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New automotive site, please review

danix

By danix
in Live Shop Reviews

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danix

danix

Posted
Posted

TDIParts.com

 

This site has been in the works for close to a year now. Every time I think I'm done, a contri gets revised or something new comes out that I realize I need.

But, I've got to launch at some point, so any feedback is appreciated.

I know that some images and product descriptions are missing, I'm working on those as I go along.

 

Thanks.

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TimP

TimP

Posted
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I like the header buttons but change the box headings from the standard look, there is a contribution that allows you to easly change the look.....

 

tp

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danix

danix

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Thanks for the initial feedback. I'm especially interested in comments on the center shop contri, and also how the site looks in other browsers.

 

I will check into the box headings you suggest but I'm not quite sure what you mean?

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Guest

Guest

Posted
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I also run an automotive site..... I wish you luck. Tough business.... :huh:

 

your site is nice... i viewed it in Firefox (Mozilla) and looked fine. no errors or problems here.

 

Good Luck!

 

B)

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Chance

Chance

Posted
Posted

I agree with TimP. Right now, it looks like you bought a header on Template Monster and then slapped it on a stock osC shop. You would do wonders for the overall look of your site if you would take the gradient that is under the top navigation bar buttons ( http://www.tdiparts.com/catalog/images/but...lank_middle.gif ) and include it in your stylesheet.css file for the TD.infoBoxHeading def.

 

On stylesheet.css, your infoboxHeading is as follows:

 

TD.infoBoxHeading {
 font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;
 font-size: 10px;
 font-weight: bold;
 background: #D0C3AD;
 color: #4F4F4F;
}

 

add under the "background: #D0C3AD;" this:

background-image: url(images/button_blank_middle.gif);

You always want to define a background color in addition to a background image in case the image does not load for any reason.

My advice comes in two flavors- Pick the one that won't offend you.

 

Hard and Cynical: How to Make a Horrible osCommerce Site

 

Warm and Fuzzy: How to Make an Awesome osCommerce Site

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danix

danix

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Thanks guys, keep em coming.

The header was a custom design for me by a friend, but he doesn't do php/css so I'm left to figure out that end on my own.

Chance, I made the change you suggested. I don't see any difference, should I?

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Chance

Chance

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Its loading the background gradient, try adding height: 28px; to your TD.infoBoxHeading def to adjust the heading size to the full size of the gradient.

My advice comes in two flavors- Pick the one that won't offend you.

 

Hard and Cynical: How to Make a Horrible osCommerce Site

 

Warm and Fuzzy: How to Make an Awesome osCommerce Site

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danix

danix

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To each his own Dan. I certainly had more constructive feedback for your site, but as you no longer display the osc banner, we can't talk about your site anymore :)

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MYC267

♥MYC267

Posted
Posted

I wrote that this morning in a rush Dan.... and was planning to leave better feedback for you!!!! Come on I have contributed a lot to this community and I love helping out where I can!!

 

Header - I like it but sorry it's not obvious what TDI means. What does it mean?

 

Layout - Pretty stock in nature and at first glance on some of the simpler contributions have been used. That's ok though! I think your left and right columns are too wide and it makes the centre section too crampes.

 

Content - The main page is a little bleek. You need some content there, not just the standard comments provided by OSC. You need a sell job... tell your visitors why they should shop with you, offer an incentive... something.. anything!

 

There's a broken link on every category page... the top right category image is broken.

 

You have a SPECIALS button at the top but there are no specials. You could make that button dynamic so your site detects whether there are specials or not and makes it appear when there are and not available when there are no specials. I just think that if you have such a prime location for a specials link you had better make sure there are some!

 

Same as above but for reviews.

 

"5106 requests since Wednesday, December 31 2003 " - Why do you need that at all?

 

 

I guess there's not much more I can add. It's pretty much a stock OSC with some colour changes and a different header and a few contributions.

 

I guess you need to put yourself into your customers shoes. Would you buy something from your site? Would you trust your site? What I normally do is conduct user experience reviews (that's what I call it) and have someone who hasn't seen your site before but is into the topic of the site sit down and use the site and watch what they do. Prepare a set of questions for them and see how long it takes to find the answer.

 

User experience is very underestimated with a lot of OSC sites, don't make the same mistake!

Dan

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Chance

Chance

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I would do the same with the footer class that you did with infoBoxHeading Dan(ix). Now the footer bar sticks out like a sore thumb :)

My advice comes in two flavors- Pick the one that won't offend you.

 

Hard and Cynical: How to Make a Horrible osCommerce Site

 

Warm and Fuzzy: How to Make an Awesome osCommerce Site

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Chance

Chance

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You know, I am going to have to disagree with ModYourCar on the "Explain what TDI is" comment. While I am not an expert at selling car stuff, I do know a little about selling specialized products.

 

VW / Audi owners know what TDI stands for. It makes no sense to explain to a Honda or Nissan owner that TDI stands for Turbo Diesel Injection. Its a niche market, and people that go out looking for TDI performance parts are not going to care for an explanation on what TDI means- they already know and love the engine/car.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is the person who is going to shop at your site is already looking for TDI parts, so don't waste their time with explaining to them what they already know. Get to the parts, explain the performance, tell how to install it. Don't lecture them on what they already know and want.

 

Put TDI info in your metadata, page titles, etc for search engine listings, not for the customers.

My advice comes in two flavors- Pick the one that won't offend you.

 

Hard and Cynical: How to Make a Horrible osCommerce Site

 

Warm and Fuzzy: How to Make an Awesome osCommerce Site

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danix

danix

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I will get back with more info later but just to say that Chance is correct.

I already have a customer base of over 500 people who are looking for me to improve the way I do business, and oscommerce was the answer.

Obviously I want new customers too, but it's not a primary focus at this point.

 

I will implement some of the suggestions asap. Some things like specials have to be fleshed out, yes.

 

I'm not sure of the protocol here - if I am having some issues/questions, do I post here or back in the general issues forums?

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danix

danix

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The site looks really nice.

 

Could you please tell me how you did the categories menu how you did?

 

Thanks

That was one of the custom items I contracted out to an OSC developer.

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danix

danix

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Well, feedback has died off, so I thank you for your input so far.

I've incorporated all the suggestions (well, most of them) and my site is in public beta.

 

There are still a few things that I need to fix/test, like paypal IPN, USPS and UPS shipping, etc. as well as update my product descriptions.

 

I've written a couple of custom tools to help with site operations but they are very unix/linux centric, so I'm not sure if they would be worth posting as contris as I believe the majority of shops are on Windows platforms, right?

 

Anyway, thanks again, and I will repost here if I have anything else I need feedback on.

 

Special thanks to the OSC developer who did a super job on the items I contracted out to him. I'm not sure if I should mention his name but if anyone needs a referral, let me know.

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AXM

AXM

Posted
Posted

I'd suggest that you expand the center column so that the page takes up the whole page or atleast a little more than what you have currently.

 

For the previous poster who asked how was the menu made..."HV Menu found on Dynamic Drive" was found in the code. Yeah the DHTML menu looks sweet, but have you had any complaints about older-browser equipped customers not being able to see it correctly? And does anyone know if the search engines are able to search DHTML links?

 

Another item...take off or replace that ugly stock clipart. I see it in Specials, What's New, Advanced Search, Log In...Too much to list :-). Sorry the stock clipart gave me personally, a splitting headache.

 

Under no circumstance do you want to make the "Specials" tab dynamic detect if specials are available. Do you really want another database query slowing down your website??? Here are two suggestions:

 

1) Always have something on special (good idea on multiple levels). "Hey what does TDI have on special this day/week/month?"

 

2) Add a configuration SHOW_SPECIAL_TAB. And have 1 for True/Yes and 0 for False/No. Then where you put your html code for the tab, you put:

 

<?php
if (show_special_tab) {
?>
INSERT HTML AND PHP CODE FOR SPECIAL TAB HERE 
<?php
}
?>

 

Just watch out with the <TD> tags. I noticed that you have a blank <TD> then the <TD> including the tab data. So both <TD> tags should be included in the middle of the code posted above.

I ♥ PHP/MYSQL/CSS

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AXM

AXM

Posted
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Yeah and on another note, like Carrerarod said earlier in the post "I wish you luck. Tough business.... "

 

Yes it is a tough business to get into (well atleast extremely tough here in Southern California)...but you've picked a wonderful cart to work with. And i'm sure with the right developers behind it, you'll be jumping ahead of the competition in no time (especially those based on those weaker carts B) :ph34r: :blink: ) :D

 

Danix, I should be having our site (atleast a test version up within a month)...keep an eye out for it. We've done our homework and have added a lot of well needed features perhaps never seen before on an automotive e-commerce website.

I ♥ PHP/MYSQL/CSS

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Guest

Guest

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I've written a couple of custom tools to help with site operations but they are very unix/linux centric, so I'm not sure if they would be worth posting as contris as I believe the majority of shops are on Windows platforms, right?

This is quite incorrect - most sites run on Linux/Apache :D

 

Please post away!

 

Matti

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burt

burt

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I must say your site doesn't do much for me - it's too close to the "out of the box" oscommerce look.

 

You said this:

 

This site has been in the works for close to a year now.

 

in your initial post. Can I ask what/where/why/how this site took a year to produce ? I (and I'm sure many others) would find that process interesting.

 

Thanks.

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