Please advise on website

[PresentsofGrace]

Hi there, I have to be careful not to spam or ask for help if I'm not welcome.

I am turning towards a Christian forum because I feel like personal input from folks might help my wife and I.

We had problems with our finances and relying on other employers to give us a secure job. So, after much debate on the risks involved, my wife, and I decided to start a Christian Boutique.

It works out well because I program the website from scratch, she enters the product information and images. We have 1400 products out of an inventory of 25,000 so its a bit overwhelming.

The problem is, we had hundreds of hits, but nobody seems to purchase. I know we've praid for days about this and we're wondering if we're doing the wrong thing by trying to sell Christian products. Afterall, it isn't about money, its about spreading the gospel.

Were we wrong to go into a Christian business? I thought it would be much more meaninful to focus on Christian ethics, business, products, etc. than secular ways. It just hasn't taken off though.

There are multiple reasons of course, but we're just hoping for prayer and maybe some advice on how our website looks and feels. PresentsofGrace.com is the website name if you decide to look.

Thank you for this wonderful forum and the great topics you all discuss. It is very encouraging indeed!

God Bless, Eric & Jamie

 

[NostalgicGranny]

There could be a lot of reasons.
Have you checked out the competition? What are their prices?

Is the website easy to use, navigate, and shop from?

Have you listed your website with search engines?

Is your shipping and handling reasonable?

Do you advertise?
You can advertise your website offline as well as online.

Send me your website link and I will go check it out.

 

[JasonFontaine]

I haven't seen your site - but I'm going through the same thing. People will look - but only a few buy.
The internet may just simply want to watch trans-gendered Britney Spears wanna-be's crying in front of the camera.

I was thinking my Pro-Life message and acceptance message would be well received.

If I mention it - I get kicked out for spamming. I even made little videos - and have been chastized everywhere for being a loser.

Just keep your head up - that's what I'm doing.......even if I don't ever sell another one - it's my calling.

I wish you the best of luck, and that God will provide bountiful customers in the near future. But, if He chooses not to - we both know He would want you doing this good work.....and it all works out in the end...

Send me your site and I'll send you mine so we won't be accused of spamming...
God Bless!
Jason

 

[ciaradawn]

wow you have a lot of unique items in your store. do you have an ebay store? I've heard those work well and it would be a good idea for you since you have so many items. I was looking at the board games and you have a lot I've never heard of, which is pretty cool.

first off, it's ok for you to want to make money off this. you started it to make money right? I wouldn't exactly call it witnessing.

Ok on to my critique of your site... it is very easy to navigate, it's clean and simple and I like the layout. Here is what I think your problem might be, and it has nothing to do with anything you're doing wrong, it's just that the internet is changing. Several years ago my mom found this website while she was browsing around the internet. It's called SBI (I don't know if you've heard of it) - SiteBuildIt... anyways, it explains that the search engines are changing and the way we do websites has to change if we want to keep up. SBI is a program that you purchase and it has all the tools you need to build a successful website; it was books and online tools and ect... I used it for awhile to build a site, but I was in college and I just didnt have enough time or the focus to do it right, and I got bored with my topic... but the site is VERY helpful and it completely changes your idea of what a website should be.

Here's your problem... when someone goes to your site it says "buy me!" which isn't neccesarily bad right? I mean it's a STORE, duh! but what you need is more CONTENT. People need to know why they should buy your product. WHY should I buy this board game or book?

Also, are you advertising with google? I hear that is quite lucritive.

I hope I'm making sense. It's the new thing these days with websites. People are looking for content/information and if you can give them that and a product then they'll be more likely to buy.

The SBI site is not cheap or anything, but you can look around the website and get tons of information before you buy anything. Let me know if you have any questions about it. Good luck with your site, it looks like you have a lot of unique items.

 

[edcris]

Dear Erik and Jamie,
Online shopping is a harder to manage and maintain.I have for you some suggestion:
1) in order to promote your site on top page (in google, yahoo,...), your site should contain many keywords.Try to write descriptions for your products, reason what customers should buy it and why your products are so unique.
2)advertising is the best way to sell your products.It is 100% lucrative
3)try to refresh your site image.Add some interesting blogs,articles,news related to your business.

That's all and gooooooooood luck.I am sure everything will be ok