It wasn’t that many months ago since we launched ImageKind. I was surfing around the web the other day and thought I’d share a few interesting statistics.
First, compare where ImageKind stands relative to the top 5 highest grossing online art sites in terms of inbound links (e.g. number of sites that link to us).
Google tells it all.
Enter this in Google:
link:http://www.imagekind.com
691 linking to http://www.imagekind.com
Nearly 700 sites that link to us in a matter of months. And, check our traffic according to Alexa in the process.
That figure shows 52,581. Our Google ranking shows 6 out of 10.
We launched about 3 months ago.
Now try that with Art.com (which will do $150 million this year) and the rest in descending revenue order:
link:http://www.art.com
55,300 sites that link here
Alexa rank: 1,787
Google Page Rank: 7 out of 10
In business 10+ years
link:http://www.barewalls.com ($10-$15 million)
1,180 sites that link here
Alexa rank: 48,584
Google rank: 6 out of 10
In business 10+ years
link:http://www.artselect.com ($10-15 million)
140
Alexa rank: 44,915
Google Page rank: 6 out of 10
In business 10+ years
link:http://www.fulcrumgallery.com ($4-5 million)
9
Alexa rank: 86,133
Google rank: 4/10
In business 4 years
What does this data tell us?
1) We know how to drive traffic and users
2) We will be in the top 3 highest trafficked art retail sites soon
3) Sales is a game of CONVERSION. How do you turn clicks to buys?
4) Conversion is partly about traffic and partly about good product merchandising
What is good product merchandising? The same rules apply to online that apply to offline! At the office I like to say that the window displays at Nordstroms are a great example of product merchandising. You can’t put every good thing you have in the window. You must use creativity, timing, seasonality and a host of other factors to determine what things you can put in each of your windows that best encourage customers to come inside.
At ImageKind I think we’ve done a good job with graphic design but that is not product merchandising. That is design. After some introspection we think we’ve now graduated a to this next area of consideration which should turn traffic into even more dollars and more members.
