Site Review Please - No Holds Barred

[animal dreams]

This is my first site in V9 (previously V7) based on Contemporary theme plus a few addons and I am looking for critique of the look and feel.

It is viewable in a test domain - www.kingsmark.org.uk

It has taken me quite a while to find out where all the various variables can be adjusted!! I am still in the process of inputting Meta data and converting my previous site to SPP, but I wanted to get some feedback now before going much further.

Look forward to your comments.

[acompton]

First impressions:
- I like the way the header blends into the menu - looks very professional; not sure about the way the parrot image gets cut off in the process
- not sure about the combination of green and purple (and yellow).
- http://www.kingsmark.org.uk/acatalog...ree-perch.html section pages are very odd - seem to be a mix of sub-sections and products?
- the url 'parrotize' isn't going to help with SEO perfomance on 'parrot' keywords.
- Delivery Info looks like T's & C's; it is helpful to separate these. Also contains several unfinished bits (e.g. <days>)
- no info on the Norwegian Blue (sorry -couldn't resist)

[Duncan Rounding]

I found it Alan:






Sorry off topic, but it did appeal to my sense of humour.

[malbro]

- http://www.kingsmark.org.uk/acatalog...ree-perch.html section pages are very odd - seem to be a mix of sub-sections and products?

on the same page requesting a larger image gets one the same size in the lightbox type function.

[leehack]

I'm not sure the fluid layout has any purpose, everything remains the same size, so no benefit added to people with large screens at all. I'd therefore favour a fixed width. There's no point expanding a site if it is only the white space you expand in other words.

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

Clicking on the white area in the 'Buy With Confidence' box bring up a GeoTrust popup bcx stating 'Website identity NOT confirmed'

I am not keen on the yellow background which appears on hover in the left navigation menu.
I am not overkeen on the colour scheme, personally I would prefer to see the green toned down a bit so it's not as bright.

The size of image that pops up when you click on 'Larger Image' is either the same size or only marginally larger.

The contact us page only has a contact us form, it might be worth adding your address and phone number here also.

Are the RRP's correct. For example 'Berlin Large Parrot Cage' - RRP £5000, Special Offer: £399.00, You Save: £4,601.99. If it is correct perhaps there is a line in the description missing which should have stated '18 Carat Gold Plate Bars.

I agree with Alan on the way the header blends with the side bar but would be nicer if the parrot image extended down the side although I suppose that would then be a distraction with your side navigation.

Some of the images could be improved i.e The lettering on the main logo looks blocky and the lettering on the 'Free Delivery' image looks distorted.

[rmorrow]

Hi, I'm looking at it in IE6 and the header is squashed so it reads 'Parotize' and the right hand column has crawled up the page. Hope that helps!

[Ho Ho Bird]

I found the text on the home page to be good. You do sound like a specialist and that is a great reason to buy from you......
....but the impression fades away a little as you dig deeper. This may be because the site isn't finished.

Putting items up at £399 with "an RRP of £5000.99" saving me 92% doesn't really do it for me. I'd assume it is an error or the whole pricing set-up is crazy and would look elsewhere.

The 'many items per page' leading to the 'single items per page' doesn't work for me. The photos don't expand and the same text is just laid out in a different format. The multi product page should just be a summary, without 'add to cart', where you guide customers to the items suitable for them....which they explore on the SPP.

I'm glad you told us it was V9. I would have guessed V7 from the 'design'.
I don't think there is anything wrong in general with the colours if used imaginatively.

Your location is hard to find. Are you near me? can I collect? can I come and chat with you? All questions that might make me stay but are unanswered.

[animal dreams]

Thanks folks.

As I said the site is work in progress so several of the points about pricing and images are still to be fixed. Had big problems on importing the product database from V7 as it corrupted several fields which all need to be manually corrected.

Several good points raised which is exactly what I hoped for. I am going to look again at the colour scheme plus a few other tweaks. Colours are from current site but with few blocks of colour previously. We changed to green some time ago and found business increased.

Bit alarmed at the IE V6 comment. I don't have V6 anymore

Thanks again
Alan

[acompton]

We changed to green some time ago and found business increased.

Yah! Go Green!

For colour inspiration, try www.colourlovers.com

Interesting about the V7 import problems (says me with a V7 site...)

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

I find www.browsershots.org can be useful for checking different browser versions without the need to have it installed.

[bamboo]

• Move your best sellers sidebar list up under your basket/checkout box.
• Make the massive van FREE delivery logo smaller and put it under the best sellers list.
• Lose the VISA VISA VISA logos from the sidebar. They are already present at the bottom of the page.
• On your product pages move the dearest item to the top.
• Men will buy the first thing they see that solves their problem irrespective of price because generally men hate shopping.
• Women will drill down to find the best combination of value and price. Parrots are bought by both men and women, used to work quite closely with a real world pet store, so make sure you maximise the profits in each sale with this easy product placement change.
• If at all possible get the product photo's redone with BIRDS in them. These generic manufacturers images will be everywhere and so people become numbed by them. Also a fresh product image with birds in it suggest that maybe this company actually uses these products themselves which instantly makes your site stand out from the crowd.
  
• See if there is a way you can tie up with a parrot supplier so that you can almost give the customer the bird for free in exchange for them buying the whole panolpy of 'stuff' from you.
• I know parrots can be expensive but so are their cages etc.
• On the more expensive ones there could be a discount card offered in they use breeder X.
• The pet shop owner I worked near used to sell a fully equipped budgie or canary cage and gave the customers the bird for free. He also gave them a discounted food offer if they bought all their food from him. The visitor value for these customers was immense as they not only stayed loyal but told all of their friends about how good the service was.

He did exactly the same trick with small mammals. chickens. ducks etc because it worked.

Keep at it. It's mostly good and the online parrot market is clearly a strong one judging by the level of competition so there is money to be made.