alougher Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 I've had all sorts of comments regarding our site..for which I am very grateful. However after being ranked top 3 in all search engines for a week and making minimal sales, I just want to ensure that customers are not being turned away because of technical issues. A lot of people have commented on slow loading times and that the site is a little "unintuitive". Obviously have spent far too long staring at the screen and a lot of things go unnoticed. For this reason I would be grateful of any further comments you might have. www.hogplum.com Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattice Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 I like your site. It's clean. Perhaps a bit 'popular design' for the crowd you're trying to reach, that's all I can think of. Regarding your sales... Don't know if you've sold over the web before but being ranked nr. 1 in all major search engines will not automatically bring you sales. Price, product, credability ... all those things outway search rankings IMHO. HTH Mattice "Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainbow007 Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 well, I had a look at your shop and would say, the design is okay. To my believe there are too many pics for the categories on the front page. You may reduce them or add a couple of products on this position. The customer need to see some prices, we found that with our shop where we had 2,000 visitors per day and 5 sales;-) Since we randomize the products page its getting slowly better and I found that customers buying more. Just my 2 cents rainbow007 www.moddingstore.de (See the difference between the German and the English pages) Besser heute als morgen...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burt Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 These are my opinions only, so ignore as you feel fit: What is the point of having the category images on your front page, when you already have them withing the categories infobox ? I would prefer for all Osc sites to show 4 or 5 products with buy now buttons on the front page. ------------------------------------------------------ Name of product & price ------------------------------------------------------ Image | Short description here | | ------------------------------------------------------ Review & buy now button here ------------------------------------------------------ Repeat for a different product 2 or 3 more times... And when the page is refreshed you get another 4 or 5 random products showing there... Thats what I think... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burt Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 In fact, much like the layout for "products_new.php" but with 5 random products on every page reload... I think that would entice people into your store... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvo Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 Hi there, if someone find your site as address below, would see all the directory and nothing else.... might it be the reason? http://hogplum.com/catalog/ Salvo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wizardsandwars Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 Well, I have two bits of advice for you. First, is that you HAVE to offer an alternative to PayPal. We used to use only paypal, and had several complaints, and several people that signed up, but didn't purchase anything. Then we added "2checkout", and sales nearly DOUBLED. There are alot of people out there that don't like PayPal. Concerning PayPal, though, you are going to want to install Pablo's PayPal IPN contrib. Your shop currently doesn't pre-fill the customers infor into the paypal text boxes. This is a MAJOR turnoff, as the customer has to fill out all of thier information AGAIN. Also, you're going too need the IPN for people that dont hit the continue button. Another thing that people don't really like is having to fill out so much information to create an acount. You may want to consider removing the required "gender", Phone, and optional Fax fields. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit. If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alougher Posted December 3, 2002 Author Share Posted December 3, 2002 How about the Purchase without account mod? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattice Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 Don't like that since it is quite sloppy on the db part.... although I have not tried the most recent version... I prefer what DV-Depot.com does: The login box and create_account on a single page... It's merely a matter of copy/paste but looks so much more 'user-friendly' to me... Mattice "Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alougher Posted December 3, 2002 Author Share Posted December 3, 2002 Burt, is there a mod to get a group of random products on the first page instead of where we have the category pictures? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burt Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 I don't think there is, but I can easy knock up a solution if you are prepared to wait. There is one something like it called "cieto" or something...I'm not sure if that is randomised products though... Have a look in the contributions section... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alougher Posted December 3, 2002 Author Share Posted December 3, 2002 Lemme look and let you know if I find it or not. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_C Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 Webmastering issues aside, I really like the look of your site. To help improve its chi a bit try putting the sideboxes on the right instead of the left. "It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word." -- Andrew Jackson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CC Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 Al Get the featured products mod. This does random pictures on the mainpage. And it gives you the option on what you want to show on the mainpage. It does this by the usual green/red light on/off mode. It randomises the products for you each time the page is refreshed. CC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 Your site is very clean in its design. Very easy to navigate. I tend to agree about the Paypal issues. There is a lot of shops who use paypal and people dont like that at all - we experience the same thing. Its best to use a '2checkout' or a domestic solution. If your serious about making money, you need to spend money on the right transactional tools. Otherwise the only thing I can recommend is to edit the footer. The footer bar (i.e. you have had ____ requests) should be removed. and the banners shouldnt be used just yet. Check out paulharris.com or dv-depot.com and see what they have done with the footer Overall - a good site! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alougher Posted December 4, 2002 Author Share Posted December 4, 2002 Thanks all for the comments so far, have taken a lot on board and will be making modifications accordingly. One last thing, if any of you are search engine gurus I would appreciate some assistance in getting my keywords - target customers correct. Right now, we are ranked top of google, yahoo, altavista, lycos, msn etc. but making no sales and having terrible CTR. Based upon our site content, and the stuff we sell I would appreciate any suggestions for keywords. I've been toying around with variations but have stuck with: Candle holders candle holder picture frames candles and candle holders glass candle holder iron candle holders metal candle holders pewter candle holders home decor I guess a lot of it is trial and error and I'd really like to try out any suggestions you may have. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elbavaro Posted December 4, 2002 Share Posted December 4, 2002 As fas as your keywords are concerned - I would try to "missspell" or "write them together" as well. Like : candleholder homedecor People tend to type in search words in rather strange ways sometimes. Best Regards, EL Bavaro :xmas: EL Bavaro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alougher Posted December 4, 2002 Author Share Posted December 4, 2002 I've implemented the featured products mod but cannot get it displayed on the main page, below the list of categories at the bottom which is where I'd like it. Can someone post the code from their catalog/default.php file so I can put it in mine. Mine is missing it for some reason. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattice Posted December 4, 2002 Share Posted December 4, 2002 Candle holders candle holder picture frames candles and candle holders glass candle holder iron candle holders metal candle holders pewter candle holders home decor = 8x candle(s) -> counted once by SE = 7x holder(s) -> counted once by SE Or are you using different keywords on different pages? "Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommaciejewski Posted September 20, 2003 Share Posted September 20, 2003 I also got this ... but I had a successful store one that I wrote myself ... It was very very ugly but straight forward ... It had no bells and whistles at all just product listing I have noticed that switching to OSCommerce cut my sales to 1/3 of what I had ... I think one of the big issues is that it forces people to create an account and login in order to make a sale ... I really dont like the fact that a random user can not just log inand buy something without creating an account. Another thing that I dont like is that people can only see the new products on the front page ( is there a way to fix this ) I should be able to put the products that I want on the front page ... The whole flow seems to be too much work for the "spontaneous" customer. There are just too many steps How can I improve this Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asim0s Posted September 20, 2003 Share Posted September 20, 2003 well curently os commerce admin panel doesnt offer alot of GUI features but believe me thats not a setback at all im currently setting up a computer shop here with no php knwoledge at all but thank god the community behind oscommerce is amazing the people are really helpful and if you cant find an answer simply search the forum also the ms2 release is "modular" that everything can be customized its just about trial and error thing and backup always :D:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burt Posted September 20, 2003 Share Posted September 20, 2003 I'm not sure why "creating an account" is such a problem. Surely you need to take some details from the customer in order to ship the product to him ? So the only extra thing you are asking for is a password. If you get a good copywriter to help you can make it sound as though creating an account is a great thing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommaciejewski Posted September 20, 2003 Share Posted September 20, 2003 well I only use paypal for payment ... the deal is that people now have a two step process .... 1 to create an account with me then 2 to enter in all of the information again with paypal ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mediajuggle Posted September 20, 2003 Share Posted September 20, 2003 Where can I find this "Pablo's PayPal IPN" module? My Contribution Music Download Store Template http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,4275 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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