Site Redesign Including New Checkout Process

[Carbon]

Hi,

 

First things first, you have a javascript error on every page which is caused by not fully commenting out the following...

 

<script type="text/javascript">
//if (typeof(_gat) == "object") {
 var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-1584064-1");
 pageTracker._initData();
 pageTracker._trackPageview();
//}
</script>

... you need to put double backslashes on each line not just the first and last to temp remove the code.

 

Steve's right about the country selector, I'm from the UK and it wouldn't process my order because I was using made up names for the state. When I realised it was USA I had to think of a real state (lol my geography is terrible), I came up with Nevada... does that say anything about me? haha

 

Anyhoo, ref the whole single page checkout, you're right about that IF you're logged in but as a new customer I counted three pages (I count from clicking the "Checkout" button to arriving at the Checkout Success page)... 1: Sign in or new, 2: Address and 3: Payment.

 

I know this will sound silly because a lot of us have been conditioned that if you click the company logo in the heading it takes you back to the home page, but I think you should add a "Home" link in your navigation heading.

 

In the Shipping Information page you state that you ship internationally but after your checkout rejected "Some State" I figured your code was actually looking up states (we call them Counties) based on my country so I entered a correct "Hampshire" but it rejected that too (this is where I had to think of a US state)... so either you do or you don't ship internationally?

 

The buttons that you have replaced with images (White text on a dark pink background) could be spruced up a lot, but at the very least you need to use a different resizing method when you create them as they all show a small amount of pixelation/blurring. If you use PaintShop Pro, you have to make sure that the palette is the full 24bit and use "Smart" resize.

 

On the whole, I like it... it has a very minimalist feel which is easy on the eye and clear to navigate.

 

 

Carbon

 

 

Edit, Just checked the order confirmation email and noticed that the state is not copied to the billing address (minor) and that the logo used (same as site logo) is displaying a lot of jpeg artifacts... would you like me to clean it up for you? maybe add a subtle drop shadow?

[gretchenwf]

Worked good for me, what checkout contrib did you use? Or, did you develop it. I would change the default to United States in the acccount signup form, just a little annoying dragging down to the United States to click it.

Steve

 

The country selector now defaults to the US. Thanks again for the advice!

 

Gretchen

[gretchenwf]

Carbon - Thank SO much for the review. You made a lot of good points - I will address them individually:

 

First things first, you have a javascript error on every page which is caused by not fully commenting out the following...

 

<script type="text/javascript">
//if (typeof(_gat) == "object") {
 var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-1584064-1");
 pageTracker._initData();
 pageTracker._trackPageview();
//}
</script>

... you need to put double backslashes on each line not just the first and last to temp remove the code.

I took a look at this and the error was actually coming from an un-ended string constant in the line before the commented out if statement. I had accidentally put a ' instead of a ". Although, fixing that line made it possible for me to remove the if statement anyways, so it's gone. Thanks for pointing this out though, because it forced me to look at my code and really see what was wrong.

 

Steve's right about the country selector, I'm from the UK and it wouldn't process my order because I was using made up names for the state. When I realised it was USA I had to think of a real state (lol my geography is terrible), I came up with Nevada... does that say anything about me? haha

The country selector now defaults to US (although I do ship internationally -- see answer below)

 

Anyhoo, ref the whole single page checkout, you're right about that IF you're logged in but as a new customer I counted three pages (I count from clicking the "Checkout" button to arriving at the Checkout Success page)... 1: Sign in or new, 2: Address and 3: Payment.

This is exactly what I was going for. I have seen lots of 1-page checkouts where you have to scroll down for an hour to find the bottom. I chose to develop this layout because you can see each section in entirety when you get to the page. I think that makes it seem like there is less to fill out than when you see your scroll bar is only 1/4 of the way through a page. I am considering merging the first two pages, however, then there would only be 2. And again, I "modeled" this after amazon's checkout except I have a lot less pages than them if you are creating a new account.

 

I know this will sound silly because a lot of us have been conditioned that if you click the company logo in the heading it takes you back to the home page, but I think you should add a "Home" link in your navigation heading.

Added. For now anyways. I have 2 new sections that I will be adding soon, so we'll see how much room is up there. I will also pay attention to my Googly Analytics to see if anyone uses it.

 

In the Shipping Information page you state that you ship internationally but after your checkout rejected "Some State" I figured your code was actually looking up states (we call them Counties) based on my country so I entered a correct "Hampshire" but it rejected that too (this is where I had to think of a US state)... so either you do or you don't ship internationally?

I do ship internationally. I did a little research to find out why Hampshire got rejected, and it turned out it wasn't in my zones table. So, I update my zones table. Should work now.

 

The buttons that you have replaced with images (White text on a dark pink background) could be spruced up a lot, but at the very least you need to use a different resizing method when you create them as they all show a small amount of pixelation/blurring. If you use PaintShop Pro, you have to make sure that the palette is the full 24bit and use "Smart" resize.

This is something that I have actually been working on already. I'll post when I get the new buttons up, I would love your opinion.

 

On the whole, I like it... it has a very minimalist feel which is easy on the eye and clear to navigate.

Thanks very much. That is exactly what I was going for. My "brick-and-mortar" store is the same way. White walls, cement floor, metal fixtures: all focus is on the clothing. Glad to hear that came across in the website.

 

Thank you again so much for taking the time to look through the site. I really appreciate all your feedback.

 

Gretchen

[gretchenwf]

I just added a new feature to the product_info page. You can now zoom in and move the pics around.

 

I'd love to get people's opinions on it.

 

Thanks!

Gretchen

[Guest]

I just added a new feature to the product_info page. You can now zoom in and move the pics around.

 

I'd love to get people's opinions on it.

 

Thanks!

Gretchen

 

I love it!

 

I just tried to create an account. I got the email but I couldn't click on the link to verify, so I copied and pasted, and it said I was verified, however, on the window I had open, when I tried to login with something already in the cart, it said I didn't exist?

[Guest]

I like it but would pad the navigation a bit more.

 

chefchops

[Guest]

Your site is beautiful. I hope you're making tons of money!! ;) It looks great, well done!

 

Nicole

[php_Guy]

I just took a quick look. I love the site!!!

 

Everything looks great in IE7/Win. In FF3 though, the category bar across the top wraps to the next line.

 

When you get all done with this site I hope you'll start designing templates :)

[Jarrod1937]

I noticed a few things that will cause you to loose some business. Customers are easily distracted, because of this, as soon as they hit your site they should be pulled in. I feel your site does this well. But you allow them to get distracted during checkout. It is best to reduced checkout abandon rate by removing any and all distractions that have nothing to do with checking out, during the process. There are a few distractions i saw right away, but the worst offender was your newsletter signup, which i was able to enter my email in and hit submit, while i was in the middle of checking out. After i hit submit i was redirected to your home page.

This is a large interruption to the checkout process, which probably should be removed. Same with the search bar up top during checkout. You may then also want the links on the bottom, if you keep them there, to open in a new window. Try your best not to interrupt the checkout process once the customer has entered it.

However, besides that, i quite like your site. Its very clean, not a bunch of clutter and text. Plus the nav is very intuitive.

[gretchenwf]

I love it!

 

I just tried to create an account. I got the email but I couldn't click on the link to verify, so I copied and pasted, and it said I was verified, however, on the window I had open, when I tried to login with something already in the cart, it said I didn't exist?

 

Hi Deb,

 

Sorry it took me so long to respond to this. I am wondering if this was my site you were talking about... I don't do verifications when creating an account.

 

Let me know so I can try to fix something if necessary.

 

Thanks!

Gretchen

[rockpretty]

I love the look of the site. I only had a quick look so I didn't see everything.

 

The minimalist look and simple styling is awesome. Totally puts the product up front and center.

 

You want to work on my site? ;)