New website, what do you think?

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

Hi Guys,

Been a busy year here so far, juggling setting up the new sales and distribution center, service, repair, sales etc. It has been hectic! Anyway we have also put 100's of hours into a new website platform.

Towards the end of last year saw our biggest update, with user logins, wish lists & product compares etc.

But we decided to redesign the lot and freshen up the whole platform.
The main criteria being - Clean, Fresh, Interactive, Informative, and a pleasant place to be.

The new site has -

• 100's more products than ever including accessories & all is 99% in stock.
• More eBike specific parts than ever, 90% of which is in stock!
• Largest stock of Bosch eBike parts in UK.
• New real time availability to show what's in stock and what's not.
• On bikes not in stock it shows when we are expecting.
• New Categories and Refined search filters to find products easier.
• Product videos and new bike videos on each model.
• New tabs to show downloads, specs, videos and more on each eBike.
• New Blog Pages with simpler and clearer posts. Easier to navigate.
• All mobile and tablet friendly.
• Improved checkout and new platform for International orders.

We have based the new design on things being much faster, more interactive, easier navigation and a general much better user experience.

We have decided to cut away all the crap (banners, adverts, services, free delivery etc) and just focus the viewing point on the electric bikes themselves.

Obviously we do still offer all of these services but we feel you don't necessarily need to know these when browsing the bikes unless you click into that specific info.

Anyway, the Beta version is now live and I am asking if anyone has any suggestions to make the site better?
We are adding products all of the time. Also adding more product videos, so its not 100% finished yet.
Anything you spot that could be better, let me know, even if its just a spelling mistake?

Regards
Martin

 

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

Forgot to add, website link is in my signature. Or for anyone not logged in or viewing on mobile device here it is (non SEO link) -

http://www.e-bikeshop.co.uk/

 

[dmsims]

It's a nice clean layout - less is more!

Please take these in the spirit of helpfulness

1. Whoever left the default for the back end needs shooting - best not say too much more on a forum
sorry if that's you

2. It is not intuitive that you have to hit the search button - it should show results as you type. If I type Hai I get of load chain and tool stuff?

3. Checkout is the dreadful Opencart std. get a better one!

4. If you buy a bike with a UK address there are four!! shipping options 1 at £3.99 and three at £0.00 - madness

5. Your returns policy is IMHO ill advised and will not stand up in court and THERE IS NO NEED TO SHOUT ON THAT PAGE by using capitals

6. Not sure how many people would choose a bike by motor or wheel size (refine search option) - maybe change that to mens/ladies

7. No SSL on checkout is a big drawback

 

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

Hi,

Thanks DMSSIMS for the above! We will take a look at these points. The checkout is a working development so hopefully have a new one soon.

Interesting on the search bar, I had not considered that before.

Thanks for the feedback, always good to get a 3rd party perspective. We spend all day on it so can overlook things easily!

Thanks again.
Martin

 

[electric.mike]

Not looked at the check out but the rest of it is clean and simple to use IMO and i do a lot of surfing
mike

 

[dmsims]

Martin

for search:
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension/info&extension_id=6742

for checkout:
www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension/info&extension_id=7382

or
www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension/info&extension_id=4811

 

[halfer]

The YouTube video auto-starts, which will eat (guessing here) 20M of my mobile bandwidth for one page. If I catch a website doing that, I close it down immediately.

The solution is just to let people press play - most Flash-based players don't load any video data until people indicate they actually want to watch it.

I like the individual product pages though - use of widescreen and reasonably large images. If you can get the images to be even bigger, that would be great, as customers presumably want to get a close look. Thus your 1000x585 could be bumped up to 1500x800 or so. The lightbox device will scale it down on smaller screens.

 

[John Fleet]

Minor typo on the Raleigh section:

The models are thoroughly though out...

 

[Jonah]

Martin,

Just looking at the main bikes page:

This sentence doesn't make sense:-

The German & French (European) quality build and the excellent reliability it's really not worth going with cheaper more ‘rattly’ models.

I think this probably isn't what you mean!

All of our electric bikes come with fully set up by our in-house Bosch / Panasonic eBike technicians and we also offer full piece of mind with any after sales care required.

This wording appears alongside a number of bikes:-

is now sold through in Europe

 

[halfer]

our in-house Bosch / Panasonic eBike technicians and we also offer full piece of mind with any after sales care required.

I think two idioms are being mixed up here:

• "I'll give him a piece of my mind!" (to give advice, often with anger or frustration)
  
• "A guarantee gives me peace of mind" (reassurance)

Maybe they could be mixed up though:

• "If you've only got a small piece of mind, shop with us, and we'll look after you"

 

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

All above issues should now be resolved. Including revised checkout, support for international postage, new account section, easier UK postage options, easier navigation, full SSL secure site, added PayPal checkout, brand new 'search as you type' search bar & many other behind the scenes refinements.

Thanks for your support.
Martin