We need your help

[GunDealsUK]

Hi there,

 

I'm after some feedback on www.gundeals.co.uk. We have done well in generating between 150 & 350 unique

visitors per day giving up to 1000 page views daily.

 

Problem is despite the number of visitors, and having around 350-400 items on offer, the ratio of bids to visitors

is still low, the question is: why....

 

is it

 

a. the wrong products?

b. the right products but prices are too high?

c. products of the wrong price-range/quality?

d. lack of trust in what is still quite a new site?

e. site difficult to use?

 

or what?

 

I'm posting this on here not to get a few extra hits on the site, but to ask for some constructive

criticism. Obviously I want the site to be a success, and now I think is the time to do some market

research.

 

We have a small forum running on gundeals, and I would ask that if possible you post any comments there

(as well as here if you prefer) but ideally the comments be visible to all the buyers & sellers who need to be

aware of any issues and suggestions to make the site and products thereon more attractive to the buyers

 

www.gundeals-forum.co.uk/members

 

Many thanks in advance for any help/comments/criticisms you are able to offer

[berettaboy]

Your site is well constructed and easy to use, However Ebay has a strangle hold in this area. I haven't checked all the prices but some of them seem a tad expensive.

 

good luck

[webber]

Ive had a quick look at your website, and cant say that I can really be critical. Other than as been previously said reference ebay. I visit ebay most days, but have not visited your site before simply because I was unaware of it.

 

Perhaps more frequent, smaller advertisements in magazines and sponsorship of forums such as this would lead to more clicks, and therefore sales.

 

webber

[GunDealsUK]

Your site is well constructed and easy to use, However Ebay has a strangle hold in this area. I haven't checked all the prices but some of them seem a tad expensive.

 

good luck

Thanks for your comments, I will use this post in our forum, to encourage the sellers to keep their prices keen..

[GunDealsUK]

Ive had a quick look at your website, and cant say that I can really be critical. Other than as been previously said reference ebay. I visit ebay most days, but have not visited your site before simply because I was unaware of it.

 

Perhaps more frequent, smaller advertisements in magazines and sponsorship of forums such as this would lead to more clicks, and therefore sales.

 

webber

Where we were hoping to win out over ebay was that we wouldnt have pages & pages of the "best little knife" or 21in fantasy daggers...

 

That said, there are so many people using ebay we're never going to be able to complete.

 

It's surprising how much promotion we have done, and yet many people with similar interests have never come across the site

 

We do advertise in magazines, we've just finished a 4 month deal with SPORTING SHOOTER, we've had a couple of months in the PULL magazine, and we've just done a deal with GUNMART for a further 6 months

 

I would be happy to offer some sponsorship to pigeonwatch, how do I go about that?

[red_stag88]

The site does seem a touch expensive (but no "fatasy knives" YAY )

 

I have also never seen an advert, so a few more in some publications, and one in the BASC mag and sporting gun wouldn't go a miss.

 

About sponsering. If you drop TEAL a PM, you could get an advert at the top of the page.

 

 

Red

[GunDealsUK]

The site does seem a touch expensive (but no "fatasy knives" YAY )

 

I have also never seen an advert, so a few more in some publications, and one in the BASC mag and sporting gun wouldn't go a miss.

 

About sponsering. If you drop TEAL a PM, you could get an advert at the top of the page.

 

 

Red

Thanks,

 

I'll enquire with both these, but will probably need to wait until the gunmart ads are finished, the marketing budget doesnt extend to multiple national mags concurrently...

 

Ive sent Teal a PM so will await his response

 

Many thanks

 

Graham

[Cranfield]

It looks an interesting site but, like the others, I wasn't aware of it.

[GunDealsUK]

It looks an interesting site but, like the others, I wasn't aware of it.

Looks Like I DEFINITELY Need a banner here

 

Your comments prove how difficult it is to properly promote a website (even though we rank pretty well on the search engines)

 

I hope you find something interesting on our site - which is also available to sell your unused kit..

 

Rgds

Graham

[Fisherman Mike]

www.gundeals.co.uk[/url]. We have done well in generating between 150 & 350 unique visitors per day

 

the ratio of bids to visitors is still low, the question is: why....

Nothing wrong with the site at all, in fact I thought it was very good but like the other members I wasnt aware of it.

 

As with Ebay you will get a lot of window shoppers probably in excess of 80%

 

I suspect the proportion of people who browse Ebay and actually bid is similar to you but they are dealing daily with sheer volume, ie. a thousand sales daily from 2 million browsers is only .05% conversion !

 

Give it time, Rome wasnt built in a day.

 

Saying that you have to offer a unique selling point and on auction sites people are looking for the Bargain purchases at a significant reduction against what they could buy in the high street. If your vendors are only interested in advertising at high street rates or setting unrealistic reserves then they aint gonna sell, especially when you take carriage and postage charges into the equation. I am afraid some vendors see Ebay in this way as an opportunity to display their goods to a vast potential market at what is essentially a "loss leader" and they can afford to sell at a much reduced margin because marketing overheads are minimal.

 

By its very nature an auction is designed to maximise the sales potential for vendors and encourage competition between rival bidders who want the same product.

 

This is not what purchasers want... They want a Bargain...

 

FM.

[M ROBSON]

It looks a very nice site. I had never heard of it either. It may be worth you putting a similar thread over on www.wildfowling.co.uk

[Vecomm]

Nothing wrong with the site at all, in fact I thought it was very good but like the other members I wasnt aware of it.

 

As with Ebay you will get a lot of window shoppers probably in excess of 80%

 

I suspect the proportion of people who browse Ebay and actually bid is similar to you but they are dealing daily with sheer volume, ie. a thousand sales daily from 2 million browsers is only .05% conversion !

 

Give it time, Rome wasnt built in a day.

 

Saying that you have to offer a unique selling point and on auction sites people are looking for the Bargain purchases at a significant reduction against what they could buy in the high street. If your vendors are only interested in advertising at high street rates or setting unrealistic reserves then they aint gonna sell, especially when you take carriage and postage charges into the equation. I am afraid some vendors see Ebay in this way as an opportunity to display their goods to a vast potential market at what is essentially a "loss leader" and they can afford to sell at a much reduced margin because marketing overheads are minimal.

 

By its very nature an auction is designed to maximise the sales potential for vendors and encourage competition between rival bidders who want the same product.

 

This is not what purchasers want... They want a Bargain...

 

FM.

Thanks for your feedback - Re visibility to members and visitors to Pigeon Watch, I have PM'd Teal so hopefully There'll be a gundeals banner here soon!!

 

You're definitely right about the window shoppers, where the dificulty lies is in quantifying the ratio, but if your example is typical, maybe it's the hits I need to concentrate on, to increase the number of bids rather than dwelling too much on the ratio (it's always useful to get an alternative view )

 

Regarding the sellers and the goods - there are some sellers on the site who's prices are not the best Ive ever seen, they should be able to sell at prices below those on ebay as the fees on gundeals are considerably lower than on ebay. There are however some good deals to be had, Ive bought quite a few items off other sellers and have been very happy with the price and the goods themselves.

 

One advantage of using gundeals is that members can offer shotguns etc. on the site whereas on ebay this is a "no-no"

 

I've added a link in a thread on the gundeals forum pointing to this thread so sellers can see what the wider view is..

 

Rgds

Graham

[Lurch]

I've been to the site before, but to be honest I'm not interested in any site where you **** around with bids.

Put up a price, make it reasonable and I'm interested.

However if I have to **** around bidding, waiting for the auction to run out or having to bid against someone else.......

No thanks, if I want to buy I want it bought and on my doorstep sharpish.

[Fisherman Mike]

I've been to the site before, but to be honest I'm not interested in any site where you **** around with bids.

Ive never known a politician as impatient as you Mark Normally they go all round the houses. B)

[GunDealsUK]

I've been to the site before, but to be honest I'm not interested in any site where you **** around with bids.

Put up a price, make it reasonable and I'm interested.

However if I have to **** around bidding, waiting for the auction to run out or having to bid against someone else.......

No thanks, if I want to buy I want it bought and on my doorstep sharpish.

That's fair enough, many of the items are available to buy straight away without having to wait til the auction closes, and most sellers dispatch goods on receipt of payment so should offer a timely delivery

[red_stag88]

www.gundeals.co.uk[/url]. We have done well in generating between 150 & 350 unique visitors per day

 

the ratio of bids to visitors is still low, the question is: why....

Nothing wrong with the site at all, in fact I thought it was very good but like the other members I wasnt aware of it.

 

As with Ebay you will get a lot of window shoppers probably in excess of 80%

 

I suspect the proportion of people who browse Ebay and actually bid is similar to you but they are dealing daily with sheer volume, ie. a thousand sales daily from 2 million browsers is only .05% conversion !

 

Give it time, Rome wasnt built in a day.

 

Saying that you have to offer a unique selling point and on auction sites people are looking for the Bargain purchases at a significant reduction against what they could buy in the high street. If your vendors are only interested in advertising at high street rates or setting unrealistic reserves then they aint gonna sell, especially when you take carriage and postage charges into the equation. I am afraid some vendors see Ebay in this way as an opportunity to display their goods to a vast potential market at what is essentially a "loss leader" and they can afford to sell at a much reduced margin because marketing overheads are minimal.

 

By its very nature an auction is designed to maximise the sales potential for vendors and encourage competition between rival bidders who want the same product.

 

This is not what purchasers want... They want a Bargain...

 

FM.

Someone did business studies

[Lurch]

Ive never known a politician as impatient as you Mark

Never knowingly underopinionated!

[Hammergun]

Although it is an auction, a lot of the guns are the same or similar. Most seem new or nearly new and there are few "bargains". In short, it's just like one of the online gunshops, or a stock list you might pick up from your local gun shop. It looks pretty much like one of the dealers adverts in the back of Sporting Gun.

 

You need people to use it to advertise just about anything, second hand guns, odds and ends. In short, if someone has something to sell, or is looking for something to buy, they need to think of your site first.

 

Maybe a lot of free listing promotions to get it kick-started. You also need to keep people coming back.

 

Advertising is important. The more exposure you get, the better.

[GunDealsUK]

Although it is an auction, a lot of the guns are the same or similar.  Most seem new or nearly new and there are few "bargains".  In short, it's just like one of the online gunshops, or a stock list you might pick up from your local gun shop.  It looks pretty much like one of the dealers adverts in the back of Sporting Gun.

 

You need people to use it to advertise just about anything, second hand guns, odds and ends.  In short, if someone has something to sell, or is looking for something to buy, they need to think of your site first.

 

Maybe a lot of free listing promotions to get it kick-started.  You also need to keep people coming back.

 

Advertising is important.  The more exposure you get, the better.

There have been some good 2nd hand guns, however I do take your point, there isnt much variety, what I need are a bunch of peeps who have cupboards full of tackle they've not used in a while to list it all on the site....

 

So here's an offer to all the Pigeon Watch members ....

 

If there are any members who are prepared to list some 2nd hand items (at Bargain prices of course) we'll credit their gundeals account with £20 each, this means that they can sell up to £600 worth of items free. (enhancements like homepage featured items would also come out of the credit )

 

To Get the credit applied, just PM me on here with your gundeals user name & postcode so I can validate that you are who you say you are and I'll sort out the credit.

 

In return - please spread the word

 

AND...... for those PW members who cant bear to be kept waiting , every auction can have a BUY IT NOW feature set (also FREE)

[Fisherman Mike]

Ive never known a politician as impatient as you Mark

Never knowingly underopinionated!

[remytherussell]

I,m afraid you will only be as good as your sellers.

I bought a cartridge belt with "but-it-now" from one of your sellers. 27-09

Requested his Paypal account details. Got a reply 24 hours later. Paid there and then.

Still awaiting a response from seller for despatch details / date. 30-09

Thereafter noted that his "feedback" were all identical copies from Ebay.

Bit disheartened and will be contacting Paypal for a refund.

Know it,s not a fault of GunDeals.

RTR

[GunDealsUK]

I,m afraid you will only be as good as your sellers.

I bought a cartridge belt with "but-it-now" from one of your sellers. 27-09

Requested his Paypal account details. Got a reply 24 hours later. Paid there and then.

Still awaiting a response from seller for despatch details / date. 30-09

Thereafter noted that his "feedback" were all identical copies from Ebay.

Bit disheartened and will be contacting Paypal for a refund.

Know it,s not a fault of GunDeals.

RTR

Sorry to hear that you seem to be having some problems, however it is only 2 days since you sent the payment, and the seller should already have your shipping address both from your paypal payment, and from the gundeals confirmation email he will have received when the auction closed - If you would like to PM me with the sellers name I can chase this up for you

 

Rgds

Graham

[remytherussell]

Just got email that it was shipped today.

thanks & good luck with the site.

RTR

[GunDealsUK]

Just got email that it was shipped today.

thanks & good luck with the site.

RTR

Glad to hear it

 

This chap is usually very good, Ive bought a couple of leather gunslips and a cartridge magazine off him and they both arrived promptly.

 

Rgds

Graham

[remytherussell]

Said he had problems with his computer....we all know about that!!!