Please Review my Website - comments are welcome

[valquiria23 240]

Hello everyone. 

After 2 years of work I managed to finish (at last) the site that I made to a relative of mine, in production.

I like to receive your reviews, opinions, criticisms and suggestions before I enable it to the public.

The site is: www.ferreteriaideal.com.uy

I would also like to thank all those who helped me in this process directly and indirectly:

Harald Ponce de Leon - for creating oscommerce.
@burt - for creating the Community Bootstrap Edition EDGE.
@raiwa - for creating the EDGE version in Spanish and its great addons. Also for excellent support that he gives them.

I need to mention @Jack_mcs,   @Tsimi , @kymation , @auzStar and many others for their great addons and support. 

But the one who deserves special thanks is Zahid @JcMagpie for his help, willingness to help and the passion he has for oscommerce. I learned a lot from him, from his publications on the site and the advice he gave. It is important to mention its great addons that contributes to this community (which every time unfortunately is shrinking due to lack of leadership).

Anyway, I thank all those who interacted with me in the good and bad times, because from everybody I learned, although I only keep the positive.

Kisses and I hope you have an excellent weekend 

Valqui

[bonbec 125]

Hello Valqui,

It's nice work, it was worth taking the time to achieve this result.
For compliments:
It's clear, I like the colors, the site is fast.

For what can be improved:
Some photos are too pixelated. They look like artificially enlarged miniatures.
I have a problem displaying on the homepage (see screenshot) when I arrive on the site for "Productos Destacados", "Nuevos productos en septiembre" and "Special Offers For septiembre".
Even by doing F5 to display the page again, I have the problem. However, if I go to see a product and come back to the home page, the display is correct.

[♥mattjt83 133]

OK, you've done all the hard work of getting the products loaded and the site features implemented. Good job on that

My issues are:

1. The site looks very generic. A professional looking template would make a HUGE difference. What it will come down to is that people are scared to shop on non-professional looking sites. If you are only selling items to well established customers your site would probably be fine but otherwise it would be a wise investment to get a proper template setup. Some very simple style adjustments could present your hard work in a much better way.

2. The images do look pixelated (stretched). I'm not sure if you can help this if the images are coming from the manufacturer that way.

[puggybelle 30]

I commend you for having the guts to put a link to your site on this forum.  Most won't, including me.

I am not a fan of all these sliding images.  It seems like everything on your homepage is moving and I find that very irritating. 

Perhaps you could limit the use of those sliding modules to just Specials or something.  Looks you went bonkers with all of the slider contribs.  It's just too much.

What is that blue box that appears on the bottom right corner of your site when scrolling down?  When clicked, it takes me back to the top of the page and I really like that a lot.  Is that a contribution? 

The pages load very quickly, which is terrific, but I am experiencing the same thing @bonbec is.  The initial visit to your homepage results in text displaying on top of your images as it does in his screenshot.  Looks like something is wrong.  But if I click on a product, and then go back to the homepage, the problem disappears. 

That's a strange one and hopefully someone in the forum can troubleshoot that for you.  I wonder if it's related to the sliding images modules.  Not behaving on the initial page load but then correcting after a few clicks?

- Andrea

 

[Hotclutch 168]

Congratulations on what you have achieved thus far.

I have to agree with the above poster, i think the sliders are a bit too much.

On the large screen and xl screens the left column content appears squashed.

 

[♥JcMagpie 1,692]

Very good, clean, fast and responsive website.

Layout design is always very much personal thing. It’s good to keep things fresh and up to date. In many sectors websites tend to look similar, it’s not always a bad thing.

If you look at clothes retailers websites they all follow a similar style. These 3 top ranking uk site all use a very stock layout and look.

http://www.asos.com/women/

http://www.newlook.com/uk

https://www.boohoo.com/

 

As for sliders, in moderaton is probably best. These are 3 of the worlds top sites and all have a slider front and center on sites.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/

https://best.aliexpress.com/

https://www.amazon.com/

 

So I think your in good company. 😁 ( but then I would say that!). Thanks to CE beeing moduler it's very easy to turn the sliders off and on as required.

[♥altoid 153]

All things considered, this is a good example why CE should be the official oscommerce release. 

Nice work

[valquiria23 240]

Hi, @altoid, @JcMagpie, @Hotclutch, @puggybelle, @bonbec and @mattjt83

Thank you very much for looking at my site and for your comments.

I like silders because they are very practical in mobile devices and as you know more and more online purchases are made of mobile devices.

The only problem that I am left with, is the text displaying on top of the images . But the author of the addon @auzStar  is traveling and could not help me

The addon of the  blue box that appears on the bottom right corner is: back_to_top
http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/9307

The pixelated images came from the migration of an old site, the idea is to replace them in the future.

Best regards.

Valqui

[♥John W 118]

I agree with the others that there is too much movement.  I guess you have to see where your sales come from, because while I get more mobile visits, I get most purchases from tablets and desktop/laptop.  Overall, it comes down to are you selling what someone is looking for and is the price/terms good.  I'm actually a tool guy, although not as much as I used to be.  For the most part I go looking for a certain tool like a Bosch router, or a Dewalt miter saw.  Actually, I bought my big Jet VSR lathe online and had it shipped.

So, it depends on your martket and your customer.  Remember, they may not care for a bunch of fancey stuff.  However, the speed of your site is good and everyone is seeing that.  No matter what, speed is good.

[♥John W 118]

ONe other thing is some of the US prices seem off, so I'm wondering if there's a problem with the currency conversion.  Is this jig saw really USD $1,000?

https://www.ferreteriaideal.com.uy/catalog/caladora-profesional-truper-p-2979.html

 

[valquiria23 240]

My relative is adjusting all the prices of his old items. In a few days the real prices will remain. While I posted a message that the page is in maintenance.

[♥14steve14 654]

I have not reviewed a website here for a long time as all site designs are down to personal preference but the sliders and all the different boxes on the product pages distract the buyers eyes from the products that the site is trying to sell. On the home page the slider in the main content of the page should be a lot slower and also the full width of the page. The one in the header should be removed as all the information should be available somewhere else on the site. That would also tidy up the search box area. By removing all those sliders will get your main content above the fold and the site can do what it is hopefully designed to so, and that is sell products. Its a long scroll on a phone to even see a product.

Put your site in here and run the test if you havent already. https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly

Then put it in here and correct all the errors. https://validator.w3.org/

More recent ideas on sliders at https://www.commercegurus.com/image-sliders. There is also some good information on the yoast website about how they are not that good for SEO. Whilst they work in a few cases, one on a page is not too bad, but here there is too much of a distraction. Saying that though, how many people actually land on the front page of your website. Google analytics will tell you that.

I did notice that the fonts are not all the same in the product descriptions, and I dont quite know why there is a large image under the descriptions. Does it need to be there.

As all websites are a work in progress this isnt too bad a start. What it really needs is customer feedback and refining over time once the site is live. What I would do is to spend some time doing research on competitors sites and see how yours can be made better than theirs.

[Hotclutch 168]

It's ok if the OP wants sliders 

Actually the most disturbing thing was the price of that jigsaw - did not want to say at first - glad that's been clarified. 

[MrPhil 648]

Don't show it to the US Department of Defense. They'll think $1000 for a sabre saw is cheap. Really. They pay $600 for hammers and $800 for coffee pots.

P.S. That's a sabre saw. A jigsaw is a non-portable saw with a reciprocating blade.

[♥raiwa 1,472]

Hola Valquiria @valquiria23,

In addition to all above already mentioned, here my observations:

• the categoriy names are mixed first letter uppercase and all lower case. You should unify this so all category names should be first letter upper case.
• Some styling of the categories box would look more pro
• The categories box is moved to the bottom of the page on mobile (xs) view which is not very useful. I would recommend to replace it on mobile (xs) view by tsimis categories menu xs. It is inlcuded in his horizontal categories menu add-on. (The main horizontal cat menu is not useful for you because you have too many root categories).
• The 2 link buttons included at the bottom of the categories box "Todos los productos" and "Lista de precios" look very amateur. Consider to move them to a own box and style them like standard bootstrap buttons or small customized banners. Maybe it would be even better to use simple navbar links or header buttons/small banners instead.
• In general I would recommend to replace all side column boxes (except the categories box on  desktop and tablet) by footer/header/navbar modules. (Specials and New products are already in the navbar)
• As already pointed out, the design should be a bit more customized so it doesn't look like an "out of the box" installation.Try at least to replace the dominant blue info color by something else.
• For the slide elements I agree to make the home page calmer and replace them by static banners.
• I would also recommend to calm down the product page. For me it is confusing. I think there are too many elements and they should be at least better organized.
  • place the additional images like in the original page under the main image.
  • remove the comemnts box and leave it on the separate page
  • I believe you do not need the store phone/contact banner repeated there. You have it already in the header.
  • Use normal text style not italic for the description.
  • Not sure if the manufacturers menu is useful there. (You have already the SEO Sitemap links at the bottom and the manufacturers box)

 

Otherwise, Great Job!

Sudos cordiales

Rainer

[♥raiwa 1,472]

1 hour ago, raiwa said:

• I would also recommend to calm down the product page. For me it is confusing. I think there are too many elements and they should be at least better organized.
  • remove the comemnts box and leave it on the separate page

Just rethought that point:

a selection of customer reviews on the product page may be good and useful, but I would replace the comment input and leave only a button link to the reviews or write reviews page.

[♥John W 118]

16 hours ago, MrPhil said:

Don't show it to the US Department of Defense. They'll think $1000 for a sabre saw is cheap. Really. They pay $600 for hammers and $800 for coffee pots.

P.S. That's a sabre saw. A jigsaw is a non-portable saw with a reciprocating blade.

You can check the Dewalt site or another for verification, but that is a jig saw.  I think you are thinking of a scroll saw for a non-portable version.  A reciprocating saw is sometimes called a sabre saw.  https://www.dewalt.com/en-us/products/power-tools/saws

 

[burt 5,612]

Slider Chit-Chat moved to https://forums.oscommerce.com/topic/492444-sliders-aka-carousels-yes-or-no/

Please continue that discussion there.

[MrPhil 648]

On 9/14/2018 at 9:52 AM, John W said:

You can check the Dewalt site or another for verification, but that is a jig saw.  I think you are thinking of a scroll saw for a non-portable version.  A reciprocating saw is sometimes called a sabre saw.  https://www.dewalt.com/en-us/products/power-tools/saws

You piqued my curiosity, so I found this: https://www.thesawguy.com/sabre-saw-vs-jigsaw/., https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/jigsaws-and-sabre-saws-the-difference-3536880, and https://www.luxuryhomestuff.com/saber-saw-vs-jigsaw/. And even https://woodworking.stackexchange.com/questions/1423/what-is-the-difference-between-a-sabre-saw-and-a-jig-saw. Anyway, it looks like the definition has changed over time (and regions, and manufacturers) and what I was taught in jr High shop is now considered "old school". Peace out.

 

[Benjiex 1]

Nice website, the information you need is all there.

[KateHoll 1]

You have worked very well on your site. Great job! I am very glad that you have achieved this.