Are my prices ok?

[onemorecoffee]

Hi, I set up my own website in oct 2012 and the first month was great. I sold to over 80 customers Between oct and the end of november. However, since then ive only made a few sales and wondered if its down to the prices or if christmas is to blame?

Or maybe its something else completely

Id appriciate any advise. website is www. www.tauntonstinytrends.co.uk

I'd guess that it's just because it's pre-owned, and most people buy or receive new clothes for their children over Christmas?

Or just that people cut down on spending around Christmas because presents and food put such a strain on the budget?

It can be a great time for shops, but only shops that sell gifts or luxury foods. For everyone else, it can be a big let down.

Now that it's January and people will be suffering from over spending at Christmas, it would be a good time to advertise if you can afford too.

and i cant link!
im on my phone so not sure if can put a link on sorry

thankyou, im planning on putting the spring stock on when the kids are back at school so maybe it might be worth advertising when ive done that.

I understand what you mean about luxury items over christmas.

Have your stock levels remained consistent? I.e. Assuming your 80 customers purchased a combined total of 120 items, have you added another comparable 120 items to your inventory?

Also, do you have a plan in place to encourage your previous customers to buy again? If you have a good flow of new stock then repeat business could be one way to encourage more sales.

I had a quick look and your prices and postage seem realistic, so I don't think that's your problem. It might be worth adding either a description of the condition of each item or a blanket statement somewhere prominent stating the condition of the clothing.

Good luck!

Another thought; do you have any idea of your conversion ratio, that is the amount of people visiting your website who go onto make a purchase? If you have access to your website stats you could guesstimate it by comparing the number of unique visitors each week to the number of transactions. This should give you an idea of whether the problem is with not enough people visiting your website, or with the people who do visit your site just not buying.

You could also look at the average number of items purchased per transaction and average spend per transaction to see if there are any obvious dips there.

that is some great advise thankyou.
i created a newsletter and sent it to existing customers at the beginning if jan. Inside it i thabked them for their custom in 2012 and listed 3 ways they could savd money with my website. eg % off for spending over £20. and a discount code for refering friends.
these seem to have worked as sales have picked up a lot.

Im going to see if i can work out the conversion rates, that would be very helpful.

thankyou so much for the help

Link here

Prices seem fine, I agree with the Christmas comment I hope it pick s up for you soon

Thankyou for putting the link on, I couldnt do it from my phone.

Also, to answer the first question about restocking, I would say that originally i was replacing the sold items, but have let it slide a bit over christmas. So stock is at it lowest right now.

I havd just got all the summer clothes out of storage so just need to get back into work mode and put them on the site.
thankyou again for the help