A Simple Online Store
This week, I’ve redesigned my wife’s online store, Embroidery and More. Her site has gradually shifted to 100% children’s items as that’s been the far majority of her business online. Offline, shirt designs for local business seems to be her niche.
The Tools
What CMS platform is the store built on? NONE. I’ve looked at and tested multiple shopping cart systems and haven’t found the right fit as of yet. So at the moment, the site is powered by static web pages and Paypal’s free shopping cart solution. In the future, I would like to add a full shopping cart if I find the right one(that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg). I’m undecided what to do as far as the domain name. Presently, the store sits on a .info domain. I also own the .org address of the same name.
The Design
As for the design, I wanted the store to have a simple, clean design with a color scheme that screams KIDS! I’m very pleased with the results. IMO, the different shades of blue provide just the right contrast for the subtle pinks, greens, and yellows.
I would love to get some feedback. Constructive criticism anyone?
Under Quilted Backpacks, I noticed that the Stephen Joseph Backpack - Daisy is unavailable, but there is still the PayPal order form for it. Personally, I think this causes unnecessary confusion.
In the Go-Go Backpacks section, the items are called GoGo Backpacks - Name. You should decide on whether it’s Go-Go or GoGo and stick with one.
Also in the GoGo as well as the Bibs sections, some item photos have different background colours. I also note that some pictures have borders and some doesn’t. Not a big deal, but standardised images will look more professional.
Another thing is the contact page. Some sort of introduction would be nice. eg. You can use the following form to contact…. Also the contact number should be explained a bit. ie. Or you can call Mrs Baggett at 662-840-6203 for more information.
Those are what I can think of at the moment. I’ll ping you if I can think of anything else.
Thanks Azmeen for taking the time. I’m going to start working on some of the things you mentioned right away!
It looks like you you’ve got a good start with a neat niche. I know I wouldn’t ever have the skills to put together products like that.
Here are a couple suggestions as far as shopping carts go. I’m not sure if your looking for an open source based cart or not , but I’ve heard some good things about this .asp based cart http://www.pagedowntech.com/products/. Its got a lot of great features and I think the price is pretty affordable. I’ve also heard good things about OSCommerce as well. http://www.oscommerce.com/solutions/oscommerce
Good luck on your shopping cart search, and it looks like you are on the right track with your online store.
Hey Anthony,
My first instinct was to click on the homepage graphic but it’s not a link. It would help if it clicked through to the product page. Also, in IE7 the product pages content falls below the sidebar.
One of the other things you might consider is adding a bit more text, especially titles (H1, H2) for SEO purposes.
I use the Paypal cart (in conjunction with Payloadz) for digital downloads. It’s a good inexpensive option.
OS Commerce is free. I looked at that but couldn’t wrap my head around it at the time. And there might be some good integrated solutions with a CMS like Drupal or Joomla.
I also noticed the sidebar links on the Contact page is different from the other pages.
Also noted that the <title> for all pages except Contact are the same. This might not be good SEO-wise.
Wow! I can’t believe I missed that IE thing. I’m sure I can fix that.
I agree about the H1 and H2 tags. That was actually in the plans………..just haven’t gone back to do it yet…….this thing is hot off the press.
I’ve spent a little time with OS Commerce and it’s little sister, Zen Cart, and both of those carts are a complete nightmare code wise. I actually have a local install of OS Commerce right now that I’ve redesigned(layout wise), but the code is such a mess, I’m not feeling real confident about it.
I guess I launched a little before I should have. I wanted to replace her past design because it was more of an elastic layout, and it just wasn’t my thing. I’m going to be working these issues out.
Thank both of you guys for the feedback.
Clarke, I’m going to take a look at PDShop. It’s one of the more affordable ones I’ve seen.