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Is it ready to go live???


dandelion

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Hi Dandelion,

 

I don't pretend to be much of an expert, but I sympathise with your lack of sales so here are some comments as to how I find the store. I hope 1 or 2 of them might help!

 

As a first time visitor at the store's home page I'd be put off by the prominent "... please LOGIN HERE to view..." as that tells me I'm going to have to register to buy, and I haven't even seen a product I'm interested in yet.

 

I'd like to see products straightaway: a couple of special offers (I'm a sucker for those) and maybe some featured items. I like there to be fewer, easier, choices - I want something to scream "click me". (I agree with an earlier poster that the number of categories is a bit overwhelming.)

 

The Aromatherapy Sprays category header has a spelling mistake in environmental. I'm curious as to why you've put the text into the image? ...And now I notice quite a bit of text is in images e.g. the huge "What's in my Shopping Cart?" (why so big?).

 

The images in this category (can't comment on the others) are dark. I'd like larger images on the product_info page without having to click to enlarge.

 

The "About Us" text is nice and genuine, but I usually go to that page to (1) be reassured that the company is genuine - I want to know about bricks-and-mortar stores, how long they've been around, professional memberships if relevant; and (2) to find out where the products are sourced from, how they're made etc (if that hasn't been made obvious on the home or category pages).

 

All the best, and good luck with the store

AnnA

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As a first time visitor at the store's home page I'd be put off by the prominent "... please LOGIN HERE to view..." as that tells me I'm going to have to register to buy, and I haven't even seen a product I'm interested in yet.

I agree thanks I've removed it - there is a returning login button above so it doesn't need to be in your face.

 

I'd like to see products straightaway: a couple of special offers (I'm a sucker for those) and maybe some featured items. I like there to be fewer, easier, choices - I want something to scream "click me". (I agree with an earlier poster that the number of categories is a bit overwhelming.)

I've been thinking of a featured products box on page one beside the intro text. Does anyone have an example of the featured products contribution at work? I've talked to my friend about the number of categories but she likes it the way it is. She expects to expand some product lines and scale back on others so we'll see

The Aromatherapy Sprays category header has a spelling mistake in environmental. I'm curious as to why you've put the text into the image? ...And now I notice quite a bit of text is in images e.g. the huge "What's in my Shopping Cart?" (why so big?).

 

The images in this category (can't comment on the others) are dark. I'd like larger images on the product_info page without having to click to enlarge.

 

Thanks I've fixed the typo. I agree - Do you know how to put the larger images on the product info page? I looked into that before but then found something else I was looking to do and never returned to it.

 

The "About Us" text is nice and genuine, but I usually go to that page to (1) be reassured that the company is genuine - I want to know about bricks-and-mortar stores, how long they've been around, professional memberships if relevant; and (2) to find out where the products are sourced from, how they're made etc (if that hasn't been made obvious on the home or category pages).

 

True - I've asked my friend to incorporate this.

 

Anna thanks so much for your constructive advice - much appreciated.

 

Ruth

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I'll get back to you on the image sizes shortly.

Sorry it's a long time since I did it and it looks like I added new sizes myself in admin/configuration - Images, which I could then use wherever I wanted. I'm sure there must be contributions for this, or if you want I could show you a quick & dirty way that'd work just for the product_info page. I'm reluctant to spread bad practices but it would certainly work! ;)

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Sorry it's a long time since I did it and it looks like I added new sizes myself in admin/configuration - Images, which I could then use wherever I wanted. I'm sure there must be contributions for this, or if you want I could show you a quick & dirty way that'd work just for the product_info page. I'm reluctant to spread bad practices but it would certainly work! ;)

I'm sure I have many bad practices and quick and dirty, if it works, it fine by me - so yes please :thumbsup:

 

I like your favourites - is that from the favourites contribution?

 

Ruth

 

I found thisContribution so maybe it will do what you're talking about.

 

My kids just stormed in for lunch so I'll have to look at this later. \

 

Ruth

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I like your favourites - is that from the favourites contribution?

Nope, I just renamed the Featured Products heading - this way it sounds a little less like "this is what we want you to buy"!

anna

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I'm sure I have many bad practices and quick and dirty, if it works, it fine by me - so yes please :thumbsup:

Ok!

Well first of all it looks like you aren't using any thumbnail contributions? If you are then don't follow the below.

Backup product_info.php

Then open it and find, about lines 109 & 112

SMALL_IMAGE_WIDTH, SMALL_IMAGE_HEIGHT, 'hspace="5" vspace="5"') . '<br>' . TEXT_CLICK_TO_ENLARGE

Put 1.5* (or alternative "enlargement factor") in front of each of the sizes like this:

1.5*SMALL_IMAGE_WIDTH, 1.5*SMALL_IMAGE_HEIGHT, 'hspace="5" vspace="5"') . '<br>' . TEXT_CLICK_TO_ENLARGE

This will enlarge the images in html. It should look okay if you don't enlarge them too much as it looks like your uploaded product images are generally bigger than currently seen in the store.

 

(Or even remove "SMALL_IMAGE_WIDTH, SMALL_IMAGE_HEIGHT," and each product image will be shown at the original uploaded size - obviously VERY dangerous unless you carefully control all your image sizes!)

 

That really was a quick & dirty method. :-" With my "good coder" hat on I'd suggest spending a little while looking at the thumbnail contributions so that your images are resized at upload, preferably to several sizes. I can't comment on the one you've linked to as I haven't used it.

 

hth - good coders please don't beat me - I put lots of warning around this!

Anna

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I tried it your way but the images are all off - If I add a thumbnail contribution will that solve this?

 

I tried the no more popups contribution but it doesn't appear to be working.

 

Is this web site ever going to be finished!

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(Or even remove "SMALL_IMAGE_WIDTH, SMALL_IMAGE_HEIGHT," and each product image will be shown at the original uploaded size - obviously VERY dangerous unless you carefully control all your image sizes!)

 

That is actually the best option for me - I'm sure it's wrong but I admitted that as long as it works it's okay by me :blush: . Anyway I only have a few images that need to be adjusted and that way I have perfect control over size and quality.

 

Thanks

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It looks good and the category images are lovely. Did you do that in photoshop?

Just one slight problem in that the page size is too overwhelming - too many images and long load time if not on broadband.

I know the temptation is to showcase everything on the home page but maybe you could be more disciplined :-)

 

(I finally got rid of my orange header too after reading this thread!)

 

btw the 'How Paypal works' link doesn't seem to work.

 

David

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Hi ruth

 

I liked the overall look of your site. it looks clear and loads fast.

 

Well done

 

How did you manage to add text content to the categorie pages, eg soaps? is it just an image added to the cat title? and if so would this not hurt your SEO ?

 

Kind regards

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Okay here's my problem - we've had about five people get as far as the confirmation and then not pay at paypal. I think it's the flat rate shipping. If you are ordering a little thing you don't want to pay $13.00 CDN to have it shipped to BC but if you are placing a big heavy order then we would lose money on shipping. What do others do for shipping?

 

I am not surprised..i have had the same happen on several clients sites who accepts paypal...the solution....

 

Get a onsite payment solution.... Paypal do offer this, but only in the US for now..but i am sure Canada is comming next/soon...

 

But for an imideate solution, get your own merchant account and a payment solution which alows you to take payments from your customers on your site.

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btw the 'How Paypal works' link doesn't seem to work.

Strange it works fine for me - anyone else have a problem?

 

How did you manage to add text content to the categorie pages, eg soaps? is it just an image added to the cat title? and if so would this not hurt your SEO ?

 

It is done with the category descriptions contribution - and yes I should use text but I like to control the font and where the image goes so I just used alt tags. I'm sure when I have nothing else to do I'll go back to text but I had already created the images for the old site (before the online store when it was only mail order) so I just edited those.

 

It looks good and the category images are lovely. Did you do that in photoshop?
I

use Fireworks although I have photoshop as well.

 

toyicebear thanks for your comments as well. I'm not convinced that paypal is the problem I really think it is the shipping fee. I've looked into Paypal Pro but it costs $20/month - this online store is costing more than it is generating now. Twice recently I've found exactly what I was looking for on online stores but when I factored in shipping I thought "surely I can find this somewhere locally and not pay shipping". The problem is some items (like one or two bottles of essential oil) are small and light so customers don't want to pay a lot to ship it but properly tracking the parcel also ups the shipping cost, on heavy orders we'll lose money. We lowered the shipping to other Provinces and have had a couple other orders. We do say to call our toll free number for exact shipping. Adding to Froogle helped - I really think that I don't have enough traffic but my friend hasn't the money for ad words right now.

 

Thanks so much for your comments - This forum has been so supportive!

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Strange it works fine for me - anyone else have a problem?

Oh - the "how paypal works" popup isn't working in Firefox but it is in Internet Explorer. Anyone know why this would be the case?

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