Jump to content
  • Checkout
  • Login
  • Get in touch

osCommerce

The e-commerce.

Feedback requested on Pet Supply store.


awarner20

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone. I've been developing with OSC for awhile for others and this is the first store I've developed for myself. It's a pet supply store. I'm looking for feedback on usability and a "professional" look to the store. It is live but we have yet to add product images (coming soon) and we hope to eventually add additional parameters to the main store like areas for pet related articles, healthcare info, etc. We are animal lovers and hope to develop this site into a place where fellow pet lovers can go for all kinds of information...and supplies of course;)

 

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

My Store

 

Thanks!

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do not agree with your background choice. It personally hurts the eyes and I would suggest something more subtle. For your categories, for instance http://derbydogma.com/index.php?cPath=21_29 consider shrinking the category pictures. I would also consider displaying only 10 to 15 products per page as 20 creates lots of vertical scroll. Your Conditions of Use page SHOULD be filled out http://derbydogma.com/conditions.php. Finally, consider removing/replacing those default osC icons on pages such as https://derbydogma.com/login.php.

Andrew Yuen

osCommerce, Community Team

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do not agree with your background choice. It personally hurts the eyes and I would suggest something more subtle. For your categories, for instance http://derbydogma.com/index.php?cPath=21_29 consider shrinking the category pictures. I would also consider displaying only 10 to 15 products per page as 20 creates lots of vertical scroll. Your Conditions of Use page SHOULD be filled out http://derbydogma.com/conditions.php. Finally, consider removing/replacing those default osC icons on pages such as https://derbydogma.com/login.php.

 

 

Thanks Andrew,

 

I'll work on those things. Anyone else?

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would loose the background colour and get rid of the default osC icons as mentioned above.

 

There seems to be a whitespace in the header banner to the right, not sure why? I would perhaps consider putting the search box in the header rather than on the line where it currently is as it looks a bit squash underneath the "My Account | Cart Contents" text and there seems to be space above it.

 

Like the infobox style, very nice.. shame the pink background distracts from it.

 

Also, loose the 'Privacy Policy Statement' heading from the Privacy Policy page, don't think you really need two headings.

 

Hope that helps :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would loose the background colour and get rid of the default osC icons as mentioned above.

 

There seems to be a whitespace in the header banner to the right, not sure why? I would perhaps consider putting the search box in the header rather than on the line where it currently is as it looks a bit squash underneath the "My Account | Cart Contents" text and there seems to be space above it.

 

Like the infobox style, very nice.. shame the pink background distracts from it.

 

Also, loose the 'Privacy Policy Statement' heading from the Privacy Policy page, don't think you really need two headings.

 

Hope that helps :)

 

 

Thanks David,

 

The white space in the header is because I used to have the site at a fixed width of 790px, but things were getting squished in the middle column so I changed the width last night to 90% of the users screen size. I haven't resized the banner yet, therefore the white space;)

 

Also, it's clear that there's not much love for the pink background. I chose the green, pink, and chocolate colors originally because they were together in a color scheme I came across and I wanted the store to feel modern and hip, but I can see noww that the pink has to go. Any suggestion for a different background color instead of white, or would white be good? I'll keep experimenting with colors and widths.

 

As for the Privacy Policy redundancy, it's been changed. Thanks for pointing that out!

 

osC icons are next on the list, and I'll consider the search box move too. Thanks for taking a look, really appreciate it:)

 

p.s. nice Avatar...."Sloth love Chunk!"

 

Adam

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think a white background would go well with the info boxes... maybe! :unsure:

 

Hi David,

 

Could you give me your opinion on if this looks better? I just made the width 100% of the screen size therefore eliminating any background at all. I did make the "chocolate" boder just a tab thicker too. Little by little;)

 

p.s. saw the site on your profile, you look like a fun group!

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, that seems better. there is still a bit of pink showing at the bottom of the screen though. Also, I would perhaps make the header banner at the top shorter height wise. It seems to use a large chunk of the screen up and you need to scroll down to see the products.

 

My website is just for me to mess about on really and try a few things. I plan to use the hosting space and try and create a version of osC that replaces table with CSS... that should be fun lol!

 

Should hopefully be adding my first osC site for review soon. You will have to let me know what you think when you see it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do recommend playing around with the color scheme more - especially with your font and hyperlink color. Black text is easier to read off a white background than brown text, according to the usability studies I have seen. I also recommend changing the appearance of your hyperlinks so that they look more distinguished - how about underlined blue text? After all, thats the standard on the web.

 

Your product pages also need some serious work - a common problem these days. I recommend reading this post about landing pages if you wish for more elaboration and advise on how to remedy the situation.

 

 

You have a really good business idea - lots of research indicates that the demand for online pet stores will grow. This is probably because customers in this industry don't mind waiting a week for their product to be shipped to them. There is no additional satisfaction for getting the product immediately - its not even for them, its for their dog or cat. There is almost always urgency in online sales - even if for something mundane like a shirt. But when you are buying a toy for Fido, or a Christmas gift; waiting a few extra days for shipping is no big deal.

Best Regards,

 

 

Victor Wise

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, that seems better. there is still a bit of pink showing at the bottom of the screen though. Also, I would perhaps make the header banner at the top shorter height wise. It seems to use a large chunk of the screen up and you need to scroll down to see the products.

 

My website is just for me to mess about on really and try a few things. I plan to use the hosting space and try and create a version of osC that replaces table with CSS... that should be fun lol!

 

Should hopefully be adding my first osC site for review soon. You will have to let me know what you think when you see it.

 

I will give some serious rethinking to the entire color scheme. I see what you mean about the header height. Weird how when you look at something for a couple months during development, all those obvious problems somehow disappear;) I will do some working on the site, then post back here when things are changed more.

 

Have a great weekend!

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do recommend playing around with the color scheme more - especially with your font and hyperlink color. Black text is easier to read off a white background than brown text, according to the usability studies I have seen. I also recommend changing the appearance of your hyperlinks so that they look more distinguished - how about underlined blue text? After all, thats the standard on the web.

 

Your product pages also need some serious work - a common problem these days. I recommend reading this post about landing pages if you wish for more elaboration and advise on how to remedy the situation.

You have a really good business idea - lots of research indicates that the demand for online pet stores will grow. This is probably because customers in this industry don't mind waiting a week for their product to be shipped to them. There is no additional satisfaction for getting the product immediately - its not even for them, its for their dog or cat. There is almost always urgency in online sales - even if for something mundane like a shirt. But when you are buying a toy for Fido, or a Christmas gift; waiting a few extra days for shipping is no big deal.

 

 

Victor,

 

Thank you very much for taking a look at my site. I am really re-thinking the whole color scheme now. I have been reading the thread you posted and also some links from that about landing pages, and it's very informative stuff (still reading but wanted to get back to you).

 

My original intention with the site was to give it a hip, modern look. That's why the green, chocolate, and pink color scheme. I didn't want to have the same old white page, black text site. After submitting the site here and other places, i see now that the color scheme was not right and maybe a more conservative approach will ultimatley be better for sales and usability.

 

Even though users are able to order from the site currently, it is still in the heavy stages of development and I don't really expect any sales yet. I still have to add product images to around 800 products, and add several hundred descriptions. This will be an ongoing process;)

 

I am anxious to get back to reading about landing pages. I am very commited to making this store a success and will do anything to help that along.

 

Thanks again for your opinion. Stay tuned for changes.

 

Adam

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hi again everyone.

 

I wonder if you could take another look at my site and maybe offer a suggestion for how the categories are listed. The problem I am seeing is that the categories are expanded and that is making that main page REALLY long. I am using the Dynamenu contrib which will allow me to change the menu from this expanded version, to collapsed, or even a vertical flyout menu.

 

However, the other menu styles just don't look as good to me as this expanded menu. Can anyone here offer any thoughts on how I might make this main page look better while retaining this long vertical menu?

 

Oh, and one thing to know is that the header image and text WILL be changing. A graphic artist friend is working on a more professional looking logo/branding.

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, the header image booms out at the eyes and don't mix with the grey shaded side boxes. Header images are importaint as this is the first place your shoppers eyes look on your web page.

 

change the working of What's New Here?

and remove the:

table_background_default.gifpixel_trans.gif Welcome Guest! Would you like to log yourself in? Or would you prefer to create an account?

 

You also seem to have images too large in your product info page and it blows out the right side making your shopper scroll to the right.

 

http://derbydogma.com/index.php?cPath=125

 

You also have a second green row below your header that has a black top border, I would either delete that row or color it black. Maybe invert the header colors. Is that your pet? If so I would get a better image of him maybe running in the woods (if there are any around where you live) playing frizby or at the dog park.

 

I would also fold up the sub categories and only go with categories. Makes a messy looking page.

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=44363

 

Also there is a contrib to bullet and HR a line between categories.

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...1/search,bullet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, the header image booms out at the eyes and don't mix with the grey shaded side boxes. Header images are importaint as this is the first place your shoppers eyes look on your web page.

 

Thanks for your helpful observations! I realize there's a major problem with the header image. I have a graphic artist working on a (hopefully) more professional looking design for me. This should be available to me within the next few weeks.

 

change the working of What's New Here?

and remove the:

table_background_default.gifpixel_trans.gif Welcome Guest! Would you like to log yourself in? Or would you prefer to create an account?

 

When you say change the working of What's New Here, do you mean simply to change the wording to something more specific to my store?

 

You also seem to have images too large in your product info page and it blows out the right side making your shopper scroll to the right.

 

http://derbydogma.com/index.php?cPath=125

 

Thanks! I'll have to look into that and get it changed!

 

You also have a second green row below your header that has a black top border, I would either delete that row or color it black. Maybe invert the header colors. Is that your pet? If so I would get a better image of him maybe running in the woods (if there are any around where you live) playing frizby or at the dog park.

 

The second green row is there because I used to display random qoutes, I have removed those and will remove that row ASAP.

 

That is my pet:) Again, the header image will be changing soon. We do have woods here, and lots of mosquitos!

 

I would also fold up the sub categories and only go with categories. Makes a messy looking page.

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=44363

 

I have collapsed the categories...that helps A LOT!

 

Also there is a contrib to bullet and HR a line between categories.

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...1/search,bullet

 

I will look into this one, sounds like it would look good.

 

Thanks for your advice and views. I will make some changes and post back again.

 

p.s. I had my first "unsolicited" order today! Yaay!

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, I made some changes.

 

1. Removed the What's New and Welcome Guest text.

 

2. Removed the extra green row, and moved the search box to the right side of My Account, Cart Contents, and Checkout links. Now there is only one brown row. Looks much better!

 

3. Working on images still.

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats to the new order!

 

Site looks better already. Can't wait to see the new header :thumbsup:

 

Ok, I made some changes.

 

1. Removed the What's New and Welcome Guest text.

 

2. Removed the extra green row, and moved the search box to the right side of My Account, Cart Contents, and Checkout links. Now there is only one brown row. Looks much better!

 

3. Working on images still.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Congrats to the new order!

 

Site looks better already. Can't wait to see the new header :thumbsup:

 

Hi folks. I've made some changes to the color scheme, added a horizontal navigation menu and also added a blog. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi folks. I've made some changes to the color scheme, added a horizontal navigation menu and also added a blog. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

 

 

From my point of view, your site doesnt look well in FireFox. Check it out...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nevermind, I guess the images didnt correctly load so cancel out my last reply. Your site looks great!

 

Thanks for taking a look Lisa, I really appreciate it:)

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Still waiting on the new header before my vote is in!!!

 

Ha! I'm still waiting too. I talked with the graphic designer yesterday and was told is was being worked on. It probably didn't help that I changed the color scheme...although I haven't even seen a rough draft yet:(

 

I will keep you updated:)

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ha! I'm still waiting too. I talked with the graphic designer yesterday and was told is was being worked on. It probably didn't help that I changed the color scheme...although I haven't even seen a rough draft yet:(

 

I will keep you updated:)

 

Boy, it's weird how things are connected cosmically. Right after the above post, I received an email from the graphic designer informing me that they were sorry, but that they didn't have the time to work on my branding. They reffered me to another designer, who I haven't contacted yet;)

 

If anyone here knows any reasonably priced designers that create logos/branding, please feel free to post here:)

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. - Jeff Bezos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I like the site...i'm in the process of developing a store for an artist friend of mine and I would really like to use the rounded boxes around your menus. How did you add that to your site?

 

Thanks,

 

T

Link to comment
Share on other sites

olemisst,

Although this feed back is not about designing your site, you will find those boxes in the contributions section.

 

I like the site...i'm in the process of developing a store for an artist friend of mine and I would really like to use the rounded boxes around your menus. How did you add that to your site?

 

Thanks,

 

T

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

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

×
×
  • Create New...