Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

lol...ok guys - here is the site that is now live.... i am aware i need to fully photograph the individual pieces, but let me have your thoughts and suggestions...

http://www.roadragejewelry.com

thanks - i take all the good from start up nations members...they have been extremely helpful.... and i hope to pass on what i learn as a "newbie." legsx3

Although you may get differing opinions on this, i think your main heading is too large. When i clicked on the items in your top nav i didn`t notice the page was in fact loading different pages.... because the changes were too low, below the fold, for me to notice. The general rule of thumb is that you want your most important info, in most cases its the pages content, to at least be mostly above the fold (the cutoff view of your average customers screen res).
Another thing i noticed is that your add to cart, reviews, update...etc buttons were the same color as the background strip behind them. This makes them blend in with the strip, which makes the buttons first appear as elements of the pages design rather than functional elements. I would make the background strip a darker color, this will give your buttons contrast and make them pop, which is what you want.
Next, your javascript window brings up a popup window for larger image views... seems to be set at a static size/resolution, when i view a larger image, the actual popup window is too small for the image i`m viewing. Idealy you`ll want to setup some php code that dynamically sets the javascript popup windows size based on the images size.
Lastly, i would customize your cart softwares look more. I can tell right away that the majority of the elements i see are from Oscommerce, or one of its variances (zencart...etc).

I agree with Jarrod1937 on the cuztomization thing. I would also like to add that in my experience, zencart is easier to modify than OSC, no matter whether you are newbie or experienced! :)


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Carmen Thorne

It`s a good start, but I do not like the rapidly changing slide show on the top.  Also, where`s the "home" button?  I couldn`t get back to the home page from the other pages. 

On your left side nav links, you have four categories, and to the right of that you show three categories.  Confusing?  I also expected the category boxes to be a clickable link, but they aren`t.

I know that the posers are cheaper than a live model, but there`s no sense of scale.  Replace the slide show with a few photos of people wearing the product.

Here`s where you may lose sales - your "return/refund" policy is laughable.  Save the doubletalk and just say "God luck if you want a refund for any reason!"  I think you should be a little more flexible here, a little more customer friendly.

You must have missed the rather large thread here on why people abandon their carts because you are making some of the most frequent mistakes.  Price-based shipping charges are one of them.



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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

...to my titans...

thanks to ALL for the comments.... i have forwarded the more technical info to the site designer to address... i will be doing my homework regarding the "treads" for shipping and the return policy... and hopefully - will be back again with some good revisions... you are a tough bunch, but i appreciate the brutal honesty... now - let me go address my bruises...lol 

thanks again ... legsx3

I, too, don`t like the sliding banner. Totally annoying.

The other thing I expected was to click the large green signs, like "Busted Series" and go to that location. When I clicked and nothing happened, I really didn`t want to take the time to find the same information along the left-side menu.

master  curmudgeons -  the sliding banner is staying :)....my target market loves it! (it is not too much for their attention span.) i have discussed the site and have made some changes based on the comments here... the return policy is more "user friendly."  the shipping is now "flat rate."  and the actual pieces are being shot.... i thank you all again... we will be doing the google analiticals (sp?) and more to come... i cannot thank you all enough... legsx3

 

"the sliding banner is staying :)....my target market loves it! (it is not too much for their attention span.)"

If i may ask, how have you determined this? One of the largest, and most common, mistakes i see all the time with ecommerce sites is that they come to conclusions about what their "target market" likes... but come to these conclusions by incorrect and inaccurate means. This causes them to feel they "know" what their target market wants but more often than not, it is far from reality. Examples of this include:
1.) Making incorrect assumptions about just who their target market is, then coming to conclusions about what this particular segment wants. Even if the conclusions are correct, if the market segment you`re targeting is not correct for your product, you`re screwing yourself.
2.) Correctly identifying what the market segment is for their product, but coming to conclusions by flawed statistical methods. The most common of which include gathering opinions from too small of a sample size of your market segment. This highly skews data, making any conclusions meaningless.
3.) Ignoring any testing and data gathering methdologies and just flatout making assumptions of what their target market wants, possibly combining with #1.

... And the list goes on and on. To be honest you really need to be careful with thought processes like, "my target market loves it!"
If that is a faulty assumption, and when something as little as a single image can alter conversions, you can easily sink your ecommerce venture.