Feedback on our Leathergoods website

[NickPol]

I want to solicit feedback for our Leather goods company website. We launched just over a year ago. Quick background, my wife and I started a business off of a passion project to make high quality everyday items. I know our price points are not cheap as we are going after a high end market. We source local vegetable tanned leather from Pennsylvania and each item is designed and made by us in our Philadelphia studio. We have been capturing some sales from our website and run facebook/instagram ads as well for brand recognition. We've built up a few blog posts and an instagram account. Aside from that we have done local markets to get our products in front of people. We want to know how we can improve our website, products, marketing, etc.. and welcome constructive feedback. Thanks for your help!

https://hemlockandhyde.com/

[bikermutt07]

The site looks nice and executes well. The photography also looks great. And I don't think you are asking astronomical prices.

However, if you are asking those prices you may want to work in some burnished edges. Also, the feed dog marks on the outside of the bag are pretty unsightly.

Maybe look into getting a more leather friendly machine or work on your feed dogs.

I'm not much in the world of machine sewing knowledge but I'm pretty sure you want the stitching to all look the same. The back side of the stitches combined with the feed dog marks across the front flap ( everything else is showing the top stitch ) just doesn't look professionally made.

Hope this helps and good luck.

[Joseph1836]

Photos of the inside of the bags. I don't buy a car with out looking inside 

[NickPol]

Awesome, thanks for your input!

[battlemunky]

I love the reason behind your site and would probably buy something from you if I couldn't replicate it myself. I imagine others who aren't up to snuff on their leather skills would buy stuff from you. The site looks great.

I think @bikermutt07 hit on a few things regarding your products though. I know putting more time into each product lowers the value to you but I would think that just a few small finishing touches would square you away. I don't know if those will push a bunch of traffic or business your way but it would sure complete the package.

[Rockoboy]

33 minutes ago, battlemunky said:

I don't know if those will push a bunch of traffic or business your way but it would sure complete the package.

I agree with munky. A slightly better finish might not give you more traffic, but I think it will probably increase your visitor-to-buyer conversion rate.

[Firewalker]

I like the style of the site and I also agree that the photography is well done.  The wording is something like what I would put on there.  "Follow us - Not in a creepy way"  Ha!  I like it.

Your prices are what I would price similar items at and I also agree with keeping an eye on the finishing touches.  Edge burnishing would seem to come with the pricing as set.  I would proof read your site for spelling.  I didn't read every word but saw a typo in the cross body bag.  Not everyone can pull of the cross body.  Small detail but they matter IMO. 

This was a very disconnected and fragmented reply but I wanted to  post before I retire for the night.  Thanks for sharing and all the best.

Scott

[chrisash]

As a person who owned a e-commerce site for 15 years until retiring last September, here are my observations

1. You have a contact page but i did not see any obvious place where you cave your companies address and contact numbers, The main thing with e-commerce is to try and convince the public that you are honest and if there is any problems they can contact you or look you up
2. Your little name with no frills does not stand out it needs to be bolder that it is the name of the company perhaps with a shadow effect or colour
3. You are going after Ladies with money, Women always seems a rather less flattering term at least in the UK so Ladies and Gentlemen might be a more upmarket term
4. Your descriptions are not on the main page, I look down a list of nice pictures and see Belts and if i hover over it a price comes up, you could have a brief description like Top Quality 100% Bridal leather belts, or 100% Leather belts tanned by 100 year old tannery something to justify the price
5. When you then get into the actual description tell the history to help justify the price and why they should buy it  "this belt was hand made by fred bloggs using the Vegetable Tanned leather from our oldest tannery in xxx which has been producing the highest quality leather for the last xxx years. Each strap id personally check for any imperfections before it is made and the fastenings are hand sewn using the traditional threads to give many years service. Each item we sell carries out makers name to guarantee it has passed out pre and post quality control specifications " may seem over the top BUT you are selling both a BRAND and a Belt
6. Weekend bag under men's shows me nothing to justify any price a pair of handles and a zip, whoopy would you click through on that picture, you are trying to get there attention to look further so the images must make a impact on them straight away, They may have started looking for a Belt but find the new weekend bag image hits them in the right spot
7. Reduce the images across the page from four to three and this makes room for two line descriptions under each image to improve your descriptions as in 4 above

Hope this helps, Remember the customers cannot use their normal senses to judge the quality of your product, so you need to tell them the story

[Mark842]

1 hour ago, nstarleather said:

I too, feel this is important but I've noticed that having an actual physical address and real phone number on a contact page is not the exception, not the rule.  I've looked at lots of sites lately and it's very rare to find anything but an email address or a contact form. 

Yep. I for one have changed to this. We were fielding so many phone calls that were not turning into orders that we decided to see what happened if we did not supply a phone number until it was either requested via email or after the customer purchased from us via invoice. That was in February of last year. Our website is about 5 years old and has seem an average of about 5% growth each year in sales. Removing the address and phone number made no difference for us.

 I think what it comes down to is times are changing and people are more comfortable with online purchases. Removing my phone number from our website probably freed up 2-3 hours a day that are better served for production. Don't get me wrong, I love talking to my customers but when I'm running a 4 month back log on custom orders I'd rather be pounding leather than talking to Bob about his favorite motorcycle ride for a half hour.

[chrisash]

Sorry folks but a web site is all about building confidence and that means being open with your potential customers

Mark it's not the people who ring up that's the problem its the ones who visit your site and then look for where you are based and cannot find you, and go to the next site on google that has a address and buys from them. I bet if you looks deeply at your state you may have noticed a slight did, just the physical address and a email address will do it does not have to have the phone number if that's a problem to you, but many people do like to talk things through and if you don't want to do it fine, someone else will be happy to help them