site AND look at your audience and ask "what would make them buy - from you specifically?" Right now, your site doesn't answer that question.

      I applaud your advertising efforts. It seems you're putting a lot of work into this, but if it is all being funneled to a site that doesn't convert, you might as well flush that money (it hurts to hear that, I know - but knowing this will make you stronger and help your business grow from here on out!)

      You're getting a good bit of traffic. The key is going to be getting that existing traffic to buy from you and give them every reason to take action now.
      Is there someone that someone could recommend that can make some more complicated tweaks?

      I dont know how to make the sidebars/center of the 3 columns wider.
      I dont know how to make the site scale for different monitors so it sizes properly.

      I can change colors by myself
      I can change font style and color by myself
      I can edit photos for the header.

      I want the url erikas.com but its taken.


      I am reading every single response given 3 times over and writing down every point of advice on my notepad, and I'm putting a Star next to it for each additional person that says the same thing.

      #1 is my color scheme, to dark, hurts eyes.
      #2 is the font style, unreadable
      #3 is the crowding, everything is cluttered, spread it out
      #4 is the product branding, hard to know on home page WHAT I AM SELLING

      I appreciate everything very much!
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      • Profile picture of the author Vastidious
        I read through this whole thread and I have to agree wholeheartedly with most of what has been said so far. I do want to add a few things to the discussion. Before I do, let me say a few things about what's already been said.

        1. Colors - The colors and design need to be addressed. I agree the colors are overpowering and a big turnoff. I too wouldn't likely purchase anything from this site in it's current format. (ignore the fact that I'm a guy and not likely to want anything from this store anyway. <grin>)

        2. Domain - Someone mentioned the domain and name. I agree with them. The name isn't memorable. It's hard to read the domain to figure out what it's actually saying. AND, why aren't you using a .com address. I'm pretty sure, erikashealthandbeauty.com shouldn't be taken.

        3. Advertising - Stop spending money on advertising and driving traffic. Fix the site first and then go back to advertising when it's working.

        4. Checkout - Have you checked the checkout procedure to make sure you can actually order anything? As someone mentioned, it's highly unlikely that you haven't sold anything with a lot of traffic coming through. Make absolutely sure that purchases can go through.

        Ok, now on to more items that haven't been necessarily touched on.

        Inspiration and design
        Since you're on a Magento system, have you looked at other Magento sites for inspiration? Take a moment and look at these sites here that are using Magento. (At least they are listed on Magento's site as users)

        Dog Supplies | Dog Beds, Dog Accessories | Dog Products | Dog Geekz
        Dog Geekz - Take a look at the style and layout. It's easy to see what they have and to see what they are about. They sell what? Dog stuff. They are focused and specific. Also notice the colors and layout. It's not cluttered or confusing to go through the site.

        TheGrainMillWF.com | The Grain Mill of Wake Forest | Your Budget Conscious Source for Storable, Long Term Bulk Foods and Whole Grains
        The Grain Mill - Again style and layout. You quickly know what they are about and can find products. They use more color and design in their site, but it fits with their overall feel. Plus the store is easy to navigate.

        Lastly, I thought you should take a look at a non-Magento store, which has done extremely well for themselves. You've probably heard of them. Zappos.
        Shoes, Clothing, and More | Zappos.com. They would likely be a big competitor of yours overall. They are well known for selling shoes, but they also sell beauty products and clothing too. But look how they organize everything. Look at how clean everything feels.

        This is how you need to organize and design the site. It needs to feel lighter and comforting. It sounds like you're really wanting to stick with your purple and black color scheme, but what I would encourage you to do is to keep those colors but use them differently.

        Header
        Take the purple and black and integrate that into your header image so that it is colored along the top of the image. But have the colors only in the header. Here are a few examples of what I'm trying to describe.

        Google Image Result for http://www.smartwebby.com/images/tutorials/fireworks/website_design_fireworks/pic_header_footer.gif
        Google Image Result for http://sjldesign.com/Sticky/ebay_temp/sticky_designs_full_header.jpg
        Google Image Result for http://www.xenex-media.com.au/images/header_other.png

        The idea being you still have your colors, but blend the content into a white or light colored site.

        Either way, yes the header image is too big and you're losing valuable real estate.

        Site's Speed

        I don't know if it's just on my end, but the site loads really slowly. It's also slow to move from page to page. What kind of hosting are you using? Might want to find a way to speed up the site. If you are getting lots of traffic I highly recommend not using the shared hosting accounts like you would find at Bluehost or Hostgator for $4.95 a month. You'll want a dedicated server eventually.

        And finally, let me add to the suggestions that you look into using Etsy and Amazon to sell. They are well established and can help move product.

        I hope that information is helpful for you. I applaud your efforts so far and what you're trying to accomplish. I know that this information can be hard to hear after all your hard work. But you did ask and if you take this info and apply it properly you'll be much better off. This is a great resource here on this site and there are some really smart people. Good luck!
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      • Profile picture of the author ecoverartist
        I have a programmer on my team who is a wizard at Magento - including making themes for it. Send me a PM and I'd be happy to get you a quote from him.

        Regarding the URL - you may want to think in terms of a more brandable name - something like (and I'm sure these are taken, but this is only an example), HealthAura, PathToWellness, NaturallyInspired, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author qsilver
    Take a look at this website: howlifeworksHealth & Beauty | How Life Works
    I think you should model your site after this clean design. This site is mainly information/articles, but I think you could incorporate more pre-selling articles into your own site.
    I also think you should niche down to specific products. Your trying to sell too much.
    The wedding products would fill a site by themselves, the shoes and clothing accessories another, the beauty products another, etc.
    You get the idea.

    Just my thoughts...

    Jim
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil.H
    Like others have mentioned, the design is too dark, text colour combination needs changing.

    And for me the pages are loading slow (I'm in the UK), the pages don't look that large in size so not exactly sure why they are slow for me. One thing I do notice is the sidebar menu with the categories.

    From my early days of using Oscommerce, displaying the total items next to each category slowed the page load times. Does the same with wordpress as well, so if it were me, remove those if it's possible in the Magento settings.

    The current design also has an issue with the formatting in Firefox, it's to the left and the top image is split. When I make my browser window smaller it sorts the issue out. So likely the 100% width is causing it.

    The top logo is also far to big, just needs a small logo with the model removed.

    =========

    I had a quick look at templatemonster and found the theme below. Maybe not suitable but to me it looks a lot cleaner, easy to navigate. Of course a tweak on the design colour to suit your ebay store would keep things looking similar. The home page image isn't too large, and has a nice banner to the right showing discounts, free shipping etc. That type of thing always helped my conversions when I added to the home page.

    Home page

    Magento theme #33787 by Mercury

    (not a aff link or my theme)

    =========

    And I take it, on all your ebay sales you include a flyer, link or something that gives customers a gentle push to your site? a discount, free shipping on their first order, free gift etc. That first order is the biggest hurdle, so getting them to order and giving the best customer service possible will then help get repeat orders, plus get them on your newsletter and let them know about new products, discounts, specials etc when they order on the site.

    As a few have mentioned about the ad spend, you should have realised much sooner. When I first setup an ecommerce site, spent a small amount on adwords and got orders the first day. Although it was selling a very targeted niche (branded) product, so hard to compare. Nothing like hindsight after the fact, but stop spending on ads, get those ebayers buying directly on the site and only then go back to looking at paid ads!

    Like others have already told you. The design/colour is wrong, that would be the first thing I'd change, and go from there.
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  • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
    All signs are pointing to 'hanging it up' before you drop any more cash.

    Emotionally it's tough to admit failure - but unwillingness to do so will lead you deeper and deeper into debt. I'm sure this whole venture has become VERY frustrating at this point since you've had no success at all.

    I think it's time to stop losing money immediately on this.
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  • Profile picture of the author iluvatoq
    I didn't read all comments . But when i visit your site ... The site itself looks "cheap" .. When in fact it cost so much . Realy the colours are so .. lets keep it simple BAD . I think alot of the people here would say the same as me that i would not buy anything there . I just click the site away and look further .
    Keep it clean and simple nice and bright . And if you are gonna make a new website or remoddel don't take the same webdesigner there are enough people will can do a better job .
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    I'm sure my comments will have been mentioned already but I don't have time to read through everything. I clicked onto your site and wondered what it was about. There's nothing there directing the visitor. It doesn't have a focal point, somewhere the visitor's eyes naturally catch immediately.

    I'm sure you're probably sick of hearing this by now but the design is a mess. Whose idea was it to create a black health and beauty site? I mean, if you were selling Voodoo dolls or whips maybe I could see it. The woman at the top of the page is quite attractive. I see her set off in a nice lavender or pink or peach or anything other than black. Health and beauty is about bright, cheerful themes.

    The good news is that this isn't at all hard to fix. I'm sure you've gotten plenty of good advice by now. One final thing from me. Put up a headline that is absolutely dripping with benefits for your visitors. That along with a makeover for the site itself will make a huge difference. I applaud your effort and look forward to seeing the revised version. Don't give up. Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author WarrenPeterson
    I agree with most of the tech points above, so no need to repeat those.

    My take is different: you mentioned, in your first post, lots and lots of information. You talked about the back end, the tech work, speed tests, etc... All of that is nice, but you didn't mention once the single most critical aspects to your company.

    Who is your target market? Why are they going to buy from you? What problem of theirs are you solving? What makes you stand out from your competition? Are they buying to lessen a pain or increase a pleasure?

    With the various changes you are making, and considering, you need to make them ALL based upon your target market, and the answers to those questions above. You mentioned the site design was based on what you wanted the site to look like. What you want it to look like is irrelevant. What matters is that your site looks like what your target market wants it to look like.

    You have visitors, but not buyers, so there is a clear disconnect between what those visitors are looking for and what you have for sale. Either you find out more about the current visitors you have and sell to their wants and needs, or you clearly define who you want your target market to be and then make all your adjustments based on that.

    I think you need to step back from all your changes and focus 100% of your efforts right now on your target market. Get to know them, in order to sell to them.

    Hope this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author DireStraits
    Again, your site is very cluttered, very busy, and goes way overboard on the graphics. Sometimes less is more. Granted, my screen resolution on this little laptop is far from ideal and probably not too typical, but I can't recall ever encountering an e-commerce site (none I've ever bought from, anyway!) whose header and nav-bar command basically half of my screen. This is valuable space crying out for more efficient use. The product listings are very nearly pushed off even on inner pages. My first impression on visiting was "this isn't actually a shop, is it?" Had I not visited with the ulterior motive of a critique, I'd have clicked away and been yet another bounce-rate statistic.

    Your colour scheme needs addressing, really. This can't be stressed enough. Meanwhile, consider streamlining things a bit more by removing a few of your more gimmicky widgets, like the "poll" and "Erika's blog" (especially seeing as you have a link to the blog in the main navigation anyway!). These would be less burdensome if you'd made more efficient use of space with your layout generally, but everything's so swollen and spaced out. You need to refocus your customers' eyeballs on the stuff that matters.

    The layout of images under "featured products" looks distorted in Internet Explorer 10, too - even under Compatibility Mode.
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  • Profile picture of the author betterwtveter
    I know you got a lot of information already to help you out, but yes, first you need to redesign your website to look a little more professional before doing anything else.
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  • Profile picture of the author pelican
    my opinion.

    Design
    your site design is really amateurish. i dont know who are those hundreds of positive opinions of your site design. are they your customers? have they bought anything from you? a reasonable web design budget of about $500 will look alot better than this (excluding cost of integrating design into your magento). i cant imagine your site cost $2500.

    is there a need to include the lady image in your logo? get rid of the image. let your visitor focus on buying, not on the lady.

    a clean looking design site will work alot better. sample sites as stated by other poster above.


    Advertising / Marketing
    Stop wasting advertising budget blindly. Your advertising campaigns need to achieve your goal. If it isnt, stop and rethink why. Focus on one group/area and test until you can convert. You cant target alot of groups at one time unless you have huge advertising budget.

    You should have already captured your customer emails. Email them "deals" or promo items on regular basis, eg. weekly or fortnightly. Craft a good marketing email, tell them why they would want to snatch your deals.

    If your facebook fans are real targeted audience, engage with them. Post interesting post related to your niche. Lead them to buy things from you.

    Stop wasting time to add products that have no conversion. Adding more products doesnt mean higher chance of converting. Add those that you are already selling like hot cakes. Slowly add more when you can expand. Spend more time on marketing and research on how to convert.

    Use amazon/ebay to get you new customers. Your current website can use to serve your repeat customers. Enticing them back with email marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    There's lots of good advice here. The site design is simply horrible and, in my opinion, is the main factor in you not converting. The colors, fonts and general layout all scream "amateurish".

    Check out:

    Home of luxury brands such as ghd, Redken, Aveda, Clarins, Decleor and many more | lookfantastic.com

    and

    BeautyBay.com | Hair Care | Skin Care | Make-Up | Nails

    I feel you can turn this around but you need a better designer. Or even just buy a theme if funds are tight.

    http://themeforest.net/category/site.../health-beauty

    Most of those are under $20.

    My experience of these sites, particularly on the beauty products, is that people want to search for the brands and products they want to buy and don't really browse. Do you have a search facility? I couldn't see it.

    And ten (ten!) buttons along the top, only one of which is about "Product".

    Every single pixel on your site should be moving your customer towards the sale. If it's not, get rid of it or change it to something that is.

    You've got a huge amount of work to do here. But you need to start working with a designer - but this time one who knows what they're doing to develop a website that is designed to sell.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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  • Profile picture of the author serryjw
    WOW! I don't want to repeat comments above but they are all correct.
    1)My loading is also slow in the US
    2) Too many products
    3) age demographics is too wide. A 16 and 40 year old have little in common
    4) Where are your multimedia-videos?
    5)Text needs sub-headers separating long text
    6)reduce the PayPal logo
    7)RE-STOCKING charge is a problem when you are new and shipping from all over the world..just a trust issue...I bought a pair of boots from a $160 Million company and I had nothing but aggravation with C/S. The return credit took 3 weeks..NOT OK!!

    Last!! It isn't pretty...You need MUCH BETTER product photography

    IMHO, you need multiple websites to narrow your product/demographics and make more targeted.
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    • Profile picture of the author marketingdynasty
      The colors on your website is too dark. You just need to make the background white and make the font black. The dark website looks gloomy and does not seem very inviting.

      The website seems very cluttered and seems to have a lot going on. The website needs to have a cleaner look to it. Especially the way the products is laid out. It just seems like random pictures just have been thrown up on your website.

      You also should focus on selling one type of product at first, and then begin to add other products as you become profitable.

      I hope that you implement some of the suggested changes here in this thread and wish you the best of luck with your website.
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  • Profile picture of the author PROBIZ7777
    This is a great FORUM. I am new here. I'm looking forward to learning a lot!
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  • Profile picture of the author armix
    You should make your website attractive and put a direct to the point message on it. Simple as that!
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike R
      Your messaging needs to address the following 3 questions in the first 3-5 inches at the top of the site:
      1. Where am I at?
      2. What can I do here?
      3. Why should I do it?

      The best converting websites usually answer these questions with a simple "Headline-Subheadline-Bullet Points-Call to Action" format of messaging that engages users and makes them trust you. Focus on products/features/benefits/trust elements above the fold and you'll be headed in the right direction

      I'd ditch the dark layout...white and pink text on a dark background is not only hard on human eyes from a readability perspective, but is also the wrong color scheme for health and beauty products. It also doesn't inspire trust...I'd use if for a website promoting hardcore men's fitness supplements, tactical knives, or paintball guns perhaps, but NOT for beauty products. I'd suggest white or light gray background some combination of pink, light blue, and light green as your accent colors.

      The handwritten fonts need to be replaced with something more easily readable (suggestions: Myriad Pro or Droid Sans).

      Also agree with the comments above about the 'garage sale' feel...it gives off the impression that you're trying to sell whatever to whoever. You may be better segmenting the product set into 3-4 mini sites with very defined themes (wedding products, health products, beauty products, etc.). There are obviously super-retailers like Amazon that succeed at selling anything and everything under the sun, but most small retailers do best by more clearly defining the them of their product sets and segmenting into separate storefronts.

      I hope that helps...you have gotten probably a few THOUSAND dollars worth of good Landing Page Optimization consulting from the other responses I've seen thus far. Take all the responses, identify the common themes, implement the suggestions, and start turning this business around!
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  • Profile picture of the author Talltom1
    A great deal of awesome advice given already.

    I didn't see two specific recommendations that I was looking for in this discusssion....

    1. Magento Connect has a number of VERY good templates, many of them for free. Browse through them, select a few that you like, spend 5 minutes installing them, and you've instantly got a new look for your site.

    2. A prior customer is the easiest sale there is. Focus on converting your ebay clients to your website. Build a consistent marketing program each month to your customer list. Studies have shown that it costs 10 times as much to attract a new client as it does to sell to a previous client.

    Tom
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    You need to get rid of about 95% of what you have on that site.

    There are FAR TOO MANY options/distractions.

    Stop adding and simplify.

    By the way, the site is extremely slow moving between pages. And those colours are killing me. I want to leave just for that sake alone.
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    • Profile picture of the author KuhNoodle
      Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

      You need to get rid of about 95% of what you have on that site.

      There are FAR TOO MANY options/distractions.

      Stop adding and simplify.

      By the way, the site is extremely slow moving between pages. And those colours are killing me. I want to leave just for that sake alone.

      That is exactly what I was going to say. Visitors want to get to the point. Our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Reality TV has poisoned our minds .

      But on a more serious note, I'd look into finding you a good content writer, someone that create words that will convert. We spend so much time building a product, that we fail to factor that conversion are affected by copy and overall design.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fun to Write
    Please don't spend another dime on fixing this site. It has not converted and has lost you too much money. Pouring more money into a sinking ship is not going to solve your financial problems.

    Right now you are in a desperate mindset and that's not a good place to be when making business decisions. You are more likely to continue making choices that don't turn things around.

    Put the health and well being of your family First now. Keep your ebay business afloat as long as you can, but not if its costing you more in advertising than profits.

    Let this site go. I've had failed sites. Many others here have too. Sometimes you've got to understand that holding onto a failed project is costing you more than giving it up and moving on.

    It's time to get real, your family needs a place to live, electricity and food. These are your major priorities right now. How to keep these things. This is survival time, so there's no more time for messing around with trying to force a loser to turn into a winner.

    Stop. Re-evaluate. Take stock of where you are financially right now. How much money you have right now. How much money you need to earn to have food and shelter for you and your family.

    What else can you sell on ebay that makes easy profits?

    Think about scaling down your product offerings to those that bring in the most profits. What are your top sellers? How can you create a community of buyers that care about buying from you regardless of price?

    Putting up a blog that focuses on only one category of products and doing blog postings that are filled with fun, whimsical, or interesting views about that topic can help build an audience. For example, take a look at the popular beauty blogs and see that the best include content that caters to that specific market.

    Right now this site doesn't have any personality. Tries to be too many things to too many people. Is trying to compete with established sites that have tons of big money behind them. No way you can compete with that.

    Why would someone buy form Erika site when they can hop on over to Amazon, Etsy, ebay and other big name brand sites to find discounted merchandise. That's why you have no conversions.

    Please wake up and smell the coffee. You've already run out of time and money on this project. Is it really worth spending your last dime on and risking homelessness?

    Think about it.
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    • Please don't spend another dime on fixing this site. It has not converted and has lost you too much money. Pouring more money into a sinking ship is not going to solve your financial problems.

      Right now you are in a desperate mindset and that's not a good place to be when making business decisions. You are more likely to continue making choices that don't turn things around.

      Put the health and well being of your family First now. Keep your ebay business afloat as long as you can, but not if its costing you more in advertising than profits.

      Let this site go. I've had failed sites. Many others here have too. Sometimes you've got to understand that holding onto a failed project is costing you more than giving it up and moving on.

      It's time to get real, your family needs a place to live, electricity and food. These are your major priorities right now. How to keep these things. This is survival time, so there's no more time for messing around with trying to force a loser to turn into a winner.

      Stop. Re-evaluate. Take stock of where you are financially right now. How much money you have right now. How much money you need to earn to have food and shelter for you and your family.

      What else can you sell on ebay that makes easy profits?

      Think about scaling down your product offerings to those that bring in the most profits. What are your top sellers? How can you create a community of buyers that care about buying from you regardless of price?

      Putting up a blog that focuses on only one category of products and doing blog postings that are filled with fun, whimsical, or interesting views about that topic can help build an audience. For example, take a look at the popular beauty blogs and see that the best include content that caters to that specific market.

      Right now this site doesn't have any personality. Tries to be too many things to too many people. Is trying to compete with established sites that have tons of big money behind them. No way you can compete with that.

      Why would someone buy form Erika site when they can hop on over to Amazon, Etsy, ebay and other big name brand sites to find discounted merchandise. That's why you have no conversions.

      Please wake up and smell the coffee. You've already run out of time and money on this project. Is it really worth spending your last dime on and risking homelessness?

      Think about it.
      Okay I know it sucks and you've put in a lot of money, but frankly I agree with this comment. It might not be worth it to keep trying to fix this site, because to make money, you're going to have to really rethink the website design and approach. And it'll end up costing hours and hours of work. Some money, if you outsource some of the work. But it'll def. take up a lot of time and energy.

      Sounds like you've spend a lot on the site already, which to me says you didn't allocate your funds very well, because you seem to have been ripped off if you bought that theme or whatever? I just mean, I think you spent money you shouldn't have, from what I know of your site.

      Maybe check out some other stuff on Warrior too to see if any of those money making ideas sound good. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh or upsets you and I know how freaking discouraging this whole thing can be. I get so angry, disappointed and desperate too when trying to make money online. I totally get it.
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  • Profile picture of the author butterballs8
    I was immediately turned off by your website. I purchase a lot of health and beauty products online. Your website is cluttered, images are very amateur and the overall color scheme does not make me want to purchase from your website.

    Also, everything looks disorganized. There is a face product for $131.44, which I have never heard of and next to it is a pair of $7.99 pair of earrings?

    Also, the domain name is too long. There is no "branding" If "Erika" is the brand, who is she?
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  • Profile picture of the author Streamfish5
    Hey Damien

    I know your get allot of advice here!

    But, i like for you to consider this .... Weebly.com

    Weebly...will allow you to build a website yourself, for Free! If, you want to remove their ad banner its cost you around $50 for 6 months. But, that's not important right now. The important thing right now is to stop paying ....Web designers to create a website for you. They are ...I'm sure charging you $50 an hour or more to create design...for which you may want to later change.

    Weebly...will allow you to click and paste ...move around.....with relative easy..... graphics, pictures, videos and other things you want to place on your website.

    Not only, that Weebly...has an online store...and access to pay-pal. You can create you own ONLINE HEALTH STORE, by placing photos and writing text next to the item/product.....with a e-commerces ....shopping cart attachment.

    You've spent allot of time....60 hours a week...you stated here.... I understand.... Damien this is why I'm writing this to you.

    You put all you have into this project and its falling short.... You have to make tough decisions... if you want to continue.....The first is to get rid of the Graphic designers and take control of the design ...of your website for your self.... You will save money! That's a big thing right now.... Unfortunately, your save money...but have to give up allot of your time, to create and build your site. However, you have total control...and can make changes & adjustment ...which you will have to make....(at some point). However, you won't be restricted by Graphics design.....and their hourly rate.

    Damien
    just take a look at Weebly and see if it fits your needs and desire...

    Hang in there!
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    • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
      Originally Posted by Streamfish5 View Post

      Hey Damien

      I know your get allot of advice here!

      But, i like for you to consider this .... Weebly.com

      Weebly...will allow you to build a website yourself, for Free! If, you want to remove their ad banner its cost you around $50 for 6 months. But, that's not important right now. The important thing right now is to stop paying ....Web designers to create a website for you. They are ...I'm sure charging you $50 an hour or more to create design...for which you may want to later change.

      Weebly...will allow you to click and paste ...move around.....with relative easy..... graphics, pictures, videos and other things you want to place on your website.

      Not only, that Weebly...has an online store...and access to pay-pal. You can create you own ONLINE HEALTH STORE, by placing photos and writing text next to the item/product.....with a e-commerces ....shopping cart attachment.

      You've spent allot of time....60 hours a week...you stated here.... I understand.... Damien this is why I'm writing this to you.

      You put all you have into this project and its falling short.... You have to make tough decisions... if you want to continue.....The first is to get rid of the Graphic designers and take control of the design ...of your website for your self.... You will save money! That's a big thing right now.... Unfortunately, your save money...but have to give up allot of your time, to create and build your site. However, you have total control...and can make changes & adjustment ...which you will have to make....(at some point). However, you won't be restricted by Graphics design.....and their hourly rate.

      Damien
      just take a look at Weebly and see if it fits your needs and desire...

      Hang in there!
      I don't like this advice at all. Weebly? C'mon!

      He's already spent thousands on it, no need to turn into a cheapskate now and build a free website with Weebly. He needs to pay a proper pro designer to design him a decent looking website that fits in with his brand and site type. He needs to ditch many of the products and focus on one or go back to selling individual products on ebay, Amazon and Etsy.
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      • Profile picture of the author DJorge
        Damien,

        Sorry to tell you that you've done everything wrong.
        It's not my opinion but it is the pudding proof.

        You have many good ideas in the thread by very good
        people but do not implement anyone.

        If you want to success saving time and money you need
        to be advised by a real pro. You see, internet and internet
        marketing are professions like any other profession and people
        like to play without a deep and systematic learning, and some
        make some honest money but most of them don't.

        And so as you are not going to learn medicine to cure yourself
        but look for a doctor, you should do the same here, look for a pro.

        The only one I would ever recommend is a member here, named
        Russell Wright form ThemeZoom. He and his team is your best option.
        It will cost you money but at the end it would have been your best
        investment ever.

        I'm not a friend of affiliate or have any relation with them but I've
        seen their platform, courses and attitude and can assure you that
        there is not a higher level possible to be find at an affordable cost.

        All the best and good luck,

        DJorge
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  • Wow!!

    Thanks everyone for the advice, I have a lot to reflect on.

    I'm going to take a step back and think for a few days.
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    • I'm just going to be blunt because I think you want honest feedback. Also, I totally get what you're feeling. I mean, take a look at some of my posts and explanations of problems I've had. I get what you're going through.

      Maybe check out some of the e-commerce forums on Warrior.

      The site just doesn't look reputable or like the products would ship out on time, or in good condition. Does that make sense? It's not a site I would trust. The whole black and purple colour doesn't really work. It's too dark I think. But that's just preference. That's the main thing. FIRST IMPRESSIONS. You frankly, don't look legit. I don't mean that in a mean way, okay? I'm totally unsuccessful online (making money).

      Look at your competitors and maybe get some ideas from there.

      It's pretty chaotic. I don't know who you're selling to. I think you really need to try a different theme. Change the look of your site. I don't know what you mean it's a 2,000 something site. Like you paid that much for that template or what? :confused:

      Your font needs to be changed. It's hard to read. It's too much, the bright pink on black--kind of overwhelming.

      Just some thoughts IMO. Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author domainscience
    All I can say is you are all over the place.
    Look, ebay works great for selling even though you have a variety of products because that is what people are search and end up on your item.
    However, your website has many major flaws:
    1.) Are you selling furtniture, cloths, jewelry, make-up-all of the above?
    I don't believe you can do that with a website unless you are a wholesaler.
    You must specialize in on type of product only and if it means having 10 websites for 10 products, than so be it.

    2.) Your domain name certain is no good. First of all, it's a .net-Strike One
    Second-it is hard to remember-strike two
    Third-people have to trust you (.net domain names don't work as .com's and you don't seem to have a physical store-strike three(maybe)

    Get a website from shopify.com, bigcommerce.com, etc., and get good .com domain names that have in them the type of products that you are selling (jewelry, jewelrymaster.com, jewelryclub.com or something like that)

    Maybe than you will get in the search engine rankings without have to spend thousands.

    In the mean time, you have a wife and new born.
    Unless you have backing (i.e. money), get a job and do this on the side.

    Good luck.
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