website questions

[goldfish]

I get many unique users to my website somewhere in the range of 200-300 a month but I am not turning them into buyers...there is a reason they are leaving...

It sounds like you are assuming that your site has an unreasonably low conversion rate (# of orders / # of visitors). Are you sure of that? As far as I can see, your current site looks similar to other TF sites, so I believe that your current conversion rate is also similar to theirs.

If your conversion rate is similar to any other TF site, there may not be much you can do to dramatically improve the rate. Small, incremental changes you are talking about may improve the rate a little, but not dramatically like >2 fold.

If I were you, I would focus on improving the number of traffic. "200-300 visitors a month" sounds too low to me.

 

[SpringCity]

I use a white background for almost all my photos. I use a $67 dollar digital camera I got from Ebay. I don't think it has to be rocket science.

I use a white bg too. When you submit photos for design contests they always tell you to use a white/neutral background. If I had a photographer at my disposal I'd do artsier vignettes etc. but just want to keep it simple for now.

 

[mgarden05]

Lori,

I highly recommend customizing your website. I used to have one of those cookie-cutter TF websites, but since I've decided to focus on just weddings and events, I had a custom website done. I think by customizing the site, you get to be more creative and portray who you are as a floral designer. I've also gotten more leads as a result. Brides have commented on how nice my site was compared to the others, and that's why they chose to contact me. Feel free to check it out: www.maisgarden.com.

While your arrangements are lovely, I do agree with the other members that the photos could be better, and they just don't do justice to your work. Since I'm not patient enough to sit there and edit my photos, I've asked the photographers of the weddings I do for their professional (edited) pictures. I let them know that I'll give credit to their work (which I have yet to do on my site). I haven't had a photographer say no. At the same time, I use the opportunity to network with them ) I also use some images from the John Henry wedding book. I try to limit the number of photos I post in my gallery, and put just enough as a teaser to get the brides to contact me.

Hope this helps. If you like, I can put you in touch with my website designer... just give me a holler )

 

[fatcatflowers]

stats

I get just over 1000 hits per month, and 55.6% of them leave in less than 30 seconds.

I think some people are just looking for contact info. Some are looking for a bar in New Orleans call Fat Cats. I suspect some are looking for actual fat cats.

you should be able to dig into your stats and see where hits are coming from, and what they are looking at.

 

[goldfish]

We get about 1,000-2,000 visitors a month (average pageview ~ 4 per visit). Our "bounce rate", % of visitors who leave right away, is 40-50%. Once people get in, they spend about 3-4 min on average.

Customers who come from referring sites tend to show a low (20-30%) bounce rate. For example, I know that people from Flower Chat show an average bounce rate of 26.7% and they spend 4.2 min on average (some spending as long as >20 min poking around).

In our case, the majority of visitors (>70%) come from search engines. Their bounce rates are higher.

The worst bounce rate is with visitors from Adwords. Especially "Content network" Ads bring in a lot of totally useless visitors (bounce rate as high as 100%), so we stop advertising there.

 

[theRKF]

It sounds like you are assuming that your site has an unreasonably low conversion rate (# of orders / # of visitors). Are you sure of that? As far as I can see, your current site looks similar to other TF sites, so I believe that your current conversion rate is also similar to theirs.

If I were you, I would focus on improving the number of traffic. "200-300 visitors a month" sounds too low to me.

That's correct - I'd been thinking about posting more on conversion rates in this thread. According to a recent study, the average online conversion rate for an ecommerce site is 1.5%. FTD reports closer to 25% but that is from traffic generated by heavy email marketing (customers arrive with high intent to purchase). Our Florist 2.0 sites are converting at between 3-4%.

It's all about making a relative comparison.

I get just over 1000 hits per month, and 55.6% of them leave in less than 30 seconds.

you should be able to dig into your stats and see where hits are coming from, and what they are looking at.

That speaks a lot about the quality of traffic. A bounce rate that high says you're getting traffic that's not related to your business & services.

We get about 1,000-2,000 visitors a month (average pageview ~ 4 per visit). Our "bounce rate", % of visitors who leave right away, is 40-50%. Once people get in, they spend about 3-4 min on average.

Customers who come from referring sites tend to show a low (20-30%) bounce rate. For example, I know that people from Flower Chat show an average bounce rate of 26.7% and they spend 4.2 min on average (some spending as long as >20 min poking around).

In our case, the majority of visitors (>70%) come from search engines. Their bounce rates are higher.

The worst bounce rate is with visitors from Adwords. Especially "Content network" Ads bring in a lot of totally useless visitors (bounce rate as high as 100%), so we stop advertising there.

Do you split out your search engine traffic between paid (AdWords) and organic? If your paid traffic is bouncing at over 30% you need to work on targeting your ads. Content Network isn't a bust but it's much different than marketing on the AdWords search network. Different audience, different approach.

Ryan

 

[goldfish]

Do you split out your search engine traffic between paid (AdWords) and organic?

Yes. The ratio of Organic- vs AdWords-traffic is about 6-7:1.

If your paid traffic is bouncing at over 30% you need to work on targeting your ads.

Actually, I didn't know that it's possible to get below-30% bounce rate with AdWords. I always thought that a lot of people are just clicking multiple AdWord ads without really checking each one.

But I also notice that content of the landing page and ad text makes a whole lot of difference in terms of bounce rate and ckick-through rate. For example, "Big fruit baskets" generates a lot more clicks than "Fruit Baskets" as ad title.

So I recently changed the landing page for "Big fruit baskets" ad, emphasizing the size of our fruit basket. When you go this page, don't forget to click on FTD, 1-800 links.

Incidentally, bounce rate of that landing page is very low.

 

[bloomz]

When you go this page, don't forget to click on FTD, 1-800 links.

Good grief Goldie - why on earth do you let your customers have links to FTD?

The amount of money generated can't even come close to paying for the shrink bill.

I did click it of course.:headbang:


I also clicked a couple of your funeral home links - now I understand link bait, but the 2 that I clicked both have competing flower sites they're linked to.

Hello?

 

[FrankieTheTulip]

This is huge for us - people look there to see about us, and call us with orders saying our place "looks so nice"... also, you CAN change the blurbs on the home page to reflect whatever you want - we change ours semi-regularly, along with home page selections. Always always always make sure the selections are unique from whatever TF usually sets them to, as well as changing the blurb. I always notice an influx of orders right after we change this stuff, though I don't know if it's because of the change, or just coincidence.

I agree with Tracy, we also have a picture of our shoppe on our website - and it's dressed up with plants and decor. We get lots of comments about our shoppe from the picture.

 

[FrankieTheTulip]

I use a white bg too. When you submit photos for design contests they always tell you to use a white/neutral background. If I had a photographer at my disposal I'd do artsier vignettes etc. but just want to keep it simple for now.

We use a bg that makes the item in the photo 'pop'. And since we have lots of windows - we try to use the natural light from the sun for our photos - a great tip we learned from a photographer friend of ours.

 

[theRKF]

Yes. The ratio of Organic- vs AdWords-traffic is about 6-7:1.

I meant split them as far as bounce, performance, conversions. Organic vs Paid Search vs Content Network for each engine.

Actually, I didn't know that it's possible to get below-30% bounce rate with AdWords. ...
But I also notice that content of the landing page and ad text makes a whole lot of difference in terms of bounce rate and ckick-through rate.

That's SO key - the ad text, headlines and landing page have to be tightly grouped around the keyword. It's essential! AdWords customers have a very short attention span. There are several great books on landing page optimization that are very helpful.

So I recently changed the landing page for "Big fruit baskets" ad, emphasizing the size of our fruit basket. When you go this page, don't forget to click on FTD, 1-800 links.

Now what would be really killer is if you were to link to a fake FTD page with ridiculous pricing and mini-baskets

Ryan

 

[marigold]

Lori, I agree with all of the above posts. My immediate thought as soon
as I log on is that is is a template site and the same as so many others.
I send orders direct all the time. If I click on a ftd or tele template,
I immediately click out and try to find one that is not generic.
I am looking for the quality and / or creativity
of the florists work. It is a shame, because some florists are extremely
creative, but not computer savvy, and these wire service site do not
allow you to be creative.
Are the wire services sites free to use? Is this why so many people go
for them?
I am thinking not. I think an investment in a creative web designer is
so important.
I just re vamped my whole site and it went live last week.
it was not a template before, but different colors and harder to buy
from.
It cost me 2000.00 and this includes the shopping cart.
www.stemsaflowershop.com

I believe that the website is your "brochure" about you and your shop.
Show them your stuff!

 

[theRKF]

Are the wire services sites free to use? Is this why so many people go
for them?

They are hardly free - check the comparison chart.

In fact, the cost is much higher when you consider the lost business from not being found in search and from customers being turned off by some WS sites.

Ryan

 

[master J]

...also
WS websites charge $3 per order in most cases...
this was one of the main reasons we went with Ryan's Florist 2.0!

Ryan charges $0 per internet order

We were doing about 1100+ internet orders a year with TF site, which was $3300+ a year just in per order internet charges! OUCH!

The worst part was, some of those orders that came in were for items we did not have in stock(since TF was always adding more TFWEB images without us knowing), in which customer would sometimes cancel at that point, and we would still be charged the $3 internet fee


It's nice to be free of the WS charges, and have complete control of my website.

I think WS sites are only good for florists who don't want to do any work themselves.

I highly recommend Ryan for anybody looking for a new website!

 

[bloomz]

My immediate thought as soon
as I log on is that is is a template site and the same as so many others.
I send orders direct all the time. If I click on a ftd or tele template,
I immediately click out and try to find one that is not generic.
I am looking for the quality and / or creativity
of the florists work. It is a shame, because some florists are extremely
creative, but not computer savvy, and these wire service site do not
allow you to be creative.

Must interject here that tho you're welcome to do whatever you like, obviously, but that is not any kind of criteria of a flower shop.

Some, no, many (maybe even most?) of the finest flower shops in America use wire service websites.

They apparently just choose to spend their marketing efforts elsewhere.

It says nothing about their creativity or quality of the lack of it.

Also - you can get as creative as you like with a wire service site, Cathy did it for years - if you just choose to put that energy into it.

 

[lori042499]

Must interject here that tho you're welcome to do whatever you like, obviously, but that is not any kind of criteria of a flower shop.

Some, no, many (maybe even most?) of the finest flower shops in America use wire service websites.

They apparently just choose to spend their marketing efforts elsewhere.

It says nothing about their creativity or quality of the lack of it.

Also - you can get as creative as you like with a wire service site, Cathy did it for years - if you just choose to put that energy into it.

I must agree with Bloomz here. I can take my website where ever I want to go with it. I have done a lot more than most to mine and I do strive to make mine different than the others in my delivery area...I have 2 whole tabs of my own creations(that is a heck of alot more than so many with template sites) I am a one man band here and I use the wire service templates because when i don't have time to pee I don't have to worry that I still have christmas crap up on my site at valentines day(oh i have seen this more than once or twice with those do it all yourself websites)

I do appreciate the feed back. To me most flower websites look the same whether they are ws templates, yahoo, or self made, even ryans sites look the same....It is because we all use either TF or FTD or 800 or JH stock photos, not because we use tf websites or ftd websites...I wish my own pictures looked better or I would take more pictures and put them up...I wish I had more time to set up my picture area and take pictures but there is so little time and so many windows to do, flowers to process, toilets to wash and buckets to scrub...so template is here to stay, like it or not it is what works for me right now and that is not something I am willing to change...

I did send in my logo to be added and started the daunting task of going through all of the pictures and paring down what I want to carry and what I do not...

 

[marigold]

Some, no, many (maybe even most?) of the finest flower shops in America use wire service websites.

They apparently just choose to spend their marketing efforts elsewhere.

It says nothing about their creativity or quality of the lack of it.

.

Exactly my point! "It says nothing about the creativity or quality or lack of
it! "
How is a consumer to tell anything different if they all look the same?
The consumer has no way of knowing if they are creative, or not.
It is all the same.
Isn't that the point of a site, to show your stuff?
Of course, some, many florist choose to put their marketing money
elsewhere, but the question was about websites.

 

[bloomz]

Not for me - the point of my website is to sell flowers. And choosing the best selling flowers in America and possibly the world is what I do.

Not the point of my site at all. I don't need to reinvent the wheel - there are wonderful creative designs and wonderful professionally shot images available from a variety of sources to use, and use them I do.

Yup I love wire service image cookie cutters, they be what pay de rent, so we can do creative on the few occasions that demand it.

Consumers don't need to know if they're creative or not. Few care. They just want pretty, well crafted and long lasting. Proof of this is the staggering numbers of those cookie cutters sold daily.

To re-quote with bold "It says nothing about the creativity or the lack of it."

 

[flowergrrl]

Before you spend time redoing any work on your site, you need to find out just where the purchase process is failing - no point in fixing whats not broken.
Are they not clicking through to the arrangements?
Are they not liking the pictures they see (not being enticed to buy)?
Are they clicking buy now and not understanding how the cart works?
Are they having problems figuring out where to put their card number?
What?

There will be issues in your buy process (oh, there's always something that can be improved!!) but you have to figure out what it is.
Logs are the first place to start, to see if you can see just where they stop, but quite often it takes more advanced analysis to determine what on the final page was the problem.

 

[lori042499]

Not for me - the point of my website is to sell flowers. And choosing the best selling flowers in America and possibly the world is what I do.

Not the point of my site at all. I don't need to reinvent the wheel - there are wonderful creative designs and wonderful professionally shot images available from a variety of sources to use, and use them I do.

Yup I love wire service image cookie cutters, they be what pay de rent, so we can do creative on the few occasions that demand it.

Consumers don't need to know if they're creative or not. Few care. They just want pretty, well crafted and long lasting. Proof of this is the staggering numbers of those cookie cutters sold daily.

To re-quote with bold "It says nothing about the creativity or the lack of it."

This is the exact reason why I wanted to be able to look at it like a customer...I have a real difficult time looking at it like a consumer. I have no idea what the consumer is looking for. I know what I look for but what I look for is going to be from a creative design point...For example when I look for a shop to fill orders for me in a town I don't know, I look for a website that I can see examples of their own work, and I do get aggravated when I pop on and it is a TF or FTD site with nothing unique on there, all I am looking for is a couple of half assed pics to let me know that they can design...The next thing I look for is the longer blurb at the bottom of their name on dove something that says anything I like that gives me the impression that they give a crap about their biz, like voted best florist or in biz 150 years, or we give your customer full value anything that lets me know they have some sort of integrity..but again this is me looking for a florist not a consumer looking for flowers...

I am always amazed by what sells on my site because they are arrangements that I think are not so pretty so there goes my problem...