Guest Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 Hi everyone, i am very green to osCommerce and know nothing about Web designe or html, so i have no choice but to pay someone USD2,000 to work on it. But i don't really like or rather satisfy with the result as they are not able to provide me the functions that i required. One of them is the roll over and enlarge the images automatically, secondly is the counter on categories and sub categories. Finally i just have to settle with it as what it is now. So, please come in to check on my website, www.desze.com and let me know how can i improve. Your help will be very much appreciated. :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 6, 2007 Share Posted April 6, 2007 Need your website address to provide you with comments! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soregonmale Posted April 6, 2007 Share Posted April 6, 2007 It's posted in the next to last sentence... www.desze.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 6, 2007 Share Posted April 6, 2007 Hi Dennis, The first thing I noticed on your site is that the black is quite heavy. Personally, I prefer a lighter background for the body, with black text as it's more comfortable and natural to read. Take a look at any big brand ecommerce sites... Amazon, Gap, Victoria's Secret, for example. Or any other big online property (Google, Yahoo, MSN, eBay, YouTube, etc). Another thing that's "heavy" about the site is your image sizes. The front page took longer than it should have to load on my cable connection. The thumbnails that are being used are not real thumbnails -- just the image with height and width attributes made smaller. File sizes for the thumbnails range from ~100kb to over ~200kb. I wouldn't be surprised if your thumbnails were over a meg all together, which is more than 10 times what it should be. osCommerce creates optimized thumbnails automatically, so I don't understand why your thumbnails and enlarged images would be the same size. In my opinion your store is not worth US$2000. Take a look at your competition in terms of other online jewelry stores and take some design notes... I do like the fact that you've got some good content on the site: Photos of your showroom and workshop, articles about silver and silver care. Good luck with the store! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Hi Dennis, The first thing I noticed on your site is that the black is quite heavy. Personally, I prefer a lighter background for the body, with black text as it's more comfortable and natural to read. Take a look at any big brand ecommerce sites... Amazon, Gap, Victoria's Secret, for example. Or any other big online property (Google, Yahoo, MSN, eBay, YouTube, etc). Another thing that's "heavy" about the site is your image sizes. The front page took longer than it should have to load on my cable connection. The thumbnails that are being used are not real thumbnails -- just the image with height and width attributes made smaller. File sizes for the thumbnails range from ~100kb to over ~200kb. I wouldn't be surprised if your thumbnails were over a meg all together, which is more than 10 times what it should be. osCommerce creates optimized thumbnails automatically, so I don't understand why your thumbnails and enlarged images would be the same size. In my opinion your store is not worth US$2000. Take a look at your competition in terms of other online jewelry stores and take some design notes... I do like the fact that you've got some good content on the site: Photos of your showroom and workshop, articles about silver and silver care. Good luck with the store! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Hi John, Truly appreciate your advice and you are the first one who did that. I will get the web designer to change the background color asap. As for the images and thumbnails, she never told me anything about it and told me that my original image size is to big for the site. So before I upload all the images to the site, I have painstakingly resize every picture. For this, I am waitng for her explaination and it really shows that how imcompetence she is. once again, thanks for your kind advice! cheers dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soregonmale Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Dennis, John is right that the thumbnail images are WAY too big!!!! I have a cable internet connection, and I tell ya... I could go out for lunch before the images are done loading! Your webmaster messed up there. The main body of the site DOES need to be white with black lettering. You could have them leave the black on the outsides of the main body of your site. Just another idea. I wouldn't say your webmaster is incompetent, but maybe they just didn't think about what they were doing. The site is nice, and well done, just missed it on a couple points is all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Dennis, John is right that the thumbnail images are WAY too big!!!! I have a cable internet connection, and I tell ya... I could go out for lunch before the images are done loading! Your webmaster messed up there. The main body of the site DOES need to be white with black lettering. You could have them leave the black on the outsides of the main body of your site. Just another idea. I wouldn't say your webmaster is incompetent, but maybe they just didn't think about what they were doing. The site is nice, and well done, just missed it on a couple points is all. Hi Jim, I had just sent my webmaster a long email after receiving John & your comments. But seem like they are enjoying their holiday right now and nobody respond to my email. I actually don't like to complain and posting this on the forum, but they leave me no choice. Two days ago I requested them to integrate 2CO to my website and they told me that it was complicated and might need to take up some time to do it, so we had a argument over this again.Since then I never heard from them. At the moment, I have no choice but have to look for someone else to clean up the mess. :'( :angry: But anyway, I appreciate your kind feed back and will try to find a way to straight thing out asap. cheers dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Need your website address to provide you with comments! Hi Denise, My Apology to that as i don't really know how the forum actually works. I am still learning! http://www.desze.com/ Your comment and advice will be very much appreciated! cheers dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Hi all, I like to gather as much info as possible before I appiont another webmaster to clean out the mess. I don't have a deep pocket especially after paying the previous webmaster USD2,000. So all your comments and advice are welcome and will be great help! Thanks again! cheers dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Hi John, Truly appreciate your advice and you are the first one who did that. I will get the web designer to change the background color asap. As for the images and thumbnails, she never told me anything about it and told me that my original image size is to big for the site. So before I upload all the images to the site, I have painstakingly resize every picture. For this, I am waitng for her explaination and it really shows that how imcompetence she is. once again, thanks for your kind advice! cheers dennis You shouldn't need to manually resize images you could install one of the thumbnail contributions and/or install a full cache module to speed things up. http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,5029 as of the design if this is original artwork then you cannot tell how much it worths, cheap/expensive is relative. If it's a template then its a different matter. But I do not see many features or special layout segments that require too many customizations in your store at the moment. Lots of osc stock features show up with the store. Exception is some of the decoration elements like the buttons or the box headers. But these are static images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 You shouldn't need to manually resize images you could install one of the thumbnail contributions and/or install a full cache module to speed things up.http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,5029 as of the design if this is original artwork then you cannot tell how much it worths, cheap/expensive is relative. If it's a template then its a different matter. But I do not see many features or special layout segments that require too many customizations in your store at the moment. Lots of osc stock features show up with the store. Exception is some of the decoration elements like the buttons or the box headers. But these are static images. Hi Mark, Thanks for the advice and comments. As my webmaster told me that I have to resize every product pictures myself and I bought his story. Every picture that you saw on my website is the original artwork. I actually received my first order on the second day after my site went on live, but the best part was I received the fund but I didn't receive the order notification and I have no ideal at all what did the customer actually ordered. When I told my webmaster about this, he just told me that if the customer pay through paypal and check out from there, this result will happen. I have given up with him as I found that he himself is actually not familiar with osCommerce. And also myself is not tech savvy and know nothing about html, I was very much dependant on him. That was the reason I paid him USD2,000! Thanks again for spending your time to reply me! Cheers dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 you could install the paypal ipn or one of the prelogging contributions that record orders before your store checkout transitions to the payment gateway. In which case you can see the orders through your osc admin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 8, 2007 Share Posted April 8, 2007 you could install the paypal ipn or one of the prelogging contributions that record orders before your store checkout transitions to the payment gateway. In which case you can see the orders through your osc admin. Thanks Mark and will try to do that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill110 Posted April 9, 2007 Share Posted April 9, 2007 I wouls like to reiterate about the thumbnail contribution. It is really necessary. You do not have to resize every image and your page load times will speed up dramitically. $2000 is a lot! especially when the do not know very much about osCommerce. You also need SSL. My Contributions Stylesheet With Descriptions Glassy Grey Boxtops Our Products Meta Tags On The Fly Password Protect Admin "No matter where you go....There you are" - Buccaroo Bonsai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 9, 2007 Share Posted April 9, 2007 I wouls like to reiterate about the thumbnail contribution. It is really necessary. You do not have to resize every image and your page load times will speed up dramitically. $2000 is a lot! especially when the do not know very much about osCommerce. You also need SSL. Hi Bill, Thanks for your feed back, really appreciate that! I had sent quite a number of emails to my webmaster asking him to put things right but he just totally ignored my emails. I have totally gave up on him and think I just have to find someone else to do it, someone who is really familiar with osCommerce. I found out more and more problems everyday! My webmaster told me not to have SSL as he claimed it is not necessary! I am really tired about all this and really feel like giving up on my website! cheers dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill110 Posted April 9, 2007 Share Posted April 9, 2007 No don't give up. SSL is needed to encrypt sensitive info. If you take credit cards it is a MUST. It is for security of customer info that you collect during login etc. My Contributions Stylesheet With Descriptions Glassy Grey Boxtops Our Products Meta Tags On The Fly Password Protect Admin "No matter where you go....There you are" - Buccaroo Bonsai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 No don't give up. SSL is needed to encrypt sensitive info. If you take credit cards it is a MUST. It is for security of customer info that you collect during login etc. Hi Bill and all, Thanks for encouraging me to continue but I don't know how long and how much more I can hold on to it ! As I just found out another problem today, I had tried to register myself at my own website, but I didn't receive any new customer registration notification at my end as the site owner. Hahaha..... What else will I find out next day, a day after and the following days?????I have a big doubt that I can manage to find someone in singapore who is really familiar with osCommerce to clean up this mess. Anyway, I truly appreciate all of you had taken the pain to provide me your feed back, comments and advice ! Wish you all a great sucess ahead! cheers dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 Hi all, I think I have decided to call it a quit and will seek legal advice. Even if I have only 50% to win the case I will still proceed to sue the webmaster! As I had given him so many chances to straight thing out with me but he choose to ignore me. I will not stop until justice is done! I have informed him and I guess he really think that I am not serious about bringing him to court! So he continue to ignore me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mutter Posted April 11, 2007 Share Posted April 11, 2007 Intalling a thumbnail and paypal contrib should be easy for anyone familiar with OSC. I think that webmaster is too lazy or just doesn't have a clue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Dear all, I have made some changes to my website www.desze.com , please let me have your feed back and advice ! Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abra123cadabra Posted May 6, 2007 Share Posted May 6, 2007 I have to agree with the previous posts. Your site is too black but then again, your images showing in the hoverbox need a dark background. Maybe change it to something dark grey instead of black. You also need an SSL certificate. You are selling unique items and that just needs to be done in a secure atmosphere (even if you use paypal as checkout). I'm a bit disappointed by your shipping policy. As all items are one of a kind, it would be good to offer a registered shipping option. You only state that the customer has to take the risk of loss, damage and theft in transit (which is ok) but you definitely need to give me the option to purchase insured, trackable shipping. I am really tempted to purchase some items from your shop. They are just lovely but above points (SSL and shipping options) together with having to check import regulations on shell/coral products from outside the EU are definitely putting me off. abra The First Law of E-Commerce: If the user can't find the product, the user can't buy the product. Feedback and suggestions on my shop welcome. Note: My advice is based on my own experience or on something I read in these forums. No guarantee it'll work for you! Make sure that you always BACKUP the database and the files you are going to change so that you can rollback to a working version if things go wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 7, 2007 Share Posted May 7, 2007 I have to agree with the previous posts. Your site is too black but then again, your images showing in the hoverbox need a dark background. Maybe change it to something dark grey instead of black. You also need an SSL certificate. You are selling unique items and that just needs to be done in a secure atmosphere (even if you use paypal as checkout). I'm a bit disappointed by your shipping policy. As all items are one of a kind, it would be good to offer a registered shipping option. You only state that the customer has to take the risk of loss, damage and theft in transit (which is ok) but you definitely need to give me the option to purchase insured, trackable shipping. I am really tempted to purchase some items from your shop. They are just lovely but above points (SSL and shipping options) together with having to check import regulations on shell/coral products from outside the EU are definitely putting me off. abra Hi abra, Thanks for thee feed back! I am seriously now looking at the SSL ! As for the shipping policy is just an standard policy and we do provide registered airmail for shipping the item. For import regulations, is also a standard policy and as long as the shell/coral is set as finished good like silver jewelry then it is not regulated! really appreciate your advice and suggestions again! cheers dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abra123cadabra Posted May 7, 2007 Share Posted May 7, 2007 I know, those are some standard policies but a potential customer checks these policies before filling out the registration form. If you have registered shipping, put it underneath the paragraph with the risk transfer. Make it clear, that I can select insured, trackable shipping (in the event of loss etc. I can make a claim against the carrier, so at least I can get my money back). Same goes for the import regulations. Just state that the customer should check but that most items are finished goods and thus most likely not subject to any regulations. You see what I mean? State the policies but tell the customer that he has options and that in the end he doesn't really take a risk. Maybe also put links to the import regulations pages of some countries (where you expect your customers to be). abra The First Law of E-Commerce: If the user can't find the product, the user can't buy the product. Feedback and suggestions on my shop welcome. Note: My advice is based on my own experience or on something I read in these forums. No guarantee it'll work for you! Make sure that you always BACKUP the database and the files you are going to change so that you can rollback to a working version if things go wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 7, 2007 Share Posted May 7, 2007 I know, those are some standard policies but a potential customer checks these policies before filling out the registration form. If you have registered shipping, put it underneath the paragraph with the risk transfer. Make it clear, that I can select insured, trackable shipping (in the event of loss etc. I can make a claim against the carrier, so at least I can get my money back). Same goes for the import regulations. Just state that the customer should check but that most items are finished goods and thus most likely not subject to any regulations. You see what I mean? State the policies but tell the customer that he has options and that in the end he doesn't really take a risk. Maybe also put links to the import regulations pages of some countries (where you expect your customers to be). abra Hi abra, Thanks again! I will surely get my webmaster to look into it! :thumbsup: cheers dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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