Recently on two occasion I found myself searching for mod for a particular purpose. The first time for a VV mod, and most recently for a small pocket-friendly mod. I probably looked at around 50 different devices from different suppliers and manufacturers.
One thing was universal: the web marketing was totally horrendous. I make a better listing on eBay for a single $20 toy than they do to sell a $100 mod to relatively large market.
The photography ranges from hideous low res images the size of postage stamps to barely adequate. Are you trying to save a few megabytes on your server? Can't you take pictures that demonstrate the product with various hardware that people are likely to attach to it? Pictures that show it's size, like in someone's hand. In most cases I had to find some 3rd party review to get a picture or video that gave me a real idea what the mod looks like. I am waiting for my new Precise Plus, their pictures are very professional looking, but they are all taken with the same unnatural lighting, same atomizer (nothing like any hardware I would likely use with it). And there is no sense of scale. Why not have as many photos as necessary to show of the product in as many ways as possible? Pictures are essentially free!! Note that picking on Super T who probably had the very best website I ran across, but still just adequate.
The product descriptions if possible are even worse. Perhaps one out of ten give such basic information as the size and weight. Many of these, the strongest selling point is in fact their size (ie compact mods). Sometimes the best selling features are completely left out. I recently bought a wonderful mod called the Infinity Pro. I bought a chrome one because I assumed the finish on the colored ones wouldn't last. I later found out that the colored ones are anodized, and I most admit I feel a little cheated because I would have much preferred an anodized one. Why would you not boldly advertise that anodized finish?
I used as examples the two companies from which their advertising obviously worked well enough to get me to shell out a reasonably large amount of money, and I don't feel bad picking at them a little since they did get my business. What about all those other mods from companies that I didn't buy. Many I dismissed because the information and photography was so sketchy it wasn't worth my time to look further, some of those mods were probably quite good. I was looking for small mods and couldn't figure out their size for the life of me.
I know what I am talking about! For three years I supported myself by buying items off of eBay and reselling them back on eBay. At first this doesn't seem possible, but it was all because of the power of making excellent listings. I would buy things that I knew a lot about but the seller made such a poor listing that they didn't get a good price. I would then take great pictures and thoroughly describe the item in detail. I generally made between 25% and 1000% profit even taking into account eBay and PayPal fees. Even the pictures taken in 15 seconds that I post in this forum are significantly better than on most websites selling mods.
If any of these websites took the effort to make profession and thorough product descriptions and photography that completely described their product I am certain that they would significantly increase their sales, I am sure of it. And it doesn't cost them anything! So why don't they do it?
It sure would have made my PV shopping experience a whole lot easier.
One thing was universal: the web marketing was totally horrendous. I make a better listing on eBay for a single $20 toy than they do to sell a $100 mod to relatively large market.
The photography ranges from hideous low res images the size of postage stamps to barely adequate. Are you trying to save a few megabytes on your server? Can't you take pictures that demonstrate the product with various hardware that people are likely to attach to it? Pictures that show it's size, like in someone's hand. In most cases I had to find some 3rd party review to get a picture or video that gave me a real idea what the mod looks like. I am waiting for my new Precise Plus, their pictures are very professional looking, but they are all taken with the same unnatural lighting, same atomizer (nothing like any hardware I would likely use with it). And there is no sense of scale. Why not have as many photos as necessary to show of the product in as many ways as possible? Pictures are essentially free!! Note that picking on Super T who probably had the very best website I ran across, but still just adequate.
The product descriptions if possible are even worse. Perhaps one out of ten give such basic information as the size and weight. Many of these, the strongest selling point is in fact their size (ie compact mods). Sometimes the best selling features are completely left out. I recently bought a wonderful mod called the Infinity Pro. I bought a chrome one because I assumed the finish on the colored ones wouldn't last. I later found out that the colored ones are anodized, and I most admit I feel a little cheated because I would have much preferred an anodized one. Why would you not boldly advertise that anodized finish?
I used as examples the two companies from which their advertising obviously worked well enough to get me to shell out a reasonably large amount of money, and I don't feel bad picking at them a little since they did get my business. What about all those other mods from companies that I didn't buy. Many I dismissed because the information and photography was so sketchy it wasn't worth my time to look further, some of those mods were probably quite good. I was looking for small mods and couldn't figure out their size for the life of me.
I know what I am talking about! For three years I supported myself by buying items off of eBay and reselling them back on eBay. At first this doesn't seem possible, but it was all because of the power of making excellent listings. I would buy things that I knew a lot about but the seller made such a poor listing that they didn't get a good price. I would then take great pictures and thoroughly describe the item in detail. I generally made between 25% and 1000% profit even taking into account eBay and PayPal fees. Even the pictures taken in 15 seconds that I post in this forum are significantly better than on most websites selling mods.
If any of these websites took the effort to make profession and thorough product descriptions and photography that completely described their product I am certain that they would significantly increase their sales, I am sure of it. And it doesn't cost them anything! So why don't they do it?
It sure would have made my PV shopping experience a whole lot easier.
