This website is included as an example of the sites that are often brought to us, with the owner complaining they create little or no new business.
In this instance we were unable to convince the client of the way to redesign the site. However, it is included as a good example of the types of sites offering plenty of opportunity for improvement in an active and competitive market.
Exisitng site
This business owner spent a significant sum on his website some time ago. An ecommerce online shopping cart was included.
Although the owner is successfully selling through word of mouth, the website makes virtually no sales. The site does not feature in Google searches for any related products. There is no significant return on investment.
The olive oil industry is very lucrative, with a large number of searches for olive oil products. Although it is highly competitive, it should be possible to get a significant number of sales with the right marketing approach.
Looking at the current site (shown), problems are immediately obvious. The use of colour does not help guide potential customers to the selling proposition. There is very little content to convince customers to buy this product. The menus are small and difficult to use.
Looking deeper there is much more that can be done. Customers are not guided through the process of discovering the products and their benefits, to eventual purchase. Navigation is difficult. The shopping cart is also difficult to use.
There are also many technical problems which mean the site will perform poorly in searches. There is also no monitoring, so it’s impossible to see what traffic, if any, is arriving, and what visitors are doing before they leave without puchasing. It is highly probable that most visitors stay on the home page for around 5 or 10 seconds, and leave.
The website is currently not marketing the products at all, It is merely flagging their existence. It is also not targeting the right audience, and is not concentrating on parts of the market in which it can compete.
In effect, it’s only a web-presence. Only people who already know about the products and already want to buy will purchase. Even some of those will be put off by the difficult user experience.
There is much can be done with this site. A detailed analysis of the buisness and it’s specific niche and market is needed. This will lead to significantly stronger content, and a focus on converting undecided customers.
Major improvements to the user flow, through to the shopping cart, are needed. A rework of the overall design, making better use of colour and other visual signals, will increase sales.
Improvements in the behind the scenes technical setup, combined with the above, will mean the site can be found in searches for the chosen niche areas of the business.
This business is certainly missing a significant number of sales from a large potential market.
Going Forward
At the time of writing, a proposal has been put to the owner based on the findings of this study. The owner decided not to go ahead because of commitments to his current designer. Staying with the current design is obviously losing out on significant potential sales.