NEw need lots of help

[ryanb4614]

Hello, I finally just got done adding products to my site, now Im new to htmling and everything so take it easy on me. I know my site looks blah thats why I am here asking for you advice, Click HERE site is still under construction not really "open" but someone can buy from I want it to LOOK 100% before i start advertising. I deff need suggestions for the main page its looks like crap. Thanks for anyone that helps!

[Dubbya]

I'm sure you're probably looking for a low-dough, quick and easy method of making your site "be all that it can be". The truth is, few shopping carts are designed with usability in mind. They're seldom effective without requiring significant changes.

My advice to you is to hire a designer whose well versed in website usability and shopping cart design to do three page layouts, one for your home page, a product page and a content page. Work out your checkout process so that it funnels customers smoothly through the payment page.

In the long term, you'll be miles ahead and get this off the ground much more quickly. Or, you can what most folks do. Tweak, modify, alter, tweak, modify, alter, fix, tweak, fix, you get the picture.

Take if from an etailer who's learned this the hard way. You want to start acquiring customers and making sales as quickly as possible, so give customers what they really want from day one. A solid and enjoyable user experience backed up by great customer service.

Spend some money now to get it right and you'll be in the black much sooner. We usually only get one kick at the cat. If you can't hook the customer and convert the sale at the outset, you may not get a second chance. Why drive yourself crazy building traffic that won't convert, wondering which problem to fix first, all the while missing conversions?

Money spent to acquire effective page layouts and a streamlined checkout process = money in the bank.

.02

[nickyoung]

Dubbya's right. And that's just the shopping cart/checkout experience alone. The entire site navigation and user experience can take lot's of time to get right, and usually requires a degree of skill. (EDIT: well zen cart helps to take care of most of that actually) You clearly have an idea what you want to sell, but it sounds like you need a professional web designer to take care of your site. There are many companies that have good experience with Zen Cart and OsCommerce. Check them out. I doubt you will successfully launch without this.

Another thing, you need to upload better product images. The thumbs are just scaled down versions of the bigger image, which means it has to load the larger image every time the catalog pages load. 320px vs 50px - 10kb vs 3kb. What this means is either you need to learn how to resize and optimize images using a graphic editing program, or have the website automatically take care of making thumbnail images. I would consult with the same people you choose for designing the website solution.

[hostchecker]

good luck on this