Soft Launch - first store almost complete

[totalnumpty]

My first osC store is going live this month even though it's not yet complete.

 

http://www.gazlannathai.com/store

 

osC 2.2 RC1 was first installed last July and I've had a steep learning curve having never looked at PHP or SQL prior to then (didn't even use CSS with HTML either) but I've pretty much got it whipped into shape. I'm still finalising some of the info stuff and some of the terms of sale etc need rethrashed, but that's a project for over the next few weeks.

 

There's lots of supplemental info pages about or supplier groups etc to be written and added (we support ethnic minorities and refugees from neighbouring countries here in Northern Thailand) but I've got the page holders for all that into place ready for the final text. A small range of inventory has been added (way less than 0.1% of what the final total will be, but it's still several hundred items added for site proving).

 

The shipping modules took over two months to complete - 9 shipping services, quite literally to every country on the planet, with manually created zone lists and rates per service per zone calculated per 10 or 20 gram weight band (destination dependant). There's also about a dozen payment methods installed (zone dependant) and the default modules for shipping and payment have been heavily hacked to fit with operating and despatching from Thailand.

 

Over 30 other contribs have been squeezed in - some simple ones such as the payments box and PayPal seal on the home page, or the sub-category text boxes contrib (an excellent one and incredibly useful as you'll see) through to some much deeper and more complex ones. I had to rip out CCGV after discovering it wouldn't work with RC1 and the maintainers refuse to make it work with RC versions, so I'm looking for a replacement. Also the Enhanced Contact us with Visual Verification contrib wouldn't work properly and I could only get the verification to work properly on account creation - I've also heavily modded parts of that. I also had to ditch Terra & Vger's version of the official PayPal contrib, and switch to AlexStudio's - same reasons as for CCGV.

 

I've enjoyed learning the insides of osC and wrestling it into something that fits our needs. The results are not too flashy and sophisticated, more traditional and conservative to fit with our operations here - I hope you like what I've achieved so far?

 

There are further contribs yet to be added (Wish List, Gift Vouchers etc) some already identified, others still to be so, and of course, the mammoth task of creating almost 500,000 unique line items of inventory, plus upgrading all the current photos before adding them to the new store. This one will also be integrated with a WordPress blog later in the year - I'm hoping to find a single-login bridge.

 

I've also begun playing with a second store (MS2.2 - just to see what the differences are) and am starting to think about a third store to be done under RC3a.

 

Wish me luck

 

Gaz

[Obewanz]

I would get rid of all of the pay stuff along the top navigation header space, otherwise it appears to be a fairly stock osc implementation.

[Guest]

As with the above remove the images in the header.

 

You also need the popup image fix as your images do not pop up correctly, just search the contribution area and you will find it.

 

Move your payment box to the top, as a customer I like to see what my options are as soon as I hit the home page of a website.

 

Remove your languages box if English is the only language your website is offering.

 

Your main buttons like continue, checkout, reviews etc all are hard to read, it is the white writing, I would suggest altering it.

 

Why show off your items on eBay? I deal with a lot of eBayers and why you would want them to go to your eBay shop to buy your items which will increase your eBay fees is beyond me!

 

As the first poster said, it isn't much different to the stock version of osCommerce, it is a shame really because osCommerce can become a lot more then what it is.

[Obewanz]

You know Richard just presented an extremely valuable point (IMHO). Why would you want to send someone from your site to eBay to make their purchase? Wouldn't you rather they purchase from your site and save the eBay fees?

 

I can see this if you only had one-off items that you auctioned and used your store as a "holding" place for the items that didn't sell on eBay, but I wouldn't want to give eBay anymore of my revenue than I absolutely had to. (They're already rich enough!) I would be linking my eBay auctions to my website so that customers could go to the store and purchase outside of eBay.

[totalnumpty]

Thanks for the input guys

 

I was undecided about the payment logos, unsure if it was just being in Thailand causing slow loading, but you've confirmed the need to get rid of them.

 

The eBay question is a short term measure - until I have the store stocked fully, some popular ranges could use the extra attention and bids (to get past the sold at opening list price problem that has infested eBay in the last couple of years). Once the store is fully stocked, then the eBay links will disappear from the website and the on-site stock include what was previously on eBay (I'm still using eBay for customer database building - 8000 eBay user details harvested from 5 years on there, and growing daily ;) ). It also accesses the eBay feedback pages until the store is fully operational and has user reviews etc - again giving browsers additional reasons to buy.

 

Language box - noted - I keep forgetting to comment it out in the column_right.php

 

Payments box - I don't really want it dominating life the way it does, and it would be even worse at the top of the column (in my way of thinking) - I'm thinking of shifting it into the middle between the welcome text and new additions on the home page, and under the buttons border at the bottom of single item inventory pages (the one with Buy and Continue in it under the item description). What do you guys think - good idea?

 

Sorry to hear you don't like the buttons - I hunted ages to find them - As Helen Mirren said in the movie "The Queen" - "In this country we do things quietly and with dignity" - it was that sort of ethos I was going for with the overall colour scheme and visuals. I'll have another hunt to see if I can find something slightly "stronger" without breaking the "peace and quiet" of the design...

.... wondering how you've set your screen brightness and contrast as they're really clear and easy to read on mine.

Anyone else having an issue with them?

 

Pop-up image - which one? Not sure what you mean here - more info and advice appreciated.

 

Did anyone try opening an account or doing a test purchase (abandoning before final payment) there's a lot of work went into the shipping and payments in the checkout flow and I'd be interested in comments and opinions about that as well. Also the email Contact Us page (the envelope under the Skype buttons) is not stock and had a lot of tweaking - remember I'd never even heard of php before starting this store and had always been an html user.

 

 

 

As I said - thanks for the input, gives me some lines to tweak

 

Gaz

[totalnumpty]

Payment logos - moved them into a band in the middle of the home page for now - stops them appearing on every page

 

Language box - commented out

 

Write a review box moved under payment types box in column_right - elevates the payment types box slightly

 

Column_left re-ordered with off-site alternate sales channels now at bottom of column = less prominent.

 

..... thinking about the overall visualisation - thanks for the input

 

Gaz