# What am I missing with my website?



## AussieCamo (Jul 21, 2015)

Gday all, almost 2 weeks ago I set out to give the online shirt business a go. I'm using Aussie animal themed cartoon characters I've drawn up selling on shopify, set up with a DTG dropshipper. I love the quality of the shirts as do my friends and colleagues and really happy with it all. I've setup for the annual payment plan on shopify and am looking at this as a hobby. 
One thing that is bringing me down is the battle for that first sale. I've read a heap of stuff all over this forum and the internet and am starting to feel like I'm going in loops. As I said before I am looking at this as a hobby, my day job keeps me financially stable, but a couple of days ago I hurt my ankle real bad and need to take at least a week off work (I'm a tour guide, lots of walking up and down inclines and what not).
During this resting time I'm getting a bit obsessive about trying to get that first sale to come through, constantly looking online for what might be the answer for me. I'm also half way through writing a fantasy series and since opening my online store, the chase for the first sale has completely consumed my free time.

So I'm just wondering if any of you guys on the forum would mind having a quick glance at my shirt website, Li'l Aussie Monsters and throwing me some feedback. I don't mind harsh feedback, just accompany it with some possible answers! 

Cheers guys,
-Camo


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## ben9898 (Feb 15, 2011)

IMO your prices are high. What are you doing to market the site and bring in visitors?


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## AussieCamo (Jul 21, 2015)

Yeah I was thinking I may need to find a new dropshipper, I'm using the Printful. Love the quality but are a bit expensive. At the moment I'm mainly doing FB advertising. Gave some other social media sites a go but couldn't get into it. I ran a Facebook add which was costing me about $2 per click, but wasn't showing any success. I have sent out a few shirts to some online mini celebrities that are happy to give me a bit of advertising in exchange for a freebie.

I done a bit of research into creating animations and plan on spending the next few days to create a bit of a cartoon. I had intended to crack out the ol' GoPro and take some footage of doing cool stuff while wearing the shirts, but the ankle wont permit that right now!


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## zhenjie (Aug 27, 2006)

hey Camo,

Your drawings and cartoons look great! Love the drop bear one 

From a new customer perspective, what's the appeal and what's the reason one would buy one of your designs? My guess is a lack of branding and awareness of these characters and makes it hard to stand out from more established characters and designs.

At the current prices, it doesn't seem as competitive when you can get licensed t-shirts of popular cartoons and characters elsewhere. I guess what I'm saying is that these need to stand out and there needs to be a reason for your customers to buy.

IMO with Aussie based characters you would be better off marketing to an Australian market. Try testing the market first with eBay.com.au perhaps?


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## AussieCamo (Jul 21, 2015)

Hmm... Makes sense that price is my killer. What would be a reasonable price for these designs? After postage they cost me around 25USD per shirt. I'm worried if I put the profit margin too low it could cause more trouble than it is worth. I've never done online business before, but I'd imagine if it cost me 25 and I make less than 10 on top I wont be able to effectively cover advertising, orders that go walk about or if anyone wanted a refund.

At this point I would much rather get my product out there over make money, be awesome to see people wearing my shirts around, but I also don't want to shoot myself in the foot. I have briefly spoke with a mate here in Aus who is just starting to screen print shirts and we may look at sorting something out next year that could allow printing and shipping in Aus to save money. But I do still want to keep the shirts top quality and sweatshop free.


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## zhenjie (Aug 27, 2006)

The question of price depends on your target market. You really need to price at or below famous licensed t-shirts unless your design and branding really standsout.

How much profit margin you have really depends on your advertising cost and conversion rate. Comes down to ROI really and that's hard to gauge being so new.

A screenprinter won't help with inventory and print-on-demand work that you would require. Digital is the way to go. We can help with drop shipping in Australia and we have use quality AS Colour blanks for retail customers. Not sweat-shop free but that's uncommon in Australia. I don't see a mention of being sweat-shop free on your site? Perhaps that needs to be advertised more as a selling point.


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## AussieCamo (Jul 21, 2015)

Ah never thought of adding that as a selling point, cheers!
Just had a quick gander at Tee Junction and was unsure how to set you guys up as dropshippers. I'll add the whole sweatshop free thing in the about us page, give it a bit more of a go and see how it pans out. If people don't want the product I guess there is no point in having over the top morals.


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## zhenjie (Aug 27, 2006)

Just PM be directly if you like to discuss drop shipping within Australia/NZ.


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## oncloudten (Jan 27, 2011)

As someone who shops on the web--a lot--I personally would never purchase from a website that doesn't have a phone number to contact them. Email just isn't enough for me-- 

I think your 'about us' could do a better job of 'telling the story' and getting a little more personal. Maybe some pics--you mention your goddaughter--maybe a pic of her in the shirt she inspired? 

I would think instagram would be great --when you get customers, ask them to take pics with the t-shirts on. 

Until you click the dropdown box to order, it's not apparent that the shirts are available in adult as well as children's sizes. 

OK, I quit for now!


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## AussieCamo (Jul 21, 2015)

Cheers Oncloudten, I'll have to pop some photos of her wearing the shirt soon. With the phone number, should I organise an international number or have it so it uses my Aussie number? I've only got the one phone at the moment and feel a bit odd putting my number up online. Should I get a second phone number to use as a business phone?

With the drop down box issue, would I best to make a separate drop down box that asks whether you are a child, man or female or just add some info saying we do children, mens and womens sizes?


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## MyBattleAnimals (Nov 24, 2015)

Hey there I'm going through the same thing myself. Funny enough I'm also selling animal themed shirts...has adding photos and a phone number helped with sales?


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## drdeath19134 (Mar 23, 2009)

In order to drop your cost take a screen printing class and learn to do yourself , 1 you no for sure no sweat shop, 2 quality control is at your control. you also controlled labor cost just mt 2 cents!


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## gnizitigid (Jan 23, 2007)

Top part seems empty, may be provide email, phone


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## jeremyrunner (Nov 20, 2015)

Hi Camo,

Looked at your site. Looks pretty cute.
Here what I noticed:
1. It worth adding "t-shirts" to your site title. Something like "Li'l Aussie Monsters t-shirts". This is how people will search your I suppose
2. I didn't find a way to register and login on your site. It might be beneficial to have this feature to speedup the checkout process for returning customers.


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## AussieCamo (Jul 21, 2015)

Hey, haven't done much work on the site for a while. The new photos of people wearing the gear hasn't helped at all either (I haven't really tried advertising since). The only sales I've made is to mates in real life. I've kind of given up on it for now as it has gone so poorly. I got some half done designs I may finish up, mainly for myself rather than customers. Also may come up with some characters with my god daughter when I see her over Christmas, again for her not for money. People love the designs and the shirts, just people don't seem to buy them! Screen printing myself would be awesome, however I get itchy feet and travel a lot. If I wanted to commit 100% to the shirt industry I would give it a crack, however I've been busy writing a lot lately and feel my stories have more potential to make me some bucks long term.

Who knows, maybe I'll get someone famous to wear one at some big event and try again!


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## JasonHPN (Nov 23, 2015)

I REALLY love the shirt designs, they are amazing and i think that they would sell with the right marketing.

To me the site doesn't really seem like a shop, it looks like a blog at first and isn't very eye catching.

Anyways, maybe this will help drive some more traffic: https://www.instagram.com/p/-msAiyPl0W/


More traffic isn't always better, but you can use analytic's to determine where the user loses interest and what areas of your site make more conversions.


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