AboutJim Novo Expertise Questions about using customer data to inmprove online profitability, particularly in retailing. Topics include profiling customers using weblogs, figuring out which ads generate the highest value customers, how to reduce the numnber of 1x buyers, how to generate higher sales from current customers, customer analysis, ROI calculation, reducing discounts while increasing resaponse rates. Do you collect customer data (purchases, page views, surveys) and not really use it for anything? Want to find out how? Just ask.
Experience
Past/Present clients Cellular One, MBNA, SteelTorch Software, Retek Direct, CBS Sportsline, Kobie Marketing, Aerial, Tupperware, Barnes and Noble, Comcast Corporation, Home Shopping Network
Expert: Jim Novo Date: 5/2/2008 Subject: online retailing
Question hey
my website is www.thefancystuff.com
I have not had much success in selling stuff from this site.
please advice.
thanks.
Answer That's a pretty broad question so I'll give you a broad answer.
People buy from sites they trust. Your site has a lot of stuff going on with it that reduces trust. I would:
1. Kill the advertising. When people see advertising on a retail site they think "this site can't survive by selling products, so it must not be very good".
2. When I click the "Enquiry", I get a 404 error instead of some way to contact you. This does not build trust.
3. I'm not sure what kind of technology you're using to create the "wipes" and the dancing menus and so forth, but that kind of stuff makes the site difficult to use and breaks if people don't have the right browsers / plugins installed. When sites break, that causes people not to trust them.
4. On you About Us page, tell people something real about your company. Who are the people, why does this store exist, etc. Let them build some trust with you. "We want our customers to be 100% satisfied and we will do all we can to ensure this happens" is not exactly an empowering / trustworthy guarantee. Spell it out.
