Can I "borrow" SDMB readers for a focus group?

About This Message Board
1

I want to be very straight up that this is not an attempt at marketing/sales. I have an online shop and need feedback from potential shoppers about why they would NOT do business with it. It’s been open a few months and sales are extremely low, which is normal. But what I feel is very odd is that I’ve been working my personal network, using social media and even sending out discount promo codes and none of that is working. I find it especially weird that people are not using the discount codes, and that’s what makes me want to ask why.

My store platform does have a user forum where we can get feedback and support each other. But when I asked for feedback on my store, the first reply was someone who’s agenda was clearly just to sell his services (he listed lots of “issues” that were normal functionality for the platform followed up by a clear sales pitch for his services). The second reply was just “wow, you have a ton of problems, you should hire someone to fix your store”. So… not helpful.

I understand that links to other sites that look like ads are not allowed in SDMB and I’m okay with that. I can make it a Survey Monkey survey if that’s allowed, and only post the survey link. Is this okay? If it’s okay, which forum should it go in, Marketplace?

I want to get as many respondents as possible and then aggregate the data. I don’t care who responds, so it will be anonymous (I will disregard the email addresses/ip addresses/whatever identifying components of the survey results.) The goal is honestly to get actionable feedback on the store, not to make sales or site visits. Here are the kinds of things the survey would include:

When shopping online this is how I feel about pricing:
• I prefer low prices with shipping added separately
• I am okay with higher prices if the shipping is “free” (bundled into the price)

I feel comfortable shopping at a new online store:
• If they have mostly positive Yelp reviews
• If they show product reviews on each product page
• If they have easily accessible refund and shipping policy statements
• Only if word of mouth (including trusted blogger or review site) tells me that they’re reputable

When shopping online, this is how I feel about store navigation:
• I need to find what I want within __ seconds or I leave
• I prefer a good search tool over menu/filter navigation
• I prefer menu/filter navigation over searching
• I want a good search tool and also good menu/filter navigation because I enjoy browsing

Please view the shop at this location (link) and answer the following questions:

My initial impression of this store is __
I would buy from this store today because __
I would not buy from this store today because __
If given a 10% discount code to shop in this store I still would not buy anything because __
Other comments about this store __

2

You might want to PM the mods directly.

Regards,
Shodan

3

Focus? I thought you were just gonna take our picture!?

4

Okay, will do. Thanks!

5

Be aware, though, that what customers say they want generally has only the flimsiest correlation with what they actually want and will buy and pay for. This was discovered at least as long ago as the days of the Ford Model T (or Model A?).

Here is a story I read. IIRC, I read this in one of historian Daniel Boorstin’s books. Or maybe I got it from one of my college history profs.

In those early days of the sales/marketing industry, Ford surveyed motorists and prospective motorists, asking what they wanted in a car. Overwhelmingly, they said they wanted a car that was reliable. It should go when they step on the gas, stop when they step on the brake, start easily when cranked, and above all, get people from Point A to Point B with minimal hassle and minimal maintenance problems. Nobody cared much about how good-looking a car should be.

So Ford produced boxy squarish cars like the Model A.

But marketeers at a competitor (I think it was Chrysler?) thought they knew differently. They thought that, no matter what consumers said they want, what they actually wanted were sleek, sexy status-symbol cars. So they produced sleek sexy cars with rounded feminine contours. And they were right: These cars were more successful in the marketplace.

So take all your surveys with a grain of potassium chloride. What consumers say they want and think they want is only, at best, a rough approximation to what they actually want.

6

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you have an online shop aren’t you basically just competing with Amazon (which will always be able to beat you on price/availability/ease of use)? Or maybe you have a specialty store in which case you would have very low traffic anyway?

7

Link?

8

For many of the products yes, but I am trying to differentiate myself. If I’m allowed to do this here, you can follow the site link and check it out (and please do the survey, part of which you can absolutely tell me if I’m successful at differentiation - that could be what my problem is!)

The mods are discussing my request, so we have to wait a bit to find out. (thank you mods!)