Site Review Please

[robbb3]

Hi all

Would it be possible for someone to review our website please?

www.parkgardencentres.co.uk

We are getting a lot of people put items into baskets and the not buy or start the checkout and not complete it, whilst I expect this, I would like to get the % down and improve it as much as possible!

I am mainly interested in improvements to the checkout process but would be glad for any feedback..

Thanks

Rob

[leehack]

You say 'shop online' in larger text than you say 'delivery from £2.50'. Which do you feel is the most helpful to relay, bearing in mind i have already clicked on the 'shop online' link to see this page? You also say 'from £2.50', this is pretty useless with regards to relaying to a customer a cost, they have to go into checkout to find out what they will be charged anyway. All you are relaying with that message is 'delivery is not free', in fact writing that would probably be more useful IMO. Where's your delivery page explaining costs and services?

You have a huge void of prime real estate in the header area, why is this information not displayed in that area, thus elevating the main part of the site and also look to have a fixed delivery cost on orders under a certain value and free over that amount if you can.

Delivery is one if not the biggest abandon causes, it is actually common for a person to find a product priced the same on 2 or more sites and progress through the checkout phase to find out the delivery costs on each and thus choose where to buy.

[robbb3]

Thanks both.

Ref. delivery charges, we have decided to change these, as we have two price bands at the moment which may be too confusing for our customers.

We are going to change the delivery charges to a flat fee of £5.00, but free for all orders over £30.00. I am just waiting for amended banners from our creative team then this will be changed online.

Lee - did you see anything wrong with the checkout area/process?

Thanks for your help!

Rob

[pinbrook]

I would like to see left hand navigation on the home page, if I were to arrive on the home page with a specific shopping list it is very difficult to reach the acatalog index page ie a tiny link to online shopping on horizontal nav.

I prefer to see the search bar in to top right, saves me having to look for it.

Whilst the site is very pleasing to the eye, some of the basics of usability are clouded by the design.

[Mike Hughes]

Delivery charges is almost certainly going to be at the root of your problem.

I love the products that say

"Delivery for this Item: Free (Premium)"

and then below that in the Delivery Information section it says

"Premium Delivery: Mainland UK, 2-14 days, £25.00"

PS. The site loads with snail like speed in IE8 and then your text doesn't overlay the underlying graphics. Quite painful to use really.

Mike

[leehack]

Robert, the honest answer is i did not even look at your checkout process, i read your post and thought without seeing the site, this is 99% sure to be delivery costs playing a big part. This is a biggie and if you are changing to what you mention, first of all a fiver is an alarm bell, if it needs to be that high, £4.75 sounds better, make sure you announce this part and let people know in the header area so there is no confusion at all.

[pinbrook]

Interesting, a pack of seeds costing £2.50 will cost £2.50 delivery. My advice would be to look carefully at products and delivery charges, for example seeds can be popped into a small envelope and posted 1st / 2nd class.

[jont]

In the checkout when <£30.00 spend it may be worth clarifying the delivery services eg:

Standard : 3-5 days
Express : 1-2 days

The T&C pop-up next to the agree tick box also loads the whole layout page which requires lots of horizontal and vertical scrolling to read. It may be worth looking at displaying the T&C on the page with a small javascript routine which hides them on page load and expands upon clicking to read. Just a thought.

[jont]

Nice looking site by the way.