Newbie requiring assistance

He has: 11 posts

Joined: Feb 2007

Hello,

I just created my first full website, found at activeelectric.net. I use Yahoo hosting, which has its perks for newbies like me. I use sitebuilder every once in a while and switch to html editor for things sitebuilder isn't capable of doing. Anyways, the reason for my post is I would like some general input on the navagation, ordering page, and overall setup of the site. I do not have what you would call a typical checkout page and I treid to use Paypal's buttons, but they messed up the shipping charges when I tested them out.

I would also like to know if their are any good shipping calculator scripts or software out there that I could easily incorporate into my site (free or paid) Any assistance will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Laugh

He has: 118 posts

Joined: Feb 2007

Hey mr Builder, Thatis a nice and simple site layout.
I found it easy to navigate and inoffencive.
My only critique really is that there is very little frippery - no pictures, no company profile, no usefull links or anything.
To keep me going back to a site I need to have some other resources to keep it in my subconcious. like a conversion calculator or something so people have a reason to bookmark it!
as you have relatively few actual products I would think that usefull links would be a good way to enable more traffic through the site.
(and I would have liked a little less vaguity about the billing/transport so I hope someone can help with the shipping script!)

Overall though I liked the squared background (very suitable) and type and stuff so little to really get at!

Good luck with it!

T

Toby Frost
Frost Conservatories
frostconservatories.co.uk

He has: 118 posts

Joined: Feb 2007

Oh, also. Is it not a little risky to have your 'specials' section linking to ebay? could people not take that opporunity to look for the products from someone else at a lower price/other? I would see it as you advocating getting these parts from ebay in general... maybe i'm wrong though!

Toby Frost
Frost Conservatories
frostconservatories.co.uk

UmutH's picture

They have: 3 posts

Joined: Apr 2002

1. The squared bg will decrease the text readibility.

2. Text on the buttons may be more gentle. Plain text instead of bold etc.

3. You may try to change the default font and use a more corporate style font for example tahoma or verdana.

So far so good, consider these 3 options.

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UmutH
www.bursa.net - Bursa City Portal
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They have: 7 posts

Joined: Feb 2007

Hey there, nice site.

Good points;

1. Clean and easy navigation
2. To the point information
3. Constant theme trhoughout Smiling

Improvements;

1. As somone already mentioned it needs that little kick, so pictures. Pictures are easier to remember than words, so maybe if you have a cool cartoon mechanic or something giving his tip of the day, it will trigger something and will be good pub talk Smiling

2. There is a search our site box, it could be just fire fox but its not inline with the site it comes across the main content.

3. Just a personal preference make the site centered, that not really an improvement its just how i prefer to see sites.

All in all nice looking site and great job just a few things and itll be perfect Smiling.

He has: 11 posts

Joined: Feb 2007

Thanks for all the input, I am currently trying to update the site, thanks for the details regarding the serach box. Someone else from another forum mentioned that they had problems in Firefox with the serach box.

They have: 12 posts

Joined: Feb 2007

its alright... try centering the table and change the background....

compwolf's picture

He has: 72 posts

Joined: Nov 2003

I generall specialize in Ecommerce sites so I hope the following comments are not too harsh since I am going to get a little in depth.

1) I must heavily disagree about frivoous graphics. They tend to detract from professionalism more than improve quality. If you truly feel the need for frivolous graphics I would recommend using them as Icons for category or headings rather than just to have them.

2) Your Home page lists multiple brands. None of them though lead to anything. I would recommend you find a way to use your search capabilities by creating Hyperlinks to the products that are availalbe by the manufacturer. This accomplishes two things for your prospective customer. a) It helps them to locate products by a manufacturer they prefer to purchase from. b) It can increase exposure of your products to perspective customers who were unaware that the Manufacturer fabricated that item.

3) Adding a little more information rather than just a map link on your contact page would give a little more credibility to your store. People are generally wary about sites that do not offer information about themselves. A store willing to talk about themselves is more likely to be trusted.

4) When you click the purchase link on an item all you get is a generic form where the person needs to have the technical information about the product. Also you are asking them to give you a lot of information for payment without giving them much reassurance about the procedure. Online shoppers are not usually comfortable with offline payment processing. You may want to look into some form of online processing. You may want to check with your current Merchant account people about online processing avalability.

5) Since you apparently deal on Ebay you may want to look into the PayPal shopping cart integration for your site. this will give you many of the things I mentioned above as well as trust generation for your clients who are most likely familiar with the PayPal payment method and their protection plans for purchases.

6) You may want to look at some of your more successful competitors sites to give yu some ideas on your site.

You have a good start going ... keep at it and I am sure eventually you will have a site to be proud of to tell your customers about.

He has: 11 posts

Joined: Feb 2007

Thanks compwolf for the imput. I still don't have a shipping calculator figured in yet, still in the process. I've updated my site, please give it a freah look over and your comments.

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