Website design feedback and online sales

[AJR Firewood]

I've been busy beavering away with my new website for the last couple of weeks and just wanted some feedback on the design/content. Anything which shouts out at you please let me know - any critiscisms kindly welcomed (within reason hehe)

 

The majority of my sales last year came from my website so I thought I'd go up a gear and introduce an online order form. Has anyone else tried this? I want to start taking payments online aswell but have decided to go for paypal invoicing to start of with. Has anyone got experience of taking online payments for logs - are there any major problems you've come across?

 

Thanks!

[Daniël Bos]

Looks great, I've only two points to mention: "the outskirts of London and Essex" just sounds a bit odd IMO. Outskirts of london, ok but outskirts of essex?

 

The other is technical but not a clue what causes it. When I click anywhere in the text i can no longer scroll up and down, scrollability returns when clicking in the background on the sides.

 

And a suggestion, would it be good to offer a small discount for large orders to entice people to buy a bit more?

[Alycidon]

Personally I would only sell ready to burn and push a moisture content aspect, I have posted on this elsewhere here recently. Dry wood produces no tar, minimal soot deposits and lower levels of particulates in the flue gases, better flame patterns and of course as you state more heat.

 

Surprised you are not selling in bigger bags but I do appreciate that small nets = bigger profits.

 

A

[windfall]

I am having my site done at the present and i am well used to the issues of web design. my comments on your site are as follows.

 

1/ 'Have a questions or would like to order? Phone 00000 etc' this colour green is making me squint to read it, this is your main information for the page and its hurting my eyes. This needs to be bolder and easier to read, I have both a HD screen and a normal screen, the HD screen its not that bad to be honest.

 

2/ we are a small local business for local people. not keen on this as it reminds me of the "we are a local shop for local people" comedy sketch. Plus the nature of your retail business is collections so you dont want people to think we are not local to AJR so we wont bother driving there. When in actual fact anyone buying from you is going to relaly have to make an effort to get in the car and drive to you, so what difference does an extra 10 mins make...

 

3/ The picture for Unseasoned fire wood is one you used on the home page, it makes me think 'lazy', get a picture of a wet looking log or something.

 

4/ Google check out is a good merchant services, it would look more professional than an on line form. The online form isnt actually going to take money from them then and there which is the whole point of online merchant services.

 

I have to say i am not a fan of the fake wood slat back ground either and what is the picture of black skanky wood on the home page all about?

[Michael C]

I would agree with what Windfall says above re the photo's etc, and also I think you should make it clear when describing the items for sale that it is softwood. I think a lot of people wont bother reading the 'FAQ' and may presume its hardwood...

Edited July 31, 2011 by Michael C

[baz]

Windfall has pretty much covered the content side, though I'd add that the background file size must be quite large as it took a while to download and I thought for a moment the website was down. You need to remember not everyone is on 20Mb cable networks for their broadband, I snail along at 1Mb at the end of a 10 mile length of copper wire. Though with only collection offered I suppose all you prospective customer will have access to fast broadband so it's probably a mute point.

 

There is a contradiction on your about us page with your other pages where you state 'AJR Firewood & Kindling was established in 2010 by Andrew J Roddick to provide quality seasoned firewood to the local residents of Essex and London' but then go on to offer for sale unseasoned wood.

 

On the sales strategy side I'm not sure you'll generate much interest in come pick up your expensive small bags of wet logs that you won't be able to burn for a year or two. For those looking to self season I'd expect they would normally be looking for cheap wood delivered in bulk which is everything completely opposite to what you are offering.

Edited July 31, 2011 by baz
typo

[windfall]

Yeah Baz is right it took ages to load on my screen initially too which is when i was treated to the screen of fake wood, forgot about that. I have a good quality high speed ADSL as well.

 

"come pick up your expensive small bags of wet logs that you won't be able to burn for a year or two"

 

This made me laugh out loud.

 

I agree with Alycidon i dont think you should bother advertising freshly cut logs by the net. By the time the log is dry enough to burn the net will have rotted! Go for the qualilty seasoned product and push the low Moisture content aspect.

[Michael C]

And if you can get £4.50 for a net of seasoned logs, it would nearly make more sense to season them all rather than drop £2 a bag.

[pgkevet]

Design is in the eye of the beholder so no comments there from me.

From the technical viewpoint you need to check and view the site in all common browsers..include opera and safari as well as firefox and explorer.

Have you checked it's mobile phone friendly?

The email address link should open ready for posting.

Looking briefly at the source code you should add shedloads more content descriptors.

Links go a long way to upping some search engine priorities..nowt wrong with linking to how to light fire sites, safety, stove manufacturers etc etc

[Pierre]

Hi, I like the website and think you have done a good job. It resembles ours in many ways (County Durham Logs | seasoned hardwood and softwood logs delivered, tree removal, woodland management in Weardale, Wear Valley and County Durham). We take orders on line by Paypal with no real problems other than the Paypal fees. Good luck