[Tamara Morrison]

I started a tshirt shop online about a month ago. I also have a freelance design site. The freelance aspect of my business has turned out to be the EASY part. I am getting clients without a lot of trouble, mostly through word of mouth. I also get requests for custom shirts, and everyone loves them. what i am NOT getting is a single sale from the online store. I don't understand why. Its probably in the marketing, but what would be an effective way to market my site? Facebook doesnt work. No one cares when I post an update, NO ONE even looks. Im not sure how else to get the word out about specifically the shirt site, you arent supposed to send email blasts to people who haven't "opted in" but how are they supposed to opt in if they dont know you exist! I have even tried posting a few shirts on related forums, and no one wants any. also tried eBay, absolutly no takers and not even more than 11 views. I really dont get it. My designs arent sloppy or bad and people are always saying they love them. It must be in the marketing. I wouldnt buy from me either, I wouldnt know I exist. But how do you tell people you exist without spamming them or just posting another ad they wont read and dont care about?? So frustrated!! Any advice would be much appriciated site is: www.youreaditcustomshirts.com/Store.html if anyone wants to look!

 

[janem]

Hi,

Took a look clicked on the shop sign and nothing happened? Am i missing something? Or was it just me.

 

[PureDeviance]

I really like the design of the website. Looking into Search Engine Optimization might help you. I Here is a site with some good tips on it: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Webmaster Tools Help . This might help draw more traffic to your site.

 

[printingray]

I started a tshirt shop online about a month ago. I also have a freelance design site. The freelance aspect of my business has turned out to be the EASY part. I am getting clients without a lot of trouble, mostly through word of mouth. I also get requests for custom shirts, and everyone loves them. what i am NOT getting is a single sale from the online store. I don't understand why. Its probably in the marketing, but what would be an effective way to market my site? Facebook doesnt work. No one cares when I post an update, NO ONE even looks. Im not sure how else to get the word out about specifically the shirt site, you arent supposed to send email blasts to people who haven't "opted in" but how are they supposed to opt in if they dont know you exist! I have even tried posting a few shirts on related forums, and no one wants any. also tried eBay, absolutly no takers and not even more than 11 views. I really dont get it. My designs arent sloppy or bad and people are always saying they love them. It must be in the marketing. I wouldnt buy from me either, I wouldnt know I exist. But how do you tell people you exist without spamming them or just posting another ad they wont read and dont care about?? So frustrated!! Any advice would be much appriciated site is: www.youreaditcustomshirts.com/Store.html if anyone wants to look!

First of all I'm not agree with your site design, this looks isn't professional. You must give your site a professional look, due to this more people grab towards you. For gaining traffic, you must have to do SEO,SMM of your site share it on all social media sites, also do local listing of your site, by this people easily find you on internet.

 

[veedub3]

I took a look at your site and this is why I would not make a purchase. (Just my personal preference when shopping online)

1. I like to know who I am giving my money to. I want to be able to pick up the phone and call the company if I have questions, not submit a form or send an email and wait for someone to get back to me. I want to be able to talk to someone if need be and I only found an email address on your site. With so many fake/scam sites on the web, if the site has no contact information they don't get my money. (You'd be surprised how many people feel the same way I do about this.) I like transparency when shopping online and when a company fails to offer up this information it makes me think they have something hide. JMO.

2. The price points seem a bit high for the t-shirts. Not by much but that too can be a factor on why one would pass on making a purchase.

3. What am I getting for my money? I could not find any information on the type of shirts used or the printing method used. Are you using standard tees like Gildan or FTL or are they fashion fit tees like American Apparel, etc.? Are they 100% Cotton, 50/50, ringspun, softspun.....what? What printing method is used - laser/inkjet transfers, screen printing - plastisol, water based, discharge, or DTG....what? What am I getting?

4. What is your return policy? Didn't see that anywhere.

5. What is your shipping policy? How much is shipping? Do you ship out right away or does it take a few days? What shipping method do you use?

All of these questions are questions that I feel potential customers need to know in order to feel comfortable with making an online purchase. It is possible to have someone pull the trigger without this information but not many and why not just offer it upfront.

Now you have only been at it a month and you have to know that it takes time. Rarely is it ever an overnight success. You also have to realize that you are competing with a gazillion other t-shirt sites on the web which makes being seen even harder. I agree that marketing plays a big role in being seen but I feel you need to hone in on your target audience and focus your marketing there. With the different types of designs I could not figure out who you were targeting so that would definitely be a great place to start. Social Media is great but mix it up a little. Rent a booth and try selling at local events and festivals. Sponsor some youth organizations or summer league teams. Maybe place some on consignment in local boutiques. If the customer won't come to you, go get them.

Whatever you do don't give up, keep working at it and you will see that the hard work will pay off. Just know that it is very hard work and you must be consistent at it and that it will take time.

Good Luck with it all!
Katrina

 

[GN]

The site is professional but it is too busy. Too many words. Too many trees (background and on some banners). Your "custom built" slider looks like an ad for a car. Change that. Your "Tamara Morrison" Slider is way too wordy. Get rid of that. The slider of the girl is good. Keep that and do more like it.. simple and few words.
As I scroll down.. that BG is killing me bc it has trees and design in it as well. Also get rid of "click on thumbnail to expand" We are in the ... 2012's (?) lol how do you say that.. anyways.. we aren't in the 80's anymore, every one knows if you click on the pic it will expand. Again, too many words.

Designs are nice.. but I think I was turned off because they aren't pics of shirts. Get some mock ups or take pics of real shirts and put there instead of the squares. You're competeing against people who dont use squares so you have to stand out. I want to buy a shirt - not a box

Get rid of that box at the bottom. Turn that into a link for "custom" orders or something. Again, too busy with all that on there. Ugh! I get to the bottom and you have MORE words "Mugs, totes, etc coming soon" get rid of that. . I want to buy a shirt - not read about your business.

I have a problem with the navigation of the site as well.. I click on a box (design) expecting it to take me to a check out page with info and stuff but instead it just makes the pic bigger. That was a little disppointing but i suppose I could live that - it just seems odd and as a consumer unprofessional.

I like the custom page wit hthe examples - now your talking! BUT I WOULD get rid fo the sliders when that page is clicked. And, cut down that paragraph to just the pertinent information. People want to buy- not read. I would cut it down to ONE sentence: "Check out the examples below...incorperated into a design." -and nothing else about Fluffy or celebrities or one of a kind shirts etc. Just stick with simple instructions or you will lose them.

"Oh my gosh your quote page!!" .. I just clicked over and that was my reaction.. WAAAAY too wordy!! seriously?! Get rid of that "Payment" chapter and put that in fine print on a FAQ page or "returns" page etc. Get rid of "if you are interested in something other than a T..." and just put a picture off to the side with a mug on it or something. Stop saying "Please".. it comes across as your begging and that dissolves trust -"why are you begging me to buy something? Are you not getting any sales? Should I not be buying from you? " I understand being polite.. but you have too many "please" in there. Just start with "Click..."
Get rid of that last paragrpah asking them to once again PLEASE read the stuff to the right. It's a given that if you cannot work with thier image you email them.

Instead of posting an email after "NEED HELP? " post a phone number.

Make that leather logo a home button that links to your store and activate it.

Most of the stuff you have written that I'm saying you need to delete should be on a FAQ or Customer Service link -neither of which you have. Add an FAQ and Contact page and Return policy.

I clicked on your graphics page and that page is GREAT! it's simple and cohesive and seems to have everything. Mimic that design as far as simplicity.

Hope that helps.

 

[GraphixGuys]

Tamara, You said it best... Its the marketing.

How many people are going to your site? You can find this out in your server stats.

This will tell you alot of information. Online sales are about the volume of people coming through your site.
I sell on ebay and for shirts I look at how many people have viewed the item and how many people have bought items. One of my best shirts have had close to 1200 views and I have sold alittle more than 50 shirts. If you look at the number it is about a .04% buying rate. To me this is above average. If you have a .02% buying rate I think a product is sucessfull.

If you have had 10,000 people come to your site and only 100 people have clicked your link to see a perticular shirt design, and no one has bought it, then that design is irrelevant and needs to be trashed.
If you have had 10,000 people come to your site and have had 3000 people click a shirt and no one has bought then there is other variables at play ( Like price, checkout process, site design, etc.)
You need to find out how many people are going to your site and how many people are buying shirts. If you have only had 200 people come to your site and you have not sold a single shirt then that is perfectly normal.
If nobody is coming to your site then try learning about SEO ( Search Engine Optimization) and Google adwords. These will help drive customers to your site.

Just remember that there are thousands of other sites just like yours (ie. I also have a honey badger shirt). You need to set yourself apart from them and that will help gain an edge against your competitors.

 

[MarStephenson761]

Hi Tamara,

First of all, love the way the site looks. My only observation is that I couldn't actually see the shirts to purchase in the store, not realizing that I had to scroll down to vies.

And welcome to the world of SEO. (search engine optimization). In order for your online store to be successful you need people to see it. There are 2 ways to make that happen: 1. You send people there with marketing..word of mouth, brochures, shows, flyers, etc. 2. SEO - you make it show up when people search for your products.

For example, Colman and Company does trade shows every year. We hand out catalogs. People see the web address and go and buy stuff. That's Way #1.

OR they go to Google and type in How to Make Patches and we show up on the first page...they type in Rhinestuds, same thing...type in Hotfix Rhinestones and we don't do as well. Way #2.

You can do loads of research on SEO and how you might drive people to your site that way, you can hire a pro for pretty reasonable prices, or you can just hit the streets with flyers - Way 1 or 2!

 

[charles95405]

got to agree with Katrina...plus...remember if anyone does a normal search on Yahoo for custom t shirts...they will get 160 million links...so you will not get overnight success...

 

[selanac]

Love your site. Agree a little with VeeDub, price for regular Tshirts, maybe $12.99 to $15.99.

American Apparel or other you type, $19.99 to $21.99.

Submit your site to Google, Yahoo and Bing. Make several local free listings, and Forums of all types like Hot Rod, cars, pets, etc.

Add Meta tags if you don't have them and add to it once a month.

I'll help If you want.

 

[Hegemone]

Price. I don't think the mass market will pay that online when some one else is half your price. If I am going to spend twenty or more on a shirt it needs to be detailed unique art and the shirt needs to look and feel like 20 dollars and most blanks don't. If you want to test your shirt try reddit.com if it's worth while it will be a hit. If its so-so they will eat you alive. They are a gold mine if not brutal and mean. Just remember everyone loves everything because it's easier for people to say I love it then to tell you why they won't buy it.

 

[gotshirts2ink]

Welcome to the t-shirt world lol

 

[dot-tone]

I can't really claim to be educated on the best way to sell on line since I don't have a retail site myself. Let me just point out a few things that I would change.

Over all, when you take time to look at what you have, the product is great. Good art, good prints ans style. Nothing new, but great. Why not sell what other company's are doing also? Nothing wrong with that in and of it's self. The only thing tough on that is more marketing. Someone will see those other100 locations 3 times over before finding yours and the sale was made on the 1st thru 3rd find.

1, Price. I'd keep them all at the same price (no mater the difficulty or cost of printing the design). If at all, I would have two price points only. One for difficult $18.99 and one for easy, $16.99 You seem to have many. Look at this site just as an example. 19.95 on all. Funny T-Shirts | SnorgTees

2, Is your site a custom or a retail site? Make it one or the other, but not both. Direct them to a separate page 9in your retail site) for custom printing orders. Direct them to your own freelance site for custom art.

3, Simplicity. Again, look at the simplicity of the link above. No (buy here) or ADD TO CART) that takes up 1/4rd the display area. Keep it clean and simple. Show the image. If interested, they click on it and get the details. Don't make them search to understand what you are doing.

3, Take out that big window of scrolling photo's that does not show your product. You are making THAT your main thing they see when they first hit your site. Is THAT what you are selling? The first thing I noticed was the chic.

 

[selanac]

Very good advice Dan.

 

[TPrintDesigner]

90% of your text is a series of graphics. If you want a search engine to pick up your content then it needs to be readable text. You can do this really easily with CSS code that will overlay your type ontop of the graphic background.

 

[Preston]

I do not like the site at all. The store is jerky and flakey. No real prints shown, just artwork pated on shirt templates, absolutely no information about who you are - where you are located - how to get ahold of you, nothing.

Clicked on "Add to Cart" and was shocked to see that not only was a white t-shirt with a one color print going to cost 19.95 but then there was a $7.00 shipping and handling charge. Clicked on another "Add to Cart" and nothing happened. That is because it really is not a shopping cart system but keeps adding things to a paypal page that is no longer visible because I am back shopping. Then when I do figure that out I see I would be charged $7.00 shipping and handling per style. Wholly rip-off Batman.

There is also nothing special about your designs. I see those same design concepts all over the web and for way less that what you have listed. Think very hard about your prices and if you want or need to charge that much then you better convince me when I visit your website as to why you and your shirts are worth that much.

I would trash the site and start over with a real shopping cart software, not relabeled buy it now buttons from paypal.

Sorry for the harsh reality check but you asked.

And one last tip. Get rid of the Harley stuff on your website right now. I mean the minute you read this. Harley will nail you to the wall and take everything you own if they see that stuff. I would get rid of the Mitsu stuff also. And do not even think about VW or Audi.

 

[wormil]

In addition to all the other things already said, (messy site, high prices, no contact info), your shirt messages are incongruent. Anti-Obama and Mother Earth shirts are going to attract different crowds and the mixed message will turn off both.

 

[selanac]

American Screen was looking for People to do Political Tshirts.

I'm sure you'll do better over time

 

[PBScott]

The website is fine, but you need to keep working on it.

The main reason you have not gotten any sales, I am sure is, its only been a month. Although everyone thinks that selling t-shirts online is an inexpensive startup idea, the fact that there are SOOOOO many t-shirt websites out there to compete with make the task of actually selling them a nearly impossible one.

My shirt site has been up for almost four years now, and I still am not selling what I thought I would have sold in the first year, and I still spend upwards of 60 hours a week working on it.

 

[royster13]

Buy a big Cartel store for 10.00 a month....