HI, i Just started an e-commerce site for my company we are doing really well in our brick and mortar stores but online i am having problems making any sales 0 to be exact.
im not a website expert and not the best computer guy. I also have done a lot of ads with over a 100k visitors from ppc campaigns.
Maybe someone on this forum could help out?
Unfortunately, stand alone ecommerce (not ebay, ruby lane, etc) is really tough for jewelry, unless you sell low end price point stuff or super specific specialty stuff. I would not invest the time and money into a stand alone. You can list items on one of the other sites and have a link or iframe on your store page. I find that most of the time, online jewelry selling is simply a race to the bottom anyway. Little profit and frequent headaches. Focus on your store and other advertising, and occasionally show key items on social media with prices.
Hi. I certainly agree with the other member. Ecommerce is very tough out of mainstream platforms such as Amazon Ebay etc. I see youâve had a good number of ad driven visitors. What I would say is (Iâm looking on my mobile) you need to increase your industry authenticity, trade associate memberahips. Years of experience but nothing on who you are linked to, where you go to trade shows where you exhibit. Where are you based.? The only thing I can see is UAE returns so probably there? An address may be good and also increase authenticity as well as an email address linked to your website and not a Hotmail one. One of the biggest things on your site is a whole pile of legal stuff. Big turnoff too. Donât mean to shoot you down but maybe some of those adjustments may help. Ps. Iâm not an expert either. Best wishes Andy
oops, did not notice that the email hasnât updated yet. just did it. we are based in dubai. thanks for the advice
Thanks for the advice i will look into that. Also tbh the only way we have to reach retail customers is online. we have a cutting factory here and for security reasons would not want walk ins
A friend of mine who sells antique jewelry told me, âbuy online, sell local.â I tried selling on the major sites and there is no way you can compete with either poor stock or non US prices. The same friend said recently that the Chinese and Indian govts were flooding the markets with replicas so everything in jewelery, antiques, memorabilia was crashing.
Then place at antique shops, consignments or open a separate store.
I have been an IT guy for 28 years, previously Google certified for SEO and just getting into a side business of gems and jewelry manufacturing. Clicks arenât the issue, its conversions. Depending on where or how you are paying for clicks you may be targeting the wrong people or you may be getting false clicks that you are paying for. Either way, getting the right traffic is paramount to an effective PPC/PPA campaign and it seems you are just wasting your money. If you would like to contact me I can see what I can do to help you get to the right target market and hopefully you can turn traffic into conversions.
The sales comes in 4 steps
Visits ( you made it with paid clicks). To improve check whether the target group is all right. I also notices that for jewellery ( I also have an e shop) Google shopping works but SEM not. With Google shopping also it is better to try slowly( starting from 250 $ per month) as with more traffic, you conversion might decline. FB dynamic ads , showing the products and price are also effective.
Make sure the pictures are attractive, and product descriptions are detailed. This will help you only to boost the organic traffic but also show your commitment to the site and clients. Remember , descriptions in a way are the sales storey you would say in person when having customer face to face - you need to replicate it on line.
Trust . Make sure you have all needed ways of payment and delivery in your shop. Speed of delivery might be an issue as well. Are you using courier company that is trustworthy ? If you are new shop I guess you are short on customers reviews. They are super important. So invest ( both time and money ) to have the a.s.a.p. that quite few. My customers are encouraged to leave to comment with 10% off with next purchase
Time of site loading, attractiveness of graphic design , quality of product shots are important as well.
Can you find the ways to get third parties to endorse you and have that endorsement on site (local organisations etc.) Can you use your brick and mortar heritage / brand?
Conversions. Ensure always few popular items are with promotional prices. This is part of the website that is being visited first. Have pop up with 5 - 10 % off displayed if the person wants to leave the shop without purchase. Start building you mailing lists. Have an info in your brick and mortar that on line shopping available now. Display on popular marketplaces ( Ebay.com etc. ) using your brand name as a nick.
Be patient. Google needs 6 month to properly index your pages. And your customers need time to change their habit the way they shop. In a meantime choose 3 online competitors with similar profile to yours and research them by putting âtheirdomainname.comâ - the apostrophe is important. In that way you will see all the places and pages they are in. Treat this as food for thought, see what you like, what you can do as well, maybe even better than them.
And good luck. The sales will come.
Joanna
Hi Tayz, like others have said, youâre in a very competitive niche. I may be able to give you a few pointers though. Your website looks good but is lacking in some âtrustâ items.
I hope that helps a little. Best of luck.
Iâve noticed a few things about successful e-commerce sites, many push the idea of luxury, quality and personal customer care. There is often a background story and photos of the team and steps done by hand, company history.
Liberal sprinklings of things like, âWe only use untreated natural gems, carefully selected by our buyer, who has a keen eye for something special.â
Giving customers the same feeling they would get from being in your bricks and mortar establishments is a good aim
My $.02, instead of trying to sell directly on your website, try to drive traffic to your bricks and mortar store with it.
Your prices are competitive for a bricks and mortar store, but, not competitive enough for online.
Keep updating the site, focus on âGoogle my Businessâ and keep all of your ad spend local.
Also, be sure to push your items to as many other marketplaces as possible (eBay, Amazon
Eventually, people who live more than an hour away will start to order smaller things directly.
Good luck! I think that you might be surprised by how well you do with this strategy!
As a note, Iâve been selling online since 1999, so, Iâm not âanti online businessâ in any way.
This is me: www.skyjems.ca
There is a lot of guidance and ideas from others here, but something I havenât seen anyone comment on yet is âThe Personâ
People like to buy from people, they like to be engaged by a vendor so they can develop some sort of mental relationship and build a trust.
Looking through your website it is very impersonal, yes you talk about your history in the âAbout Usâ page but does it engage me?.. No unfortunately not. When a person visits a website, you have between 7 & 15 seconds to engage them so they stay and want to browse, be amused, entertained and educated.
Why not start a YouTube channel and introduce your selves via video, express your passion for Gems and Jewellery, but keep is sincere and short. This can be on your home page so visitors meet you.
Use the same media for inclusion in Blog posts, blogs should be entertaining and educational, then other sites might link to your blog post. In you post on Buying Big Daimonds I learnt nothing. Visually what is the difference in clarity vvs, vs2 etc, what about the 4 Cs, no mention of these, educate on the vernacular, a Round is usually referred to as a Standard Round Brilliant, show a Cushion cut, a Marquis, plus others, likewise different colours. Price is a turn-off and scares people unless you can justify it.
I saw an ad yesterday for a 0.31ct Argyle Red diamond Lot 13 from the 2018 Auction⌠I wanted to see the gem particularly as the asking price is AU$325,000, things like this engage and fascinate people and they will come back to your site as you are starting to develop an âAuthority relationshipâ
A new jewellery design/piece, take a quick video talking about it for YouTube, put on Instagram and link back, Facebook post about it, all is a powerful use of social media that will drive visitors.
A guy I know cuts and sells Opal, his videos are really entertaining and highly educational, he has over 44,000 subscribers, videos with over 1.2m views and these all direct back to his website which sells opals, some worth 10s of thousands of $$$. He posts a new video every week and emails his subscribers with a link, sure it takes a while to build to his level, but if you are going to build an online business and want to engage people, social media is a critical element in the modern marketing world. The more avenues of exposure you have the better, remember you are âmarketingâ your business NOT selling jewellery, if you market well the result will be sales. You must create a unique product; your business, so people will come back to you because they know YOU and theyâve developed trust in YOU.