Mike!
This is right up my alley, we're in the t-shirt business too.
First off, this is a competitive business. There are several things you can do right straight away to get you headed in the right direction, let's focus on those. Here is my condensed list of tips from what I see so far in your site design:
1. Don't assume people will think your stuff is lame if you have lifestyle shots. You want to identify with a certain type of person who will buy your stuff, so put your tees on some people who may look like your potential customers. This gives the "off the shelf" look a kick in the butt. If you don't have a budget for this, get your friends to do it. OR ASK YOUR USERS TO SUBMIT THEM FOR YOU IN EXCHANGE FOR YOUR PRODUCT! (hint hint)
Also, it's ok to tell people what you're all about. At TheRyde.com we open tell people that our clothing line is for good humored, laid back individuals who are into a SoCal lifestyle. Notice we didn't say they have to be from SoCal to get our lifestyle, they just have to identify with it. This opens the door to anyone who will listen.
2. T-shirts are a tricky thing to sell. People want to browse many different designs to buy the perfect shirt for them. Remember there are tons of new t-shirt companies popping up by the minute (literally!), so there are thousands of shirts to browse online. You will lose visitors before they view your entire clothing line if your navigation doesn't streamline the browsing process on your site. Assume you have a few seconds at best to grab someone. Adam's post eluded to this. Ask yourself some questions as if you had a short attention span: "If I'm on the product page, how can I browse some other designs without having to click back to the previous page?"... Give your visitors several ways to navigate your product.
3. This may be the most important tip of all, although it's probably the most overlooked. Once a first-time visitor has seen all your designs and decided to pass, are you giving them a reason to come back to the site at a later date? About 97% of your visitors will not buy during their initial session. Offer a competition, or new designs released on a regular basis, or anything else that will give them a reason to check back at a later date to check out your stuff again. This gives you the chance to give them another reason to return to your site and buy. We're working on design changes at The Ryde now to make this sort of thing an effective reason for customers to return to our site. Our users have told us this is what they want!
Ok, that's all I got for now. Hope this helps man.
Robb
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