Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello to all,

Just a couple of things. Of course I want a site review, hence posting in this category. The URL is www.saunastunner.com

We've been on-line for approximatly 8 months now. So it's somewhat relatively new. I guess my main question/concern is, I seem to get a decent number of visitors but their not turning into customers. Is the layout of the site bad, speed, easily navigated, problems with the looking of the site. Any feedback on what you may thing would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advanced.

Your site design is good, one thing missingin your site it is sitemap page please add a sitemap in your site it helps tosearch engine and you for better ranking.

I'm not at all surprised you aren't making money with this site.  The layout is alright - the fonts aren't what I would use, but that's minor really.  Your real problem is your message - you offer no clear and loud advantage for visitors to buy from your site.

All you're doing here is educating visitors about your product category: saunas.  You're, in effect, advertising for your competition because you may create some desire, but you make no compelling offer that opens a selling dialog.

You've made a common mistake, unfortunately.  You've put up a brochure rather than a sales pitch.  The writing is the problem - and the lack of what's sometimes called a USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

This site will never make you money unless you deal with the lack of a USP in the most pro-active way, by developing it and changing the message of your advertising to communicate it emphatically.

That's the solution.

Hi,

To get some insight to why people are leaing your site without making a purchase, you might look at some wof you web site stats.  Do people come to you home page and then leave or do they go to other pages first?

What search terms are used to get to your site? Do they really capture your target market?

Other analysis to think about is how you match up to your competition. Price, quality, ease of purchase, installation,product features...etc.

I'd say your site is not compelling...nice photo but not real "call to action". Your marketing message is fairly typical... telling the viewer that you have a good product. Such marketing is ok, but not engaging.

Design - The header image is rather large and I'm not sure what the photo has to do with saunas??? The free shipping and 10% coupon are good to present in clear view.

You should have alt image tags on all of your photos. Not only is it a great way to show a description of the product and marketing message, but it can also help in search results.

Sauna Images - the file sizes of a lot of your sauna photos are quite large over 700kb to 800kb! This means for viewers wih a dial up connection, I doubt if the image will load before they get tired of waiting to see it.

One barrier to purchase maybe something that I do not see answered on your site... how easy is this to put together? Potential buyers may hesitate buying a sauna online becuase they think it may be hard to assemble... or they just might not want to assemble it.

~Roland

I appreciate the feedback so far. I'm going to take a look at it more this weekend and see if I can take some of the comments and put them to work.

Thanks again for the feedback so far.

By the way... you're competing with Wal-Mart which has prices starting at $888 for a one person sauna.

~Roland

This is true and I have noticed this before. The biggest thing I noticed is they sell more of the Ceramic Heater saunas instead of the Carbon Heaters which are more expensive.

I also didn't realize the pictures were so large until you noticed it. That's something I'll definatly have to change this week. I'm also working on an assembly section which should be done within the next couple of weeks. I've been getting a few e-mails asking how easily to assembly they are. So thanks for all the feedback and recommendations.

Loren: How do I do "USP". I guess I just don't understand that part. Can you e-mail or possibly help me out in that aspect.

I have seen many websites that look like crap or they cram a whole lot of stuff on one page. I'm sure they probably make a lot of money doing it, but that's not my style. I know from my experiences buying on-line, if the website is hard to navigate or its too cluttered or looks like crab, I close it pretty quick.

Any other help or reccomendation would be appreciated.

Thanks again for all the feedback so far.