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Website not converting – any ideas?

balsamicsauce.com

11–20 of 56 posts

Re: Website not converting – any ideas?

#11
I mostly sell software to businesses rather than selling balsamic sauce to upper middle class women but, hey, if you want free advice:

1) Every e-commerce company ever will tell you to offer "Free shipping" even if you have to build it into the price of the bottle. Your target customer doesn't care about the difference between $15 and $20 but, oddly, she does care about paying five whole dollars to ship something she could "just pick up at the store."

2) You're currently selling authentic, which is better than selling nothing at all, but authenticity is not the primary driver of the food purchasing decisions of upper-income Americans. Some options which would complement authenticity: exclusive ("not like the kind you get at the supermarket" / (generally not explicit but heavily implied) "better than what the poor people put on their caprece"), healthy (oh God is that a big one), decadent, social conscience (produced by small family-owned farms rather than big evil agribusiness) etc.

Yes, there's a bit of tension between someone wanting to use class consciousness as conspicuous consumption, but meet your customer where she is at -- and she is at Starbucks.

3) She doesn't care about your story. She cares about her story. Does this make her better than the other moms of the PTA who buy $5 balsamic at the supermarket? If so, lead with that, support with your story.

4) Get some photos of people on your site. Laura of Laura in the Kitchen, for example, as she is a good stand-in for your customer's ideal self. Failing that, if someone who is involved in actually making the balsamic has camera appeal, use them instead.

5) Do some deep thoughts on where people are in the purchasing process when they find you. If they're sure they want this, you don't put the "BUY OUR STUFF" nearly front and center enough. If they're not, your current focus on persuading them that you're the best balsamic makes more sense.

Re: Website not converting – any ideas?

#12
You never actually mention the size of the bottles. So, $15 for what? Okay if I look at the image maybe I see 7.95 fl oz? Maybe 2.95 fl oz? 235 ml. How big is that? How big is that bottle I usually buy at Trader Joe's for $4? e.g. am I paying a 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x premium for this balsamic? How much different does nice balsamic really have in the taste anywhere? These are all my questions as a low-end balsamic buyer.

Re: Website not converting – any ideas?

#13

Bounce rates continues to rise. To fight it, I've tried to simplify the site and have even removed the blog from the main page and moved it to a tab in the header. Mistake? Good idea?

Where is your traffic coming from? Unless you have super specific keyword driven adwords / organic results this looks like a very specific niche and I would expect quite high bounce rates.

Re: Website not converting – any ideas?

#15
post #11

I mostly sell software to businesses rather than selling balsamic sauce to upper middle class women but, hey, if you want free advice: 1) Every e-commerce company ever will tell you to offer "Free shipping" even if you have to build it into the price of the bottle. Your target customer doesn't care about the difference between $15 and $20 but, oddly, she does care about paying five whole dollars to ship something she…

"upper middle class women" "moms of the PTA"

holy wtf dude?

Re: Website not converting – any ideas?

#17

You need a big call to action button on the front page that says 'Order Now' ! Right now it is not even immediately apparent that you are selling the product. It could very well be a recipe website or something... Also http://shouldiuseacarousel.com/

Hah - http://shouldiuseacarousel.com/ was the first thing that came to mind when I loaded up the site - nice!

Some other points:

- The main image in your carousel, the zoomed in tomatoes and mozzarella, is poorly pixelated and makes the site look unprofessional

- You use the phrase "Our Balsamic" in several places - maybe it's just me but this is painful: Balsamic is an adjective* - please oh please finish that sentence for me - your balsamic what? * http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/balsamic

- Some of your giant carousel's elements are very attractive looking, but the whole thing is much wider than the rest of the site and throws the whole look off - removing the carousel entirely, working some of the most appealing images into the site in a more tasteful way (really you already do this, and you have all of those elements in triplicate from the top navbar to the carousel to the bottom quad of linked images) and making the whole page fit in a single no-scrollbars-on-common-resolutions layout would be far better and not make me want to leave the site as soon as I arrive...

Re: Website not converting – any ideas?

#18
post #15
post #11

I mostly sell software to businesses rather than selling balsamic sauce to upper middle class women but, hey, if you want free advice: 1) Every e-commerce company ever will tell you to offer "Free shipping" even if you have to build it into the price of the bottle. Your target customer doesn't care about the difference between $15 and $20 but, oddly, she does care about paying five whole dollars to ship something she…

"upper middle class women" "moms of the PTA" holy wtf dude?

Is that like "WTF, the primary market for this is not upper middle class women" or "WTF, you are being very blunt about this." If the second, guilty as charged. If the first, I'd very much like to hear who you think buys premium-priced balsamic.

Re: Website not converting – any ideas?

#19
post #15
post #11

I mostly sell software to businesses rather than selling balsamic sauce to upper middle class women but, hey, if you want free advice: 1) Every e-commerce company ever will tell you to offer "Free shipping" even if you have to build it into the price of the bottle. Your target customer doesn't care about the difference between $15 and $20 but, oddly, she does care about paying five whole dollars to ship something she…

"upper middle class women" "moms of the PTA" holy wtf dude?

Sorry, patrick cares more about the actual reality of what motivates buying decisions of the target demographic than whatever is nicer to believe.

Re: Website not converting – any ideas?

#20
post #18
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"upper middle class women" "moms of the PTA" holy wtf dude?

Is that like "WTF, the primary market for this is not upper middle class women" or "WTF, you are being very blunt about this." If the second, guilty as charged. If the first, I'd very much like to hear who you think buys premium-priced balsamic.

Let's focus on your "moms of the PTA" comment.
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