How to convert visitors to buyers?
I have good traffic to my site but the conversion rate is rather low.
Any advise on how to convert visits to purchases would be appriciated.
www.kasilofseafoods.com

---

Request for Question Clarification by serenata-ga on 22 Oct 2003 22:46 PDT

Hi Otnot ~

The fact that you have "good traffic to [your] site", but your
conversion is low would tend to point to the fact that you're not
attracting the right traffic.

As you are seeing, all the traffic in the world doesn't help if the
traffic you're attracting isn't the right traffic. It would seem that
the traffic you *should* be attracting would be more upscale, since
methods of shipping can almost double some of your prices.

If you don't mind sharing, it might be easier to answer your question
if we knew:

1. Who is your market? What "niche" do your customers fit into?

2. What do you mean by a "rather low" conversion rate?

Effective conversion depends on how you approach your market - and
yours is definitely a "niche market". With the holidays around the
corner, this is the time to attract the right market and convert
visitors into customers.

Thanks,
Serenata

---

Clarification of Question by otnot-ga on 23 Oct 2003 13:51 PDT

Hi Serenata:
Well I didn't start out with any research on what niche. But from 30
years of seafood experience. My customers are generally 40-65 years
old and very health concious. My conversion rate from my Adword
campaign is only 11%. I have had 3600 visitors to my shopping cart and
only 350 completed transactions. I need someone to look at my site and
tell me how to improve it so my visitors feel more comfortable about
ordering.

Thanks 
otnot

---

Request for Question Clarification by serenata-ga on 23 Oct 2003 15:41 PDT

Wow Otnot ~

I know some merchants and businesses who think a 5% ROI on their
Adwords a "great" or "good" figure, so you're ahead of the game in
that respect. A "1-2% ROI" is considered an average return in many,
many circles.

Take a look at these two discussion threads, it will give you some
idea of what I'm talking about:

 * Webmaster World - Google Adwords, "AdWords campaigns... Results?
What are the results for AdWords??"
   - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum81/101.htm

and

 * Search Engine Marketing Forums "Average AdWords conversion rates?"
   - http://jimworld.com/apps/searchengine.forums/action::thread/thread::1047183550/forum::googleadwords/


That's merely a look at your conversion rate there compared to others.

Now, you're talking Shopping Cart Abandonment, which usually means
they're going that far to find other information and leaving when they
find it - or the buying process is too difficult.

I teach a class tonite to a very lovely group of residents who live in
a (for lack of a better word) "retirement community" with more
amenities than you can shake a stick at.

A phenomenal lot of them have high speed internet connections, very
*nice* systems, and want to learn how to do more than get their email.

That's where I come in ... they're learning everything and everything
from how to design their own websites to other software applications,
and I'm going to use them as a 'test' if you will, to see what they
say.

It's certainly not scientific ~ but I can at least compare it with
real-time usage and then white paper and marketing studies to see if
we can pinpoint what/where things "go south" (pun intended).

I'd be interested, though, in knowing exactly at what point your
shopping cart is abandoned, if you have tracked that information. We
can then apply that to the results and other information for a better
idea on what could be done better.

Under the "If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It" category, I'd be a little
reluctant to change a lot with that kind of ROI.

Warm regards,

Serenata

---

Clarification of Question by otnot-ga on 23 Oct 2003 17:06 PDT

Well it seem once my cusotmers get to the cost of shipping is where
they back out. I was wondering if I shouldn't advertise free shipping
like some of my competitors and just up the price of the products like
they do. I changed from including the price in the products but not
saying FREE SHIPPING to what I have now so that people would know what
they are paying for. I have always been leary of anything free but I
guess there is a fool born every minute. I think the sticker shock of
overnight shipping may be too much as it's almost as much as the
products. I have a great return clientell but as always, I want more.

Thanks
Jim

Hi again, Jim ~

I notice some other Google Answers Researchers have added advice under
"comments". I'll address those issues, too, as some of the same
observations were made by my unscientific "test group" this evening.

Let me reiterate what I said in my second Request for Clarification -
you are getting a very respectable ROI which would be envied by most
online businesses.

Rest assured, though, that your desire to increase business is
understood, and I suspect some of the observations and information
below may be of help to you.


=============
Graphics
=============

I'd like to address the issue of the graphics first, since that was
the first comment made.

Your larger images are very attractive, and I suspect your visitors
click on them all! The fact they are offered is terrific.

With some slight adjustments, the images could be enhanced, but
they're not detrimental as they are. The fact that they're not
professionally done does not detract at all.

For your information, jpeg images are 'lossy' by their nature. Over
time they tend to pixelate and lose their sharpness - especially in
areas with a single color (such as the area of white to the right of
the shot of the Cold Lox). I have taken the liberty to take one of
your photos, sharpen it for the smaller image and changed the format
of the larger image to .gif (which does not lose its sharpness) to
show you that with some very slight tweaking, the images can be
sharpened. You can find those here:

   - http://209.151.82.182/otnot.html

I repeat, the images are attractive and are in no way detrimental to
the site. If you wish, you can brighten them a bit, but your future,
obviously, does not depend on the state of your photos.


Some Images You *Could* Add
===========================

You do such a good job on the text content, the class members and I
were both surprised, and maybe even a bit disappointed, you didn't
show a graphic of a live or freshly caught salmon. We expected it and
went looking for one. Where'd we miss it?

We also expected to see your retail store (and if it has those lovely
fish on ice, so much the better), and perhaps your processing
facilities with your happy personnel busily doing whatever it is they
do.


Comments about the photos that were there
==========================================

We love the mountains across the top of the page; unfortunately, your
logo isn't easily discernible, as it competes with the mountains. It's
a nice logo, you may want to add it against a plain white background.

As for the Bear photos and the photos under Alaskana ... beautiful
photos, but what are they??? Adding descriptions would sure be nice,
our curiosity was piqued.

As I said, the food presentation is lovely. If you feel like doing
anything with the photos, it won't hurt, could help, but it certainly
isn't keeping visitors from becoming your customers.


==================
Overall Design
==================

There are many things you could do to 'update' the site. Some of the
comments I received this evening were interesting, but are more
cosmetic than anything else.

Those included an observation that the information on the front page
where you describe your business (second paragraph) weren't on a
separate page - an "About Us" page - and that there wasn't more
product on the first page instead.

Other observations were a failure to find an actual guarantee, except
for statements referring to it, such as "... we offer a full Money
Back Guarantee" - so a page containing the exact terms of your money
back guarantee might be in order with a link from every mention of
your guarantee. Even if the page is so simple it's merely one 
paragraph, link to it and put it in writing. But we seriously doubt
this is keeping people from buying, either. It is merely a suggestion.

Other observations were details such as the FAQ opening a new window
if you clicked on any question (annoying), no pictures of prepared
dishes with the recipes (disappointing or surprising they weren't
there), photos on the page with processing your customers' own fish
(disappointing), and no photo of the business on your 'contact us'
page.

Nothing mentioned above is important enough to send your visitors
away, though. You have enough information to eliminate questions about
your products.


====================
Credibility & Trust
====================

There was an interesting study conducted by Consumer WebWatch &
Stanford University - "How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's
Credibility?"
   - http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/news/report3_credibilityresearch/stanfordPTL_abstract.htm
 

Some of the simplest ways to build trust are often overlooked such as:
 
User-Friendly Design — 
Design to deliver your information quickly and make it easy to access
the information your visitor seeks. Make it easy to order from any
location on your site.
 
Include ALL the Information a Buyer Needs — 
Include important information about the product (such as sizes,
colors, etc.), warranties, return policies, etc., and consider them an
unbreakable contract with your customer.
 
Establish a Privacy Policy — 
Sixty percent of online consumers are concerned with privacy issues
and the amount of information business collects; eighty percent are
concerned about the amount of information the government collects.
Establish an easy-to-understand privacy policy and make sure it is
available from every page on your site. Regard this as your contract
with your customers and never break it.
 
Contact Information — 
Make it easy to contact you by as many means as possible. The more you
can tell about yourself, the more confidence you instill.

Most of that information is already on your site, albeit not always
where one might expect to find it.
 

What We Didn't Find
====================

What we didn't find was a Privacy Policy, stating EXACTLY what
information is collected, by whom, and what is done with the
information.

We also didn't find any testimonials. Those go a long way in
establishing credibility and trust, too. It may seem like "blowing
your own horn", but there is comfort in seeing others' satisfied with
your products and service.

Will this help increase your conversion rate? It certainly won't hurt,
and you might find that it does help.


===========================
So, what's left?
===========================

Two issues we need to address: Shipping costs and your order form.


1. Shipping Costs
===================

I searched Google for the term "Alaska smoked salmon" (without the
quotation marks), and got a return of "about 25,400" pages.

As a comparison, I visited the following sites and compiled this
information on how they handled shipping:

        Name & Url                                Free Shipping?
=========================================         ==============
Wild Alaska Smoked Salmon                               No
 - http://www.smoked-fish.com/shipping/

Dejon Delights                                  Included in Price
 - http://alaskasmokery.com/

Alaska Smokehouse                                        No
 - http://alaskasmokery.com/
 added at checkout by inserting Zip Code

Eagle Smoked Salmon                                      No
 - http://www.eaglesmokedsalmon.net/generic.html?pid=21
 based on dollar amount of order

Found your site with a different layout and different URL!
 - http://www.smoked-salmon.com/Smoked-salmon-Gifts/Smoked-Salmon-Halibut.htm



The Free Shipping Myth.
=======================

Free shipping doesn't really fool anyone, but they like to "think"
they're getting a bargain. If you perform a Google search for the term
"free shipping myth",  you will see that no one really buys "free
shipping" as absolute truth, but rather a built-in cost of the item.

There's a pool maker who adds shipping costs and then addresses that
matter by using cost comparison of his products WITH shipping to
others with free shipping. But he is really using price, period, to
entice buyers, and if "low price" is the hook, you'll lose that
customer to the next person with a lower price. You can see that
example here:
   - http://www.arthurspools.com/cyclopedia/shippingmyth.htm


Shipping costs don't seem to matter to your 'competition'. They either
state explicitly that their prices include boxing and shipping or they
state the shipping prices on their website.

The worst of the lot was the site that adds shipping costs after
inserting your zip code, but they're using automated Federal Express
software to calculate shipping costs, too, which may be the reason for
that.

I seriously doubt shipping costs are a shocker. If one stops to think,
you're shipping fish half a continent away and overnight. It is very
hard to do that for $4.00 overnight.

The only other way that I can see that might make sense is by adding
an item's shipping costs with that item's description, or at least
repeating the shipping costs on every page plus giving your very
detailed information on the shipping page.

It might look like this:
       #2002 Smoked Salmon
        [description ]         $ 0.00
       Shipping costs         + 10.00
 (for shipping and packing information click here) - which would link
to the shipping page where you can show an item boxed, ready to close
the box, so they can appreciate the care you take.


What my class said:
  Out of seven in tonight's class, four said "free shipping" isn't an
incentive to buy unless they're comparing prices on things like
electronics, computer parts, books, etc. If the prices are the same,
and one business offers "free shipping", that IS a consideration, but
only if the two businesses are perceived as having the same
trustworthiness.

   The other three said they didn't care where it was added. 

   None expected shipping to be cheap from Alaska. 


I don't think you're losing them on shipping costs, but you may want
to experiment to see if there is a more effective way to "prepare"
your visitor for shipping costs when he goes to check out.


2. Your Shopping Cart/Order Form
==================================

I think you're losing them because of the cart's design and checkout
process.

Pinkfreud-ga, one of our most highly regarded Google Answers
Researchers, made a valid point in the comments below. She couldn't
find the continue button and couldn't figure out where to go next til
she scrolled horizontally.

I found the reason for this in the source code.

Although you have your table size set at 100%, you have a size set for
one of the table's cells at:

     <td width="1148" rowspan="2" valign="bottom">

And then your 'continue' button set 'way over there aligned to the
right.

My class tonight, bless their hearts ... had the same problem, and it
is because their resolution is set at 800x600.

While your mileage may vary, just about half the resolutions are set
at 800x600 for whatever reason - either monitor size or the size set
for being able to 'see' what's on screens.


A better design, keeping all the information within a screen without
having to horizontally scroll is important. People HATE horizontal
scrolling and they will leave a site faster than you can blink when
they have to do so.


Minimizing Shopping Cart Abandonment
=====================================

Beyond that, Brian Eisenberg recently had an excellent article in
ClickZ, "20 Tips to Minimize Shopping Cart Abandonment", which ran in
two parts, August 8th, and August 15th:

   - http://www.clickz.com/sales/traffic/article.php/2245891
and
   - http://www.clickz.com/sales/traffic/article.php/2248551


He states the NUMBER of steps isn't important (although the shorter,
the better) as are other considerations. I'm not sure I agree with him
on that issue, but he does present some valid points and suggestions
to help your buyer through the process, such as:

  * Include a progress indicator on each checkout page.
  * Provide a link back to the product.
  * Add pictures inside the basket.
  * Provide shipping costs early in the process.
  * Make it obvious what to click next.
  * Make editing the shopping cart easy.
  * Make it your fault.
  * Show them you're a real entity.

and

  * Make the checkout process even easier for new visitors
    than registered customers.
  * Add third-party reinforcement messages.
  * Offer a price guarantee.
  * Reassure customers at the right time and place.
  * Track your mistakes.
  * Use an exit survey.

I strongly suggest reading the details on this excellent article. What
Brian says makes sense. It is all about that credibility and trust
issue I discussed above.

Use those points which will fit your own business, and I think you
will find less abandonment problems. It always comes down to making it
easy for your visitors and customers to find their way around and
accomplish the business they are there to conduct.


=============
Summary
=============

Forgive my ambling about, but I feel you deserve a good look at how
others see your site.

You have a really attractive site. With the exception of a Privacy
Policy and Testimonials, whatever tweaks I have suggested to the site
itself are more cosmetic than great omissions or changes which you
NEED to make before you can be successful.

No one size fits all, and to say you should do this or that to make it
better may fit 80% of the sites on the Internet, but may not hold true
for www.kasilofseafoods.com.

You already have a good ROI, but feel it could be better; so I would
definitely start at the point we experience problems - the shopping
cart.

And speaking of shopping carts, please forgive me for likewise
abandoning it in my examination of your site this evening.

Any other suggestions will enhance the visitor's enjoyment of your
site, because it is also fun to spend some time there and look around.
On the other hand, if you find they linger longer but don't buy -
tighten it up and get them back to the products so they can buy!


Google Search Terms -
  * Alaska smoked salmon
  * free shipping myth
  * shopping cart abandonment


Thanks for the chance to take a hard look at your most interesting and
inviting site, Jim. My class and I enjoyed poking about and don't be
surprised if you get more than a few orders soon from the desert
southwest.

Warm regards,

Serenata
Google Answers Researcher

---

Request for Answer Clarification by otnot-ga on 24 Oct 2003 06:49 PDT

I just want to thanky Serenata for you helpful insite and very good
suggestions. Next summer we will be adding a color chart of each
species of salmon as it goes through it's life cycle. They all go from
a beatiful silver/blue to a red ugly hooked nosed fish as they get
close to spawning. When my wife and I first took up this project we
had no experience at all in web design or SEM nor did we realize that
it was going to be an every day job to keep imporving the site. We
currently are adding more recipes and photo's. Yes we added another
site without all the distractions just to see how it converted. It has
only been up 2 months and it has actually not produced to well. I
really feel that there are three classes of sites. The major site like
Amazon that is already branded and polished and well known and then
you have the cookie cutter sites, that all look the same and have
banners of affillitates all over them. Then you have sites like mine
that I like to consider as a Ma&Pa store. I have tried to make people
feel as comfortable online as we do in our retail store. But it's hard
to know if your as effective online as off. I will definatley get up a
guarentee page and a privacy statement. We get letters daily praising
our products and service but have hesitated to post them because we
didn't want to post peoples names? We will also sharpen up the images.
Thanks again. And if your ever in Alaska stop by for a cup of coffee.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by otnot-ga on 24 Oct 2003 06:52 PDT

I meant Thank You. It's 5AM and I havn't had my usual pot of coffee.

---

Clarification of Answer by serenata-ga on 24 Oct 2003 07:33 PDT

Hi Jim ~

Thank you for your kind words. I hope you know I wish you all the best
of luck.

We really like your site!

You're right in having to put more time and effort into maintaining a
website than one would think, but you and your wife obviously have
done some things very right.

Here are a couple of helpful hints on testimonials and Privacy.

As for the testimonials, this is an excellent opportunity to remind
your customers who have praised your service that you are around.
Write and ask them if you might use a portion of their letter (with a
link to their own site, if they have one), and ask if they prefer just
a name with a last initial or if you can publish their whole name.
Seems like a great and friendly way to remind them you're still there
with your great product!

As for the privacy statement. I should have given you a couple of
links to consider.

The Online Privacy Alliance has good information on adopting and
writing a Privacy Policy. Their site is here:
   - http://www.privacyalliance.org/resources/ppguidelines.shtml


And so does the Electronic Privacy Information Center:
   - http://www.epic.org/

--------------------

As for visiting Alaska, my brother has a home in Eagle River, and I
hope to visit sometime in the future.

--------------------

If you have any more questions before you rate this Answer, please
post them here in the Request for Clarification. I'm happy to help.

Serenata

One thing I would suggest is a sharper, more focused cloe-up photo of
your product. The one you have now isn't of professional quality, in
my opinion.

omniscientbeing-ga
Google Answers Researcher

Hi Otnot,

Wow... what great photos.  I'm really in the mood for some lox now! 
And the pictures of the 'caught fish'... huge.  Beautiful pictures.

Best regards,
tlspiegel

As a test, I placed the "Alaskan Smoked Salmon Spread" in my shopping
cart. It sounds delicious. When I got to the page where that asks for
my name, address, telephone number and ZIP code, at first I could not
figure out how to proceed to the next page after entering the data.
The button marked "Continue" was not visible to me. I use a screen
resolution of 800X600. By scrolling, I found the button, but not all
customers are savvy enough to think of this. It's possible that some
may abandon their orders at this point because they have no indication
of how to proceed.

The Alaskan Smoked Salmon Spread did look wonderful. But a shipping
charge of more than $25 on merchandise whose price is $19.95 is very
daunting. I would guess that many customers may back out of an order
when they discover how much it will cost to ship perishable food
items.

I went back a couple of pages and deleted the item from my cart. Many
customers may not know how to do so (or not have the courtesy to try).

Some of these factors may partially explain the "abandonment" of
shopping carts by potential customers.

Please excuse an error in my remark above. "When I got to the page
where that asks for" should be "When I got to the page that asks for."
Fingers go faster than brain sometimes.

Here's another idea with regard to shipping. Should you decide to
raise the prices of the items and offer "free" shipping, you could
also make it a "Purchase 2 or More Items to Receive Free Shipping"
deal. That will give customers more incentive to make it worth their
while and order more from you. For a while, that's what Barnes and
Noble.com did and that made me choose them far more often than
Amazon.com. Just a thought.

Hi: 
Your right omniscientbeing. They are not professional photo's. I took
them free hand one day when I wasn't too busy. What do you think is a
better representation of what your selling a professionally done
picture of cook fish or the raw product?

Thanks tispiegel!

I have to agree that our shopping cart can be quite confusing to some
people. We are always trying to simplify their online shopping
exprerience. I'm not having trouble with people ordering more than one
item I just hate to have someone not buy from me for some silly reason
like a shopping cart. Yea the shipping from Alaska is really high. I
get a huge FedEx discount and pass it all on to the customer just to
ease the shipping shock. But then I have to put the product in space
foil and then a jel pack and then a stryo box and then a cardboard
box. And to top it all off I have to ship all my supplies from Seattle
and then ship them to my customers. The dip was the perfect example of
shipping. What's funny about the dip is I have customers that have had
it before that can't live without it. Thanks for the insight.

Hi, otnot,

I'm not a fan of testimonials on a web site. Don't people know that
almost every business owner would cull bad comments before the public
could see them? And I wonder sometimes if the business owner might
have written some or all of the glowing praise! (Please note that I am
NOT implying that you would ever do that, otnot!  <s>)

The exception to my opinion of testimonials is their use in a site
like Amazon.com's, where it's good to see the feedback that their
sellers of used merchandise receive. I'm not an eBay user, but I'd bet
the feedback/testimonials would help there, too.

I don't think that testimonials would hurt your fine site--not at all,
in fact. But if I were considering ordering from you, seeing a list of
testimonials wouldn't influence my decision.

BTW, I ate a piece of smoked salmon last night, and now I'm hungry for
more!

dtc

P.S. to Serenata: You gave otnot a wonderfully detailed answer. Great
job!