Hi Everyone ~

I just spent the majority of the day today updating my website. I still have some products to add and some minor fixer uppers to do, but would like to get some feedback about the looks and managability. :)

Thanks!

(Thoughts in no particular order...)

Wow, it is much brighter, much more "cheery". The navigation on the left seems less crowded as well. Just as a personal preference, I'd like to see a space between:

**NEW ARRIVALS!
*HOT SELLER!*
*ON SALE!*

and...

Kitchen Gifts
Home Gifts
etc.

Just the way my mind groups things I guess.

You've done a good job using "white space" so the pages don't feel crowded.

I like your breadcrumb navigation at the top of the product pages. Makes it easy to keep track of where I am. (For example: Kitchen Gifts > Magnets)

Also, the categories and sub-categories are helpful.

Have you considered making your logo a link to your home page? This is just something that I've grown so accustomed to over the years that I always try clicking on a site's logo when I want to get back to the home page. Perhaps some usability folks could respond to this.

Just noticed that in the left navigation bar on the product pages there is a running total of the number of items in the shopping cart and the total. I think that is great.

Also, you consistently keep the shopcart button at the top where I'd expect to find it and where it is always visible.

Company name, address, phone, fax and email is at the bottom of each page which provides a sense of security knowing it's easy to get in touch with you.

As was mentioned before, I really like your "About" page. I like knowing about the people behind a business and you did a fantastic job personalizing your business with your text and the picture of your family. Your site has done a great job of giving me the feeling that I'm browsing in a local store where I know the owners. It feels friendly.

Both the thumbnails and the full pictures are very well done. I was looking at wind chimes and I could see all of the little details. Very important to me.

I checked the site using both Internet Explorer and Opera browsers and it looks great in both.

A bit off topic, but I just thought of something... I remember there used to be an e-card site that would allow me to sign up for a free reminder service that would send a reminder to me a couple of weeks before birthdays, anniversaries, etc, etc. This may be another way to stay in touch with customers.

Thanks, Robert!

I love the idea of the birthday/anniversary/holiday reminders! I'll see how I can get something like that up on our site! If you remember any part of the name, please let me know!

I just looked into adding spaces between the product catagories and adding the link to my logo...unfortunatly the system I am using won't allow me to do either... :(

Thanks for the extra pair of eyes! :)

I think the site looks very neat and professional. The store, the products and the ordering procedure is smooth and easy.

For the design part, I am not sure why you have so many sun-flowers images I would have preferred something along the lines of a kitchen, or texture of an apron or something like that. Just some thoughts :)

The first image "Sunflower Harvest Chip & Dip Set" is a link to the product details page but that's not apparent and the image has no prompt to click on it. I thought it was a design element and just clicked it accidentally and landed on the product description page of the product. The alt tag for the image is also not relevant, imo.

Major improvement Lisa!

I checked out your web site before the redesign and the new site looks much better to me. Cleaner layout, better design - basically it's just easier to see where things are and how the site is organized.

And the easier it is to use, the happier your customers will be. That's the theory at least. ;)

Thanks everyone for your comments. I am happy with the way it turned out and will be working on smoothing out the little problems with it now!

Farhan - unfortunatly, I am limited to designs I can do with my webpage...I would love to change, but haven't had the time to do the in depth research on other store fronts yet. This is basically a cookie cutter program I am using that gives me choices of about 100 themes (they just added a huge group, so I decided to try something new).

Lisa,

Check out this thread:

http://www.smallbusinessbrief.com/forum/showthread.php?t=122

I found some reminder scripts which was a good excuse to start a thread about "viral tools." :)

Thanks, Robert! I saw and posted. I'm off to check out the site! :cool: