Any ideas?

[CMD]

Hi,

Being a guy that hates criticism I am going out on a limb here. I thought you might take a look at my site and tell me what you think. Be gentle.

I ask this because I get a lot of visitors, but the sales are low in proportion to the amount of visitors. I get a bunch of clicks from Google adwords, but again, few buyers.

I will be doing a new "About Us" page in the next few days. No need to mention that. It's just a simple description and is being changed. My prices are as good if not better than the majority. I just don't understand why I don't sell more.

I am sure, because I have done it myself, that customers add an item to the cart just to be able to check the shipping cost. That may explain a good amount of abandon carts. Maybe it's just the nature of the beast and my numbers are the norm.

I went online with 3dcart in March 09. September was the first month I sold more on my site than I did on eBay. That was a good thing.

Thanks

www.ColonialMetalDetectors.com

[cbsteven]

Just to give you a point of comparison, our conversion rate (percentage of visitors who make a purchase) fluctuates between 1.2% - 2%, and I believe that is fairly typical. We are an established site with several hundred orders per week.

[rrw]

Looks like a nice site--if I were in the market I'd seriously consider a purchase from you.

We have the same stats as above--we finally gave up the ad words as our organic rankings were so high. Sales dropped off dramatically, but then again, so did the $120,000 that we sent Google each year in adwords costs, so it's a wash. Downside, no more frequent flyer points and I'm guessing we won't get that Google beach towel for Christmas this year either. :)

[Shopabit]

I agree the site looks nice. Good images, decent prices. Being someone that knows nothing about metal detectors I would place some write ups on the different types and their uses. It might be just the ticket to turn people on and make you unique.

[CMD]

Thanks cb, rrw & Shop for the replies. rrw, you made sense when you mention dropping adwords. Since I am new online I think I'll keep it going a bit to maybe establish some kind of customer base or just let 'em know I'm out there. I am going to drop one add today. "Lesche" & "Lesche digging tools" is getting a ton of clicks and the items profit margin is a bit small. Plus I just realized those keywords are coming up 1 and 2 in the organic rankings. Thanks for the smack on the head. I needed that.



Shopabit, you may be right. When I look at other detector sites the vast majority offer very little info. I always thought I offered a lot of info on all the products. But again, you may be right. I could/should categorize the detectors as far as hunting styles. (ie. Beach detectors, Surf, relic, coin hunting.....etc.) I did make up comparison charts as to their uses on the brand pages. They probably aren't easy to find.



Thanks again all.......... much appreciated.



CMD

[rrw]

Don't forget the power of the video demonstration--post them on YouTube and you'll get lots of free traffic from there as well! :)

Our customers (brides) really appreciated being able to see "how" to put on a veil, what our veils look like on "real" people who turn and move, etc.