# Why is hard to sell



## fistfulapparel (Apr 17, 2010)

Hello, i start my t shirt company 3 months ago, we have great traffic over 2000 a month, we received great reviews from the blogs, but the sales are no going the way i think should be. 

What i am doing wrong? or please let me know if this is normal. thanks


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## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

Sometimes it just takes time to get things off the ground. What are you doing to get the 2000 visitors a month? Are they random consumers? Or are you targeting a specific demographic that best fits your brand?


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## RJ1 (Oct 1, 2008)

It may be your website, although I havn't seen it. I had the same problem, good feedback but no sales. I spoke with a few branding companies and the all stated that my website didn't look trustworthy or professional. The cost of a nice website could be very expensive and the advise I received more products to go with the better site. I sell more on the streets then I do on the website which is a storefront site. Try lowering your price points giving out business cards to everyone and anyone. Offer discounts buy one get another half price etc. With all the malls and stores offering 60% to 70% established brands and of course the ecomomy its a up hill battle. By the way I was also told my sales would go up if I can get someone famous to where my tees. That's not going to happen anytime soon for me, I don't know anyone famous personally. Anyway just keep trying don't give up.


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## fistfulapparel (Apr 17, 2010)

Yes i agree, we are going to change ours web this week, and send some promotions soon. I working hard on the promotion but the sales are killing me.


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## cthulhu93 (May 3, 2010)

Just remaking a "site" may not do anything. There are so many T-shirt companies out there, the lions share of them doing the same thing, you would do better finding your niche. I am personally working on gaming tee's via original designs. Just a thought.


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## TeesForChange (Jan 17, 2007)

i'd be curious to see your website. do you have nice professionally done photos? are you descriptions good? and what is your pricing like? these factors can all affect your conversion rate.


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## fistfulapparel (Apr 17, 2010)

Please go to fistfulapparel.com and give me your opinion. I need help to find what i doing wrong. or what i need to change.


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## kasabian (Oct 26, 2007)

Nicely designed site. Maybe you can showcase some of your t-shirts on the landing page? Where this image currently is. So that people can see your shirts as soon as they come to your website. You need to grab people's attention as soon as they visit you. At the moment it's a bit unclear what the website is. It feels like it's your personal website with a shop on the side. You might want to change things around so that it's more clear you're a t-shirt shop.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

your designs are okay...not stunningly awesome, but interesting.. You should be able to sell some BUT remember if you google 'custom tee shirts' you will get about 8 million sites...for 'tee shirt designs' you will get over 30 million sites...so remember doing teeshirts is NOT a path to instant money. It takes time to build and I seriously doubt that doing ONLY web sales that one will make much more than minimum wage money. You need to build locally and go from there. I have been in this business for 10 years and if I depended on web sales I would be in the poor house. I dont update my site and keep it just because people expect it..

so refocus on local and regional and see it that works better


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## chobay (Aug 4, 2009)

The site looks fine, but the designs are sorta generic. You see stuff like this all over the mall. I still contend the most success come from sticking with a niche. I see you have twitter but do you have a facebook page? I find those indispensable..


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## Leg cramps (Feb 9, 2009)

Hey RJ1 you can send me a shirt Ill wear it for you! Im famous in my own mind!Ok,back to the question,with a question.You say you get 2000 hit a month with your site,how many sales per month are you averaging?Now,Id say you need more designs to display,I agree with kasabian on the landing page.good luck!Eric


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## DAFOWL1 (Nov 8, 2008)

To be honest your site does not look like you are in the business of selling shirts. It looks more like a photo site. I think you need to showcase your art work more. Just the shirt not someone wearing the shirt and a add to cart button next to the item. I think if it was simplified it would work better for your customers to get on your site and buy. Personally if I log on a site and I cant find things easily I go to the next site.


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## jiarby (Feb 8, 2007)

The home.php page should be you home landing page... not the endless pretty catalog pages


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## Paulie73 (Jul 24, 2009)

what Glenn said. Some of the designs are good so no probs there


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## wonubee (Oct 2, 2007)

I love the site. But it took me a bit to get to the actual shirts. The first thing someone who is shirt shopping should see is your shirts not that photo gallery thing. The photo gallery thing is cool but shouldn't be the first thing I see. There is no shirts on your site that I would buy and wear or that I would buy for someone else as a gift. They are cool designs but not WOW!!! designs and I think they only appeal to a select group of people. I mean shirts with skulls on them is getting to be like oil paintings with ducks. I will buy and wear artsy designed shirts like this or like threadless stuff if they have a theme or make a statement about something as in political, religious, funny. I would love to see artsy political or artsy one liner shirts. I mean there are thousands of one liner shirts but how many artistically designed original one liner shirts do you see? Just my 2 cents. I wish you success on you site and shirts.


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## WholesalePrint (Sep 23, 2008)

After reviewing the site the site isn't the problem I believe.
It may be one of 2 things:
• You have to find clients for that style
• The check out part requires signing in which I'm finding to be an issue.

People don't like obstacles when it comes to buying on impulse.


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## fistfulapparel (Apr 17, 2010)

you know i do agree in someways, this was ours first set of tees and we know we make some mistakes. But in general i feel good the web is not that bad.


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## jcshirts (Jan 25, 2008)

I like the site.


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## shirtsthatgo (May 4, 2009)

I also like the site. Coming from a different vantage point but here are my thoughts:

- Feels like an already established brand to me (it looks cutting edge and nice). My sense about tee sites is that they at first need to be very simple to navigate and there should be no doubt at all upon landing on the home page what the product is. Once you are established and the cash register is ringing you can go back to a more appealing (to you) look.

- How does your customer shop? Who is your customer? Once these are known, if not already, it should help you determine any tweaks you might consider.

- May not be possible but would be better if your shopping cart / store could be fully integrated.

- Go through the site with a critical eye and note anytime you feel the least bit of friction in the buying process. Make it super easy for folks to buy from you. 

- If you are spending a lot of $ on PPC and other marketing be careful and draw hard lines in the sand about what you will spend. Think vegas and stop putting $20s into "wheel of fortune" after some preset amount is reached. If you find a medium that converts explore and invest in it. Cut all others and consider testing them again later when you have changed up some things on the site.

Lastly are the search engines a place your customers are looking? If yes keep building links and continue to dial in your site for the long tail keywords that you think will convert for you.


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## michellefanfan (Oct 26, 2009)

kasabian said:


> Nicely designed site. Maybe you can showcase some of your t-shirts on the landing page? Where this image currently is. So that people can see your shirts as soon as they come to your website. You need to grab people's attention as soon as they visit you. At the moment it's a bit unclear what the website is. It feels like it's your personal website with a shop on the side. You might want to change things around so that it's more clear you're a t-shirt shop.


Hi,

I agree with your viewpoint above.

Bill


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## fistfulapparel (Apr 17, 2010)

Thanks guys, the sales are going well since we made some changes on the web. I need more promotion that is for sure, and new designs are coming soon.


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## jimmy-B (Nov 6, 2008)

I am sure you are getting sick of hearing this, but you really need to get the shirts on the 1st page. Or at least make it very clear on the 1st page that you are selling T-shirts. Otherwise you site is sick! I like it a lot, I wish mine looked that good.


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## SHIROINEKO (Mar 31, 2010)

Yeah I think the problem is your products.


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## LYFE9 (Jul 21, 2010)

Like most people i find your site very nice but its not clear enough that your selling t-shirts, i know a lot of people have told you but i think that if you want your sales to go up you have to do something about it. When i got onto your site, my first impression was "woah nice photos, this looks professional" but it didnt make me want to buy a t-shirt from you and if i hadent known you were selling tees, it wouldent have been your site tthat would have made it clear to me. You should seriously consider switching things up a bit.


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## offensivefun (Nov 1, 2009)

I encountered the same problem. I have over 2000 visitors a month, but only 4-6 sales. Most of the traffic comes from google. Could you give me some advices on this matter (my website is the one from my signature)? Thanks!


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## chobay (Aug 4, 2009)

offensivefun said:


> I encountered the same problem. I have over 2000 visitors a month, but only 4-6 sales. Most of the traffic comes from google. Could you give me some advices on this matter (my website is the one from my signature)? Thanks!


$19-$21 is way too expensive for funny tees. I see you are on a cafepress shop, their shipping cost is a turnoff too..


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## dripwear (Jul 21, 2010)

it is great to read all the same thoughts I have had over the last month or 2. I just launched my own clothing line here in SoCal www.DripWear.com with tees, hoodies, hats, girls swag etc..and its hard...i kept my prices very reasonable, and i launched it right at the beginning of summer, and sales have still bit a little slow...maybe like some of you have added, it just takes more time and more effort


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## jworklimited (May 15, 2010)

We have ran into the same thing. We just spent thousands on getting our site redone but its not generating enough traffic. Could you guys also take a look at my site and provide feedback if you can? JWORK LIMITED Thanks!!!!


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## SandSTees (Jul 28, 2010)

I agree...when you land on the site...you should see the T's. When I shop, I like seeing what I am looking for first...then, I like to browse the site for user ease and see what they are about. T's are nice, but not appealing to me as a consumer nor could I relate much to people I know. I personally have conflicts with the colors of the youth "in" things these days...sometimes, they just look all wrong to me, but that's why I am working on going in business with my daughter-in-law...for the youthful insite. Thought the screen printer design was cute...hate the colors personally, but know that the colors would attract many of the younger gen.


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## jworklimited (May 15, 2010)

I like where you guys are going with the site!! Can you also check out my site JWORK LIMITED, let me know what you guys, think we are getting sales here and there........NEED more!! Please give some feed back


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## Pollchaps (Jul 31, 2009)

I agree with Charles. If you were going to start a band, you need a local following. Same thing here. Get a local following and start growing larger.


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## LTD Tee (May 20, 2010)

1. did not realize that homepage clicked through to another homepage... would make it more obvious that there is a store. just seems like a splash page right now.

2. my general ratio is 100-200 hits per sale.


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## redrada (Apr 13, 2010)

fistfulapparel said:


> Please go to fistfulapparel.com and give me your opinion. I need help to find what i doing wrong. or what i need to change.


Just took a look at your website. I love it! Maybe you need more merchandise? Buttons, stickers, etc. otherwise keep up the good work! Promote like a mad man!


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## dave1 (Feb 21, 2007)

I must say that a lot of the comments may seem harsh yet constructive. That is why we are all here right?
I started years ago and have made a whole lot of changes that came out of constructive reviews of my site. Though I'm have very good success it took years.
I'm never completely satisfied with my site and nobody should.
the market keeps changing so you must do the same.
Be patient my friend and find out what others are doing for success and duplicate.
I have not seen your site yet. I do have one bit of advice though. Do a search for what your are marketing and see what others are doing. This will be your first step to sells. Add some links to big clothing stores that also sell t-shirts(affiliate links) that is. Text links work better yet still one or two nice banners.
Will help bring in some money while your sprucing up your site.

I agree with others that a t-shirt site must have t-shirts right on the home page so people will not have to waste time looking for what your site is about.


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## chow_ahim (Dec 28, 2009)

Usually people try to get used to your side, they will memorized it, and when they need a t-shirt they go for your site

just keep innovation and make you website looks familiar
it just take time


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## JujuLifestyle (Aug 22, 2010)

This is a problem that is not new. We struggle with the same thing and we did our work. Facebook, twitter, whatever and what i've realized is that no empire was built overnight! You just have to keep on moving, pushing tugging or pulling(it's a war). Your site looks solid tho imo but product placement is key I think. That's what im working on right now with my company.


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