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osCommerce

The e-commerce.

Critique My Site Please


games4gamers

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Hi all,

 

I've been running my OSC-based site for 2-3 months now and getting decent traffic, but no account creations other than tests by myself and others I know/work with. No "real" accounts yet. I am ranked around 2mil for Alexa, no GPR yet, have Adwords and Analytics set up, advertise via bumper sticker on my car, have told everyone I know about my site, am listed in Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, etc., Google Base, and still no sales, nadda...

 

Analytics Snapshot (3/25 - 4/24)

 

269 Visits

1,172 Pageviews

4.36 Pages/Visit

49.07% Bounce Rate

00:06:47 Avg. Time on Site

43.49% % New Visits

 

Adwords Snapshot (4/16 - 4/25)

 

44 Clicks

224,549 Impressions

0.01% CTR

2.7 Avg Pos

 

Link is: http://www.games4gamersonline.com...

 

Thanks all.

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No ssl.

Too much junk in header.

 

I do have SSL it just isn't working properly, which I've posted numerous times about on here.

 

Too much junk in header? That's all the default stuff from an OSC install, minus the Paypal pic, it's just customized.

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I do have SSL it just isn't working properly, which I've posted numerous times about on here.

 

Too much junk in header? That's all the default stuff from an OSC install, minus the Paypal pic, it's just customized.

You could ask your web host to help install the ssl, it is really important to have it working.

 

The junk isn the header is what comes up after the page reloads. It is mainly ads. They do detract from your content and should be below the footer (imho).

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Godaddy header is tacky and would put me off.

 

On my portable the bottom line is

 

•Retro Games - NES, SNES, N64, and more!

 

I don't need all those words, if I have found your site I want to see what you are selling and it took tooooooooooo long to load. Most people I suspect would leave without waiting.

 

Is getting feed back more important than showing what you are selling?

 

Amazing how you have feed back even though you have no sales.

Need help installing add ons/contributions, cleaning a hacked site or a bespoke development, check my profile

 

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My Contributions

Basic install answers.

Click here for Contributions / Add Ons.

UK your site.

Site Move.

Basic design info.

 

For links mentioned in old answers that are no longer here follow this link Useful Threads.

 

If this post was useful, click the Like This button over there ======>>>>>.

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Yeah the ads are because it's free hosting. I'm still not sure if they even care to fix the SSL to be honest, they just say it works fine for them...

 

And the feedback is from when I sold on Amazon exclusively. I had okay business on there (sales wise).

 

Not sure what you mean by this:

 

Is getting feed back more important than showing what you are selling?

 

I do show what I sell? It says right on the homepage...

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Can't get onto your site at the moment to remind myself what caused the comment but suspect it would be because the feedback link was at the top of the page and this is where things you want to sell should be visible rather than below the fold or off the bottom of the screen.

Need help installing add ons/contributions, cleaning a hacked site or a bespoke development, check my profile

 

Virus Threat Scanner

My Contributions

Basic install answers.

Click here for Contributions / Add Ons.

UK your site.

Site Move.

Basic design info.

 

For links mentioned in old answers that are no longer here follow this link Useful Threads.

 

If this post was useful, click the Like This button over there ======>>>>>.

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What browser/hardware were/are you using?

 

Feedback shows in the bottom left corner for me. It's a 3 column layout just like the default layout of OSC, I didn't change anything about that, just added some additional boxes.

 

I have the featured products kinda towards the bottom, maybe that should be moved up?

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Found the problem why I couldn't get to your site, the link above has ../ on the end which FF does not like

 

Firefox can't find the server at www.games4gamersonline.com...

 

Site has changed somewhat and is a lot faster. The first page, to me, doesn't sell. It is full of words and I can't see what you want to sell.

 

Get your stock on display immediately, yes you have lots of differentiators, but why not have banners adds on the top of the right column that link off to a page that expands on your points

 

Then peple can click on buy now!!

Need help installing add ons/contributions, cleaning a hacked site or a bespoke development, check my profile

 

Virus Threat Scanner

My Contributions

Basic install answers.

Click here for Contributions / Add Ons.

UK your site.

Site Move.

Basic design info.

 

For links mentioned in old answers that are no longer here follow this link Useful Threads.

 

If this post was useful, click the Like This button over there ======>>>>>.

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Found the problem why I couldn't get to your site, the link above has ../ on the end which FF does not like

 

Firefox can't find the server at www.games4gamersonline.com...

 

Works fine in FF for me...

 

Get your stock on display immediately, yes you have lots of differentiators, but why not have banners adds on the top of the right column that link off to a page that expands on your points

 

Then peple can click on buy now!!

 

Get my stock on display? What do you mean? The stock is on my site, it's pictured and everything...

 

Expands on what? The points I make about the difference? There are links in the information box and such...

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Found the problem why I couldn't get to your site, the link above has ../ on the end which FF does not like

 

Firefox can't find the server at www.games4gamersonline.com...

 

Site has changed somewhat and is a lot faster. The first page, to me, doesn't sell. It is full of words and I can't see what you want to sell.

 

Get your stock on display immediately, yes you have lots of differentiators, but why not have banners adds on the top of the right column that link off to a page that expands on your points

 

Then peple can click on buy now!!

As mentioned before, the ../ on the end of the URL also prevented your site from opening in IE when I tried to check it out.

 

My thoughs...(just personal opinions here, but that's what you asked for...). The images in the top right appear too large and don't look well placed, they look crammed in there and distracting. I'd also agree that the home page could be more product content rich, meaning less words and more product image/links so the visitor instantly gets an impression of what you have to offer.

 

In the catagories, there is a module you might want to add to change the layout to mulitple columns; I don't have the link to this module right now but it allows the products to be displayed in several coloumns so that the listing is not so long when you have many items in a catagory.

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My bad that link didn't work properly....didn't realize it because I have Linification...

 

Anyways, the proper link is:

 

Games4Gamers

 

Hmm I could make the images smaller? They're the same concept as default OSC, just customized to go with the site's theme (video games).

 

Which categories do you think are too long?

 

Product images/links like the featured products section or...?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello

 

Just my two cents - I know visiting your site - well there is a lot to read off the first page. The font is really small and hard to read when it is all crammed together like it is. I know from my shopping experience - I would leave. I don't want to read I want to see.

 

Maybe create some eye popping graphics that show the sales and what nots. Scale down all of the text on the home page would be a good start.

 

Just my two cents - good luck!

 

Marlo

Dance as if No One were Watching ~ Sing as if No One were Listening ~ And Live Life everyday as if it were Your Last!

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Agree with the post above.

 

- Site design is ugly, the color palette is too bland.

- I like to know shipping costs right away.

- Your logo should include all your domain name, you are doing free publicity to http://www.games4gamers.com.

- Your logo looks ugly and unprofessional

- I looked at your PS2, PS3 and 360 games, prices are too high, why someone will buy those games from you instead of amazon, ebay, etc.?

- Maybe your focus is retro games, then you should focus exclusively in that niche market and make another shop or domain for new console games.

- I just saw some games that are backordered? How is that? You should state that in the product listings, before the user enter and see the product page.

- Use a thumbnails contrib.

- Product description text is a little bit small, i am using 22" widescreen.

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Use the "your discount" contrib to visually express a lot of the information in your home page text. Move featured products to the top of the page. Get rid of all the icons in the header. Fill that space with something visually appealling like a game console plugged into your logo. Get rid of the red color and replace it with the color of your logo. Change the link color (blue) to a color that matches your color scheme (logo based). Increase text size, especially in your header navigation. Get rid of redundant infoboxes (login box, manufacturer box, etc.) Login, for example, is already in your header nav. Temporarily disable categories with no products so customers don't reach any dead ends.

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This site is for a competitive area where potential buyers are not going to buy from a site that looks amateurish - which is what your site looks like.

 

1. No SEO URLs.

2. Product images of very poor quality

3. Design is pretty much bog-standard osCommerce - you just made the colours red.

4. Text is too small, and too much text on the homepage the content of which doesn't make a lot of sense to new customers.

5. Takes too long to load (slow server?)

 

Vger

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What images are poor? They're stock images except for used stuff which is done at the best I can do being on a limited budget.

 

Prices for all new items (except for the Wii) are retail or below retail. If someone buys from Amazon or eBay, good for them. I won't sell below cost. I'm in business to make money, not go bankrupt.

 

I never claimed to be an artist. The logo is the best I can do on my budget.

 

I never claimed to be a programmer, I know next to nothing about PHP and I've done the best I can do with what I know.

 

The content is explained, and if there is confusion, they can always ask, that's what contact info is for.

 

Shipping costs are on the shipping page, where they belong. I've seen 100s of sites which don't list it until you checkout...

 

Adding stuff to product listings, I haven't figured that part out yet...

 

My logo is red, so what's wrong with the red?

 

My company name is Games4Gamers, I plan to buy out games4gamers.com one of these days when/if I can afford to. Besides of which I come up ahead of them on Google and the like.

 

You say it's ugly and unprofessional...care to be a little more specific? How is it ugly, how is it unprofessional? Again, not an artist, not a programmer. I'm a businessman and I'm on a very tight budget so I can't afford to hire people to do such things for me.

 

Site loads fine for me...3.2 seconds...maybe it was just a busy day or something. Or maybe you're on dial-up (shudder)...

 

How do you disable categories w/no products?

 

Eye-popping graphics, not my forte. I can draw a stick figure, that's about the extent of my artistic ability...

 

Oh and for the record, I've had plenty of sales the past 2-3 weeks, so apparently I'm doing something right...

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Hi, Jeff!

 

I'm not a typical gaming customer, so I can't comment on how picky that market is. There is no doubt there are slicker sites out there to whom you might lose business simply because they have "more professional" logos and photos (yours aren't bad, they just look a little "home-made").

 

Still, even gamers can look beyond the schmaltz and get to the goods.

 

If your products are in demand and your prices are competitive, I'd say you're most of the way there. Everything your site needs is present and accounted for, and I find the language clear. You did a good job with the shipping page, IMHO - most are more confusing!

 

The only thing that slaps me in the face (and thus would lower my confidence as a potential buyer) is that your header is crowded, unattractive, and gimmicky. It gives the quick impresion of a site that was "just slapped together", perhaps to unload hot merchandise quickly. You don't want that!

 

Time spent neatening up the header will pay you back tenfold.

 

~Wendy

Glad you are getting orders!

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When people buy online it's not like in a shop where they can see and touch the goods they're going to buy. All that online shoppers have to go on is the product image and product description.

 

Your product images look as though they were shot at home with a digital camera (very home made, poor lighting, and amateurish). It's good that you're getting orders - but you'd get even more if you had more professional images to show to potential customers.

 

The strength of osCommerce is its virsitility - you can make it do and look whatever you want it to look like and do, provided you know what to do to change it - or are prepared to spend some money to get someone who does know what they're doing to change it for you.

 

The weekness of osCommerce is the vast number of sites where the owner never got much beyond the initial osCommerce design, so there are hundreds of thousands of sites that look pretty much the same. Your site falls into that category and there's nothing to really tell your site apart from any other standard osCommerce installation. The standard osCommerce design hasn't changed in 6 years, and 6 years is a lifetime as far as eCommerce Design is concerned.

 

It's not possible here to tell you what you need to do to come up with a good design, because unless you're a graphic design who can integrate that design into osCommerce then you won't be able to do it anyway.

 

My advice, in short - if you're serious about your business then allocate a decent budget to it and get a really good design done with your own (custom designed) logo.

 

And "No" I'm not touting for work - got too much on already and couldn't possibly take on any more.

 

Vger

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Compare your site to http://www.amazon.co.uk/

 

LOOK ABOVE THE FOLD.

 

In Amazon, all I see is products. More and more products - stuff I might be interested in.

 

In yours, I see nothing except text. Text and more text. Do you think that words draw people in? Images, pictures, SPECIAL OFFERS. Best sellers. IMAGES.

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Well I was advised from a marketing person that I need to differentiate myself form others. The text explains why people should buy from me.

 

I have the featured products there, but I guess that needs to be moved up.

 

I'd be more than willing to pay someone to do all of this for me if I could afford it. I can't allocate a budget towards it because I don't have much money to speak of. That is, any money that comes is put forth in acquiring more inventory which I am not where I'd like to be regarding that yet. Working on it though.

 

The pictures of new stuff is all stock photos, the pictures of used stuff is the actual product, which IMO, helps inform the customer better of the item's condition than some generic stock photo.

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Have you heard the saying "You have to speculate to accumulate"? What that means is that you have to spend money in order to make money.

 

Yes, it's a gamble - that's where the "speculation" part comes in. You can lose the money you spend.

 

Most folks have credit cards these days - maybe you need to use yours to beef up your website's appeal.

 

Just make sure that if you do employ someone that you get references of previous work and that you follow up with those websites to confirm they actually did the work - it's not unknown for some so-called "designers" to claim good looking sites as their work when they had nothing to do with them.

 

It seems that you're admitting that your images are poor quality but excusing most of them by saying they're stock images and the rest as being of "previously used" items.

 

Plainly put - good images sell products, bad images don't!

 

Vger

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