Volume Of Sales From A Website

[IATM]

Hi All,

I have really made it my goal for my current trading year to set up an excellent website and get it up and running to a level that would atleast match sales on eBay or Amazon.

Of course I know there will be wild fluctuations in terms of peoples experience on this but what sort of sales volume on average are people attaining daily?

100 orders a day?
200?
500?
Dare I say 1000?

Would be good to get other words of wisdom you have on marketing a website.

[cat with a hat]

Too many varibles.. No way in hell you can estimate.

One thing i will say though, its likely that without significant investment in generating traffic you will be lucky to get more than a couple a day.

[IATM]

cat with a hat said:

Too many varibles.. No way in hell you can estimate.

One thing i will say though, its likely that without significant investment in generating traffic you will be lucky to get more than a couple a day.

It was more other peoples experience of what they get. Just to give me an idea really of whats possible.
Of course I fully understand its not easy, maybe near impossible as I have had a website for almost 10 years and like you said its always done very poor in terms of sales however I am willing to invest time and money into the new one.

It's one of those things I just need to do and try

[jammy_basturd]

I'm not sure any replies will actually help. I've been involved in quite a few ecommerce projects now. Sales have ranged from 2-3 per day, to 2-3 per month. Sales order values from £10-50 on one site, to £100-2000 on another.

Really does depend entirely on your market and your product (and then your marketing skills).

[IATM]

SO are we really trying to say 2 or 3 orders a day is the norm?
Surely not?

[jammy_basturd]

No. We're trying to say it depends entirely on your market and product.

[anonymous-user]

You may be in for a very big shock. My websites used to generate a very healthy number of sales each day, like clock work. Since Google started it's bullst quality updates this has slowly been eroded to next to nothing. I would suggest a search for "zombie traffic" and have a good read. Plenty of people in the same boat. Even PAID listings are experiencing the same bullst now. A new site may get a boost but I can promise you it won't last. Even if you have unique products it's far from easy. Google are on a land grab at the moment, their greed knows no limits.

[akirk]

IATM said:

SO are we really trying to say 2 or 3 orders a day is the norm?
Surely not?

If I was selling £150 Million yachts, I would be very happy with 2-3 a day
If I was selling single HB pencils I might not be...

you might need to give a little bit more information...

ref. the above comoments on Google - anyone in today's world who relies solely on Google to drive business to their website is likely to do badly - a lot of the world's use of websites and purchases goes nowhere near Google.

[anonymous-user]

akirk said:

ref. the above comoments on Google - anyone in today's world who relies solely on Google to drive business to their website is likely to do badly - a lot of the world's use of websites and purchases goes nowhere near Google.

All those business were doing just fine prior to Panda, Penguin & the other bullst updates. Indeed most were doing just fine until their latest bullst update in September this year.

[IATM]

akirk said:

IATM said:

SO are we really trying to say 2 or 3 orders a day is the norm?
Surely not?

If I was selling £150 Million yachts, I would be very happy with 2-3 a day
If I was selling single HB pencils I might not be...

you might need to give a little bit more information...

ref. the above comoments on Google - anyone in today's world who relies solely on Google to drive business to their website is likely to do badly - a lot of the world's use of websites and purchases goes nowhere near Google.

Fair point
Selling items ranging from 10-25 pounds. healthcare industry. item such are gym gloves etc

[IATM]

Dave_ST220 said:

akirk said:

ref. the above comoments on Google - anyone in today's world who relies solely on Google to drive business to their website is likely to do badly - a lot of the world's use of websites and purchases goes nowhere near Google.

All those business were doing just fine prior to Panda, Penguin & the other bullst updates. Indeed most were doing just fine until their latest bullst update in September this year.

Surely there must be a way to overcome these new horrors?

[anonymous-user]

IATM said:

Dave_ST220 said:

akirk said:

ref. the above comoments on Google - anyone in today's world who relies solely on Google to drive business to their website is likely to do badly - a lot of the world's use of websites and purchases goes nowhere near Google.

All those business were doing just fine prior to Panda, Penguin & the other bullst updates. Indeed most were doing just fine until their latest bullst update in September this year.

Surely there must be a way to overcome these new horrors?

Yeah, you can plumb ££££ into Adwords or Google Shopping. It won't work though. I'm all ears as to how this can be overcome as to date no one on the various web master forums has found a way. Some really good businesses have gone under thanks to Google. If you are selling online Google is the driver of traffic. Fact. Anyone who says otherwise post away!

[IATM]

Dave_ST220 said:

IATM said:

Dave_ST220 said:

akirk said:

ref. the above comoments on Google - anyone in today's world who relies solely on Google to drive business to their website is likely to do badly - a lot of the world's use of websites and purchases goes nowhere near Google.

All those business were doing just fine prior to Panda, Penguin & the other bullst updates. Indeed most were doing just fine until their latest bullst update in September this year.

Surely there must be a way to overcome these new horrors?

Yeah, you can plumb ££££ into Adwords or Google Shopping. It won't work though. I'm all ears as to how this can be overcome as to date no one on the various web master forums has found a way. Some really good businesses have gone under thanks to Google. If you are selling online Google is the driver of traffic. Fact. Anyone who says otherwise post away!

Wow! so it looks like having your own website isn't much better than selling on eBay or Amazon - There is one thing in common between all of them - they are the higher power that can shut you down overnight.

[jammy_basturd]

Dave_ST220 said:

Yeah, you can plumb ££££ into Adwords or Google Shopping. It won't work though. I'm all ears as to how this can be overcome as to date no one on the various web master forums has found a way. Some really good businesses have gone under thanks to Google. If you are selling online Google is the driver of traffic. Fact. Anyone who says otherwise post away!

If they've gone under thanks to Google then they were only ever in business thanks to Google!

Relying on sales *purely* from Google derived traffic is like opening a shop and hoping the footfall will *always* sustain your business without trying to gain sales from any other channel. Any decent business person should always be looking at risks to their business, and only have one sales channel would list pretty highly on any list of risks to a business.

[jammy_basturd]

IATM said:

Wow! so it looks like having your own website isn't much better than selling on eBay or Amazon - There is one thing in common between all of them - they are the higher power that can shut you down overnight.

As akirk alludes to, their are many more ways of driving traffic and therefore gaining sales on a websites than Google natural listings; Adwords, Bing, Bind Ads, Facebook, Facebook Ads, Twitter, email newsletters, blogs, resellers & partners, word of mouth, carrier pigeons, etc, etc.

You should never rely solely on one source of traffic. In the same way that if you're only on Amazon and/or eBay, one change to their T&Cs or website could severely impact your eBay/Amazon shop.

[anonymous-user]

jammy_basturd said:

Dave_ST220 said:

Yeah, you can plumb ££££ into Adwords or Google Shopping. It won't work though. I'm all ears as to how this can be overcome as to date no one on the various web master forums has found a way. Some really good businesses have gone under thanks to Google. If you are selling online Google is the driver of traffic. Fact. Anyone who says otherwise post away!

If they've gone under thanks to Google then they were only ever in business thanks to Google!

Relying on sales *purely* from Google derived traffic is like opening a shop and hoping the footfall will *always* sustain your business without trying to gain sales from any other channel. Any decent business person should always be looking at risks to their business, and only have one sales channel would list pretty highly on any list of risks to a business.

Remind we, what % of search do Google control? Have you ever been in retail? I have, & funnily enough footfall is where a LOT of sales come from. To use your analogy, the council (Google) don't shut down your street on a whim & direct everyone to the new Amazon or eBay stall that's opened up around the corner, do they? Of course these businesses have tried new avenues, we all have. The fact remains that Google will always be the dominating factor in traffic online. What channels do you suggest?

[anonymous-user]

jammy_basturd said:

IATM said:

Wow! so it looks like having your own website isn't much better than selling on eBay or Amazon - There is one thing in common between all of them - they are the higher power that can shut you down overnight.

As akirk alludes to, their are many more ways of driving traffic and therefore gaining sales on a websites than Google natural listings; Adwords, Bing, Bind Ads, Facebook, Facebook Ads, Twitter, email newsletters, blogs, resellers & partners, word of mouth, carrier pigeons, etc, etc.

You should never rely solely on one source of traffic. In the same way that if you're only on Amazon and/or eBay, one change to their T&Cs or website could severely impact your eBay/Amazon shop.

Tried all of those, only one is reliable, word of mouth. Try gaining word of mouth with a new website now. The point you are missing here is Google is fking around with traffic to good quality ecoms. One day I can do £1000, the next 3 days zero. These patterns only started post bullst updates, they claim these updates were in the name of quality. I totally agree with your sentiment & I've always tried to gain new custom. What I am saying to the OP is if you expect a few hundred sales a day even on low value I don't think you will succeed any more. The SERP's are full of eBay & Amazon, even when not relevant. The annoying thing is there are plenty of very relevant pages below them, often on page 2 etc. Google refuses point blank to send the traffic there any more.

If you honestly think they've done this in the name of quality & not to line their pockets then good luck.

[jammy_basturd]

Dave_ST220 said:

Remind we, what % of search do Google control? Have you ever been in retail? I have, & funnily enough footfall is where a LOT of sales come from. To use your analogy, the council (Google) don't shut down your street on a whim & direct everyone to the new Amazon or eBay stall that's opened up around the corner, do they? Of course these businesses have tried new avenues, we all have. The fact remains that Google will always be the dominating factor in traffic online. What channels do you suggest?

Actually yes, sometimes the council do. In Canterbury (where I live) there was a lot of work done to a particular area of the town that went on for months and caused a lot of lost business for shops in that area. Whilst on the news last week there were shop owners in a village near Brighton complaining about the loss of business caused by a bypass road being built.

[anonymous-user]

jammy_basturd said:

Dave_ST220 said:

Remind we, what % of search do Google control? Have you ever been in retail? I have, & funnily enough footfall is where a LOT of sales come from. To use your analogy, the council (Google) don't shut down your street on a whim & direct everyone to the new Amazon or eBay stall that's opened up around the corner, do they? Of course these businesses have tried new avenues, we all have. The fact remains that Google will always be the dominating factor in traffic online. What channels do you suggest?

Actually yes, sometimes the council do. In Canterbury (where I live) there was a lot of work done to a particular area of the town that went on for months and caused a lot of lost business for shops in that area. Whilst on the news last week there were shop owners in a village near Brighton complaining about the loss of business caused by a bypass road being built.

They didn't direct everyone to Amazon & eBay though did they?!!! Unless of course the bypass you mention was to take people directly to the shiny new Amazon & eBay retail park...

[DSLiverpool]

IATM said:

100 orders a day?
200?
500?
Dare I say 1000?

The factors are
A, Quality of site (logical path, ability to find etc)
B, Competitiveness of site
C, Findability online of site
D, Subliminal reassurance emanating from the site (does it feel like a secure trustworthy company)
E, Quality of compeitors (are you up against Babz for example)

I always said that you can sell as much as you like online if you dont want to make money, ie if your cheapest with the biggest adwords budget you will get a lot of orders, now temper that to selling at 100% margin and no adwords - somewhere inbetween is utopia for you.