This is a quick follow up post about the changes made to the registration and check out to the site. We are seeing a substantial increase in our checkout conversion rates for both new and return visitors. Simplifying and speeding up the registration/checkout process appears to be working.
As always, I want to thank those of you who have shared with us ways to improve the site.
Over the course of the last few weeks we have been studying and redesigning the check out process on the site.
Through buyer feedback and traffic analysis we were able to identify areas where buyers were experiencing some difficulties. By allowing sellers to put their phone numbers in their banners and listings, buyers who may not be as computer savvy can still call you and make a purchase but we wanted to streamline the process and make it better for buyers.
We walked through the procedure many times and were able to implement a set of changes that both simplified and improved the purchasing procedure.
We see buyers come in from a general Google search and within 5 to 7 minutes they view a product page, register for the site, complete their verification, return to the product page and then purchase the item.
As a seller you may not have had the experience of buying on Ahwooga, so we encourage you to go to the site, look around, find a hot wheel or a sticker or something and make a purchase from another seller so you can experience what the buyers experience.
As always we would love to hear how it went for you and we are always open to suggestions.
With the large increases in traffic we have been experiencing recently, we wanted to make sure new site users are able to navigate through the check out process. I personally had a lot of fun since I bought some really cool items during the final testing after changes were made. In a couple of days I will publish the changes that were made.
We added more search engine optimization today. In this site update, we made what shows up in your browser title bar be the title of the listing.
(see highlighted areas)
This will also make the search engines display the same result once the site has been re-rolled by the search bots.
Tonight I am running a new XML site map to try and speed up this process and will submit it to all the major search engines. The end result will be, more click-ins into our site from natural search results.
Ok, what the hell is page rank?
Google ranks sites by strength and assigns a numeric number of 1 – 10. The short story is, the more links a site has coming into it from related content sites the stronger it is ranked. In our case we have gotten links from us informing the world about the site and our users putting out links.
So if a person does a search within Google for a term or a phrase, the sites with higher page rank come up toward the top.
For everyone how has helped with this by linking our site to other site, I want to say thank you for helping share the word and strengthen the site.
Ahwooga is quickly becoming the place. Our goal to build a sellers friendly place to list and purchase parts for “things that move you” is really taking shape. With the help of a lot of sellers combined with the power of search engines, visitors are engaging our site. Through out the day while monitoring our live traffic program, we watch Internet shoppers perform searches for products and wind up on our sellers listings.
Six months have gone by since our hard launch and the site is at 75,000 live listings. The lion’s share of these listing have vendors phone numbers and e-mail address so viewers who either have questions or maybe feel more comfortable calling about a product can do so. And with the backlog of customers we are helping bulk upload ad the ones doing their own listings, this growth is going to continue at a rapid pace. The staff here is going to continue to aggressively seek out more vendors that in turn will bring in more buyers.
One of the cool features of the site that we keep posting about is Google Shopping. More than one customer we have asked, “What the heck is Google shopping?
Google search results change depending on the search term you type in to a search. For a product search such as “87 Mustang GTX V-Fiber Body Kit” for example, the Google search result on page 1 displays three shopping results and an image. The links to these 3 results are linked directly to products pages of the sites they reside on. So if you clicked the second shopping result it would take you our site to that specific kit.
Natural Google search results are created for the site by us constantly updating our XML sitemaps, see the second arrow.
This is just another free service that we offer our sellers to help them connect with buyers looking for products.
Click image to enlarge
As of this morning, 95% of the products on the site are displaying inside of Google Shopping. I’m not going to run out and get a Google Tat just yet since I’m less than happy with what it took to redesign the process. What is very cool is the increased percent of products that now display.
Each individual seller now has their own unique feed that the staff here at Ahwooga HQ verifies that the products conforms with the policies of the Google shopping and then submits them. If you are ever bored to tears and have nothing else to do, here they are. Link
We will continue to strive to make Ahwooga the best place to find Automotive related products on the web.
The I AM Ahwooga Episode 3 video is up!
We had a great time with this one. A lot more random vehicles with a “Pet” feature.
Thanks to everyone who has uploaded pictures to the group. It really is cool to see the diversity and then share a slideshow.
We tried to get everyone we had missed before in it. If you have posted a pic but haven’t seen your vehicle in a video yet, please post a message on the group page and we will make sure you get in the next one.
We will be posting the next theme soon so get your cameras ready.
Thank you all so much for participating, we are honored.
-Team Ahwooga
We are in the process of modifying the structure of our Google Shopping feeds. With the always changing search environment it is sometimes necessary to make changes “with” that environment so all listing members can truly benefit from all the awesome features that search engines offer.
We always take a proactive approach to things like this, so we feel it’s best to make the changes now instead of later. As a result your listings will not appear in Google Shopping for a short time, but fear not…the re-worked feed structure promises to be even more reliable and efficient.
It’s been said that the only constant is change. This is one instance where due to change, we are pleased to be able to make our site better for everyone involved.
Before we launched Ahwooga.com, we knew we needed to first have parts for people to find so they could purchase items from our sellers. In order to make sales we needed items, in order to get people to list items we needed sales. We call this our Chicken-Egg Theory.
It took some time for the site to gather enough momentum and find it’s way into the massive number of searches online, but it became clear to us early on, that our theory was correct. As more and more items got listed, the traffic to those listings increased and what followed was sales for those sellers.
The sellers that have promoted themselves in social media networks and forums and even to buyers that have come to them from other marketplaces have seen great gains. The sellers that have just included a little note that says “You can find the same and similar items in my Ahwooga.com store.” are benefiting from the “no final sales fees” and other strengths of the site.
As the number of listings continues to grow, we are sure this trend will continue. Which came first…the listing or the sale? Well in the case of Ahwooga.com, that is a question we no longer have to ask. Now that we are over 50,000 items listed in four and a half months we are seeing consistent traffic and sales increases. The site is working just like we thought it would. We see this as the beginning of a growth period that both buyers and sellers will benefit from.
We want to thank all the sellers who have listed items with us and we hope they continue to enjoy the growth experience of Ahwooga as we have.
-Team Ahwooga
Some more of many changes took today, here are some highlights.
When viewing a stores product listings, you can now click the store banner to go back to the stores home page
If you are in a products listing page, the link to the sellers storefront has been moved above the main picture to be at eye level.
When you are viewing your My Account section, you now have thumbnail views of listings
Your My Account area now also has a date range sorting function so you can sub-total sales and purchases.
Here is a view of your totals and sub totals
We will continue to make changes to have buying and selling easier on the site.
Stay tuned for more.
Today some big changes to the overall site appearance went into effect. The staff here at Ahwooga HQ have been listening to what our growing customer base has been sharing with us. With just three and a half months under our belt, it has been very exciting to have so many people really engaging with the site. Very soon you will see some more changes coming to the product pages that will help new Buyers view Sellers other listings. Also Buyers and Sellers will have more control in their My Account areas with more thumbnail images and increased sorting functions. Some of you might have noticed that store banners are now linked to the stores’ main page. We will keep you posted on more upcoming improvements as they are implemented.
We are always looking for way to enhance the sites performance and we recently made some changes.
1) News Blog now open in a new window and is no longer wrapped in the site.
2) Forums have been relocated to never – never land since they sucked.
3) Forum information will be relocated to News Blog.
4) About Us Page Link add to main menu bar.
5) Contact Us Button added to Social Us Bar Top Position.
After these changes were preformed, we ran the site though our speed check tool. This is the fun part, LOL It’s like a Friday night test and tune at any drag strip across the country… if your a geeks. First you make your official pass to set your baseline time. Then you start adjusting until your dialed in. It ended up that lightening the site load made the biggest increase in speed. 
After 3 1/2 months being live and close to hitting 30,000 listing we feel these changes will make a noticeable difference for our ever growing population.
- Don
When we first started developing Ahwooga many many moons ago, one of the first ideas we had was to film people and their cars saying “I AM AHWOOGA” . We thought it would be cool to show how diverse the site would be and also just a fun way to share some of the fun that is us.
Well, as we went through the development process the idea never died and we are thrilled to announce that it has evolved and blossomed into what we feel is jut a great way to share with Facebook and all the cool car folk that are there.
It’s a pretty simple concept. If you’re on Facebook, join the I AM Ahwooga group and then upload a picture of you and your car/truck/bike etc…..or if you’re camera shy like me, just your vehicle. It’s like a car show online. We will do a few videos showing the diversity and we will also give out prizes and stuff and also we have a few other fun plans.
It’s great to see the growth as the group has over 375 members in less than 4 days and more than that, it’s great to see people interacting with each other through the group. On some of the forums we sponsor it’s been awesome to see forum members sharing their Facebook names and connecting. Very social…very Ahwooga…very cool.
Seeing an idea that was conjured up so long ago, take shape and fly has been very satisfying. If you aren’t a member of The I AM AHWOOGA group, sign up. Post your pics and enjoy.
Thanks,
-Lemorris
Matt from Ponderosa Mustang called us and shared that he was going to Pensacola Mustang Show and wanted to know if he could pass out some Ahwooga shop towels to other vendors.
Joe screen printed some up and UPSed them to Matt.
Here is the video that Matt posted on Youtube. Thank you so much for helping us spread the word about the site.
Here at Ahwooga HQ we can only track sales that are made through the system and we are very happy that we are approaching 200 sales in such a short amount of time. Yesterday, XtremeHids sent me a note that his customer who purchased a light set from him did the whole transaction over his blackberry phone. My geek status went through the roof and I spent some time perfecting my moon walking abilities. It was very important during the design of the site that it was smart phone compatible.
While I’m tying about this, our 89 day old site has 17,000 listings and growing. I am like a kid in a candy store thinking about where it will be when another 3 months goes by.
I can’t thank the fine sellers and buyers we have visited and participated on the site.
Team Ahwooga spent last Sunday at the GoodGuys Spring Nationals in Scottsdale.
We set up camp in the swapmeet (which is like home away from home for us) and we just handed out our shop towel business cards and our Ahwooga.com key chains and in the process made fools of ourselves….which really doesn’t bother us.
Big time shout out to Alex and Carol of AmericanCarz. They are Ahwooga sellers and it was great to meet them.
Enjoy the vid, we had a blast.
-Lemorris
