Low Sales? This Might Be Why

I consult for hundreds of small business and e-commerce clients each year. I had an Etsy client a while back, who was so focused on Etsy SEO and felt it was the only key to their success on the platform. They were wrong.

I did some SEO work for them, and did manage to get their listings on the first page of search results. However, their traffic and sales did not increase. As a consultant, I tried to explain to them why, but sadly they just didn’t want to listen.

Here were the REAL reasons for their low sales:

1. They were selling a product that was in a dying market. Looking at Google Trends, I showed them that searches for the product had steadily decreased over the last five years, with demand now one-fifth of what it was 5 years ago.
2. They were in a saturated market with not only many competitors, but also many people offering their product for free (it was a digital product). Low product demand combined with a lot of competitors is never a good mix.
3. Even though I managed to get their listings on the first page of results, they did not see an increase in traffic because they were not getting click-through. They were not getting click-through because their product photos looked exactly like their competitors. They were not doing anything different in terms of the product offering, so they did not stand out.

The moral of the story. Sometimes, the problem is simply what you are selling. Not your SEO, not your marketing, but the product itself. If you don’t accept this, you will continue to have low sales.

I will give you another example. I have a client that sells scented candles. At the time, they were a new shop and things were taking time to get going. In doing my research for them, I saw a breakout Google search for a particular scent. They didn’t have this scent in their shop, so I recommended they add one in, especially since there were only 200 listings for this type of scented candle on Etsy at the time. They took the advice, we optimized the listing for SEO and the candle quickly became a best seller for them.

The demand was high and the competition was low. That combined with good SEO does mean success!

Sometimes the solution to your business problems can be quite simple. If you wish to discuss any issues your business is having, please set up a phone consultation with me.