Google Shopping traffic almost disappearing

[outletseason]

Our online store Google Shopping traffic is almost 0, we used to have an average of 200-300 visitors per day but now we have seen those numbers go down to 10 or 5!
We have been doing a number of changes to the site, to improve it, but lately we are not converting ...
it's an online store with thousands of products, distributed among several categories, so what can be done, we already did some sales, free shipping tests, and even PPC, that went totally wrong because the visitors clicked but didn't buy a thing, and we also had a number of chargebacks in the middle, so the situation is really becoming critical.

All the site design is just html and css3, and it also has a minimize script to shorten all css and js into optimized versions.
The site used to convert fine, but now we don't know if just price is the deterrent or something else can be improved.

We have listings in Google Shopping, The Find, Shopmania, etc

The store url is

http://www.theoutletseason.com/electronics

and is a subdirectory of the main site, we thought about moving it, to its own domain, but the site had a nice Alexa ranking, and decent traffic.

[bhartzer]

How often do you upload your product data feed? I recommend uploading it at least once every few days, if not every day.

[Rocketman1]

Correct me if I'm wrong but other than product descriptions, I see no content - Panda was all about quality content

[outletseason]

Correct me if I'm wrong but other than product descriptions, I see no content - Panda was all about quality content

Well Panda, didn't affect my store. In fact when they started with it, I saw no differences, it's another problem, because this is an online store, not a blog. The only content will be products updated and uploaded to Google Shopping every day. We are planning to add a bit more pages with some offers, or brand related content, but's it's ecommerce, not an article site, nor a blog.

What we are trying to do is to improve the customer experience, because we have tried several strategies, like PPC and the conversion rate increased but the ROI was so poor ...

---------- Post added at 09:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:12 PM ----------

How often do you upload your product data feed? I recommend uploading it at least once every few days, if not every day.

Every single day! We have a script that creates a Google base compliant xml file. It's uploaded with a cron job. We also have a backup .txt file that we manually upload just in case the CRON didn't work.

[chuck]

I think that is the big issue here. Many of us are losing our traffic I mean how much content can you have on a roll of poly film or a cardboard box. When people search for lowest prices for something they are not being offered lowest prices on anything but rather the companies that paid the most for ppc. Check the results and you will see its the companies that are spending $6000 + per month that are in the top organic spots as well. Just a fluck youll say. No the more we pay for PPC the more we sell. The days of free traffic are over for the most part. /we also get 0 traffic from Goggle some days and we never got 0 traffic ever in the last 15 years so something has changed big time this year at Google. Data feeds to Goggle may help if you are not feeding them your products. Traffic is up and down from Google lately like someone is making crazy wild movements at the helm of a ship and not letting things even out - we all know what that causes.{removed self promotion} That's what is sad about this all. No matter how hard you work Google will slap you down with no human interaction at all. Could this be the beginging of the end for any one small.

[outletseason]

Well I thought it was something wrong with my site, but the past few months I have been improving different stuff, even hired a service to generate Google Shopping feeds from my database, so they will be in full compliance, however, I noticed this fact since February, no matter how good your prices were, no matter if you offer fast free shipping, huge discounts, it seemed we only sold, either products that were not in stock that day, products that had been listed as free shipping by mistake, such as heavy ones.
So, and that's why I started this thread, is something wrong with my store? Or it's just prices?, if it is I'm open to suggestions, I thought about replacing the Add to cart for a bigger red bright button! Don't know, too many steps for checkout?

[claybutler]

I'm a bit confused. You say your traffic from Google has dropped from 200+ to zero but then you switch to low conversions. What are these conversions you are tracking (PPC only?). Do you have any natural SE traffic anymore?

What were your conversions before?

I checked the site and the first thing I noticed is that you are selling commodities. So the question is, would I buy from you instead of Amazon? The answer is no. I trust Amazon. When people are buying commodities the only thing that matters is price and trust. It's a balancing act.

1. Who has the lowest prices (including tax and shipping)?
2. Can I trust this seller?

So people buy from the lowest priced seller that meets their minimum trust requirements. So if Amazon is selling product A for $100 but "never heard of them and they have no reviews" is selling product A for $98.00, Amazon wins. Anyone would pay a 2% premium for 100% trust.

I don't trust your site. There is no reason I should risk buying from you when I have a dozen top rated sellers to choose from who sell the exact same thing.

This is the hard truth of it. Selling commodities is only a game the big boys can win because their massive volumes compensate for their razor thin margins.

Your contact page doesn't even have an address or a phone number. Why in the world would I buy inkjet printer from someone who won't make themselves accessible?

[Happy Times]

I'm a bit confused. You say your traffic from Google has dropped from 200+ to zero but then you switch to low conversions. What are these conversions you are tracking (PPC only?). Do you have any natural SE traffic anymore?

What were your conversions before?

I checked the site and the first thing I noticed is that you are selling commodities. So the question is, would I buy from you instead of Amazon? The answer is no. I trust Amazon. When people are buying commodities the only thing that matters is price and trust. It's a balancing act.

1. Who has the lowest prices (including tax and shipping)?
2. Can I trust this seller?

So people buy from the lowest priced seller that meets their minimum trust requirements. So if Amazon is selling product A for $100 but "never heard of them and they have no reviews" is selling product A for $98.00, Amazon wins. Anyone would pay a 2% premium for 100% trust.

I don't trust your site. There is no reason I should risk buying from you when I have a dozen top rated sellers to choose from who sell the exact same thing.

This is the hard truth of it. Selling commodities is only a game the big boys can win because their massive volumes compensate for their razor thin margins.

Your contact page doesn't even have an address or a phone number. Why in the world would I buy inkjet printer from someone who won't make themselves accessible?

WOW, you just managed to totally sum up the majority of the internet. People have written whole books on the subject but in a nutshell, what you just said is spot on. Excellent Post.

As for the original question, his site is totally lacking content. It gives the appearance of those cookie cutter sites like the old Yahoo marketplace sites some years ago.
No Reviews? Unheard of today! Missing contact info; Look Out Consumers! I too always look at the contact and about us pages and even do some added research on the business before ever giving out my credit card info these days.
Once again, Fantastic Answer, one that nails the trust issue along with the drop in visitors quickly and concisely.[COLOR="Silver"]

---------- Post added at 02:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:45 PM ----------

[jordanmcclements]

I'm a bit confused. You say your traffic from Google has dropped from 200+ to zero but then you switch to low conversions. What are these conversions you are tracking (PPC only?). Do you have any natural SE traffic anymore?

What were your conversions before?

I checked the site and the first thing I noticed is that you are selling commodities. So the question is, would I buy from you instead of Amazon? The answer is no. I trust Amazon. When people are buying commodities the only thing that matters is price and trust. It's a balancing act.

1. Who has the lowest prices (including tax and shipping)?
2. Can I trust this seller?

So people buy from the lowest priced seller that meets their minimum trust requirements. So if Amazon is selling product A for $100 but "never heard of them and they have no reviews" is selling product A for $98.00, Amazon wins. Anyone would pay a 2% premium for 100% trust.

I don't trust your site. There is no reason I should risk buying from you when I have a dozen top rated sellers to choose from who sell the exact same thing.

This is the hard truth of it. Selling commodities is only a game the big boys can win because their massive volumes compensate for their razor thin margins.

Your contact page doesn't even have an address or a phone number. Why in the world would I buy inkjet printer from someone who won't make themselves accessible?

Have to agree with this 100% as well.

I see far too many smaller stores trying to compete with the big players on the same products when the big players not only have more trust but get much bigger discounts from the suppliers. It is a bit disheartening at times, that they big players are *crushing* the smaller businesses, and it's getting increasingly hard to find a niche that isn't covered by the likes of Amazon - but that is a discussion for another thread I guess...

[SteveGerencser]

Every single day! We have a script that creates a Google base compliant xml file. It's uploaded with a cron job. We also have a backup .txt file that we manually upload just in case the CRON didn't work.

Did you update your feed to take in to account the new rules for Google shopping? I actually dropped my feed rather than go through the hassle of meeting their new requirements. The new rules went in to place way back in September, but their enforcement roll out has been very slow. If you didn't keep up to date then it may just now be finding you.