Salt Water Aquarium Store Review

[redbelly]

I am new to os commerce so I am sure i will have some newbie questions for you. I have had a fair amount of help on the site from a buddy as i honestly dont know how to do coding of any type (well maybe some basic C++ but..). Although I did put in the products any and all coding that was done is thanks to my buddy Dave.

Have a look:

http://www.ottawainverts.com/shopping/

 

The front page to the website will be changed to the following link shortly:

http://www.daryldean.com/ottawainverts/

 

I have been thinking of purchasing a skin. Is it worth it? I was looking at either of the two links below. We will be changing the business name and site very shortly however so i will probably wait until we change over.

http://www.templatemonster.com/oscommerce-...ates/15427.html

http://www.templatemonster.com/oscommerce-...ates/17145.html

[Guest]

Hi Patrick,

 

First I don't know if we are supposed to discuss outside services such as templates. (Went to the pages and looking at the requirements as I understand them, says you need Adobe Dreamweaver (or any php-editor) and Adobe Photoshop CS+; - if you already have those, then build your own template.)

 

I clicked on several products to find they had no descriptions. The last one checked did have a description but no picture. That description said this: "Due to variations within each species, your aquatic life may not look identical to the image provided." - Ahh... Now maybe your clientel is such that they don't need or want descriptions about the products they are buying online but I'll bet that good descriptions written from a marketing standpoint will bring more sales. (You said you put the products in)

[redbelly]

First I don't know if we are supposed to discuss outside services such as templates. (Went to the pages and looking at the requirements as I understand them, says you need Adobe Dreamweaver (or any php-editor) and Adobe Photoshop CS+; - if you already have those, then build your own template.)

 

I clicked on several products to find they had no descriptions. The last one checked did have a description but no picture. That description said this: "Due to variations within each species, your aquatic life may not look identical to the image provided." - Ahh... Now maybe your clientel is such that they don't need or want descriptions about the products they are buying online but I'll bet that good descriptions written from a marketing standpoint will bring more sales. (You said you put the products in)

Oh I didnt know that! oops sorry. I agree though, if i had dream weaver and photoshop why would i pay for it! Part of the problem here for me is i pride myself in not having photoshop on my computer. In my business there are quite a few companies that modify their coral pictures to look way better than it actually is. So i take pride in letting my customers know that my pictures are unmodified and that i dont even own photo chop to do such mods. Is there a place where i could ask for someone off this board to create a skin or help me make the layout nicer and cleaner?

 

Thanks for the input on the live goods side. I am working on these descriptions and pics right now actually.

How does the format look though?

[Guest]

Hi Patrick,

 

I don't think you can hire anyone here to do skinning for you. Many people in this forum topic will be happy to let you know if your design doesn't look good. <insert sinister sounding laugh> I can tell you from experience that skinning osCommerce really isn't that hard. I think the first thing is getting/having an idea about how you would like the finished site to look. (This is always my hardest part.) Looking at templates and especially other sites can be a good way to get ideas. I suggest avoiding too many header/skinning images, especially large byte wise pictures. Changing column widths, fonts, and colors are pretty easy to do. (Done in application_top and stylesheet.css) Changing how some of the stuff gets set on the page may require modifying product_info.php, html_output.php, and the like (Yes, coding)

 

One of my frequent site criticisms is that the product (and other) images are too big (byte wise). I took the image fightingconch.jpg and loaded it into my GIMP2.0 (opensource software ie:best quality software and free to boot). I resaved the image at 65% quality and didn't notice any degradation in visual quality. The byte size went from 73 kB to 23.2 kB, a 66% reduction. Astrea.jpg loaded at 39.5 Kb and was resaved at 12.9 Kb.

 

Lose the languages box if there is only one language. And maybe lose the counts on the categories. (Admin configuration setting.) I don't know your industry so it is difficult to assess how accurately you are presenting the information. (I HAD to learn part the "Metal Fabricating" industry to do a major site. Eventually the client had me take their annual "salesman's product knowledge test" {at $35.00/hr} and I got the best score.) Since the site is titled "Ottawa Inverts" I would assume that the LIVING spectrum of aquarium supplies is your main marketing area. For the category descriptions I would suggest talking about "Inverts", "Corals", "Clams", and "Live Rock". Maybe talking about what makes each one special or detailing their needs (group).

 

So far your site is looking good.

[redbelly]

One of my frequent site criticisms is that the product (and other) images are too big (byte wise).

 

Thanks!

 

I see what you mean about the size of the pics and I will fix that tonight. Plus it chews up bandwidth so reducing the file size would probably be good. I never thought of this.

 

 

 

Lose the languages box if there is only one language.

How do i do this?

I cant seem to figure this one out. I would assume that the options for removing any of the bxes on the left and right are in the same area but i dont know where that would be..

 

 

I don't know your industry so it is difficult to assess how accurately you are presenting the information.

Thats understandable :) We are a bit of a niche market. By the end of the week we would like to switch the domain and company name over to Reef Canada as we have expanded beyong Ottawa and beyong just carrying invertabrates (inverts for short). I would actually like to keep Ottawa inverts up and running but make it wholesale of invertabrate.

 

 

Another question if you dont mind. Can i make it so that people can view the site but have to log in to see the prices?

How would i do this?

[Guest]

Your site loaded very quickly tonight. The image sizes are much better. Excellent!!!

 

To modify the right column: open catalog/includes/column_right.php for editing. Towards the bottom of the file find:

 

if (substr(basename($PHP_SELF), 0, 8) != 'checkout') {

include(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'languages.php');

include(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'currencies.php');

}

 

and comment out the offending line:

 

if (substr(basename($PHP_SELF), 0, 8) != 'checkout') {

// include(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'languages.php');

include(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'currencies.php');

}

 

(you can delete it, but commenting out allows easier reversals). (You can modify the individual boxes from their location at catalog/includes/ boxes/).

 

Yes you can, Prices for Logged-In Users Only. Don't know how well it works, but give it a try.

 

(Another sorta related one is Seperate Pricing Per Customer)

 

Have a good Evening

[redbelly]

Thanks for you help!

I was able to do the mod so that logged in user could only see the price and since then my data base has been growing very quickly of clients. I have recieved a few complaints which is to be expected. The price for different user mod was a bit beyond me so I will be getting help on this one.

 

 

I do have another question though. If you look at this aquarium site:

premiumaquatics.com

They have a "hacker safe" by scan alert peice on their front page and throughout their web page. Can this be integrated into OSC?

Is buySafe as secure as Scan Alert?

[jhande]

Hey Patrick,

 

Off to a nice start. I would hold off on purchasing a template and have a go with your buddy at changing the layout yourselves. You can utilize the STS contribution to really expand the design layout utilizing HTML code.

 

Regarding Photoshop, well I use it all the time and not for "doctoring" up pics but to resize/crop them and optimize the file size for speedier web loads.

 

Here's a nice place to start looking for info on how-to edit you osC shop - Knowledge Base / Table of Contents, it even has an explaination of the coding found in your stylesheet.css file.

 

I would have to agree that some sort of information should be given in the product description area. I'm familar with some tropical fish, mostly fresh water, but it would be nice to read something about the species. Oh I don't know... something like this species makes a good home for a cleaner shrimp. It's main diet consists of brine shrime. Has a slow grow rate and stays small (maximum size 5") so makes for a good forground attraction. Species found throughout the Great Barrier Reef. Something along those lines.

 

I'm not to sure I like the idea of having to create an account in order to see the prices. It's one thing if you where wholesale and only your retailer with an account with you could view your prices. But when I as a regular customer see that, it triggers an alarm - "Must be high prices" and I look else where.

 

By the way, I prefered the second template to the first, 17145

 

Just my thoughts. ;)

[none_uk]

site looks neat and simple.

 

I have photoshop, i have dreamweaver but i dont know where to start making templates for my oscommerce. if some one knows a tutorial that would be great. Oh dont say STS...that did nothing for me

 

I tried some old osc templates, they have some major changes not every user friendly when it comes to modifying.