Why is my online store not making sales despite high traffic?

[Sam172]

Hi Guy, I've been running my store for 1 month now and have gained significant traffic since launch. Unfortunately, I've had zero sales and my store has a speed of 19, which could be better. I'm feeling quite frustrated and am on the verge of giving up. Please give me some advice. my store is www.petsandpersons.com if anyone is interested. I am just so frustrated with everything, I worked really hard on this project and it's a shame that it's failing before my eyes.

[Rayshuggs · Accepted solution]

Hello pal @Sam172 i understand how this situation has you feeling and I truly sympathize with you. I go through a lot of stores on here and to be honest, yours has one of the best designs I’ve seen which definitely must make the frustration even worse but I’d hope for you to hang on a bit more. Let me just point out two things I think that could help you.

1) In addition to the best selling products section, you could add a section for the latest or trendiest arrivals on the homepage. This helps to further streamline the search process for your customers. 
2) Even though people receive value for what they buy, they still like to feel rewarded for patronizing a store. Therefore, I’ve come to learn that the extra push people need sometimes might just be that loyalty discount or first time discount as the case may be. To set up these various discounts to help with what your customers might want, I suggest employing the use of the Seal Subscriptions App https://apps.shopify.com/seal-subscriptions which has a free plan to help carry out those discounts for the benefit of your store. 

[vmckellar]

You need a USP (unique selling point) and VP (value proposition) that is bold and easily seen when visitors first visit your website without needing to scroll. At the moment there's nothing on your website telling me why I would choose your business over another. What is it that makes your business and store different or special? I know you haven't had any sales yet but testimonials/reviews are also a really great way to build trust and social proof. Have you had any sales offline? Or sold any products to a friend/family member? Get them to write a review for you. Goodluck!

[Rayshuggs · Accepted solution]

Hello pal @Sam172 i understand how this situation has you feeling and I truly sympathize with you. I go through a lot of stores on here and to be honest, yours has one of the best designs I’ve seen which definitely must make the frustration even worse but I’d hope for you to hang on a bit more. Let me just point out two things I think that could help you.

1) In addition to the best selling products section, you could add a section for the latest or trendiest arrivals on the homepage. This helps to further streamline the search process for your customers. 
2) Even though people receive value for what they buy, they still like to feel rewarded for patronizing a store. Therefore, I’ve come to learn that the extra push people need sometimes might just be that loyalty discount or first time discount as the case may be. To set up these various discounts to help with what your customers might want, I suggest employing the use of the Seal Subscriptions App https://apps.shopify.com/seal-subscriptions which has a free plan to help carry out those discounts for the benefit of your store. 

[PageFly-Victor · Accepted solution]

Hi @Sam172,

This is Victor from PageFly - Landing Page Builder App.

I like the warm vibe of your store - The friendly style is very suitable for a pet store. You must have invested lots of time and effort in this.

From my viewpoint, I have some suggestions for your site, hopefully, they can drive conversion for your business.

1. Home page

• Header: The header seems like it’s being bugged, you might want to recheck these points

• Hero banner: The store gives a friendly and positive vibe, so I think you may want to try images that look more happy and joyful, especially when it comes to a pet store. Make sure that the block content does not hide the main subject of the image (in this image is the cat face)

• Collection images: The text is hard to read here, which makes your store look unprofessional. I suggest you find images that have a contrasting color to the text or add a masked overlay onto the image.

• Featured product: The main usage of this section is to encourage customers to purchase products. With the product title being hard to see, customers may skip easily. I suggest having a colored-background block for the product information, along with having Add To Cart or Quick Buy button to encourage purchasing

• Footer: The big blank space inside the footer makes it look like it’s unfinished. You can consider adding a newsletter form, your brand logo or brand story,...

2. Product page

• Duplicated product review: On your product page, it seems that the review section is being duplicated, you might want to recheck it

Furthermore, for the upcoming Valentine's Day, will you run any campaigns? Here are some promotion ideas for your campaigns, I hope they will be useful for you.

1. Personalize Your Offer for Valentine's Day

Gift-giving is almost like a ritual on Valentine’s day. You can make the most out of it by offering products around Valentine's theme.

• If you already have products that people buy on Valentine’s Day, give them a little touch of love. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling a digital or a physical product.
• If you don’t have a physical product, you can still curate special Valentine's Day offers around your services that can be used on Valentine’s Day like “two for one” or “buy one, get one” deals. 

2. Mention Your Delivery Time & Rates Clearly

Delivery time is one of those things that can make or break your business. And if it’s some holiday, buyers take the delivery dates too seriously. To convert these visitors into potential buyers, mention your delivery dates clearly across your website, app, and emails. Also, specify the last date to place an order to reach on time.

3. Create Gift Guides

As mentioned earlier, Valentine’s Day is the season of gift-giving. But, when it comes to finding a perfect gift, people have what’s called a perpetual dilemma. 

You can do this by making Valentine's day gift guide. Break the guide into sections based on gender, interests, or personality traits like this: 

• By Category: Valentine’s Day gifts for sisters, mothers, friends
• By Price Range: Best Valentine’s Day gift under $25, $50, $100

I hope these suggestions can be helpful for you. Good luck with increasing sales for your business!

Best regards,

Victor | PageFly team

[Sam172]

Hi Victor, thank you for the detailed feedback. I can’t believe you actually took the time. So I applied some changes to the store and created a Valentine’s Day campaign. My store traffic increased to about 200 a day. Yes not even 1 sale. My bounce rate is currently for today is 100%. I’m really starting to think either this is not for me or i’m in the wrong niche. 

[Sam172]

Hi Victor, thank you for the detailed feedback. I can’t believe you actually took the time. So I applied some changes to the store and created a Valentine’s Day campaign. My store traffic increased to about 200 a day. Yes not even 1 sale. My bounce rate is currently for today is 100%. I’m really starting to think either this is not for me or i’m in the wrong niche. 

[lovescarsiou]

Hey Man, I am in a similar situation. Drawing in about 1500 customers to my site (www.cantbuytime.com) but only getting 4 sales. i started my store in November and initially tried jumping into seasonal product searches starting way too late for christmas. I then proceeded to potentially waste the last few weeks attempting to go after the valentines day market. i understand i should give my store more time to grow but i felt strongly about my website sucking so i upgraded it with my prefered niche and a few products. ive connected my social platforms, still learning more about s.e.o optimization. check out my site and please reply, this is my first forum response actually. 

will

www.cantbuytime.com