My product isn't selling. What needs to change?
This is my product: https://sforzoaudace.com
It's what I call a "renaissance bag" (renaissancebag.com forwards to the store as well)—it's a waxed canvas and leather men's everyday carry bag that dresses up, dresses down, and will always be stylish. The brand motto is "One can do much." The idea is that you shouldn't have to buy separate gear for work & weekends.
I ran a sale along with a number of ads across Facebook/Instagram, Pinterest, and Google leading up to and through Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and while the ads successfully drove traffic I wasn't able to convert any sales. I had a handful of Add To Carts, but that's it. I clearly need help! 😅
I was hoping that the USP of a "renaissance bag" + carrying case that doubles as a drawstring backpack would help make it unique, but clearly not. One thing I know I need to do is add product imagery with models, so people can see it in the context of people and outfits. But I find it hard to believe that would solve all my problems.
What do you think? New angle? Better photography? Different descriptions? Better offer? I'd really appreciate to hear thoughts from this community because I know your feedback will come specifically from a problem-solving mindset. 🙏
Hey Mark. I'll be brutally honest: it looks like a mediocre dropshipping site. I land on your website and I have no idea what a renaissance bag is. All I see is a bag that as far as I know could be a cheap Alibaba product. Zero chance I'm going to click through the product page.
Stop paying for traffic and focus on improving your conversion rate first. How? Start by reading this article that showcases a series of great eCom landing pages.
I appreciate your honesty, I know there's plenty of room for improvement! I'll check this out and see what kind of updates I can make based on the examples. Thanks!
Don't worry, you've just started out! I'm sure you'll get there 🙂
I think you are close to sales as the bag looks good, but things I question are:
Personally I would:
But like I say am sure you can get sales as bag looks good. Best of luck!
I think rab is has hit all the right points. I might be reiterating, but here are also my initial thoughts:
Otherwise, I agree with everything rab has mentioned.
Got it, thanks so much. Sounds like having the all-black variant was just confusing things, especially since there aren't any available at the moment. I got rid of it for now.
And the drawstring bag does come with each bag, just as a protective storage case and to make for nice gifting etc. I've seen other premium bags come with them so I figured it might add to the value. But again, if it's causing confusion then maybe I remove imagery of it and just have it be a surprise-and-delight thing with each order.
Thanks again!
Thanks so much for providing such specific feedback! I've already made a bunch of your suggested changes, like removing the all-black variant entirely, removing the All Products menu item, and getting rid of the drawstring bag as a separate product.
I also deleted the product reviews for now, though I figured sharing that social proof would be a good thing? I guess not though! Same for the price reduction—I thought a holiday sale would help, but maybe it just cheapens things further. I'll rethink that for sure...
Thanks again, i really appreciate you taking the time 🙏
We're just dialling back at the moment. You may like to introduce social proof later (when you have something that carries weight), you may like to try the holiday sale later (but yeah kinda cheapens it). For me you should be trying to target this directly at your market and make this bag look like a must-have item. Already looks better imo but maybe add some of the product images to the front page as it looks a little lonely. There is definitely more work you could do to make it more desirable but imo good direction. Anyway, you could A/B test tweaks (social proof, holiday sale, etc).
I agree, thank you!
I think what I'll do next is invest in high quality product & model photography. At that point it may make sense to to use a different single-product design template too.
The bag looks great but the copy is too pretentious for me. Way too much forced marketing fluff.
I couldn't for the life of me figure out what does the bag has to do with the "renaissance life".
I expected maybe a small expose about how the bag was designed and crafted according to that era but nope it was just a bunch of fancy words for the sake of sounding fancy.
How about you use familiar and proven branding like "italian designed" or something italian.
You have some gorgeous photos, I would display them on the landing page in a nice layout that also would be the only page.
Good luck ♥️
Interesting, I never once thought it would come off as pretentious. So glad I posted this here since it’s these types of blind spots I figured I wasn’t seeing.
I’m going to rewrite the product description to be more direct and clear about what it is and why it looks the way it does. Thank you!
I wouldn’t listen to any of the comments thus far because you have no idea whether they are your target segment or not (unless you specifically made this bag for indiehackers. Then, please ignore my comment).
You should have made this bag with a customer in mind. If so, that’s the right person / people to speak to. I could throw out all kinds of suggestions about the website, the price, the color, etc., but comments are meaningless because I never buy those types of bags and have no plans on it. I only use backpacks, so I’m 100% not your target customer, and you shouldn’t listen to any of my suggestions.
It’s entirely possible that you designed the bag without a target customer in mind. If so, this is a big problem, and I would find your target customer segment ASAP. Then, you can go them and find out whether they like / dislike the bag, the price, or the marketing.
I've never heard the term "renaissance bag" for these, but that looks like any other men's messenger bag. In fact it looks a great deal like one I own that cost half the price.
I'm not trying to be callous, but I don't know why anyone would buy a no name product on an untrusted website when there are more than a hundred cheaper alternatives on Amazon.
Do you have any suggestions?
As others have stated, it's a bit strange to have a home page linking to a product page when that is the only product. It adds an extra step and at first I thought the button on the home page was some sort of order now CTA. Why not just make it a one page microsite for the product until you get more skus?
You mentioned adding people into the images, which should help. But I think that human element is missing in the copy, too. Ideally, you want the potential buyer to put himself into the picture mentally. Remember, with online selling the buyer can't handle the product like they can in a physical store. They can't strap the bag onto feel it's weight or check how sturdy it is. So you need to try to simulate that experience in the copy.
Be as specific as possible. Terms like "stylish & smart" are subjective and hard to picture. Terms like "lighter & less sweaty" and "large volume" are too general. Give the exact weight and volume, and put it in the context of the buyer's experience.
I think the images are nice for the most part. They look professional and show off the features nicely. I would consider reshooting or replacing the ones where it's on the couch, though. The color of the bag is too similar to the color of the couch, so it kind of blends in. Try to find a contrasting background so it pops more. Also, if your big hook is that it works as a bag for both business and personal uses, I would pay that off visually. Perhaps your main image could be split between one scene in an office setting on one side and a more leisurely setting on the other?
Best of luck.
I really appreciate these specific suggestions, thank you so much. I think you're right on all counts 🙏
I personally don't like this bag too much (subjective), but I think the main problems are:
I also agree with you on photos with people in different settings.
This is not to discouraged you ;).
Other IHers have added a lot of good points. Here's what I think:
You want to sell a bag. But right now, you are trying to sell a website. You only have one product. So, I don't think you need a website for this. By doing this, you are spending too much time on design, SEO, etc. that is all a lot of stuff you can delay for a later date.
Use a platform that already has customers - like Amazon. This way, you can focus completely on selling the product. Once you have traction and are starting to build a brand, you can start a website.
Hmm that's an interesting suggestion. Just get rid of the website altogether.
I thought it would be a good challenge to build a brand around a single product and learn things along the way, but maybe Amazon would have been a good first step.
I would say improve the pictures, add a model to the picture and change the name "renaissance bag" (don't know what that means tbh). Good luck
Appreciate the suggestions. Sounds like "renaissance bag" might be doing more harm than good as an angle!
Hey @markmulvey these are couple of things I noticed when I landed on your page:
I don't see any products on the landing page that can give me more indications of what renaissance bag might be, as I have no clue on what it is.
Showing people who have already used it and give a sense of how people might look like with your product. Remember you are selling some sort of 'lifestyle' not just a product. Add testimonials or pictures of people using the product. Show the audience you want to attract.
Would you have any more products or is this one the only one?
Another thing I noticed is that the shipping costs aren't calculated until you make all the payment(?) It'd be nice to have a standard rate or have it included in the price.
For now focus on improving the landing page and building an audience before spending more money on ads. Hope this can help you mate.
Yes, fair enough, sounds like this needs more clear explaining (or do away with it altogether!)
I agree, having models/lifestyle photography in actual real-world settings is what I'm tackling right now
This is the only one, but that was the challenge I gave myself: build a brand around one single product, and then maybe branch out and add additional products later.
There's actually free shipping for US orders called out in the banner at the top, but you're right: Shopify holds back on shipping details until the very end. Definitely not ideal.
Super helpful for sure, thank you so much for taking the time 🙏
Hi Mark, all the posts above are really useful and provide great detail about your site.
I'll take a different angle: what you need is better leads: paying to drive traffic is easy, paying to drive the correct traffic is more difficult.
I've always preferred a more organic approach, especially if you are only getting started. This is because there is so much you do not know about your intended audience.
I noticed that your personal Twitter is sharp but I could not see any lead to your product. I might suggest you leverage your personal brand to get the ball rolling and find the right personas for your product.
While I specialize on Twitter, I believe the most natural fit for your product is Instagram. I have some great Growth Hacks ideas that would love to try out if you are interested.
Feel free to grab a 30-minute slot in my [Calendly](
Here is my Schedule a meeting)
How much traffic did the ads drive?
About 100 visits in total on a $20/day ad spend via Facebook/Instagram. Pinterest sent a few dozen, and so did Google. Low investment for sure since I'm still testing, but it got me good data for lookalike audience targeting. I spent the month prior testing ads to get the right image/headline/audience combination.
Cool! I have some history doing sales of t-shirts/fleece jackets and I would say that out of 100 fresh clicks, zero conversions isn't that unexpected.
Instead of looking for people to convert on first visit, I would use those first clicks to strategically build a retargeting list and then expect to convert that list subsequently on the second, third, fourth, etc. visit. I would also focus on building an Instagram audience for a product like this.
When retargeting/organic social are your brand's primary touchpoints with customers, your website doesn't have to do the superhuman lifting of being a positioning statement, showroom, and checkout funnel all in one.
If you find you need more margin to cover marketing expenses, you could also increase your prices.
I hope this is helpful!
Very helpful, thanks so much for such a thoughtful reply! 🙏
Just a quick feedback. It took me some time to find the buy button. IMHO you could make https://sforzoaudace.com/products/the-original-renaissance-bag the homepage and it would not shock me.
Yeah I think a new template would be in order after I get some fresh photography, and make a full-blown single product landing page.
Do you produce the bag yourself? If so, it's worth to add pictures showing the production process, as well as testimonials (even if you don't have any, just add fake ones), pictures of people with the bag, more features and descriptions on the landing page, not on the position page.
Good luck, your product looks great!
Good idea, production photography could definitely help.
I had some customer reviews on there but someone said they seemed kinda weak, so I removed that section. But maybe some quotes on the main landing page as part of the design could work. Thanks!
Dude, it saddens me to see such hard work and great products hide behind a website like yours. You could have the greatest product in the world but if the website doesn’t showcase it properly, you’re doomed.
I would strongly strongly strongly advise investing in hiring a designer to overhaul this thing for you, and in doing so you also need to invest in some good photography. Hire a local photographer or use a service like Square Shot to get really high quality studio shots done cheap. They are everything when it comes to e-commerce. And do these things before investing another dime in sending any traffic to your site.
Yep, better photography is the first thing on my to-do list right now.
A lot of good things already said that I agree with. One thing that was throwing me off is that the landing page doesn’t drive conversion. You have to click get yours before you can even see the product well. I mean, how would I know I want one before that?
I think the about stuff and all that would come after great images etc
Yeah, I've been incorporating feedback as I get it. So right now I have just the "Get Yours" banner area because I deleted the other confusing sections.
Will definitely add more sections and photography soon!
Ah, alrightie.
It's good to keep in mind of course that especially user interfaces tend to split opinions a lot, and while for some things there are best practices and all that, ultimately some of the feedback will clash.
The bag looks cool. Did you have something to do with the bag as well, or just working on the site?
Oh thank you. Yeah I had it designed and manufactured. Honestly, I made the bag I wanted: one that isn't crazy expensive but that I could bring to the office or client meetings, and also sling over my shoulder to hang with friends on weekends too. I hated having to have separate things for work and play.
I got a very limited amount made because I'm mostly using it as a learning experience, so I can maybe go on and help/teach people using the things I learned along the way. Clearly there is no shortage of those at the moment! 😅
Hi Mark- I love the idea surrounding your brand - "Be more than you are" vibe. One suggestion would be to offer a % of sales toward a charity or fund that you believe in and that way I think that you will generate genuine goodwill (3G's- I should trademark!) and hopefully your new partner will help to drive some traffic/awareness to your brand!
Best of luck,
Victor
Great idea, I'll definitely look into it :)
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Awesome, thanks! Yeah, I think photography is a factor for sure. I'll go ahead and re-add the description to the second page too. 👍