We’re in the middle of a mini-series of posts about making your consignment, resale, or thrift shop’s web site do what you want it to do:

to get shoppers into your actual, physical, bricks-&-mortar, REAL store.

Today, let’s take a close look at what your site is doing to motivate your viewers.

Now, you’ve put the necessary graphics and basic information on your home page. And you’ve put the warm, local, community-minded information about what your business is like on your About page. Let’s backtrack a bit to your home page and take a look at what your visitor is motivated to do. In other words,

what is the message on your home page? Does it align with what you really want people to do?

Here’s some examples of home-page first sentences, from the wonderful consignment and resale shops who have given me permission to use their sites to help educate their peers in the industry.

Welcome to Twice as Nice Consignment in the Socastee section of Myrtle Beach. This is a pleasant greeting, to be sure, and one you might well offer someone face-to-face. It also repeats the store name and location, both for locals (Socastee Beach) and others (Myrtle Beach… hopefully there’s only one Myrtle beach…) But the web is different: Attention spans are counted in nano-seconds, and each word must be made to count. “Welcome” is nice, but a call to action: Shop at, Don’t miss, even Experience… might be better than “Welcome.”

Why SHOP at Resale Therapy? (followed by a bulleted list of reasons, then a link to the shop’s Facebook photos) Bullet lists are perfect for the web, and adding a link to graphics is always good. Plus, by linking to their Facebook page, this shop motivates more social involvement.

Does your home page have strong motivation that will get viewers to do what you want them to?

Fireweed Consignment Boutique is a fashion forward, fabulous place to shop! Well, that’s good but better still? Something about the potential shopper. Maybe Are you fabulous and fashion-forward? Fireweed is the place for… A similar rewrite of Childish Things is Boulder’s oldest and largest, nationally recognized consignment store for kids, women, and mom’s to be, changing the emphasis from the business definition to WIIFM… what’s in it for me… might be more motivating to the web visitor. Another site has this as their lead-in text: Ladies’, men’s, and children’s 1st quality consignments which is, again, descriptive but not motivating.

In other words, if you can hear, in your mind’s eye (I never was very good at biology…), the viewer saying

Who Cares? So What?

you need to rewrite what you have on your home page.

Now, what you really want viewers to do is say Hey, that’s right… they understand… I gotta get down there. And that’s what our next volunteer’s site says: Here at Carousel Kids we know how fast your kids can grow! In 12 words, they’ve named their shop, mentioned a concern their target marketplace has, and expressed their concern, which makes the viewer think that this shop gets me. A similar message states Divine Consign Unlimited Style for the Limited Budget: a motivation and a tag line, all in one.

Always focus on the people you want to attract and why they should come to your business. Never start with a “We”… remember, people don’t care about you, they care about themselves. (For more on this, read this post, Alas and Alack) Rewrite an opening sentence such as We consign only the hottest styles, newest trends, top quality to something like You want the hottest styles, newest trends, top quality… and MyShop has them!

Does your home page make folks want to hop up from the computer and come on down? Or will they yawn, close your site, and go play solitaire? Anyone care to comment, or are you all too busy revamping your sites?