A Lesson in User Interface Design

As a new site without a major advertising budget and a set of principles that prevent me from spamming the bejesus out of the Internet to try and draw attention to Mall of Erotica, getting potential customers to the site is half the battle. The second half is getting them to actually buy something.

I carefully track all site interactions through my own code and database. I know most people would opt to use Google Analytics but I have the following reasons for not doing so:

• It's always a great learning experience to write your own code, and analytics data capturing is easy; it's the fancy reporting that Google Analytics does that makes them worthwhile
• I have full access to all the raw data in real time to report on it however I like
• The browsing habits of my users are nobody's business but mine.

That last point is an undervalued one, in my opinon. Google Analytics may be free, but you and your customers give up a fair bit of privacy to Google's ever-watching eyes. And when you run a fetish website people expect their privacy to be maintained so I do my best to keep it all a secret. That's the main reason that the entire site uses secure-sockets layer (https) instead of only during checkout.

Anyhow...as I said above I track all interactions through the site and this past week alone I've seen several people add items to their carts but never checked them out, resulting in a potential loss of revenue of about $56.00USD. Now that doesn't sound like much, but when the average product sells between two and six dollars, $56.00 is a big chunk of change. And a good businessman should always endeavour to get a sale from everyone who steps inside his store.

Now there could be many legitimate reasons for why those people didn't check out their items, such as having a change of heart, or people who just clicked the "Add to Cart" button to see what would happen, but having so many happen in such a short time bothered me.

I took a good look at my product page and realized a major flaw in the design: there was only one "Add to Cart" button, it was located under the main image thumbnail, and once the product was added to your cart you had to go to the top of the page to get to the "View my Shopping Cart" link toc check out. While it made sense when the site was developed I quickly realized that it might not be obvious to the average porn viewer how to actually pay for something once it is added to your cart.

To fix this, I reworked the product page to display a "Check Out" button under the "Add to Cart" button (but only when there are items in the cart), as well as included those buttons under the "Buy" panel on the right side of the screen (which up until today had consisted solely of the word "Buy" and the price):

 

I don't know if these changes will increase my sales, but if it reduces confusion for one shopper and they complete a transaction then it was worth it.

 

The lesson learned from all of this is "when testing, approach your website as if you have never seen it before. If it isn't obvious from a quick glance at the screen how to perform a function it probably won't be obvious to your users".

 

Some free development advice for you :)

The First 100!

Today we reached a milestone! There are now over 100 products for sale at Mall of Erotica!

Thanks to the volume of new eBooks and videos uploaded by shopkeepers like Pink Flamingo Publications, Blair Erotica Books and our newest shop, Alice in BondageLand, we finally hit triple-digits!

When we originally went live last June with all the content restrictions unexpectedly placed on us, I knew that it was going to be a major struggle to attract and retain content providers. And even with the support of a few strangers out there who saw Mall of Erotica as a site with potential we struggled to get up to 50 items. Well since I got rid of my original payment processor and found a better one (only a month or so ago) we've almost doubled the number of items on the site, our hits are up, and our sales are up!

We were so happy with the changes that we're running a special right now for all the shopkeepers. The sales split is normally 68/32 (68% goes to the shopkeepers, 32% comes to us to cover our costs and give us a small profit), but until April 1st, 2013, the split is 75/25! That's right, for every product you sell on Mall of Erotica until April 1st, 2013, you get 75% of the profits! That's how much we love our shopkeepers! If you're a content producer looking for an additional revenue stream, or a home for your erotic content and don't want a lot of content restrictions, come add a shop now!

In terms of brand name recognition, I suspect that 99.9999% of the Internet has never heard of Mall of Erotica. That's fine. We'll get there. Interestingly, however, my efforts to recruit Winnipeg models have caused an uptick in interest from the local kink community. The few friends I have that know about this undertaking have actually had other people come up to them in real life and say "have you heard about this new site, Mall of Erotica?" which to me is very cool.

There's been a rather positive response to my ads for models, both of male and female persuasion and Mistress Trish is going through the applications and will be meeting with those who applied. If you're in Winnipeg, 18 years of age or older, and are interested in doing something fun and kinky check out our application form. We expect to really take off this summer so now is the time to get in on the ground floor of what I plan to turn into the premiere erotic content production company in Winnipeg!

Thank you to everyone for your awesome support!

Looking for Winnipeg's Naughtiest!

We placed the following ad on Craigslist, hit people up on fetlife.com and are repeating it here in the hopes that we attract a few more interested parties:

Calling All Kinksters!

Are you a fun and kinky individual looking to take it to the next level?

Mall of Erotica is a new website run out of Winnipeg and we're looking for adults who would like to have some kinky fun making erotic content. We're seeking models of any size, shape, ethnicity, gender and experience from Winnipeg (and surrounding areas) who would like to get in on the ground floor of this exciting new venture and help build our site into a premiere source of Canadian erotica.

Don't let the thought of nudity scare you away, either! There are plenty of fetishes that don't involve nudity, sexual acts, or even showing your face, so if you're shy and want to try something new and daring with minimal exposure we'd love to work with you!

Check out https://www.malloferotica.com/TalentWanted for more details and our online application form!