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Candy Japan April Income Report

candyjapan.com

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Re: Candy Japan April Income Report

#31

Post by rmATinnovafy »

I've been following your posts since you started with the business. Have to say that I'm impressed by your tenacity in keeping this fun idea going.

Now, your marketing copy is all over the place. The layout is so hard to follow. Things are just too spread around, and the eye cannot follow an easy reading path.

Put everything into two columns, side by side. Put more pictures, and more information. Get a smaller third column on the right side for the testimonials.

Also, your headline is not bade, but it has nothing under it for me to read . The job of a headline is to get people reading the copy. You have no copy.

The big ugly green button is akin to a car salesman handing you a buying contract for a brand new car before you even shake hands. Get that out of there!

I believe that if you did a video of you hand picking specialized candy for your customer then sales would improve. People are not buying the candy, they are buying the experience. Let them see the process through a camera so they can relate and live out their Japanese fantasy. In fact, do a 10 minute long video of you shipping for candy. Put all the different candies and give out your opinions. Talk to Japanese people, and have them share their favorites. You could even try and get the best selling candy manufacturer into letting you do a little tour of their factory.

There are so many neat things you can do that will turn this into a 10K business ASAP.

Good luck!

PS. Shoot me an email to rm at innovafy dot com

Re: Candy Japan April Income Report

#32

Post by aw3c2 »

antihero wrote: post #17

I'd say you could do some serious work on your site. I have no idea what amazing candy could be sent. Your site is very bland for a site about CANDY. I really like the idea and I think you would totally increase conversion if you actually did some selling of what you're giving (GIANT PICTURES OF CANDY LOOK AT THIS AMAZING CANDY IT COULD BE YOURS TWICE A MONTH). Videos are cool, but I don't see a single beautiful pict…

Another idea: Let your customers comment on the "past candy". Let them rate it and share it and talk about it.

Re: Candy Japan April Income Report

#33

Post by bemmu »

rmATinnovafy wrote: post #31

I've been following your posts since you started with the business. Have to say that I'm impressed by your tenacity in keeping this fun idea going. Now, your marketing copy is all over the place. The layout is so hard to follow. Things are just too spread around, and the eye cannot follow an easy reading path. Put everything into two columns, side by side. Put more pictures, and more information. Get a smaller third…

Hi, thanks for the feedback. The current layout is the result of lots of playing around with the site. Testimonials and the video had a big impact on conversions, so they are front and center now. I guess I might be biased from looking at the site a lot, but to me it seems pretty clean.

I think it needs to be clear exactly what step I want the user to take to join, so that's why that huge big green button is there. It's also not half bad looking in my opinion, although depends on your browser since it uses some recent webkit CSS stuff.

Factory tour / other kind of video back scenes content is probably a good idea. Since the current video works, it may be that that would work even better. Even before that though, I've been thinking of experimenting with a video that would just explain the service in simple terms.

You have a lot of ideas, have any for how to bring in traffic?

Re: Candy Japan April Income Report

#34

Post by mwill »

lewispb wrote: post #24

I like how you've used my IP address to tell me that delivery will be free 'even to the United Kingdom'. May I suggest using the same code to also convert the price from $23.95 to the users local currency as this will help increase conversions. £15.10 feels a lot less than $23.95! Other than that, great idea and I wish you all the best!

I get a similar 'even to Australia' message, and damn do I appreciate it. As an Australian I find myself avoiding online purchases because shipping costs routinely run more expensive then what I want to buy, unless you want to wait 30+ days for your item. It's a fantastic personal touch that just makes me instinctively like the service and want to show my friends.

Re: Candy Japan April Income Report

#35

Post by CharlieA »

bemmu wrote: post #19
antihero wrote: post #17

I'd say you could do some serious work on your site. I have no idea what amazing candy could be sent. Your site is very bland for a site about CANDY. I really like the idea and I think you would totally increase conversion if you actually did some selling of what you're giving (GIANT PICTURES OF CANDY LOOK AT THIS AMAZING CANDY IT COULD BE YOURS TWICE A MONTH). Videos are cool, but I don't see a single beautiful pict…

Thanks a lot for the feedback. I agree that might be cool, although would need to test it against current. If you know someone who could such a mockup for me, let me know. The current site was just designed by myself, I wanted to do more cute / sweet style design, but couldn't come up with one that I was satisfied with. You definitely have a point here. Update: added some example pics

It's candy and it's japanese... that just conjures all sorts of images of a super high tech factory run by cats and magic. I'd love to see a candy envelope being stylised packing animation in the background or off to the side. It could look amazing visually and would explain the concept instantly.

Re: Candy Japan April Income Report

#36

Post by pvidler »

rmATinnovafy wrote: post #31

I've been following your posts since you started with the business. Have to say that I'm impressed by your tenacity in keeping this fun idea going. Now, your marketing copy is all over the place. The layout is so hard to follow. Things are just too spread around, and the eye cannot follow an easy reading path. Put everything into two columns, side by side. Put more pictures, and more information. Get a smaller third…

Looking at the front page, I didn't really experience the problems you describe. I had just two issues:

1) The photos of the candy should really near the top and visible without scrolling -- 'candy' is not a term I come across often, so I wasn't completely certain what was being sold. Perhaps I'm unusual, but I don't bother with videos unless the product has already interested me.

2) My eyes skipped past the price completely. I was actually about to write here that they left it out, finally spotting it only when I went looking.

...the green pay button was fine for me -- not particularly ugly or dodgy looking.

Re: Candy Japan April Income Report

#37

Post by shimon_e »

lewispb wrote: post #24

I like how you've used my IP address to tell me that delivery will be free 'even to the United Kingdom'. May I suggest using the same code to also convert the price from $23.95 to the users local currency as this will help increase conversions. £15.10 feels a lot less than $23.95! Other than that, great idea and I wish you all the best!

Hope he has an exclusion list for countries the post office don't post to. Whether it is political or temporary due to natural disaster.

Re: Candy Japan April Income Report

#38

Post by icebraining »

tferris wrote: post #9
icebraining wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, pastries from Portugal :)

That's a marvelous idea. If they are the same as those I once ate in Barcelona—really tiny, perfect details, like small artworks and excellent shape and colors—you should go for this. Question is: how long is the durability. Probably you have to find expensive delivery services for food with a cold chain distribution. But the idea is good, I never saw such pastries somewhere else again. Are they the same in Portugal?…

They're actually rather different: http://saltofportugal.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/pasteis-de...

But yes, it'd be hard to keep them fresh while not inflating the costs too much (I don't expect them to be sold as expensive delicatessen).

Re: Candy Japan April Income Report

#39

Post by DanBC »

icebraining wrote: post #38
tferris wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a marvelous idea. If they are the same as those I once ate in Barcelona—really tiny, perfect details, like small artworks and excellent shape and colors—you should go for this. Question is: how long is the durability. Probably you have to find expensive delivery services for food with a cold chain distribution. But the idea is good, I never saw such pastries somewhere else again. Are they the same in Portugal?…

They're actually rather different: http://saltofportugal.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/pasteis-de... But yes, it'd be hard to keep them fresh while not inflating the costs too much (I don't expect them to be sold as expensive delicatessen).

I imagine fresh food would have a bunch of weird import restrictions.
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