www.car.ie - open for beta testing

paulus

Hey ... have built and gotten initial stock for a pet project that's been ongoing quite some time.

www.car.ie is finally up, public and in a state ready to take orders. It's now time for a public beta. If you are in need of any bits or bobs for your car, or have a loved one and really don't know what to buy them for birthday / anniversary / present giving day, car.ie should hopefully supply a range of motor related accessories that you wouldn't normally think of.

If you have any comments or suggestions, feedback would be appreciated to webmaster@car.ie ... if you have ideas for product lines to be followed or any cool ideas for the site ... please do get in touch.

The url is simple: http://www.car.ie

Much appreciated,

Paul

DukeDredd

Thought traders weren't allowed advertise on boards?

Seth Brundle

I think this may be better in the webmaster forum!
Anyway, why not have a few pics of cars on it?
Also your browse by category/manufacturer extracts the category/manufacturer from a database based on the id - wouldn't it be better to list them by category/manufacturer name alphabetically?
Make Ireland the default country on the order form
No privacy statement

Peace

Plus the images of the products aren't great res.

If you want people, namely me, to buy online i have to be able to see what i'm buying.

Seth Brundle

Actually, if it is still in beta/testing should people be able to buy?

Also, maybe try and get info about the product, i.e. the fog lamp set is for what car models?
Also, on the product 'details' page yoou have an image of the item about 1pixel high. If I can't see it properly, why bother having it?

Compare yours against the competition - www.micksgarage.com - I know where I would prefer to go!

spockety

I don't think commercial sites like that should have "public beta's".

You may be shooting yourself in the foot, as people could get an initial bad impression and not go back.

paulus

thanks for the amazing comments.

sorry for potential irrelevancy, but I figured the motoring interest would be more attuned to the site than the technical one. I don't really need to know how to make technical changes, but would like feedback from web-savvy people who are in to cars.

As it happens, the issues above are technical ones, which I'll duly approach, but it's feedback of an holistic - content related nature that I'd like to catch aswell!

Peace wrote:

the images of the products aren't great res.

I've added a click to the images that opens a new window with a higher resolution photo.

kbannon wrote:

Make Ireland the default country on the order form

I found on other store that I put up that doing this leads to customers in the UK choosing Ireland. When I introduce the option to register on the site, it will be easier to apply defaults to the order form.

Well chuffed. Been off the forum circuit for years ( used to have to wait weeks for Irish people to reply ... six years I guess a lot changes ) My appreciation is endless!

Thanks a million,

Paul

paulus

kbannon wrote:

Actually, if it is still in beta/testing should people be able to buy?

Totally ... the ordering system is completely implemented ... it's really only the designy / content bits that need improvement ... but as above, tech things have come up ...

kbannon wrote:

Also, maybe try and get info about the product, i.e. the fog lamp set is for what car models?

yep ... need to take this on board.

kbannon wrote:

Also, on the product 'details' page yoou have an image of the item about 1pixel high. If I can't see it properly, why bother having it?

This was a code error which I squashed.

kbannon wrote:

Compare yours against the competition

yeah. a great site. not an insurmountable competition though.

Cheers!

Paul

Seth Brundle

No offence but there is little there to attract a car owner with money. Hopefully after the technical things have been ironed out it will be better.
Anyway, as for "not an insurmountable competition though" - currently it is!

mike65

Tut tut! This is not a forum for pimping wares even in beta testing phase!

I'm moving this to the webmaster forum.

You'd better rethink some of your prices, I was in Deevys motor factors in Waterford an hour ago and I bought this for €6.95. Do your prices include postage?

Mike.

GoneShootin

Er - your image compression skills lack gusto!

this image is used here. Why should I wait for such small images to load? Use individual images for your thumbnails - thats the point!

You get it right then using this here.

No SSL cert here. I wouldnt buy from a site that doesnt keep my address and other sensitive information safe.

cgarvey

No offence paulus, but you really need to invest in some UI/HCI consultant to help sort out the basic layout of the site. Your target market are not going to be extremely net-savvy, and the site is not welcoming to a new user. You need to turn the site from a purely scripted "commerce" solution into a site that encourages people to browse. Most big online traders go for a more portal approach. Bottom line, the design/layout is very poor, and is a deterrent.

You should have an "about us" page, as net-savvy users are always going to check out who's behind a site, and a lot of non-savvy users do so no (under lots of advice) as well.

You need to protect user privacy (and have a legal obligation to do so).. like using SSL for your user profile gathering (as suggested above). This is not limited to credit card numbers.

With a small investment in UI/HCI to get a proper site going, and maybe a small bit of marketing, I think you do have potential to get a decent revenue going. Good luck.

.cg

DubTony

Needs a lot of work Paul, if it's going to compete. I'll critique from a prospective buyers point of view.

Front page gives no information about your business and simply links to product categories. Throw up a few special offers with pictures. Make the thing a bit more attractive. When I see the front page of a web site I don't want to feel that the guy threw the page together during his lunch break.

Each product category brings me to a list of products with thumbnails but with very little information about the product. When browsing an internet store I like to read a little about the product. Why should I buy your dusters instead of the one in Tesco? Why is it better? What advantages does it have over the Spik'n'Span one? Your suppliers should have all this type of blurb.

To get a high ranking on Google you'll need to provide information (and lots of it). Have a look at www.autogeek.net for examples of this. Give lots of info about how and why and then offer a product to "solve the problem".

You need to view yourself as a retailer. Online retailing is best if it's an extension of a real world business. While this isn't always the case (amazon.com), online stores should reflect what happens in the shopping centre or on the street. Your front page is your shop window. How many shops with a painted white wall and a door with "PUSH" written on it do you go into?

You want to make this site The Site for car accessories in Ireland. You want people to see it and say, "Good site -I'll go back there." and bookmark it. That won't happen in it's current format. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that most people won't make it past the homepage.

Best of luck

Tony

Giblet

Lot's of little problems which all add up. I've noticed alot of the images have been downsized. You should pick a standard size for each image, and resize them before uploading them so they don't have that squashed look.