My first ecommerce site
Discussion
http://www.flexdiscountbikes.co.uk/index.php
Ive been working on this for a few weeks and made it live today. Ive built sites before using Wordpress but this is my first go at selling something online. Built it using cubecart which has its issues but has been generall easy to get the products on. Silly things like postage only showing to logged in users will be fixed.
So what do you think? Obviously not aimed at serious mountain bikers but more families who are looking for reasonably priced bikes for themselves and the kids. Offline 65% of our sales are of the branded kids bikes as we undercut the big box retailers.
Any comments, criticisms or abuse is welcome
Ive been working on this for a few weeks and made it live today. Ive built sites before using Wordpress but this is my first go at selling something online. Built it using cubecart which has its issues but has been generall easy to get the products on. Silly things like postage only showing to logged in users will be fixed.
So what do you think? Obviously not aimed at serious mountain bikers but more families who are looking for reasonably priced bikes for themselves and the kids. Offline 65% of our sales are of the branded kids bikes as we undercut the big box retailers.
Any comments, criticisms or abuse is welcome
I searched for 'Raleigh' and nothing came up, just a blank.
The images look a bit too small
I'd make more of the big savings you can make for people
High school musical category is a blank page
I'd leave this out (below), its irrelevant and makes you look like small/new which could put people off:
'We are a relatively young company founded in 2007 in Kingston upon Thames in South West London. Initially we offered financial services to low income households but quickly branched out in to other areas such as photography and other products.'
A good start but keep on working on it
The images look a bit too small
I'd make more of the big savings you can make for people
High school musical category is a blank page
I'd leave this out (below), its irrelevant and makes you look like small/new which could put people off:
'We are a relatively young company founded in 2007 in Kingston upon Thames in South West London. Initially we offered financial services to low income households but quickly branched out in to other areas such as photography and other products.'
A good start but keep on working on it
Frimley111R said:
I searched for 'Raleigh' and nothing came up, just a blank.
We dont sell Raleigh bikes Frimley111R said:
The images look a bit too small
I agree. Unfortunatly its part of the theme I have used. Ive found something that zooms on rollover but I think thats quite annoying when someones navigating around a page.Frimley111R said:
I'd make more of the big savings you can make for people
Will do thanksFrimley111R said:
High school musical category is a blank page
There have been some changes to the branded products over the weekend so I am adding the new ones today.I'd leave this out (below), its irrelevant and makes you look like small/new which could put people off:
Frimley111R said:
'We are a relatively young company founded in 2007 in Kingston upon Thames in South West London. Initially we offered financial services to low income households but quickly branched out in to other areas such as photography and other products.'
I was going to rewrite that page. I think a lot of about us pages are poorly thought out. I notice on our other sites that they are viewed quite regularly so they are clearly important to how people perceive you.Frimley111R said:
A good start but keep on working on it
Cheers. I know Ive got plenty of work in front of me.http://www.flexdiscountbikes.co.uk/admin.php?_g=lo...
Make sure your back-end is secure.
It could take someone with skills to hack this in minutes.
Make sure your back-end is secure.
It could take someone with skills to hack this in minutes.
playerone said:
Cost - usually cheaper than a car or motorcycle for commuting
At £119 I don't think you need the 'usually' haha.I'd tidy up the top of the page a bit. Maybe make the logo a bit larger, and move the search bar down a little, maybe switching places with the tag line. I'd agree with having larger pictures of the bikes. Maybe this isn't possible with the skin you're using though?
The images for 'LADIES 26 INCH DUAL DISC & DUAL SUSPENSION MOUNTAIN BIKE' and 'BOYS 24 INCH DUAL DISC & DUAL SUSPENSION MOUNTAIN BIKE' don't load for me?
Otherwise I think it looks good!
Strangely I'm looking into doing something in the same vein, although for a very specific segment of the cycling world. If you don't mind, I'd really like to ask you a few questions over email sometime?
lawrence hello said:
playerone said:
Cost - usually cheaper than a car or motorcycle for commuting
At £119 I don't think you need the 'usually' haha.I'd tidy up the top of the page a bit. Maybe make the logo a bit larger, and move the search bar down a little, maybe switching places with the tag line. I'd agree with having larger pictures of the bikes. Maybe this isn't possible with the skin you're using though?
The images for 'LADIES 26 INCH DUAL DISC & DUAL SUSPENSION MOUNTAIN BIKE' and 'BOYS 24 INCH DUAL DISC & DUAL SUSPENSION MOUNTAIN BIKE' don't load for me?
Otherwise I think it looks good!
Strangely I'm looking into doing something in the same vein, although for a very specific segment of the cycling world. If you don't mind, I'd really like to ask you a few questions over email sometime?
I cant work out why those images dont show as they display in the backend. Will start again.
The template seems to scale the images itself.
I was going to remove the search bar completely.
playerone said:
Frimley111R said:
A good start but keep on working on it
Cheers. I know Ive got plenty of work in front of me.I like it playerone and when my little lad is a bit older, will probably become a customer. What I would say though, on the contact us page, there is no phone number. I always think twice about ordering stuff online (particularly high value stuff) without a phone number. Just a thought.
superkartracer said:
http://www.flexdiscountbikes.co.uk/admin.php?_g=lo...
Make sure your back-end is secure.
It could take someone with skills to hack this in minutes.
My site gets scanned several times a week by spiders looking for cubecart admin pages.Make sure your back-end is secure.
It could take someone with skills to hack this in minutes.
It's not a bad site... my nit picky 2p are the following:
In the 'Products' box, the homepage is not a product and the global link to return to home should be kept seperate and accessible from all pages on your Nav1 level. I would also keep Gift Certificates and Sale Items separate and place them in little spotlights.
If it was me... I would put your key product sections along the top in tabs. However, just as many people argue that it's best to put it down the left. The main thing is to keep the journey clean, well grouped and uncluttered.
On the ads where the text has gone into 3 lines, the spacing between the bottom of the text and your red price seems dodgy (ie not enough gap - it's almost touching)
The text in 'popular' box is very small, and the numbering is in grey (inconsistent)
The popular box should be higher than the 'Information' box. Think about priorortising things that lead to sales and things like 'About Us', 'Terms & Conditions', 'Privacy Policy' should not take up valuable page real estate. (the footer is generally the accepted placement)
Have you identified how your segmentation needs to be sorted - ie would it be worth breaking kids bikes down into bikes for boys and bikes for girls - if I was a parent looking for a pink barbie bike for a little girl it might help? not sure if you have the product range to do that but it might work? Try to think how your visitors think and look at your sales segments to priorortise - eg if mountain bikes are your bread and butter then put them first.
It's not bad though :-)
In the 'Products' box, the homepage is not a product and the global link to return to home should be kept seperate and accessible from all pages on your Nav1 level. I would also keep Gift Certificates and Sale Items separate and place them in little spotlights.
If it was me... I would put your key product sections along the top in tabs. However, just as many people argue that it's best to put it down the left. The main thing is to keep the journey clean, well grouped and uncluttered.
On the ads where the text has gone into 3 lines, the spacing between the bottom of the text and your red price seems dodgy (ie not enough gap - it's almost touching)
The text in 'popular' box is very small, and the numbering is in grey (inconsistent)
The popular box should be higher than the 'Information' box. Think about priorortising things that lead to sales and things like 'About Us', 'Terms & Conditions', 'Privacy Policy' should not take up valuable page real estate. (the footer is generally the accepted placement)
Have you identified how your segmentation needs to be sorted - ie would it be worth breaking kids bikes down into bikes for boys and bikes for girls - if I was a parent looking for a pink barbie bike for a little girl it might help? not sure if you have the product range to do that but it might work? Try to think how your visitors think and look at your sales segments to priorortise - eg if mountain bikes are your bread and butter then put them first.
It's not bad though :-)
Edited by parakitaMol. on Monday 22 March 17:55
PetrolTed said:
superkartracer said:
http://www.flexdiscountbikes.co.uk/admin.php?_g=lo...
Make sure your back-end is secure.
It could take someone with skills to hack this in minutes.
My site gets scanned several times a week by spiders looking for cubecart admin pages.Make sure your back-end is secure.
It could take someone with skills to hack this in minutes.
escargot said:
I like it playerone and when my little lad is a bit older, will probably become a customer. What I would say though, on the contact us page, there is no phone number. I always think twice about ordering stuff online (particularly high value stuff) without a phone number. Just a thought.
I am going to put up one of our 0800 numbers there and also give a proper address as it looks better than a PO Box.parakitaMol. said:
It's not a bad site... my nit picky 2p are the following:
In the 'Products' box, the homepage is not a product and the global link to return to home should be kept seperate and accessible from all pages on your Nav1 level. I would also keep Gift Certificates and Sale Items separate and place them in little spotlights.
If it was me... I would put your key product sections along the top in tabs. However, just as many people argue that it's best to put it down the left. The main thing is to keep the journey clean, well grouped and uncluttered.
On the ads where the text has gone into 3 lines, the spacing between the bottom of the text and your red price seems dodgy (ie not enough gap - it's almost touching)
The text in 'popular' box is very small, and the numbering is in grey (inconsistent)
The popular box should be higher than the 'Information' box. Think about priorortising things that lead to sales and things like 'About Us', 'Terms & Conditions', 'Privacy Policy' should not take up valuable page real estate. (the footer is generally the accepted placement)
Have you identified how your segmentation needs to be sorted - ie would it be worth breaking kids bikes down into bikes for boys and bikes for girls - if I was a parent looking for a pink barbie bike for a little girl it might help? not sure if you have the product range to do that but it might work? Try to think how your visitors think and look at your sales segments to priorortise - eg if mountain bikes are your bread and butter then put them first.
It's not bad though :-)
Thanks for the reply.In the 'Products' box, the homepage is not a product and the global link to return to home should be kept seperate and accessible from all pages on your Nav1 level. I would also keep Gift Certificates and Sale Items separate and place them in little spotlights.
If it was me... I would put your key product sections along the top in tabs. However, just as many people argue that it's best to put it down the left. The main thing is to keep the journey clean, well grouped and uncluttered.
On the ads where the text has gone into 3 lines, the spacing between the bottom of the text and your red price seems dodgy (ie not enough gap - it's almost touching)
The text in 'popular' box is very small, and the numbering is in grey (inconsistent)
The popular box should be higher than the 'Information' box. Think about priorortising things that lead to sales and things like 'About Us', 'Terms & Conditions', 'Privacy Policy' should not take up valuable page real estate. (the footer is generally the accepted placement)
Have you identified how your segmentation needs to be sorted - ie would it be worth breaking kids bikes down into bikes for boys and bikes for girls - if I was a parent looking for a pink barbie bike for a little girl it might help? not sure if you have the product range to do that but it might work? Try to think how your visitors think and look at your sales segments to priorortise - eg if mountain bikes are your bread and butter then put them first.
It's not bad though :-)
Edited by parakitaMol. on Monday 22 March 17:55
I have changed my mind 10 times about catergories because there are so many ways to present them. I am going to put the bikes in multiple catergories when I add the new kids bikes. So Spiderman will be in "Boys Bikes" and "Spiderman Bikes". I spent a whole day last week adding products that were replaced over the weekend
I am stil getting to grips with the template to tweak the little things. Cubecart isnt that friendly to tweak compared to the cms' I am used to.
PetrolTed said:
superkartracer said:
http://www.flexdiscountbikes.co.uk/admin.php?_g=lo...
Make sure your back-end is secure.
It could take someone with skills to hack this in minutes.
My site gets scanned several times a week by spiders looking for cubecart admin pages.Make sure your back-end is secure.
It could take someone with skills to hack this in minutes.
playerone said:
parakitaMol. said:
It's not a bad site... my nit picky 2p are the following:
In the 'Products' box, the homepage is not a product and the global link to return to home should be kept seperate and accessible from all pages on your Nav1 level. I would also keep Gift Certificates and Sale Items separate and place them in little spotlights.
If it was me... I would put your key product sections along the top in tabs. However, just as many people argue that it's best to put it down the left. The main thing is to keep the journey clean, well grouped and uncluttered.
On the ads where the text has gone into 3 lines, the spacing between the bottom of the text and your red price seems dodgy (ie not enough gap - it's almost touching)
The text in 'popular' box is very small, and the numbering is in grey (inconsistent)
The popular box should be higher than the 'Information' box. Think about priorortising things that lead to sales and things like 'About Us', 'Terms & Conditions', 'Privacy Policy' should not take up valuable page real estate. (the footer is generally the accepted placement)
Have you identified how your segmentation needs to be sorted - ie would it be worth breaking kids bikes down into bikes for boys and bikes for girls - if I was a parent looking for a pink barbie bike for a little girl it might help? not sure if you have the product range to do that but it might work? Try to think how your visitors think and look at your sales segments to priorortise - eg if mountain bikes are your bread and butter then put them first.
It's not bad though :-)
Thanks for the reply.In the 'Products' box, the homepage is not a product and the global link to return to home should be kept seperate and accessible from all pages on your Nav1 level. I would also keep Gift Certificates and Sale Items separate and place them in little spotlights.
If it was me... I would put your key product sections along the top in tabs. However, just as many people argue that it's best to put it down the left. The main thing is to keep the journey clean, well grouped and uncluttered.
On the ads where the text has gone into 3 lines, the spacing between the bottom of the text and your red price seems dodgy (ie not enough gap - it's almost touching)
The text in 'popular' box is very small, and the numbering is in grey (inconsistent)
The popular box should be higher than the 'Information' box. Think about priorortising things that lead to sales and things like 'About Us', 'Terms & Conditions', 'Privacy Policy' should not take up valuable page real estate. (the footer is generally the accepted placement)
Have you identified how your segmentation needs to be sorted - ie would it be worth breaking kids bikes down into bikes for boys and bikes for girls - if I was a parent looking for a pink barbie bike for a little girl it might help? not sure if you have the product range to do that but it might work? Try to think how your visitors think and look at your sales segments to priorortise - eg if mountain bikes are your bread and butter then put them first.
It's not bad though :-)
Edited by parakitaMol. on Monday 22 March 17:55
I have changed my mind 10 times about catergories because there are so many ways to present them. I am going to put the bikes in multiple catergories when I add the new kids bikes. So Spiderman will be in "Boys Bikes" and "Spiderman Bikes". I spent a whole day last week adding products that were replaced over the weekend
I am stil getting to grips with the template to tweak the little things. Cubecart isnt that friendly to tweak compared to the cms' I am used to.
Can you tag your products multiple ways to create a 'sort by' search function (so that you can search for Spiderman, Boys Bikes and Kids Bikes would all return the Boys SpiderMan bike.
Look at how other people do it well for some ideas - I think this site gets it right: http://www.schuh.co.uk/ it has thousands of products to display with vague catetorisations - something that is considered a shoe by one person is considered an sandal by another! so it needs to cross reference very well and display a huge number of individual SKUs. It also segments very clearly on the main division (mens and womens). It also promotes its sale items well and reduces the clutter to a minimal level at the bottom of the page. I think its well ordered - its also very successful.
playerone said:
escargot said:
I like it playerone and when my little lad is a bit older, will probably become a customer. What I would say though, on the contact us page, there is no phone number. I always think twice about ordering stuff online (particularly high value stuff) without a phone number. Just a thought.
I am going to put up one of our 0800 numbers there and also give a proper address as it looks better than a PO Box.
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