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View Full Version : Does credit card facilities make website sales improve????

gourangaoo4u
11-16-2004, 09:49 AM
:? Hello everyone, im looking for advise about why my site doesnt sell our goods so well and ways to improve its selling power. Please take a look and give any costructive comments. www.gourangaoo4u.co.uk As yet we have been relying on paypal and nochex as a payment system but were wondering if we invest in a shopping card and merchant banking, so we can offer credit card facilities, should this have any affect. Also, has anyone any knowledge or experience of the Ikobo payment cart and payment system. Look forward to many replies...hopefully
JWJ
11-16-2004, 10:57 AM
Forgive me, I cannot comment on payment methods for I have no personal experience of such matters ... but there are plenty here who will advise you.

Having looked at your site, one thing struck me above all else ... the fact that clicking on a photo to see more detail only shows the product draped over a pole and looking very like a scarecrow. Up to that point I was doing ok, but I suddenly felt as if I was about to purchase from someone trading out of their backyard. That, together with your obvious payment system problems and errors, made me feel very uncomfortable about making a purchase. In my opinion, an enlargement of the product is not necessary, and certainly the present pictures add nothing to the customers view of the item in question.

I know you didn't ask for general comments regarding your site, but I'm just giving you a personal reaction in the hope that it helps.
webado
11-16-2004, 11:14 AM
Your html code is rather messed up on just about all pages.

You seem to have

</body>
</html>

</body>
</html>


at the bottom of many of your pages, which results in Code corrupted from Statcounter. This code strangely appear at the top.

You must be using a WYSIWYG editor and forgot to work directly in code view mode when inserting the Statcounter code.

Other than that, I have these comments:
1) The Knitwear page or something like it should really be your first page to the site. As it is, Home doesn't show anything nor does About. Doubtful anybody will bother to try digging very deep into the site to see the merchandise. You could probably reorganize it all on fewer pages even.

2) Your use of Flash Text may be an unhappy choice, if this results in not enough actual text visible to the search engine bots.

3) Other than your first page, none of the others has a title defined in the <head> section. THey all appear as Untitled Document.

4) The links on your Links page aren't centered and it looks as if you intended them to be.

5) What's supposed to happen when one clicks on Namaste on the About page or other titles on other pages? Right now the cursor changes to suggest a link, but nothing happens.

6) The black background isn't very attractive, in my opinion, but that may be just my taste.

You have some nice products, but they need to be shown to their best advantage.

I think that you should first clean up the site and fine-tune it really well before you undertake to bring in any other things like shopping cart and all that.

Good luck.
motorwatchercounter
11-16-2004, 04:01 PM
Hi gourangaoo4u,

www.netinvest.co.uk/ncr/netbanx/ (UK based with several options)
Credit and debit cards.
www.2checkout.com (Multi currency but can be used in the UK)
Credit cards only (some more US based) can be used without a cart. Cheap, instant, easy, add and remove items quickly.


I looked at the site but my AV kept coming up with medium risk ActiveX. When I did not allow these I only got text without any products.
webado
11-16-2004, 04:10 PM
Medium risk ActiveX? hmmmm, mine didn't pick this up ..... :?
motorwatchercounter
11-16-2004, 04:23 PM
Hi Christina,

I won't post what AV I am using but you know anyway.

Blocked all content except some text. Even stopped the "info" button from working.
webado
11-17-2004, 02:41 PM
Hi Christina,

I won't post what AV I am using but you know anyway.

Blocked all content except some text. Even stopped the "info" button from working.
I do???? Actually, I have no clue :D . What info button would that be? I'm using AVG from www.grisoft.com and a variety of anti-spyware stuff that stumble all over themselves trying to block this and that and everything.

Now you got me worried :shock: . Did I just subject myself to an invasion of ActiveX gremlins and didn't even know it? :o
DSL Guy
11-17-2004, 05:19 PM
DSL Guy here to ask- have you tried selling on eBay?

Someone previously mentioned your home page is not search engine friendly. You need more white space.

I went to your Catalogue page or Knitware, some of the last text in your paragraph is obscured by your photos. Also to see the knit sweater on the stick in the yard did make me think of "Yard Sale". Take pics of someone wearing the sweaters. You don't have to show faces.

Do you have a service around whereby you place their seal on your site verifying your site is secure for CC transactions like Square Trade or VeriSign or the (BBB)Better Business Bureau? Getting one of these might help.

Your site appears homemade and very personal as opposed to corporate. Maybe put a face with your site if you don't mind letting people know who you are.

Back to eBay. I would try that just to see how popular your product might be with the eBay crowd.

Hope you glean some excellent advice here.
CaribbeanChoice
11-21-2004, 12:59 AM
:? Hello everyone, im looking for advise about why my site doesnt sell our goods so well and ways to improve its selling power. Please take a look and give any costructive comments. www.gourangaoo4u.co.uk As yet we have been relying on paypal and nochex as a payment system but were wondering if we invest in a shopping card and merchant banking, so we can offer credit card facilities, should this have any affect. Also, has anyone any knowledge or experience of the Ikobo payment cart and payment system. Look forward to many replies...hopefully
Well, one thing to consider is who you wish to sell to. PayPal only serves 45 countries. If those are sufficient, then that's okay. Many of the countries PayPal doesn't serve are actually high risk countries, although some low to medium risk countries just haven't been added by PayPal yet.

I would recommend accepting credit cards as many people aren't used to PayPal. But you may want to ask your customers or put a poll on your website. The best feedback you can get is through your potential and current customers. It may or may not be worth it depending on what you customers want. One thing is clear is that people are used to paying with credit cards, and are just now starting to get used to paying with PayPal. Most large websites accept credit cards and those that have added PayPal say PayPal accounts for only 5% to 10% of their sales. But keep in mind that their existing userbase is used to paying by credit card, so that would explain the lower PayPal numbers in comparison.

Also, keep in mind that PayPal allows you to accept credit cards and they are making a big push to be the online credit card processor. You just need to make sure that people realize that PayPal accepts credit cards. Nowhere do you indicate that they can pay by credit card through PayPal. You need to include the PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Discover/Novus, American Express, E-Check, Switch, Solo logos on your website as well.

http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/logo/logo3.gif http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/icon/icon_visa.gif http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/icon/icon_mastercard.gif http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/icon/icon_discover.gif http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/logo/icon_amex.gif http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/icon/icon_echeck.gif http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/logo/icon_switch.gif http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/logo/icon_solo.gif

Login to your PayPal account to get the proper logos for your website. This is what I use on one of my websites. (We are actually in the U.S., but are trying to attract U.K. customers by letting them know they can pay with Switch and Solo.)

This by itself may increase your orders. People may be assuming that they already have to have a PayPal account, which is not the case. They can actually click on the PayPal button, not having a PayPal account, and enter their credit card information.

You can even set it up so that customers are not required to have a PayPal account or create one to order. I think yours is set-up where they need to create one. You may want to look at your settings.

Before I would spend a lot of money on a merchant account, I would consider adding PayPal's credit card logos and letting people know they can pay with their credit card via PayPal. That by itself may increase your sales.
webado
11-21-2004, 02:30 AM
What the heck are you all talking about? I am not getting anything blocked here at all except the Paypal button for some reason. Certainly no big invasion of anything whatsoever. I checked the privacy report on every page and there was nothing wanky about anything at all. :o
motorwatchercounter
11-21-2004, 11:05 AM
Login to your PayPal account to get the proper logos for your website. This is what I use on one of my websites. (We are actually in the U.S., but are trying to attract U.K. customers by letting them know they can pay with Switch and Solo.)



Paypal do no allow UK members to pay without signing up. Where the US sites allow the option of paying without sign up, the UK does not have this function. They do not have plans to introduce it. I have asked them.

Debit cards are very popular in the UK.
trackerm
11-22-2004, 01:48 AM
Hi :) I loved Nepal when I was there... trekked to Everest Base Camp... bought the most wonderful Yak wool jumper that is as warm as toast and still looks as good as the day I bought it 10 years ago.

I got a code error too:
Code corrupted. Insert fresh copy.

I agree that the scarecrows are scary! :) Fun to look at, but only for one jumper then it gets a bit ho hum.. esp the background.

Advertising works on selling the 'sizzle'. I think you need to get some pro photos done with pro models wearing your jumpers. The model needs to be right in the demographic (age range) of the people you expect as shoppers, or the person they are buying for.

Mark
webado
11-22-2004, 01:55 AM
Hmmm, there seem to be more error there now.


<html>
<head>
<title> unique hand knitted nepalese jumpers sweaters cardigans and other knitwear </title>
<meta name="" content="Gourangaoo offer unique individual designed handcrafted handknitted woollen jumpers, handcrafted handknitted wool cardigans, handcrafted handknitted wooly sweaters, hand knitted hand crafted woolen hats and scarves and other knitwear imported from Nepal.">
<meta name="keywords" content="wool jumpers,woollen sweaters, woolen sweaters,woollen cardigans,woolen cardigans,woolen jumpers,woollen jumpers,individual designed,original,handknitted,knitwear, clothing, nepalese knitwear, woolen goods,woollen goods,nepalese,ethnic jumpers,ethnic cloths,festival cloths,hippy cloths, woolen knitwear,">
<meta name="description" content="unique handcrafted knitwear,Sweaters,jumpers,cardigans and other handknitted woollen garments in an array of colours imported from Nepal.">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#000000" text="#666666">
m
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"><script language="JavaScript">
<!--
function MM_reloadPage(init) { //reloads the window if Nav4 resized
if (init==true) with (navigator) {if ((appName=="Netscape")&&(parseInt(appVersion)==4)) {
document.MM_pgW=innerWidth; document.MM_pgH=innerHeight; onresize=MM_reloadPage; }}
else if (innerWidth!=document.MM_pgW || innerHeight!=document.MM_pgH) location.reload();
}
MM_reloadPage(true);
// -->
</script>


Like what is that stuff in red doing there? Wrong place for it, it looks like a left-over after moving some code around. The m actually shows up on the page before the decoration laods up for it.
motorwatchercounter
11-22-2004, 10:22 AM
Maybe it should look like this?

<html>
<head>
<title>unique hand knitted nepalese jumpers sweaters cardigans and other knitwear </title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="" content="Gourangaoo offer unique individual designed handcrafted handknitted woollen jumpers, handcrafted handknitted wool cardigans, handcrafted handknitted wooly sweaters, hand knitted hand crafted woolen hats and scarves and other knitwear imported from Nepal.">
<meta name="keywords" content="wool jumpers,woollen sweaters, woolen sweaters,woollen cardigans,woolen cardigans,woolen jumpers,woollen jumpers,individual designed,original,handknitted,knitwear, clothing, nepalese knitwear, woolen goods,woollen goods,nepalese,ethnic jumpers,ethnic cloths,festival cloths,hippy cloths, woolen knitwear,">
<meta name="description" content="unique handcrafted knitwear,Sweaters,jumpers,cardigans and other handknitted woollen garments in an array of colours imported from Nepal.">
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
function MM_reloadPage(init) { //reloads the window if Nav4 resized
if (init==true) with (navigator) {if ((appName=="Netscape")&&(parseInt(appVersion)==4)) {
document.MM_pgW=innerWidth; document.MM_pgH=innerHeight; onresize=MM_reloadPage; }}
else if (innerWidth!=document.MM_pgW || innerHeight!=document.MM_pgH) location.reload();
}
MM_reloadPage(true);
// -->
</script>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#000000" text="#666666">

Put in your content and then close with the
</body>
</html>
closing tags.