importance of a good credit card payment merchant?

I have created an online ecommerce site selling designer clothing www.lookthebiz.co.uk . It's been listed on google since june 2005 and i,ve got a pr 2. I seem to get 300+ visitors a week but the amount of sales i get is very small. I beleive because im using nochex, a free payment merchant that im not getting as many sales, i have also been highly advised not to use paypal for several reasons. Can anybody give me advice on whether or not it is my payment merchant or other reasons why my site is not creating sales?
Thanx

 

you should post a url...

but by looking at your site i would say one reason would be that when you visit your home page i have to click a link to visit your store, it shouldn't be like that. Make your website for the laziest person alive, that won't even want to click 1 extra link to buy something.

 

Also what type of shopping cart are you using? I'm not familiar with nochex but you should have a merchant account accepting credit cards. The more payment methods = more sales. Try starting out with just visa and mastercard and also paypal. those are the 3 major payment methods that most people online use.

 

You should definitely be accepting credit cards. It is nearly impossible for a website to succeed without accepting credit cards. Paypal is also very popular and free, so you may want to start with it for your accepted payment method. You can accept credit cards thought paypal as well.

Also, look at how your visitors are getting to your site. If they are searching for specific products then you should be getting several sales a week, but if they are reaching your site through very generic terms, you may not get many sales at all.

 

Hi thanx for your comments i do accept credit cards through nochex but my main problem is that customers that dont have an account for nochex can only spend £100 where as people who do have an account can spend £300.
I'm currently setting up an account with protx (a sister company of worldpay i heard). Where i will be able to accept any value (not including silly amounts). But i was wondering if the name of the payment merchant puts people off buying?
thanx

My website is oscommerce so i presume thats what my shopping cart is.
I cant post a live url until i have a total of ten posts.
thanx

 

I dont think the name puts people off. It would be more having to sign up for an account, or an extra step in the payment process that causes visitors to leave. Every step in a checkout process, you can pretty much guaranty that you will lose some shoppers.

 

Hi,

You won't get far without accepting Credit Cards. Especially as you're selling clothes, there's so many competitors. It's also very likely that your target market won't have Nochex or Paypal, compared to people purchasing web based services, where alot of people have Paypal.

If you're earning enough profit, get WorldPay (It's like £300+£30/mo or something), otherwise, get 2Checkout.

Also, make your website either link directly to your stuff you're selling, or make the 'Visit the Store' button alot easier to find You have 1 small link linking to your shop on your index page, not good :/

 

Cheers for your help i'm looking into making the changes you have suggested. I've asked this same question on a different forum and got stupid answers, so im glad to see theres people like you lot who give helpful advice
thanx Alex