Isn't it obvious that we're selling?

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

I would suggest some type of wizard that would walk them through the actual process of buying. Most people don't really know what they need.

-Wayne

Thanks Wayne, that's a great idea.. Adding filters to find the right brake pad and brake kit was a big and time consuming step for me... ...but definitely made a difference.

How would you suggest offering that wizard to the end-user? Just an obvious link?

[scottmandue]

You need girls in thongs and high heels holding the brakes with a button below that says "buy me!"

[cstreit]

Are you volunteering Scott?

I've made some changes to the home page to simplify it and put some products on the main page to make it more obvious we are a retailer.

...next begin shopping around for a more modern look and feel....

[rwest]

Chris,

Somewhat related; whenever I've boughten bicycle brakes, I've had trouble figuring out the right pads and always thought there should be a link to the correct pads under the actual brake section.

Might even be better for sales if you had the option to buy a second set with the kit?

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by rwest

Chris,

Somewhat related; whenever I've boughten bicycle brakes, I've had trouble figuring out the right pads and always thought there should be a link to the correct pads under the actual brake section.

Might even be better for sales if you had the option to buy a second set with the kit?

Good idea. Thanks!

[aigel]

The issue is your mobile site. Have you seen it? I looked at it in the train this morning. It is terrible. I am no expert, but isn't a large part of all surfing and purchasing going on via mobile now? I would bet money that these inquiries are mainly from mobile users. I also would use the word BUY not "shop" to indicated what link you can buy under.

G

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by aigel

The issue is your mobile site. Have you seen it? I looked at it in the train this morning. It is terrible. I am no expert, but isn't a large part of all surfing and purchasing going on via mobile now? I would bet money that these inquiries are mainly from mobile users. I also would use the word BUY not "shop" to indicated what link you can buy under.

G

Good point. Our mobile users encompass about 35% of the total but have a 10% higher bounce rate and 0% purchase rate.

[motion]

Chris, your home page looks a lot better now, but when I clicked on your Contact Us page... whoa! You have all kinds of crazy stuff going on there. Best way to scare away a potential customer is to have an amateur looking site. It quickly erodes confidence in your company. Just my 0.02

[aigel]

The 0% purchase vs. 35% probably is an indication that it is weak. Of course, this isn't $8 trinkets on amazon either, so some may return on a PC and purchase from there.

Good Luck!

G

[foxpaws]

I have built a few aftermarket sites -

Year, Make, Model - front and center.

You have to have everything organized according to that - ask Wayne, ask anyone in aftermarket.

Year, Make, Model - this should be your mantra.

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by foxpaws

I have built a few aftermarket sites -

Year, Make, Model - front and center.

You have to have everything organized according to that - ask Wayne, ask anyone in aftermarket.

Year, Make, Model - this should be your mantra.

j

Thanks. We do have that for the brake kits. Everything else is non-specific to YMM so there would be little value in that.

[foxpaws]

Originally Posted by cstreit

j

Thanks. We do have that for the brake kits. Everything else is non-specific to YMM so there would be little value in that.

I don't see YMM on your front page front and center. I have a TT, I should be able to find everything you have for my car in less than 15 seconds, it would take 5x that to finally discover you have an anti-roll bar for my car. People rarely 'graze' auto parts, they want parts for their car. You have a 'grazing' site.

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by foxpaws

I don't see YMM on your front page front and center. I have a TT, I should be able to find everything you have for my car in less than 15 seconds, it would take 5x that to finally discover you have an anti-roll bar for my car. People rarely 'graze' auto parts, they want parts for their car. You have a 'grazing' site.

I get it.. My struggle is this... (I've been chewing on this for more than a year, so really appreciate any ideas....).

Let's say you put in your 2012 Audi A4 I to the YMM on the front page... You're going to see your brake kit listed.. ...but you will also see every brake pad and accessory we offer because those are non model specific.

So then your list becomes huge. ...10 pages of products. What, as a consumer, do you do then?

How would you further segment those 10 pages? By category? (Not sure I can do that btw)

Part of my challenge is the limited scope of the software. I'm with you that YMM is extremely important, but I'll be damned if not a single open source eCommerce package offers it... ...and there are no 3rd party plugins to do it either. It's always custom development. ...and that makes it impossible to upgrade later.

Ive refined the page based on your suggestions. Feedback is very much appreciated

[wildthing]

I heard that mobile users surpassed desktop/laptop users last year. Make your site mobile friendly.

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by wildthing

I heard that mobile users surpassed desktop/laptop users last year. Make your site mobile friendly.

For me it's 75/25. People don't buy $3000 brake kits on their phone. ...but I do need to work on our mobile....

[wildthing]

I think the stats I heard did not separate phones from tablets. But maybe if your site has better trackers then you have better info.

[foxpaws]

Originally Posted by cstreit

I get it.. My struggle is this... (I've been chewing on this for more than a year, so really appreciate any ideas....).

Let's say you put in your 2012 Audi A4 I to the YMM on the front page... You're going to see your brake kit listed.. ...but you will also see every brake pad and accessory we offer because those are non model specific.

So then your list becomes huge. ...10 pages of products. What, as a consumer, do you do then?

How would you further segment those 10 pages? By category? (Not sure I can do that btw)

Part of my challenge is the limited scope of the software. I'm with you that YMM is extremely important, but I'll be damned if not a single open source eCommerce package offers it... ...and there are no 3rd party plugins to do it either. It's always custom development. ...and that makes it impossible to upgrade later.

Ive refined the page based on your suggestions. Feedback is very much appreciated

You appear to be running a joomla site - you will need a custom module to create YMM, probably from a sql database. But, that is easily transportable, and shouldn't cost that much. You can define your database to YMM as well as part 'type' so you can create options for the consumer as they hit their YMM entry point. Have full brake systems, replacement pads, brake components, as well as other subsets defined in the database and then populate the entry point from that data.

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by foxpaws

You appear to be running a joomla site - you will need a custom module to create YMM, probably from a sql database. ...[/img]

Correct. Joomla/Virtuemart That's definitely the Holy Grail right there.

Something I would love to implement and tried with limited success using the filters.

The problem with my current setup is that it's not Heirarchical in nature. SO if I list a part as applying to a 2005-2010 Audi and 2011-2015 BMW, it takes the macro-set of the two and lists it as compatible with 2005-2015 Audi and 2005-2015 BMW.

I've searched for 2 years to find a YMM add-on to no avail. The programmers offering it want to hack core code which I will not accept. I can't believe that no one has created a commercial module for this.

[foxpaws]

This is a joomla site - the core is straight joomla - all the customization has been done in the modules...
http://www.spcalignment.com/
It isn't straight YMM because alignment parts are sort of an odd step child...


You probably would need to set up your data differently - coding parts to applications rather than applications to parts.

[cstreit]

Thanks. Not sure I understand that bit.... parts to applications..

I want to avoid building out a category structure based on YMM.. That gets really onerous. That selection seems to me like an external application?