Jump to content
  • Checkout
  • Login
  • Get in touch

osCommerce

The e-commerce.

Preparing to Make Live - Feedback Appreciated


Stealth1

Recommended Posts

I've been using OSC for about 3 years now (MS2) and decided it was time to update as some of the stuff I had just wasn't working and according to some research I really wasn't doing anything in terms of helping myself get indexed with google etc. I was going to simply update my current site but decided it wasn't going to workout well so I started fresh with RC2 and have a development site that I am going to use to test add-ons before implementing them to the new working site.

 

A few things to note, I know it's very stock looking but I wanted to keep it clean and simple. I find the stock layout works very well when cleaned up, I do wish it was nicer looking but that's something I am thinking of working on as I have STS imstalled. I am still upping products but wanted to get feedback from the community. As a side note I was wondering if anyone could give me some quick code to put in my header to put the text "Prices in Canadian Dollars" in the right bottom corner.

 

I have done alot to improve the speed of the shop, the major slowdown point is the time it takes to get a shipping quote. I believe it is something I can't change as it is probably on the Canada Post side. If you see any ways to increase the speed please advise!

 

Site is ready to go but not "live"

 

www.tougetuning.com/upstore

 

Currently Installed Add-Ons:

-Additional Images V2.2.0

-AJAX Attribute Manager V2.8.7

-All Products SEO V1.2

-Canada Taxes Order Total Module

-Canada Post V3.9 (with dimensions)

-CKEditor

-Complete Review System

-Canada Post Tracking V1.2

-Fancier Invoice V6.2

-Google XML Sitemap SEO

-Interac EMT

-KissER Error Handling and Debugging V1.0 R20

-KissMT V1.9 R72

-Login Box Best

-Optimize Tax Rate and Chemo Banner Mod

-Optimize Categories Box V1.2

-Optimize Also Purchased 1.0c

-Order Editor 5.0.9

-Paypal fee extra options v1.0

-Product Quantity Drop-Down V1.2

-Remove Product from Cart Button

-SEO Assistant V2.2

-STS V4.5.8 (not active)

-Ultimate SEO URLS 5 R141

-ZWFS1.1

 

Add-Ons to Install:

-PayPal Standard Better Description

-Site Search Plus V1.2

-tep_get_category_tree_optimization V2.0

-Xsell

-Google Feeder

-Quick Updates

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding design, this is stock osCommerce, just in brown instead of grey. There is nothing reminding about a car tuning store, no emotion. a "clean look" and the "stock look" are different things

 

All this text and links in the front page need to be organized some how.

Buttons in no relation to the design

Category images load slow (too big?) and are stretched

 

Put more effort into it, maybe you can activate the STS you have installed and try to do something with it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding design, this is stock osCommerce, just in brown instead of grey. There is nothing reminding about a car tuning store, no emotion. a "clean look" and the "stock look" are different things

 

All this text and links in the front page need to be organized some how.

Buttons in no relation to the design

Category images load slow (too big?) and are stretched

 

Put more effort into it, maybe you can activate the STS you have installed and try to do something with it?

 

Thanks for the reply, in stock form OSC is quite ugly. I removed the ugly bits and cleaned it up which is what I mean by a "clean look". My issue is I have seen very few OSC sites using STS or BTS that actually look good. Most of them look hodge podged together which is why I won't use STS unless I have a better template made. Maybe you know of sites using STS that look good and you could link them. As of right now I haven't seen anything that was better though. The product is what relates to car tuning, alot of sites that I view put alot of random images and design around cars but it makes the site far too busy and alot more difficult for the customers to navigate.

 

Maybe I should create a seperate page to list all of the brands I offer, that would allow me to put a more concise front page text.

 

The Buttons are what I could find available online that looked better than stock and followed the colors of my business.

 

In terms of the category images loading slow, I have no problem on my end? All the images show up right away without having to load? Unfortunately I couldnt find something to deal with image compression other than the stock image resizing feature. On my laptop the images look perfect but on my desktop they do look a little big. Right now they are set at 200x170px. Maybe go smaller although I don't want them to get too small. I don't know any way to improve this...any ideas?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I knew you and where your shop was located, this might work well. However...as a random site I run into, I have to agree with the above feedback. I would work to add a few main page images ( that fit the site) that define what you are as a business.

 

Also want to add I hate dead-end links. You have many of them where there are no products, but there is a link.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I knew you and where your shop was located, this might work well. However...as a random site I run into, I have to agree with the above feedback. I would work to add a few main page images ( that fit the site) that define what you are as a business.

 

Also want to add I hate dead-end links. You have many of them where there are no products, but there is a link.

 

I still operate from my home so I don't have my full address listed so I don't have people randomly thinking they can stop by. I am working on a retail location but this is not really anything to do with my site. Maybe if I had a carousel image on the index with product release pictures or something that might work better? I hate going to sites where the middle of the index page is simply the new products or something like that. I feel the index should tell about the site and what is offered.

 

In terms of dead links I am assuming your refering to sections with no products. If so I did state that I am still adding alot of stuff (another 1000 products to copy over from my current store).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a quick look at your site and compared to your competion it is not very inspiring. Do a google search for some of your main keywords and see what comes up. You are in a competitive market, and people will want to see something special. Keep them interested in your site, and the chances are they will buy something.

 

I dont think brown is a modern colour for a website, but at the end of the day it is your choice. You could quite easily make a better header image, asnd find better looking buttons. Again do a google search for oscommerce buttons and you will find loads of button generators all which will produce goodlooking buttons to your design. On your shipping and returns page you have the silly cartoon image and a standard blue oscommerce button. On this page i lack confidence as i could want to return a product, but there is no address. You need something like and addres, or at least a contact phone number on your site. You have the original button again on your privacy page.

 

All that text on the front page listing manufacturers could be turned into links to the particular manufacturer, then it may be worth having it all there.

 

Matbe make your site a bit narrower and add a background of some sort. There are mant simple to install contributions to achieve this.

 

I must confess to getting bored now looking at your site, so this will have to do for now. All the best with your venture.

REMEMBER BACKUP, BACKUP AND BACKUP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a quick look at your site and compared to your competion it is not very inspiring. Do a google search for some of your main keywords and see what comes up. You are in a competitive market, and people will want to see something special. Keep them interested in your site, and the chances are they will buy something.

 

I dont think brown is a modern colour for a website, but at the end of the day it is your choice. You could quite easily make a better header image, asnd find better looking buttons. Again do a google search for oscommerce buttons and you will find loads of button generators all which will produce goodlooking buttons to your design. On your shipping and returns page you have the silly cartoon image and a standard blue oscommerce button. On this page i lack confidence as i could want to return a product, but there is no address. You need something like and addres, or at least a contact phone number on your site. You have the original button again on your privacy page.

 

All that text on the front page listing manufacturers could be turned into links to the particular manufacturer, then it may be worth having it all there.

 

Matbe make your site a bit narrower and add a background of some sort. There are mant simple to install contributions to achieve this.

 

I must confess to getting bored now looking at your site, so this will have to do for now. All the best with your venture.

 

Thanks for taking the time, I am thinking you may be looking at my active site and not the current site i put the link to at the top though as both the privacy and shipping/returns section have the different style buttons.

 

The color is gold but I guess it may look different to some.

 

I am going to have a buddy who does graphic design put together a better header setup as I do agree it is very plain and uninspiring.

 

My only issue with narrowing the site is that it can make product pages with lots of information extremely long and I don't believe customers like to scroll every 2 seconds to read. I will play around with it though and see what I can find. I have been trying to find a good background but I don't want to put something dark or mess with how the text or images look.

 

I think I will be moving the manufacturer information to a seperate page and then provide links to the manufacturer sections on my site.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...