Since I moved over to BigCommerce I have been very pleased with its performance. As you can see from the snapshot above, revenue, orders and visitors have been showing a healthy growth. These figures compare May to April, but its important to realise that although April was a full month, the figures for May cover only the first 19 days. This means that the figures are even better than they look (assuming of course I continue to see visitors and orders in the rest of the month).
Speaking with a local SEO agency, it seems my conversion rate is above the norm, which they put at 2.2%. This is in line with what I have read elsewhere (2.0 - 2.5%). Obviously, I am starting from a low level as the store has only been live about two months, but its a healthy start. On the whole, I am very happy with progress so far and I intend to build on this early success. The question is, of course, how to do this?
Looking back at my experience so far I have learned some valuable lessons which I wish to pass on:
- The design and the layout of your store is important. My original store (designed by myself in Rapidweaver) looked great but it had some weaknesses - namely it forced visitors to scroll down to check out the product range and there were issues with the shopping cart I was using. It was also limited in its features. The new site is much cleaner, it's easier to use and to find products. In addition, the back-end is much better, with more information on customers and options such as promotions, discount codes and administration options for dealing with orders.
- The SEO options in BigCommerce are very good with fields for meta keywords and descriptions for every product etc. The way this works is much easier than coding it yourself and much easier to tweak.
- Marketing need a strategy - my early attempts at using Adwords and eBays AdCommerce (similar to Google's Adwords but restricted to eBay stores only) were somewhat pathetic, I realise now. Although it's possible to teach yourself the rudiments of online marketing (and to pay out for all sorts of guides and e-books), its best to leave it to the experts. As a result, have decided to spend my marketing budget on using a professional SEO agency with the expertise to get the maximum out of my marketing spend.
So, all in all, I am very pleased with how my new site at BigCommerce is going. More feedback next month on how things are going at www.newbeltanetechmedia.co.uk.
