Hi new website any advise?

[sazkat2]

Hi Sazkat

A few things that I noticed.

The image on your homepage is very over dominating and as it's not a high resolution image it's not really a massive selling point for you. What would be better would be a small rotating selection of top selling items, or specials for the month.

Your logo banner does not return you to the homepage, you have to click on home, which is also giving random errors. It's fairly conventional to have your logo clickable and for that to return customers to the homepage so it would be a good thing to accomodate.

Everything from delivery downwards should be on your top navigation bar not your left, this is best left as your products particularly as you have a long category list.

Free postage on orders over £1000 is really high, and not really much of an incentive, consider setting it at £50 or £100, or something much lower, your average customer is not going to spend £1000 online so its just not going to be a selling point for them.

Personally I don't like the colour scheme at all, but thats my personal opinion but I find it a bit dull, the site doesn't standout, I think a better, brighter, more curvy template would be a better choice.

Your navigation bar is cutting off the end of the words on the real orchid jewellery & terms and conditions, which makes the site look less professional.

It takes a lot of click to actually buy an item, if I click on Buy Now, I can't actually buy now at all, I still have to add it to the cart and then I still have to checkout and then when I get there I'm immediately irritated to find the dreaded register first section. Customers do not want to register first in order to buy an item, they want to add to a basket and then checkout, this should all be streamlined into one process, the more clicks it takes a customer to purchase the more chance you have that they will just abandon their shopping basket and go elsewhere. Customer registration should be taken as part of them giving their delivery and invoice details in order to make it smoother. Yes you want them to be able to login and see their orders and to have that detail captured for newsletters etc, but that should not require prior registration.

Even at registration stage I can see that I still have 5 more stages to go before I have paid and can leave the site, and it's taken 3 click just to get to the registration, I would have most likely left the site by now unless I really really wanted the item.

Hotmail address as other have said is a huge no no, I would not buy jewellery from a site which only uses a hotmail address and which has no postal address. Also it is now a legal requirement to put your company registration and address details on your site and there is a sweep of internet retailers due to be carried out starting form this month to check that all the Distance Selling Act regulations are being complied with & correct terms and conditions are being displayed which includes a no quibble returns policy.

Thanks so much for this I have now looked at the distance selling act and this has helped no end. I will look at all the things you suggested asap. Thanks again this really helped me.

Sazkat2

 

[sazkat2]

Hi, this isn't really advice as such. but have you tried link referral.
This site has been good at generating traffic to mine.

Hi thanks for that but no link?!! Is it a relevant link site?

Thanks

Sarah

 

[sazkat2]

hello, i honestly don't this the site is all that great, did you use a shopping cart script?

the links on the side look like a computer application, and i rarely see them used on the internet apart from on submit buttons.

Hi yes it is a shopping cart script.

With reference to 'i honestly don't this site is all that great' was there any need? I am new to all this and it has taken me months to get this far. I wanted Constructive Critisism and that just came across as critisism to me.

Thanks for the comments on the menu buttons I will look into it.

Thanks

Sazkat2

 

Hi Sazkat2

As a fantastic example of a clean, clear, swift checkout process - besides my own site of course lol then take a look at another ukbf members site http://www.scrapyardsculptures.co.uk

 

[Phil_@_MPP]

I quite like the site, the colour scheme is not too over powering. However I think you could do with a specific logo for your website, as opposed to the typed 'Class Jewellers' in the top left hand corner.

The menu down the left hand side is also very long, I think it would be a good idea to categorise it to shorten it and make it easier to navigate.

Good luck.

P.

 

[JadeRose]

I would tweak your style sheet to indicate which button is highlited when you run your mouse over it.

Regards JR

 

[Sally@CC]

Thanks for your help. I will look at these issues but I do agree on them all!! Its just a matter of trying to figure out how to change them as I am new to this game!! Going to change the menu layout to something more simple this afternoon! For me the customer is sooooo important and you are right I have lost focus somewhere!

Thanks

Sarah

Hi Sarah

I am also very new to this website owning stuff - mine is just 3 weeks old but has been in the planning stage for months. One thing I have had to learn is to pace myself. Every day I feel just a little more desperate and overwhelmed with the amount I have to learn and change and fix glitches and, and, and - the list never stops.

So start a 'change/improve' list but pace yourself, you have a nice site with great products, changes don't need to all be immediate. I was given a great tip about the learning curve - start a document and copy and paste the URL of sites you get info from (for SEO, photos, scripting, etc) and write a short description - that way we feel more organised and can find things again when we want to make changes. I have found it really helpful. But don't think you need to change everything overnight - it will overwhelm you.

I have faith in you and feel sure you will get it right - just remember the customer is No 1.

All the best
Sally

 

[mattonline]

Hi yes it is a shopping cart script.

With reference to 'i honestly don't this site is all that great' was there any need? I am new to all this and it has taken me months to get this far. I wanted Constructive Critisism and that just came across as critisism to me.

Thanks for the comments on the menu buttons I will look into it.

Thanks

Sazkat2

ah, i wasnt trying to be over critical just my thought when i opened the site, i just think it could be done a little better

 

[Fyrebird]

Hi, I just stumbled upon your thread whilst looking for something else.
The one thing that stands out is the images to advertise your stock.
I'm sure you must have some beautiful stock that you could advertise instead. The first words that entered my head when i looked at the site was metal chains. This is due to alot of metal being shown in the images. Instead of one big main image why not use a few advertising different stock?
I would have a look at other jewellers sites to see what images they use and speak to some successful jewellers who sell stock online to see what advice they can give you.
Successful people love to tell you how they did it.
I would also collect email addresses by offering them chance to win something or get something free too. That way if you have any special offers or anything new going on then you can send out an emailer.

Good luck!

 

[kierweb]

Get yourself onto Google Shopping - Its free and all you need to do is generate a feed from your site and upload to Google. Do this once a week to keep it updated.

Sorry I can't post a link as I havn't done enough posts to allow it.

 

It's called Google Base http://www.google.co.uk/base/help/sellongoogle.html

 

[duongo]

Hi.
Not sure how much SEO you have done, but you need to really focus your efforts on that.. SEO is a massive area so would suggest research into this to get your site as optimised as possible..