Low conversion Rate

First target your local stores (like clothes, dressmaking, haberdashery stores).

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This is just personal opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think modernizing the website should definitely be your first priority. When I think "cuff links," I associate it with formal events, classy items, etc.

The appearance of the website didn't seem to reflect that idea. If it were sharper, modern, and more classy in image, I believe I would've been naturally more inclined to trust the site and browse around more. I would also think to change the color. This may be a very tiny, or even unimportant detail, but I would expect your customer base to mostly be male (I know some women who wear cufflinks as an accessory, but I think the market is still predominantly male).

Color has a marketing effect psychologically. The website currently may be slightly alienating this predominantly male marketplace.

Basically, I think the site needs to be reworked to be a brand of sorts.

Once again, it is my two cents. I am very new to IM as well, so I could be way off base. Good luck!

For average traffic your numbers arent so bad for paid sales! But yeah thats the name of the game is to get the best numbers you can! So with that said you need to ask yourself how targeted is your traffic to your demographics? Test your traffic

Also I bet if you get yourself a few testomonials of happy customers and create yourself a sidebar there on the right hand side of the page that might help skyrocket your numbers. Test between the right and left side. I've seen sites get a better CTR on the right but in this case I suppose its about the testomonial not about the clicks.

Maybe add some social buttons up top! Better yet I was thinking with the testomonials is maybe create yourself a rss feed and have the testomonials on that and that will just go through there on the sidebare hopefully pulling in the eyeball a bit. Again its all about testing. Just some ideas. Most importantly go see what your competition is doing and make sure their numbers are good and kinda copy what they are doing.

Three things.

You say "once profitable"

How profitable? Would you be happy with that level of profitability? If so, what was the previous owner doing? Simple enough.

Second item. What's the biggest benefit men (or occasionally women) get from owning nice cufflinks? Benefits most often relate to how a product or service makes someone feel. Is it pride? Is it self confidence? Is it a feeling of knowing they've got the best product available? I don't know. But someone does. Why do guys buy cufflinks and how can you push that button?


Third. Why your cufflinks? What do you have that makes your stuff different? Even perceived differences matter.

One more. Something extra. I'd start looking for kicker items with high perceived value. Monogrammed hankies, for example. Maybe a gift card toward their next purchase. A money clip, maybe. Something the other cufflink sellers aren't offering.

Are you actually stocking the products, or just acting as a middleman? If you're carrying the stock, the inventory looks too large to be profitable. If you're the middleman, try focusing the range.

Thinking about the market for cufflinks, I'd narrow the categories to just three: formal, fun and designer - and revamp the site accordingly. I'd also consider opening an eBay and Amazon store to supplement the stand-alone site and to promote the brand.


Frank

Frankly, I'm not so sure that for retail, 1-2 sales per 120 visits is that bad. I think I would focus more on long tailed keywords, things folks are looking for online when they are looking for cufflinks -

Just my 2 cents!

Sean