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Rockpretty Baby Website Feedback


rockpretty

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live stores discussed in this channel must be powered by osCommerce Online Merchant and have the "Powered by osCommerce" text displayed on the site. Not only is the osCommerce solution being used, but valuable feedback will also be presented by the osCommerce community.

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my first response was "eh"

 

Its not too exciting. i am all for less is more and simplicity, but this is just TOO simple. There seems to be no style, and when you want a less is more effect, you NEED to ahve some style. I would definitely make the text in the categories box a LOT smaller. usually on my high res laptop monitor, everything looks SUPER small, and yours looks HUGE even on my monitor, i cant imagine what it might look like on a med/low res monitor like the one i use at work.

 

i LOVE the colors browna nd light blue together. they are very nice, hip and unique, but your blue can be a little less "hot" and more dulled. Also, writing in that blue makes it REALLY hard on the eyes. the word baby in your banner is hard to read.

 

I like the rotating images on the front page, can you make them rotate a little slower? An epileptic might have a siezure (just kidding- but it is fast)

 

Your product listing is nice, i like the thumbnails with the buy now option.

 

You product info is ok. Its atleast formatted and looks organzed. I guess you cant offer too much for product info on certain items.

 

Overall you need a LOT more branding. a look that is unique to your site. Right now, its VERY VERY plain. if you want to stick with squares (like in the banner) go with that, use them other places. Make them into your "style"

 

you also do not have an SLL. You REALLY should have one. many people will click right off of a site if it does not show that it is secure when loggin in and paying.

A great place for newbies to start

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DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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you also do not have an SLL. You REALLY should have one. many people will click right off of a site if it does not show that it is secure when loggin in and paying.

 

Dont you mean SSL :P :D

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i;m tell ya man.. i think i fried my brain yesterday or something. I spend an ENTIRE day cleaning my car so i can sell it, and i think the fumes from the cleaners killed too many brain cells.. really. Its pretty bad!

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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I think you need to make the blue a bit less electric, as Lindsay mentioned, then add it more into the design. I definately like the simple design.

 

For some reason, on my system, when I click on a category, it's taking a bit long for the images to load. I don't know if it's just my system or whether its the site, but I thought I'd mention it.

 

I'm in agreement about the SSL. Gotta get it.

 

Good luck!

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my first response was "eh"

 

Its not too exciting. i am all for less is more and simplicity, but this is just TOO simple. There seems to be no style, and when you want a less is more effect, you NEED to ahve some style. I would definitely make the text in the categories box a LOT smaller. usually on my high res laptop monitor, everything looks SUPER small, and yours looks HUGE even on my monitor, i cant imagine what it might look like on a med/low res monitor like the one i use at work.

 

i LOVE the colors browna nd light blue together. they are very nice, hip and unique, but your blue can be a little less "hot" and more dulled. Also, writing in that blue makes it REALLY hard on the eyes. the word baby in your banner is hard to read.

 

I like the rotating images on the front page, can you make them rotate a little slower? An epileptic might have a siezure (just kidding- but it is fast)

 

Your product listing is nice, i like the thumbnails with the buy now option.

 

You product info is ok. Its atleast formatted and looks organzed. I guess you cant offer too much for product info on certain items.

 

Overall you need a LOT more branding. a look that is unique to your site. Right now, its VERY VERY plain. if you want to stick with squares (like in the banner) go with that, use them other places. Make them into your "style"

 

you also do not have an SLL. You REALLY should have one. many people will click right off of a site if it does not show that it is secure when loggin in and paying.

 

 

Thanks for the input!

 

I will tone down the blue a bit

 

I know about the speed thing on the front page, I'll slow it down. It's a temp thing for a sale. Normally I have a static grid display of products as my main page that I keep updated with the newest products.

 

I'm not sure about the ''branding'' thing or my ''style''. I really like simplicity and want to site to be about the products that I offer. Any ideas you could throw my way on how to pep up the look?

 

In regards to SSL I didn't realize that I would/should need it as I was using Paypal as my payment processor. Is this still necessary?

 

Thanks again everyone. It's great to see it from others prospectives

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I'm not sure about the ''branding'' thing or my ''style''. I really like simplicity and want to site to be about the products that I offer. Any ideas you could throw my way on how to pep up the look?

just look around and compare top competitors to your site. You will CLEARLY see what i am saying. You need to get an actual theme (not just color scheme) and make it work through out your site.

In regards to SSL I didn't realize that I would/should need it as I was using Paypal as my payment processor. Is this still necessary?

 

Thanks again everyone. It's great to see it from others prospectives

SSL is a secure page that makes sure that the info that you put into the page is safe, paypal (which is basically a secure gateway) makes sure the data is safe ONLY why it is being sent to andfrom your website.. which they are adding it to the website, it is just sitting there. If you have an SSL, you will be safeguarding all of your pages that as the customer to input any information. The login, shipping, create account, ect.

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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live stores discussed in this channel must be powered by osCommerce Online Merchant and have the "Powered by osCommerce" text displayed on the site. Not only is the osCommerce solution being used, but valuable feedback will also be presented by the osCommerce community.

 

Yeah, that right, get people told - and to really make a point- tell em in red! I mean, everyone has a 'powered by osCommerce' on their site - don't they? don't you?

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they do if they want feedback in the forum. Dust that chip off your shoulder

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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A little too plain.

 

I agree, the blue font is hard on the eye's.

 

Your header navigation breaks onto two lines -

HOME • ABOUT US • CUSTOMER SERVICE • CONTACT

............................................................................US

 

Links page, do you really want to send your customers to other sites?

 

Thumbnails load slowly. Maybe reduce the file size (optimize).

 

I didn't look at all your products, but the ones I did the image on the product_info page seems big enough. Don't really need a click for larger image.

 

Maybe make the Add To Cart and Buy Now buttons stand out from the others.

 

No mailing address or phone number.

- :: Jim :: -

- My Toolbox ~ Adobe Web Bundle, XAMPP & WinMerge | Install ~ osC v2.3.3.4 -

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Yeah, that right, get people told - and to really make a point- tell em in red! I mean, everyone has a 'powered by osCommerce' on their site - don't they? don't you?

 

Its the rules ... read them ... and yes i did have powered by oscommerce text in my footer when i requested feedback for my store...i have since removed it and requested to have my topic closed ... but looks like it still isn't ... get ur facts right before posting...douche

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Thank-you everyone for the feedback! I guess though in asking for the feedback I should have clarified that if one wants to criticize they should also follow-up helpful advice.

 

It's frustrating in that I'm not a computer literate person and the first time I heard the words PPL or HTML or Dreamweaver or OSCommerce was 6 months ago. I'm pretty proud of what I accomplished to date. My site is a work in progress.

 

Aesthetically, I like my "really, really, really" "boring" look. It's simple, concise and no one should be confused as to what I offer or how to navigate through my site. As for "branding", "style" and how I should "clearly" know what I need to do, I don't so if one wants to elaborate I would really appreciate it as obviously I'm not getting it. Like I stated in a PP I want a very simple, clean, modern looking site that is really easy and quick to navigate but shows off the products I have to offer. I've looked at who I see as my competitors and took what I liked about their sites and created mine. I also saw "clearly" what I didn't like or want. However if you see that I may of overlooked a design, style or branding that would take the look of my site to the next level, please explain what you're thinking. I've NOT ruled out any additional design details but need it spelled out to me.

 

I'm looking into SSL as we speak. I see my hoster offers a free "open SSL", is this what I’m looking for or do I need to buy one?

 

I'm working on tweaking my logo's electric blue to something a little easier on the eyes but haven't quite found the "right" shade. I even looked at other colors instead but I keep going back to blue so I'm kind of stuck on that.

 

I fixed my navigation bar (2 line to 1) for some reason it did that when I playing around with a background color option on my page.

 

In regards to the Links page, I initially never had one. However in order to advertise on these "Baby Products Promotional Sites" I HAVE to include a link to them. This is something I see time and time again on the Mom and Pop shops that can't/won't pay for advertising and want the word of mouth to get out. I'm not really sure of other options to help spread the word about my site without forking over a whack of money. Any other suggestions?

 

As for the slow loading of pages, I heard/read that my hoster isn't the greatest and now I'm looking at other options. I believe I made smaller pics through photoshop for each product (I have 3 sizes for each product) but if you see I haven't please let me know. I agree too with Jim H that I don't need the large image option on the product description page so I'm looking into how to get rid of that.

 

I'm not fond of my buttons either, as mentioned above, so I'm going to modify those.

 

It was also mentioned that I don't have a physical address/phone number which is true. I noted on sites that don't have physical stores (at least the baby sites I've visited) they also don't have this info. I however will look into the cost for a PO Box. I ideally wanted a toll free number but think that is out of my range at the moment. Has anyone used Skype before for business? Does it work well?

 

Alex (eyekandee) you mention that I should have a Canada Post shipping module. As I only ship with flat rates based on the sale amount what does it offer me? Is there a link that tells me more about it before loading it? I don't think I understand what it does.

 

So if I haven't insulted, slammed or offended you I'm still looking for feedback so please post away! :)

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You can use the flat rate with the CP module, however I wouldn't. With the CP you set the box dimensions and weight on your CP account (canada post will provide you with your login) Here is a link to the Integrated Shipping Module

 

Once you setup your profile with them, an XML connection to CP will give you real time shipping quotes based on the weight of the package that is being shipped.

 

Also get a Venture One, its free with CP, this will give you discounts on your shipping and offer upgrades on a few items ( example: ground shipping upgrade to expedited ).

 

Don't use the openSSL from your provider. GoDaddy have very reasonable SSL certificates. You may need to buy a dedicated IP from your provider to use a three party SSL cert. You will have to ask them first.

 

For your advertising use google, just be very targeted in the word you use, where your ads are shown and how your ad is written.

 

Hope this help, Good luck!

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you LIKE your plain, boring site dispite all of the reasons everyone told you WHY you should spice it up a little? That doesnt make too much sense. Less is More is a different idea than just plain and boring.

 

I have a site where it is very minimal.. but you NEED to have branding. You have none of that, so peopel will not recognize your store.. if you had banners or advertisements, no one will remember that logo..

 

also, i personally would never purchase from ANY site that didnt have atleast a phone number, and usually i prefer to see an address too.. if something were to go wrong with an order, people want to know that they can actually talk to a person, not just email back and forth.

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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Lindsay do you know what branding is?

I had a peek at your site, just putting a banner on your site does not constitute branding.

 

It will be easy enough for rockpretty to incorporate her layout into print material like business cards, invoices and letterheads which will provide company branding.

 

As for the look of rockpretty site at least she has broken away from the default osc template which is a start.

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Actually, you were looking at a site that has fallen to the wayside and hasnt been touched in months. If you want to get an attitude, then thats fine.

 

You want to know what branding is. It is when you have a constant, recognizable theme through out your site and other company adverts. There is none of that> the only thing that is a constant is the brown, which is NOT branding.

 

So before you jump ahead and start stalking my profile to call me out, find out which site it is that i am actually ACTIVELY working on and you can give feedback on that one WHEN I OPEN MY OWN FEEDBACK THREAD.

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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Sorry but i have to agree with most here, your site is a tad boring and you have no branding what so ever, i would try to improve that, its a tough market the baby world and if you do not get your visitors attention with in the first few seconds they will leave.

 

I would not say my site is the best baby site in the world ( far from it ) but we do try to brand ourselves and get the visitors attention in the first few secs, feel free to take a look: Baby Site

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Sorry but i have to agree with most here, your site is a tad boring and you have no branding what so ever, i would try to improve that, its a tough market the baby world and if you do not get your visitors attention with in the first few seconds they will leave.

 

I would not say my site is the best baby site in the world ( far from it ) but we do try to brand ourselves and get the visitors attention in the first few secs, feel free to take a look: Baby Site

What a cute site! Kudos.

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I like how you changed your buy now, add to cart and add to wish list buttons. ;)

 

Just a thought...

 

In order to stay with your plain color theme, maybe liven it up a little with just changing the white background that is wrapped around your main table. Maybe one of these colors: BlanchedAlmond=#FFEBCD, NavajoWhite=#FFDEAD or Wheat=#F5DEB3.

 

Another idea to help liven it up just a bit, add a hover color to your links and category link boxes on the left. Use your blue from the logo, what is it #03E1E2.

 

Regarding the images...

I also use Photoshop for my work, but I use File > Save for Web... which triggers ImageReady and I optimize when saving. I am not sure if ImageReady is part of your package of Photoshop as I bought Adobe Web Bundle which includes quite a few programs. If you do have the feature to Save for Web you should be able to reduce the images further. Let's take this image as an example - http://www.rockprettybaby.ca/images/bl_bloom_bedding_sm.jpg which is 47677 bytes. I optimized it down to 2982 bytes without any noticable quality lose.

blbloombeddingsmnewao4.jpg

 

I used the big image 1.25 contribution and substituted the click to enlarge with the p.products_bimage code on the product_info.php page.

 

It is best if you could get your own private SSL certificate, but that does entail an additional cost to your host for a dedicated IP address besides the cost of the SSL certificate where ever you buy it from. Check with your host, they may offer a deal on a private SSL. Mine offers Rapid SSL at a reduced cost. For now I am going the cheap route and using the host provided free shared SSL. But it does slow down the loading of the secured pages.

 

Let's think a minute about your Links page. Baby Boutique Sales - it's like adding your business to the bottom of the yellow pages which directs customers to other shops. The Mom Pack - Too much reading but seems to give me the idea they can help me start my own web business and sell baby stuff. Boutique Savings - at first I thought another store was loading, then I realized it must be just a quide as to where to shop. I couldn't find your Rock Pretty Baby listed there. The site wanted me to visit Pitter Patter Creations as it was the most dominant. My Canadian Biz Top Sites - broken. Hip Groovy Cool Top 100 - broken images, no sign of your shop, super slow loading, I gave up waiting. AAO - another funky rating site. As a customer, I would have left your site. Think of how people are actually going to find your business and products. Will any of those links REALLY draw customers to your store and/or keep them there? Opening an ecommerce site is like opening any other business/store... well ok, it's more difficult for people to see or find. But the same principals of advertising apply, except you can reach a much farther customer base. How would you advertise for a local store? You don't have to live in the area to place a newspaper ad. One of your best tools is search engines. Think of how you would look for items when shopping on the internet. If you don't go directly to a known store, how would you look for a particular product? Google comes to my mind.

 

If you are running your ecommerce site out of your home and don't have a physical store address or phone number, then I suggest using your home address for mailings. Too many people are weary of P.O. Box number addresses for new small businesses. A toll free number is nice but not necessary. A regular phone number would nice, but if you can't answer the phone during business hours (such as running your ecommerce site part time) I wouldn't bother. If you concider a phone number, don't forget you don't really need to get a business number. You could get by with just a second number listed in the owners name. That way it's cheaper for you as you're not paying for a yellow page ad.

 

Well, just some thoughts and ideas to bonder over. :)

- :: Jim :: -

- My Toolbox ~ Adobe Web Bundle, XAMPP & WinMerge | Install ~ osC v2.3.3.4 -

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  • 1 month later...
I like how you changed your buy now, add to cart and add to wish list buttons. ;) Thanks it's my attempt at some ''branding''

 

Just a thought...

 

In order to stay with your plain color theme, maybe liven it up a little with just changing the white background that is wrapped around your main table. Maybe one of these colors: BlanchedAlmond=#FFEBCD, NavajoWhite=#FFDEAD or Wheat=#F5DEB3. Thanks for these color suggestions. I did try to change my background and for some reason it only changes for a milla second after one clicks on a link and then it goes back to white. I've got no clue why but I'm still working on it.

 

Another idea to help liven it up just a bit, add a hover color to your links and category link boxes on the left. Use your blue from the logo, what is it #03E1E2.I did change the links so that once clicked they change color to my teal

 

Regarding the images...

I also use Photoshop for my work, but I use File > Save for Web... which triggers ImageReady and I optimize when saving. I am not sure if ImageReady is part of your package of Photoshop as I bought Adobe Web Bundle which includes quite a few programs. If you do have the feature to Save for Web you should be able to reduce the images further. Let's take this image as an example - http://www.rockprettybaby.ca/images/bl_bloom_bedding_sm.jpg which is 47677 bytes. I optimized it down to 2982 bytes without any noticable quality lose.

blbloombeddingsmnewao4.jpg

 

I used the big image 1.25 contribution and substituted the click to enlarge with the p.products_bimage code on the product_info.php page. I do have this option on my PS so I will do this to the pics, thanks

 

It is best if you could get your own private SSL certificate, but that does entail an additional cost to your host for a dedicated IP address besides the cost of the SSL certificate where ever you buy it from. Check with your host, they may offer a deal on a private SSL. Mine offers Rapid SSL at a reduced cost. For now I am going the cheap route and using the host provided free shared SSL. But it does slow down the loading of the secured pages. I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and get a private SSL. This is all so complicated for me so I figure I might as well just do it once and be done with it.

 

Let's think a minute about your Links page. Baby Boutique Sales - it's like adding your business to the bottom of the yellow pages which directs customers to other shops. The Mom Pack - Too much reading but seems to give me the idea they can help me start my own web business and sell baby stuff. Boutique Savings - at first I thought another store was loading, then I realized it must be just a quide as to where to shop. I couldn't find your Rock Pretty Baby listed there. The site wanted me to visit Pitter Patter Creations as it was the most dominant. My Canadian Biz Top Sites - broken. Hip Groovy Cool Top 100 - broken images, no sign of your shop, super slow loading, I gave up waiting. AAO - another funky rating site. As a customer, I would have left your site. Think of how people are actually going to find your business and products. Will any of those links REALLY draw customers to your store and/or keep them there? Opening an ecommerce site is like opening any other business/store... well ok, it's more difficult for people to see or find. But the same principals of advertising apply, except you can reach a much farther customer base. How would you advertise for a local store? You don't have to live in the area to place a newspaper ad. One of your best tools is search engines. Think of how you would look for items when shopping on the internet. If you don't go directly to a known store, how would you look for a particular product? Google comes to my mind. I TOTALLY agree with all you said above. It didn't make alot of sense to me but I figured I'd give it a try and see what came out of it. Now that I've been up and running for a bit I'm NOT receiving the referral hits from them like I hoped so I will look into other routes. I'm doing the Google advertising and I'm setting up with Yahoo so hopefully those bring the people.

 

If you are running your ecommerce site out of your home and don't have a physical store address or phone number, then I suggest using your home address for mailings. Too many people are weary of P.O. Box number addresses for new small businesses. A toll free number is nice but not necessary. A regular phone number would nice, but if you can't answer the phone during business hours (such as running your ecommerce site part time) I wouldn't bother. If you concider a phone number, don't forget you don't really need to get a business number. You could get by with just a second number listed in the owners name. That way it's cheaper for you as you're not paying for a yellow page ad. I've since added this info as I see that most really do want it.

 

Well, just some thoughts and ideas to bonder over. :)

 

Thanks for all the tips/suggestions. I really appreciate it!! Sorry it took so long to reply. I'm REALLY hoping to settle on a look soon so I can focus on the actual business. I can barely see the light at the end of this design tunnel! lol

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