website critique

[seabro]

hi all,

my friend has a website that sells stuff cheap. great products great prices. he is getting alot of traffic and will soon be investing significant sums in both on and offline advertising.

I mentioned last night to him that it lacked the professional look, but he wanted me to elaborate.. i just said a graphic designer needs to be let loose on it. logo, layout, colours...

he wants to be up there with the big boys. the site is OScommerce based.

can you guys give your opinions on the design / layout and give us honest constructive criticism or praise if you think it is due.

we just want some unbiased opinions on what you guys think.

the website is www.whatsgoingcheap.com

[kartel]

My only critism is the site needs a structure as it seems the boxes are placed randomly.

[creospace]

i think 'a little work' is a modest choice, you havent left any room for 'needs a lot of work'. I'm not saying i would vote for that but for a fair poll you need to cover all options.

Out of interest has he sold anything?

Gary

[Coding Monkey]

i think 'a little work' is a modest choice, you havent left any room for 'needs a lot of work'. I'm not saying i would vote for that but for a fair poll you need to cover all options.


And hence why I haven't voted

[seabro]

he averages about 5 sales a day. no exaggeration i have been there when the courier turns up. many times.

do us a favour. if you think it needs work, vote needs a little work even if you think it needs a lot of work.

once the results are clear i will show him the pole.

[creospace]

the results will never be 'clear' as it appears only a little work is required.

Maybe show him this thread, it wil probably have greater affect.

Lets face it if he's selling every day , think what a makeover could do!

[seabro]

yes thanks guys i will show him the thread but i will try to get a few more opinions first..

POST AWAY GUYS AND GALS!

thanks.
seabro

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[soundimage]

Could just be me but the use of Del boys 3 wheeler as a logo, even though it gets the point across, could harm his image as much as help it.

Would anyone buy anything off Del Boy for real?

As he`s getting sales then obviously people are looking past it, but maybe some are not?

Layout of site is not bad, but ive never been a fan of homepages where it scrolls on and on. Makes it feel kinda amaeturish.

Loadsa potential 8)

[Eagle]

Loadsa potential 8)
^Yup. :)

[BlackBerryUK]

Hiya,

I had a look at the site and from a web designer and online marketing manager point of view I really think he needs to do A LOT of work on this website. The main homepage needs some serious work in terms of Usability --> he needs to make sure the location of the links are in the right places. Visitors land on a website and they know what to expect! give them something different and they lose their way and leave.

Personally I would not buy from his website as it does not have the professional look and feel. How can I trust someone that does not look presentable? would you employ someone who isnt presentable? and same with websites! they are the face of the company and it is very very important to work on a professional look and feel for online business that sell products on line.

- He needs to work on the logo
- use a header and footer for the site.
- the payment options he has on the right handside should be in the footer.

- the (about us) link does not work!
- he needs to work on the contact us page as well...

- the search box should be on the left handside of the page.<-- its part of the navigation and its important!

The website code needs some work for example:
- using external CSS sheet
- using external javascript sheet

also I would highly recommend him using CSS instead of tables - this will help him a lot to show more on search engines.

Good luck :)

T

ps: I didn't want to comment on the colours, but thats another story ;)

[crus]

Hi,

Invest in sorting the design out, it needs doing, but don't destroy the traffic sources. Before anything is done look at the logs and see where and how the traffic is coming in as a change that effects this negates the benfit of increased conversion of having a better looking site.

After this is clear use this as a basis for the design and then decide on the amount to spend based on a doubling of your sales.

PM me if you need any help.

D

[WakingDragon]

I think it needs a lot of work, but I like some aspects a lot.

In terms of the user interface it is just awful and home made. I imagine that it is going to say I need to post a cheque or pay by paypal (even though it has the credit card details there).

The navigation looks intelligently structured but there is no need to have the brands all listed on the home page (or if you do, put them in some form of collapsable list or something). At the moment they shove the subscription system right off-screen and that will damage data collection for future marketing.

You give up too much screen space at the top for gibberish that is not related to the core function. I disagree that the Reliant is a problem. I think it has a strong sense of pathos and shows humour and intelligence. It is also a strong brand icon! Anyone genuinely discouraged by that is probably a bit wierd.

Get your disclaimers and T&Cs checked by a lawyer if you haven't already.

The main thing is the poor visual design and "feel" of the site. Get that sorted and I am sure you will have an amazingly simple but successful site.