Going public with my new shop @ Cook On Strike

[laura]

Please give me some (preferably lots and ruthless) critique I'm tired of looking at it already..

Try to answer these two also:
1. first impressions? (atmosphere, etc)
2. Is it easy to understand what is going on there? (usability)


www.cookonstrike.com/jewelry-boutique/

I have some serious concerns about words mainly..

I've used "boutique" instead of the more popular "shop" - google keyword tool says people use it. But do they? I figured that maybe "boutique" is more targeted keyword (shop - too generic)?

For photos I re-processed the ones I'm using on Etsy, so nothing new there and I'm reshooting some of them soon. I'm using driftwood background lately and still keep the dark weathered wood. Intending to stick with this tired-wood style.
(descriptions are copy/paste from Etsy too.. need to work on those more)

This stuff runs on Ecwid, so no search engine indexing.. I had to place some jewelry words on the page.. quite a few of them .. too much?


And I've gotten comments from the family that the shop looks faceless, so I've put not one but too personalities there. Kinda hate to look at my ugly self but what's a girl to do..
How do you feel about my red head watching at ya while you browse? ;D

[Tela]

I don't mind your pictures Really, I don't find them obtrusive.

In the text- "so there might be something for everyone in my shop." Change to WILL be something for everyone.

"collected all over Europe in jewelry I create" collected FROM ... in THE jewelry" Actually, I find this very intriguing. Maybe you could give an example or two of the places. I'm an American, so this really taps into my desire to travel and explore. You are doing it for me.

"something way off of my color-comfort zone" way OUT of my comfort zone (I know English is a second language that's why I offer these corrections. Hope you don't mind.)

IMHO- I would leave off "Actually, I’ve discovered that since I’ve started to create jewelry I’m much more color tolerant and can work (and enjoy it!) even with (gasp) purple or pink.." I say this because it may be a deterrent to color fanatics. A lot of ppl fancy themselves into color even if they are not. And, well, I love purple and pink- if I didn't know you- you might have just alienated a potential customer.

Payment page looks good. You might add zeros to the end of usd prices. To me it looks weird not having them.

shop policies- you could leave off the bit about google analytics- it really means nothing to the customer. I really like the newsletter thing. I might borrow that. You have a contact form. Have you considered giving your email addy? I think it is more personal and less off putting. You could write it to keep spam at bay.

product- I love the variety and pictures. I think you did a good job with mixing up the backgrounds. They have texture, but aren't all the same. The photos are very, very nice. ;D I think they do a good job of selling the pieces.

I like the product descriptions. I've read about 5 of them and nothing jumps out as bad. I think they strike a good balance between fact and pitch.

Your questions- usability- very good. But, price sorting would be nice.
Overall first impression- very fresh, clear, bright, professional. I really like the variety.

Did I leave anything out? I'd be glad to answer direct questions.

[laura]

Thanks, Tela! But you didn't give me anything to get defensive about

I really appreciate the grammar corrections. Even though these texts were put there at the last minute and without much rereading, it's really helpful to hear feedback on that too.

I've just put the sorting option back. Don't like it too much because I cannot turn off irrelevant sorting by name.. and "date added" at this moment reflects only the order of pic folders on my PC.

Thinking to add "shop by color" (do people actually use/like it??) and "new" categories later.

With "stones from all over Europe" I'm planning to do a blog post.. some day.. Adding to that that I'm backpacking and hitchhiking.. with a ton of stones on my back ;D (or-if I get lucky-I slip some of them in my BF's backpack LOL) And years ago I even had one "interesting" conversation at the Russian (Kaliningrad) border customs about the large bag of fossils (belemnite guards) I was bringing home from their beaches

For the newsletter I've signed up with mailchimp.com/
Still have to purchase some nice newsletter template (recommend themeforest.net/ ) and get some subscribers

[Tela]

For shop by color- look at it this way- you are very careful to list colors in your titles, tags, descriptions and keywords right?

I like your store, Laura. I love your jewelry and I think you have a real cool thing going on with your backpacking goodies.

[laura]

Any more comments from others? I don't crave an ego massage, really, but I'm just sick and tired of looking at the same pics for months now.. getting "blind". Any fresh view from outside my head is much appreciated

Just improved the usability a tiny bit - increased the font size on paging. Now it's easier to spot there is more and easier to click.

Tela, if you wanna do the same in your Ecwid shop drop this at the beginning of custom CSS (my font is now 18px, default was 12 I think):


div.ecwid-pager {
   font: 18px helvetica, arial, verdana, sans-serif;
   color: #1e2c38;
 }


And increased number of items per page to 15.. less clicking, more scrolling.. which is worse? I have one opinion here to get rid of paging altogether and place all category items on one page (with insane amount of scrolling)

The default huge price font is a bit a annoying.. and underlines on titles.. will probably try to change that too.

[Kate]

Laura, I sure know what you mean by "just sick and tired of looking at the same pics for months now.. " I wish I could return the favor, you helped me so much but I'm not in a position to help at this stage. I can say that I do like your jewelry!

Read more: jewelrymakers.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=sellingavenues&action=display&thread=190#ixzz1mDdC2RpM

[Renate]

Only that much for now: your shop looks good!
I like the weathered wood background in particular, I hope you will use it more. And dark is good. ;-)
Love all the variations you do with your hoop earrings!

Scrolling is much much better for the impatient user than going from page to page.

Must run, will think of some nitpicking later ;D

[Renate]

Laura, I'm very disappointed, I find nothing to nitpick at.
;D

The only thing that might come close to critique is your general colour scheme - it is opposite to mine. But then taste in colours is not subject to discussion.

Your designs are unusual and versatile, sometimes edgy, and truly interesting to look at. The prices are very affordable. ;-)
And I love love love the pebbles in their seed bead bezels! Excellent and perhaps courageous! Please keep us updated how well (or not) they sell.

Btw, I like both your portraits, the sassy one and the deceptively demure. Indeed they add a very personal touch.

Your photography is very good. What kind of camera do you use?

Lunchbreak over...

[laura]

Thank you both

Kate - one aspect of the of the user testing is to get opinions from the purely emotional standpoint, first impressions - how inviting the site is, if they like it, how does it make them feel, do they understand what's that all about, where to click, what parts are distracting, etc. So no technical or specialist knowledge is needed. Actually, it's most useful to see how the "average statistical user" behaves.
E.g. I've observed my dad browsing my website, clicking on my Etsy mini and realized that he was a "lost" visitor seconds later. For someone who doesn't know how Etsy works or what that animal is, it's a really confusing experience to get thrown to a different website with a million distractions and unclear relation to the place she's just left.
So with Ecwid embedded in my own website I hope to make it less confusing. Not sure if I should still keep the Etsy mini in the blog page sidebar.. it's like showing your visitor a way out.. and I could bet that most of the customers whom we direct to our Etsy shops would end up buying from a different shop and probably not even realize it.

Renate - you know I love nitpicking! ;D

the problem with a dark weathered wood is that I have just a small piece of it... Barely enough to place a larger pair of earrings and shoot at creative angle.. I'm searching for a larger piece but it's not the easiest task in the city.. The driftwood which I've borrowed from the studio allows more flexibility and shooting larger pieces. But sometimes it's just too bland..
And I'm a bit concerned that when there's a full page of photos with dark background it starts to look like a graveyard...

[Renate]

oops - we posted simultaneously!

[laura]

Feb 13, 2012 7:34:08 GMT -5 Renate said:

Laura, I'm very disappointed, I find nothing to nitpick at.
;D

Not looking hard enough? The nits are hard to spot, but they MUST be there ;D They always lurk somewhere.. Must crush them before they hatch..

Feb 13, 2012 7:34:08 GMT -5 Renate said:

The only thing that might come close to critique is your general colour scheme - it is opposite to mine. But then taste in colours is not subject to discussion.

you mean the whole website or the beads?
Beads is not a subject, but the website might be. If enough people hate the current palette, I'm not too attached to it. Actually, it's about the time to refresh

Feb 13, 2012 7:34:08 GMT -5 Renate said:

The prices are very affordable. ;-)

Meaning too cheap? I do struggle with pricing.. I hope they are not affordable as in "suspiciously affordable". (because I do lower them below the actual time cost sometimes..)

Feb 13, 2012 7:34:08 GMT -5 Renate said:

And I love love love the pebbles in their seed bead bezels! Excellent and perhaps courageous! Please keep us updated how well (or not) they sell.

At this point I can say that I have one made for myself, and it attracts tons of attention and genuine amazement when I tell that it's a pebble (mine also has some fossils in it). That's one humble piece that wins the most wows on me

Feb 13, 2012 7:34:08 GMT -5 Renate said:

Your photography is very good. What kind of camera do you use?

Danke schön It's Canon EOS 450D, usually with macro lens (Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM - LOVE this glass to bits!!). Used to take pics with flash, but now switching to 100% natural daylight. The overcast winter days are perfect for that (additionally using a tripod and a reflector)
Post processing in Adobe Lightroom.

[Tela]

Laura- I agree with Etsy being a crappy place to shop. I have never liked going there. It's terrible to navigate and it is distracting. I go to Artfire a lot, but rarely to Etsy. I really love ecwid. I need to do more with it and you are motivating me to do it.... Thanks for the font tip.

[laura]

Hehe, the way you were so quick to set up yours actually motivated me to finally finish mine and go live

Not sure that Etsy is a crappy place to shop, it just needs getting used to (as any large marketplace), but it's definitely not the best place to direct your unsuspecting potential customers.. If they don't know Etsy well, chances are they'll get lost immediately.

Making a public list of things to do, because the mental ones just don't work for me:
- replace Etsi mini with a photo-link to ecwid shop (keep the visitors on site)
- implement related posts (try to keep the visitors engaged)
- find a suitable post footer plugin (same + some call to action links)
- write the damn about me page (preferably this year)
- revamp contact page
- find a way to KEEP the visitors from stumbleupon for a while longer. I get several hundred hits daily from that site, and only a tiny fraction of them visit more than one page. Any ideas?
- get the newsletter going (I already have one subscriber, she's probably already waiting for updates ;D )

Controversial question - will it be in a horribly bad taste (and too pushy) to include snippets of products for sale at the end of related blog posts? (Ecwid allows to place single products on any page. )

[Renate]

Feb 13, 2012 10:29:25 GMT -5 Tela said:

Laura- I agree with Etsy being a crappy place to shop. I have never liked going there. It's terrible to navigate and it is distracting. I go to Artfire a lot, but rarely to Etsy. I really love ecwid. I need to do more with it and you are motivating me to do it.... Thanks for the font tip.

Tela, it's the other way around here: I like etsy, and I'm very familiar with it and don't like Artfire. Artfire seems unnessary busy and crowded, and into the bargain they FORCE the Euro currency upon me, while I'm used to US$ (for price comparison). I've tried to change it more than once, wasted a lot of time, and never found the place to do so, if there is any. And no place to complain! Grrrrr! I really hate it when websites don't give me a choice, and don't go there anymore because my adrenaline level shoots up each time I see that Euro sign!

Laura, I hope you keep the mini etsy. I usually open links in a new tab, and return to the original page. Can't you use a code to just open it in a new tab or window?

[Renate]

Laura, I love the warm coppery background colour of your shop a lot! Goes well with your hair. ;D

And no, not "suspiciously", but "reasonably" affordable.


Don't you think the name "stumbleupon" is program? Those people are not supposed to stay where they stumbled in.

[laura]

Hmm.. I've tried to stumble around myself a bit and I did stay at some places longer than others.. Surely there must be a way to fish out at least some 10% of that stumbling traffic - btw they DO stay quite long on the page, and the bounce rate is normal, not like 99%. I just want to make them dig deeper.. or do I go to Digg for that kind of traffic? ;D

Well, I've just put the Etsy mini back... But what's the point in keeping it? For the hardcore Etsy fans who are afraid to buy from a small standalone shop?
(it's javascript they generate themselves, so I cannot tweak it - if I could I'd firstly remove the link leading to Etsy homepage)

[Tela]

WOW!! You get that much traffic from stumble? That's amazing! How do you do it? I've never even been there. I had some people pin me at pinterest, but the traffic died down.

[Tela]

"Controversial question - will it be in a horribly bad taste (and too pushy) to include snippets of products for sale at the end of related blog posts? (Ecwid allows to place single products on any page. )"

I have wondered that myself. I may try it as soon as I am motivated enough to list every piece as I finish and blog abt it. Honestly, I need to do a better job!

[Renate]

Of course, instead of using the mini etsy you could put in a good old link to your etsy shop. And open it in a new window if your blog software permits.

[laura]

Feb 13, 2012 15:01:02 GMT -5 Tela said:

WOW!! You get that much traffic from stumble? That's amazing! How do you do it? I've never even been there. I had some people pin me at pinterest, but the traffic died down.

Pure luck I guess... some super successful and popular stumbler shared my pincushion tutorial and my stats went crazy.. At the peak I was receiving about 500 hits.. But most of them just read that one page and leave. It's like the rest of the website didn't exist at all..

[laura]

Playing with social plugins (and trying not to overdo it..). Just discovered that the tutorial bringing me people from stumble has 13K hits. Crazy.

[laura]

Renate's comment about the versatility of my jewelry gave me an idea to introduce some "order" and set up "collections" Similar to how Tela has "Shop by color". I've tried sorting by color, but it's just another kind of mess in my case.

What you think?

I'm now brainstorming (any help will be much appreciated) suitable names for the subcategories.. Thinking along those lines:
"Nature lovers" (pebbles, sea glass, beaded starfish, pieces that are relaxed and casual, organic shapes) ;
"Crystal sparkle" (faceted glass beadwork which really doesn't fit in well with the pebbles and unless you are me, you probably don't equally like both)
"Blooming flowers" (I have many of those in both beadwork and wire)
"Copper love" (for the mostly metal pieces)
"Patience" (for beadwork with seed beads)
"Evolution" or "Existence" or "Infinity" or ?? (Spirals - have many of those.. and love them)
and still seem to have stuff left that doesn't fit anywhere..

[Tela]

I like the idea Not crazy about some of the names, though. They seem too cryptic.