Feedback on chocolate website

[Jolene Pritchard]

Hi

Any feedback on our new website would be greatly appreciated...

www.chocolate-heaven.net

Thanks

Jo

[gary]

Hi Jo

Overall the site looks good, but... ;)

1) I really don't like embedded frames. They're usually not necessary and it makes the actual shopping area (where you view the goods) very small.

2) The font on the images at the top menu appear blurred, probably because of the style and size of the font.

3) I added something to my basket, but when I clicked on Continue or Checkout nothing happened. I'm using Firefox. It worked on IE.

4) I also found it a little irritating that the mouse pointer didn't change to a hand as normal when hovering over the Add or More Info buttons. Again this is using Firefox - in IE it was fine.

5) Away from the design, £5 delivery charge is very high. If I were going to buy a box of chocolates for £6, I wouldn't bother once I saw the delivery charge is about the same price as the chocolates.

6) The site says it uses SSL secured pages, however because it is framed, customers won't see that. You'll get a lot of dropped carts as a result.

7) Another Firefox/IE quirk - in IE the site is centered, in Firefox it's aligned left.

Hope that helps! :)

Gary

[Jolene Pritchard]

Gary

Thanks very much for the extensive feedback. We certainly need to do some testing in Firefox!

Point taken about the delivery too. Will need to look at some figures.

Great feedback, really appreciated.

Jo

[gary]

No problem, Jo! Firefox is nothing special, so if the site is fully W3C compliant then it should work in all browsers. There are quite a few problems though as you'll see at http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chocolate-heaven.net%2F

Gary

[MikeH]

Hi Jo,

I like the look and design of the site. Easy to use and wandered around the site quite happily. The only thing that I would add is that I am not sure why I should buy chocolate from your site as oposed to another. Why are your chocolates better? Is this on the site? Did I just miss it?

Good luck with the site.

Mike.

[Jolene Pritchard]

Hi Mike

Thanks for the comment. I am rewriting the homepage at the moment and will certainly include our USPs in that.

Glad you liked the design.

Best

Jo

[SillyJokes]

Frames will harm your search engine ranking and should be avoided.

Your menu at the top does not work in terms of navigation. Drop down lists are to be avoided as they must be dropped down, each and everyone, to see if the option I'm looking for is present.

You visited links do not colour so I don't know if I've seen the whole site or not. Any important info should not appear above your top banner - people tend to ignore this area.

Traditionally logo on left, checkout/basket on right. Give people what they expect - they will love you for it.

Your detailed info is not detailed enough. I don't care how much it weighs - I need to know approx how many chocs I'm going to get my lips round and exactly what they are.

On a far more fundmental front who came first chocolate-heaven.net or chocolateheaven.co.uk?

Why would you start a business with exactly the same name as another website? They have the stronger URL and will easily pinch any of your direct type-ins. Their site may lack yor style but it is easier to use and their postage cheap.

Good luck with the site. Everyone loves chocolates.

[Toon]

I like it. Especially like it how I can fill my own box! :-) Sorry, I have a dirty mind.

[kerryn]

Great I join a new website and already find chocolate!! Im supposed to be improving not spending.

I liked the site but the chocolate heaven banner bugged me as it was in the way - well certainly when I looked - if Im shopping on-line and I do alot of this I want to see clearly whats on offer.

Shipping is very expensive in my opinion - Id have to spend alot to make it worth while - look at thorntons website for their shipping costs - not that I shop there much honest.

Im no expert at web design just a shopper
Kerry

[StartUp]

I had a browse which is easy for me being a chocolate lover!

A number of you things in the gift area had no image, I would have been interested if I could see what they were, especiallay at this time of year.

I found it a bit slow, and didn't like the frame thing (mentioned in other posts)

Also I like to know what I am buying, more description of what is in the boxes would make me more likely to buy.

I do like the pick your own service, thats good.

Good luck with it, I'm sure you'll be busy.

Julia

[naditaliacongusto]

Hi Jolene!

I checked your website and...this is the outcome:

1 - Why is your website only in English? If you're thinking to sell also abroad I think it would be worth it to have it translated at least in French, German, Spanish and Italian

2 - I usually don't like when I cannot view the picture of the products I want to buy...I saw that there are some cetegories without pictures...like the one about "Novelty chocolate"....from the descriptions they sounds nice, but I wouldn't buy without seeing them. Remember that if you buy on line you buy above all with your eyes...

3 - If you're selling above all to UK people you should also add some imported chocolate (like the ones you can't find in any deli shops...did you ever try Baci Perugina? they're wee chocs with hazelnuts, wrapped in silver foil with blue little stars and in each of them there is a love poem written in English, French, Spanish and Italian....very appreciated! or for coffee lovers there are pocket coffee: dark chocolate filled with real espresso.) I know that a lot of people were asking me for these when I was living in Scotland. give me a shout if you're interested as I'm going to post them some in ebay.

Hope it helps and good luck with your business! :wink:

Nad

Nad@italiacongusto.com

www.italiacongusto.com