Website Trust Problem?

ircoha

As well as agreeing with all the above, I have to ask why u insist on date of birth and gender for your customers.

Neither are any of your business and without a very specific privacy policy for those who might be foolish enough to fill out the form, you could be accused of being in the identity theft business.

Ther are no contact details etc as listed above: it is exactly this sort of setup that gives the www a bad name

wba88

Ok so it took a while but the extra pages (contact us, shipping, privacy etc) have been sorted and are now showing properly.

@bingobongo: yeah i have been trying to sort out my old account with ebay for ages (it was hacked into and then i couldnt create another account with my email), after four hours of online live chat to them it has been sorted and i will be looking at ebay shop info this wkend.

@stepbar: quote 'It doesn't seem that you are listening to what we are saying. You should have looked at the problems pre launch.' im sorry but i cant go back in time. People make mistakes and can learn from them, everyone has to start somewhere so please try and be more helpful if you are going to post again. Also before I set up the website I posted here and the reply i got from you was 'TBH in the four days this thread has been alive you could have had your business name registered, a bank a/c opened and a domain name with splash page up and running. In fact you do the whole lot in a day. If you're going to be serious about this you need to do it ASAP!!!!!!'. I do not have 30-50K to spend which is why i am starting small and working my way up to that amount of money then i will be able to stock a lot of different items.

@nice1franko: what do you find poor about the navigation, its pretty simple in my opinion. I have explained that I dont know anything about HTML and am looking for help with that.
P.S. razors are notouriously hard to source wholesale and then they could be fakes your buying and you dont want them!

@ircoha: Didnt think about that before, only reason i can think of (for DOB) is because some games are 18+. Changed now.



How do I accept other methods of payment without owning say a credit card machine?
Does anyone have any advise on what to add/remove on the site?

stepbar

wba88 wrote:

@stepbar: quote 'It doesn't seem that you are listening to what we are saying. You should have looked at the problems pre launch.' im sorry but i cant go back in time. People make mistakes and can learn from them, everyone has to start somewhere so please try and be more helpful if you are going to post again. Also before I set up the website I posted here and the reply i got from you was 'TBH in the four days this thread has been alive you could have had your business name registered, a bank a/c opened and a domain name with splash page up and running. In fact you do the whole lot in a day. If you're going to be serious about this you need to do it ASAP!!!!!!'. I do not have 30-50K to spend which is why i am starting small and working my way up to that amount of money then i will be able to stock a lot of different items.

Yes a "splash page". Check out what that means. If you are not prepared to spend the money, there's no point really continuing any further.

wba88

I am prepared to spend money just not 30-50K. I am enquiring about getting a custom template made to make the site look more 'professional'.

stepbar

Well maybe the problem is that you don't believe enough in your business. I'm afraid if you want to look like a professional outfit and earn trust with your customers, you will have to spend the money. That's the bottom line.

wba88

Yes i said i am prepared to spend money and i am taking relevant steps to make the website better.

You seem to know a bit about websites, do you know of any way i can accept credit cards/laser or anything else?

stepbar

I have a masters in strategy, a degree in software systems and I work for one of the top banks in Ireland.

TBH you need to get a merchants a/c with one of the banks. Once you have that in place you can code your website to accept such payments. TBH you need to sit down and think this through, do you have a business plan? No point going any further if you don't.

antoinolachtnai

Why does he need a merchant account? What's wrong with paypal?

Why does he need 30 grand of stock? That could well be 6 months of stock. He only needs a few weeks of cover, he can always get more, the suppliers aren't very far away and if he runs out of a few items it isn't necessarily the end of the world.

If he loads this business with debt, he'll never be able to maintain the low prices, at least not without building up a lot of extra scale.

Business plans are all very well, but the OP won't learn the basics of how to come up with and run a money-making website from writing a business plan. It's an imaginative, creative, learn-by-doing situation.

I would say that the problems are much more fundamental than what stepbar says. Stepbar seems to think that the OP is doing the right thing, just not doing it well enough. I disagree with that. I think he's doing the wrong thing in a barely acceptable way. If he had the right products and positioning, his website would be adequate.

heggie

keeping costs low by not designing a website properly for a WEB BASED business is just stupid. I've seen blog's better looking that that 'site'.

Trojan

One (very important) purpose of a business plan is to force you to work through the business in detail in your head. I believe some of the people posting on this thread have underestimated the value of that.

It's possible to setup and launch an ecommerce site very quickly - yes, within hours even. And sometimes that might be a good idea. In this case, I think it's a terrible idea, because I think the site doesn't do the business justice, and the business will fail very quickly.

I still think the site owner should step back and reconsider how the site is marketed - including site name, URL, look and feel, etc.


(Details removed as not appreciated).

BuffyBot

Why does he need a merchant account? What's wrong with paypal?

A lot of a people don't want to (for whatever reasons) or won't register (to much time/hassle etc) with PayPal just to make a purchase. So you loose those who either object to PayPal and or don't have the will/time to go through PayPal's registration - remember, every extra step in a process loses you customers. Impulse buyers are just that

stepbar

I would estimate that you would need in the region of 30 - 50k to get this show on the road, with the vast bulk of this going on purchasing stock to sell

That's what I said.

You can't expect to run the business with 2 and 3 of everything. Demand picks up and lone behold you sell out. I'd imagine even buying 10 - 20 of those Creative Zen's would cost in the region of 2-3k. Re: Having a merchants a/c - it's the professional way to go. Personally, I couldn't be arsed registering for a Paypal a/c. Most people will be of the same opinion.

Advertising and Marketing is not going to come cheap. However, a scalable website must form the backbone of this operation. A business plan is definatly needed. If I was loaning money to this guy, I would politely tell him to come back when he had one. It's crucial. It's what keeps a lot of people focused. I acknowledge that business plans can change, but not having one is poor.

Pub07

Why would you buy off a dodgy looking site when you can buy off Amazon, etc.... I'd be more concerned with my order not arriving with at all than saving a few cent here and there.
I would take that site down now, reregister with a better name and focus on a particular type of goods. As has been said offering separate types of goods such as jonnies, clothes and electronics on one website only hurts your reputation more. If you're site is big enough eventually you could get away with but not with the range of goods your offering.

That site is dead in the water as anyone who's come across it won't buy from it in future and the name makes no sense. You have a good idea but it's all about the execution, by cutting costs on design you are giving yourself no chance. Shut it down, learn from the mistakes and do it better second time round. I definately think like the idea of beating all your competitors on price but you're gonna have to spend money to start making it.

antoinolachtnai

BuffyBot wrote:

A lot of a people don't want to (for whatever reasons) or won't register (to much time/hassle etc) with PayPal just to make a purchase. So you loose those who either object to PayPal and or don't have the will/time to go through PayPal's registration - remember, every extra step in a process loses you customers. Impulse buyers are just that

1. You don't have to register to pay with Paypal.

2. This has just not been my experience.

stepbar

<EDIT>

antoinolachtnai wrote:

I would say that the problems are much more fundamental than what stepbar says. Stepbar seems to think that the OP is doing the right thing, just not doing it well enough. I disagree with that. I think he's doing the wrong thing in a barely acceptable way. If he had the right products and positioning, his website would be adequate.

antoinolachtnai: I don't think he is doing the right thing, far from it. If it were up to me, I would close this website down. It won't be viable unless there's a business plan produced, an input of real investment, a more focused product range and better / smarter marketing (logo / website address etc). Too many people just think that an online shop is a licence to printing money. Even, at this stage, if the OP did up a business plan; I would suspect it would expose a lot of the flaws this business has. However, no business plan is perfect and may take countless revisions etc.

The OP could do with professional advice. Trojan has given a lot of practical advice already, as have the other posters. It's up to the OP to either take it or not.

mneylon

I think you main issue is the site's design, or lack thereof.

If you can get a professional look and feel to the site then you should see an improvement in sales.

I can't work out what the site is meant to be doing either.

You've a mixture of electronics / gadgets as well as condoms and clothes.

I'd recommend you choose an actual niche and stick with it

BuffyBot

antoinolachtnai wrote:

1. You don't have to register to pay with Paypal.

2. This has just not been my experience.

It's been a while since I've come across a site where paypal is the only option so you may be right (that alone says something, perhaps). However, a lot of people still don't trust PayPal, however for various reasons and that will put some off.

stepbar

I see the OP has an advert on boards now. It seems that he has taken none of the advice given here on this thread. TBH OP, you need to look at this thread and start making the changes that will make this business work. Otherwise you might as well forget about it.

CelloPoint

blacknight wrote:

I think you main issue is the site's design, or lack thereof.

Disagree. I think the main issue is the business model. Site design does not lead to sales in itself. I can't see how the guy can make money. It's not clear to me what the target market is, and I don't think he has the scale nor product range (like Lidl and Aldi do) to effectively communicate to bargain-hunting consumers.

I wouldn't shop on that site even if i was in the market for a pair of new runners. Why? Because "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM".

Welcome to the school of hard knocks.

antoinolachtnai

stepbar wrote:

I see the OP has an advert on boards now. It seems that he has taken none of the advice given here on this thread. TBH OP, you need to look at this thread and start making the changes that will make this business work. Otherwise you might as well forget about it.

It's the op's business and the op's money, and he can do it whatever way he wants. He might not make any money, but that's his business not ours.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

ballooba

Can I just echo what another poster said above. Why take the risk of setting up a website and paying for it? Also, it is very difficult to get a merchant account. I doubt by the looks of it that you would get one. Use eBay and Paypal. Get Google Ads for your eBay shop if you want. Have a website that links to your eBay shop if you want. Forget the online store until you grow volume.

The Scientist wrote:

Also in response to your low budget, why not try some lean manufacturing/TQM. .i.e add to range of stock without actually having it in stock. Sourcing a product after an order has been put in can be incredibly beneficial (not having money tied up in dead stock).
If it works for Dell.....(

Sounds close to drop shipping. Which is what many eBay merchants do.

Anan

Hi, Have been reading the posts with great interest. My views here...

I think the house is divided with some posters stating 'Spice it up' and some saying 'Bring it down and start from scratch properly'

I would tend to agree with the latter. I understand OP's concerns that he needs to progress from where he is rather than starting all over. He needs help but not on the business idea or plan, but simply on the website.

You need to realise that people once visited the site will never vist again to see if if the site has improved. Why should they ? Price is only one factor - obviously an important one. Will you buy your LCD television on a car boot sale because it is cheap even if it is good branded one ?

We all agree ( including the OP) that it is a mess. And Yes. We all learn from mistakes. You can't keep fixing and re-designing a site every day while it is live. This is not something one does in increments. Websites are to be designed, built and tested offline and should be lauched with all features enabled on day 1.

Bring it down before it does more damage to your reputation. The more you keep it live the more number of people are going to visit and not going to come back. Do all the changes, Get all the fixes, register a new ie domain and re-lauch it professionally. If you want to hold on to this name for whatever reason, re-direct it to your new site though I prefer not to.

Offer a COD service for a period until you build the trust, provide a support email address and phone number in large font and respond to all emails and queries immediately.

You will be surprised to know how quickly all this can be done. However don't rush with the planning and do it thorough. Plan slowly and act quickly. Good luck.