FairtradeStore.com - Feedback appreciated for new Irish startup

grinds

We would greatly appreciate some feedback on a new Irish startup e-commerce store. FairtradeStore.com ( http://www.fairtradestore.com ) is currently in beta mode and we are uploading products and trying to get suppliers onboard.

We just went live a few weeks ago and hope to grow the site gradually over the coming months. We would also appreciate any feedback on methods by which we can market the website.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.

VMotion

grinds, this is very good. Straight to the point and has professional look.
Do you have ssl cert though? Registration page will preferably be secured.

grinds

Thank VMotion - this is something we haven't got round to yet. We have an ssl cert ready to go but just have not bolted it on yet. Payment is fully secure in any case and user data is also encrypted. I think we are not alone by a long way in not having an ssl cert on a registration page but thanks for flagging this all the same - it is on the to-do list.

Collumbo

Second that... nice website. Clean and simple. nice niche too. best of luck with it.

If there is one thing I would comment on it's the speed... it was slow. Then I see that the IP is in Australia... so probably nothing to worry about

Edit: actually... where do you think your customers will be? Ireland or UK is probably as good a place as any to host... if you think you'll be selling to UK... just a though.

grinds

Thanks Collumbo...

We think our target market will be between the US and UK.. Probably the US market would be the one we will go with initially..

Therefore it would probably help to get the site hosted in the US..

I'm sure that would improve speed and have also heard that it could improve our Google ranking there but amn't sure if this is a myth or not??

Thanks again for taking the time to review the site and for your valuable feedback.

tricky D

Google Webmaster Tools enables you specify your geo market.

On the homepage I have to click the product image to get further, make the product title clickable also like on the product listing pages.

Pop an email address onto your contact page as a clickable mailto.

On the productlistings and individual product page, make the prices bold like on the featured ones on the homepage.

Users should be able to purchase as a guest without registering. Many users do not want to form some relationship by registering and a significant percentage will bail out which is bad for your business.

Each time I vist I get the region prompt. You could have some cookie or similar function to bypass this for subsequent visits.

Interesting handling of the about us info, kinda like it.

Your 404 page needs to be replaced with something more useful like a sitemap.

Clicking on a product listing image opens a new tab. Better to use a popup function like highslide or lightbox.

The thumbnail paroduct images are resized using a bad practice. This image http://www.fairtradestore.com/fairfiles/products/p_1_921.jpg is 1788x1692 which for starters is way too big and is used for both the thumbnail and the fullsize image. It is also resized using img height and width to 265x280. The thumbnail image should separate and be resized to 265x280 which is its display size and the popup image no bigger than around 600 in height which should be its display size.

Check for spelling errors eg. Delivery Information has 2. More on other pages.

VMotion

tricky D is totally correct here, it is better to remove the registration requirement before the checkout, you should redirect to payment page, not the login one.

Good luck!

grinds

Thanks tricky D and Vmotion.

You're right.. I think we need to remove the registration part of the site into the checkout.

Also we will be implementing a lightbox asap.

Just about to pop an email address onto your contact page as a clickable mailto...

Thank you both so much for the feedback..

All the best.

mahamageehad

Really nice looking website!

Like tricky D says I really like how the About Us info is given. Very unusual.
I also agree that the product names need to be links as well. And that the product prices should be bold.

This bit is probably a little picky but you should sort out the padding issues on the item pages in the product description. Just to give it a more uniform effect. Some descriptions have a line of space before the text begins, some have none. Very very minor and most people wouldn't notice it, but it would be very easy to fix.

When you search by suppliers it would be no harm to have the suppliers logo on the results page as well, the only reference to some of the logos is on the homepage. Maybe a small blurb about the companies as well?? Or at least a link back to the relevant part of the Browse by supplier page.

In the fairtrade section in the footer the About fairtrade and the why fairtrade links both link to the same page. The login link in the footer doesn't work.

One final thing- some of the text in the some of the pictures is a little blurry? Eg. "This site is green" and the smaller text on the "gifts for kids" picture.

I really like the colour scheme though and the ease of use. Hope that helps.

martyoo

One of the best sites I have seen on here in a while. Well done!

grinds

Thank you mahamageehad for your constuctive comments which I have addressed below and thanks also martyoo for your supportive comment.

This bit is probably a little picky but you should sort out the padding issues on the item pages in the product description. Just to give it a more uniform effect. Some descriptions have a line of space before the text begins, some have none. Very very minor and most people wouldn't notice it, but it would be very easy to fix.

This is certainly something we have noticed and was well spotted. Thanks for highlighting it. The uniformity of the pages is certainly something that needs to be worked on in terms of spacing etc. It's amazing how even a break in continuity however so slight can make the site look unprofessional. We'll get working on it immediately!

Product names as links and prices in bold... Two other things we will work on in the coming week.

The search for suppliers and the links are other things we will work on and the blurry graphic is indeed blurry and needs fixing.

Thank you so much for your constructive feedback.

It is greatly appreciated and we will be implementing all of what you recommended over the coming week.