What do you think of my web store?
I'd like your honest opinion on my store. Are the categories good? See any misspellings? Do you think my theme is OK? What do you think I should do to make it better?
Store: http://www.ShopVoyagerEnt.com
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M$10 Answers
I'm speaking from 8 years of designing websites and even ecommerce sites for clients and myself.
Your layout is fine. You do have enough white space... and I can see that you are using a template that is actually pretty popular still for those starting out.
It should get the job done until you get big enough to pay for a custom solution.
So, don't worry so much about that.
That being said, there are a few things you can do to improve your layout...
If you can move the section you have titled "Main Menu" lower down on the page it would be better. Move the Categories section to the top and change the title from "Categories" to something like "Our Products"... something with keywords would be better but I haven't come up with one that would cover all your offerings there... I'll let you work on that.
Which brings me to my next point. I'm assuming that you have set up the categories yourself. If so, I think you need to change them.
Right now, looking at your site, it seems like you are a computer store... however digging through your category links shows you also have cell phone accessories. They are lost in there.
To make your navigation more intuitive (so people can easily find what they are looking for), I would do something like the following:
Desktop Computers
(then break that down)
--Tower
--Mid-Tower
--Mini-Tower
-- etc...
Mobile Computing
--Netbooks
--Laptops
--Palm Devices and other handhelds
--Docking Stations
Peripherals and Accessories
--Monitors
--Printers
--Keyboards/Mice
--etc. etc. etc.
Drives and Storage
--Hard Drives
----Internal Drives
----External Drives
--Tape Drives
--Flash Drives
--etc. etc.
Software
This should probably be by type of application, then within each description add that it is for the mac if it is for the mac. most will be for PC's -- especially since you don't seem to sell macs... if you were to sell mac's, i'd put that in a separate navigation category... don't make them weed through anything for pc's if they have a mac... they'll go elsewhere.
so... for sub categories for Software, maybe something like -
--Utilities
--Office Suites
--Games
--Educational
--etc. etc. etc.
Cell Phones
if all you have are cell phone accessories, call it Cell Phone Accessories-- if you are adding more cell phones and related products, you can leave it as cell phones and then put accessories under it as I have here)
-- Cell Phone Accessories (add the words Cell Phone to the beginning of this category name to avoid confusion with computer or notebook accessories) or even break it down further into something like this:
-- Cell Phone Holders/Cases
-- Data Kits
-- Bluetooth Accessories
-- Cell Phone Adapters (anywhere it could cause confusion without it add the words cell phone to differentiate it from other type
--etc. etc. etc.
The idea is to have your visitor no further than about 2 clicks away from what they want to find.
Now... on to keywords. You need them throughout your page. Every bit of text you touch on the page should be evaluated for keyword value. "Main Menu" does nothing for page value, but "About Voyager Enterprises LLC" brands you further in the SE's. You are limited in your ability to add text content... use the categories like I suggested above to add to keyword content, and use every other spot you can to help with that. I won't go into all of them... just evaluate and add where it would still make sense.
I'm not going to add much more, but I cannot leave you without stressing the following point... and you probably will not want to hear it, but believe me--it is more important than ANYTHING else you have on your entire site.
You have to change your logo. I understand that you have registered your company as an LLC... so the name should be fine... but you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT use that font or that logo with it. You are infringing on copyright and trademark issues by leaving it how you have it and you stand to lose your entire company if you don't change it.
Let me give you an example from my own experience. I sold a health book by a certain author who sold his book on infomercials. I registered three domain names that were similar to the book IN ORDER TO SELL HIS BOOK-- he made a lot off of my efforts directly. I had all three sites in the top of google and yahoo... higher than his sites even. I'm talking #1 and #2 in many cases for many keywords and keyword phrases. I sold many, many books.
He took it all away through one letter from his lawyers. I never recouped those particular phrases. I had the benefit of being the first with those phrases... and the domains had aged. But because he held the copyright on the book title, and it was too similar... it was said that it could cause confusion with his brand and I had to just turn the names over. I didn't even get paid for the names, much less compensated for the loss of income, which was substantial. He didn't even care that I was making him money.
So... avoid losing what you are building. I would hate to see you build this up only to lose it in a dispute... and they could actually sue you as well.
Get a unique logo now before you do any more building. Even text by itself in a different font is better until you get something more custom done.
I hope all of that made sense, and that it was helpful. =)
personal experience building and marketing websites
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M$
Areas for Improvement:
-May draw in a technical crowd purely looking for a low price, but won't draw average shoppers.
-Style appears old and outdated.
-Need to a breakdown by brand (Dell, Sony, etc.)
-Descriptions of products are hard to read. Either break out into list form, or have more 'marketing' oriented descriptions with a list of spec afterwards.
-You do not have a phone number listed for contacts. I never buy from a smaller company on the web without a contact number.
-Ditch the shopping cart at the top of your page- Make your company name and logo stand out more.
-Make your product names larger than your descriptions on your product listings. Everything runs together now.
-Make everything bigger.
Good Areas:
-Love that you have your pages available in multiple languages.- Nice touch.
-Featuring Customer reviews- Makes you more credible.
-Clean, sharp product pictures.
-Multiple Search Options
-Good category breakdown
-Privacy Policy
-Offering Gift Certificates.
Overall, I think you have a good foundation for a great site, now you just need to beef it up and make it appear like you are one of the "big boys".
Good Luck!
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M$
Excellent answer, I love your ideas and think you've really hit the nail on the head. Thanks for putting so much thought into this.
And hey, I've nominated you for the Sept. 9 Answer of the Day! Be sure to stop over there and vote for your own answer as "Helpful" to win!
Same goes with everyone else here. If you agree that @achieve75 did an outstanding job, please stop by to vote! :D
I would move the "Main Menu" stuff to the bottom (most people don't REALLY care about that and if they do its usually at the bottom of most pages (not the highlight of your page is it?))
The Gift Certificate I would turn into a Banner (or a picture that says Gift Certificates here, those are always a great thing of money because its not promised it will be used....ever)
I would move Shopping cart to the top near Check out (or make it read something like Check Out (2) for 2 items)
I would make the main picture a bit smaller, it takes up a lot of your eye catching part of the screen (like you would want to put "Clearance Items" or "Featured Items" there, so that its the first thing someone sees.
You also have a Search for and a Quick find, is that really needed?
You also have a Cart Contents and a Shopping Cart, are both needed?
That's just my opinion though.
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M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
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M$Retail: $1335.44
Our Price: $840.27
Save: $495.17 (37%)
I do not think that the 3 numbers are real. So I will not buy stuff at this website.
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M$
We all know the price are almost "transparent" to everyone(wholesalers, retailers and customers). We all know the profit of hardware is very low now. So I am really surprised by "save 37%". I think the Retail price is NOT a updated price.
You could always look it up at other sites, when it comes to websites most people wont lie about that (its to easy to check up on)
"Retail" price is pulled automatically from my distributors databases. This data is populated by the manufacturer.
"Our Price" is the actual price you will pay for the particular item.
"Save" price is just a calculation base on the other two.
A few pointers:
Change your logo and name, its a blatant play off of Star Trek and costs your company valuable credibility points.
Redesign the site to be simple (de-cluttered), implement bigger elements, more whitespace, a more profound main menu, and add some color.
I think you have a wonderful starting point, you just need to put in a little more effort into the presentation.
Good Luck!
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
It has been said that the presentation of a site either keeps the browzer or makes him wanna browze away. And that to me is something that needs working on.
Another thing is consider making the computers on display a tad bigger. Try 1 or 2 resolution sizes.
But other than that I cant really offer any more constructive criticism.
The Big+ that establishes that site as unique to me is this..
The gift certificates. Makin it easy for people to get BIG Gifts. Biug thumbs on the site.
www.emachies.com
www.dell.com
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M$If there was any advice I would give, it would be regarding the categories and your left sidebar items. The fonts are small....a little hard to read....and even harder to click. Yes, they function. But they look a little old school. I'd suggest updating the look of the sidebars by adding stylish buttons for each category.
Same goes for all of the info in your left sidebar--larger please! Make it easier to read, easier to click, which no +/- signs to click.
Also, I'd add more categories to the base menu, don't make people go fishing too much for what they want.
Basically any style updates you can do would be good. Your current look on the page reminds me a bunch of Windows 95. And if I'm being an emotional shopper (which hey, most Americans are), I want to feel confident that the place I'm buying computer parts from is super up-to-date with technology. Make it look a little sleeker and a little more modern.
Phew! It sounds like a lot of complaints I guess, but the important thing is you have a good foundation going on. I didn't find any misspellings, and I'm picky.
Good luck to you!
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M$
Thank you so much for all your feedback. I'm looking into modifying my template to accommodate some of your changes.
I'd love some input from you if you've ever done anything with osCommerce before.
Well, ok, I didn't mean I would literally be unpopular... I meant that others would disagree with me. =)
The thing is... the design he is using is a template. Since he is using that template it tells me he probably doesn't have the skill set to design the ecommerce site himself.
And that's fine. Really it is.
This is a popular template, and as I said, it will do the job until he can afford to get a professional custom design for his site. Many sites use it and do very well.
I did advise he should change the navigation. The +/- is a part of that template, but if he makes the changes I suggested then it won't be as noticable or as needed. As it is now visitors HAVE to use the + to see more categories, and they shouldn't have to do that. Making more categories as I suggested will negate that for the most part.
He's locked into certain things by using this template.
Knowing that, my goal was to help him to make changes that are within his control... which is very limited by this template...
But you might be surprised that some of the worst looking sites on the web with very antiquated designs can do very well... I've been surprised a time or two.
I don't actually disagree with all of you that the site could be improved by another design... but I do not think it is a dealbreaker. This design can and does work very well.
So, I'm not dismissing it... just trying to help him use what he has to do some instant changes.
@smartweb, you're never unpopular around here! Or at least you'll have to try a lot harder than this!
But I do disagree with the idea that the layout is "fine". I respect your views as a web designer. But as a consumer, the old schoolishness of the look, the small font sizes, and the strained navigation (with the +/- signs) are all a big turn-off.
You have some very valid points, but I wouldn't dismiss the idea of making the site more user friendly and more pleasing to the eyes.
i haven't specifically used the osCommerce platform, but i'm willing to try to help in any way i can. you can PM me with direct questions when you want feedback or help.