Hello World .. and asking for feedback

Forums › Introductions › Hello World .. and asking for feedback

GarryJay

17 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#142903 28-Mar-2014 08:40

Hi, me and partners started an online store for games and gadgets couple weeks ago and I would really love to get some feedback.
No, this is not a shameless plug, I really really need to hear some thoughts. Friends will always tell you how great everything is, I need real world feedback.
I need your feedback!

www.gadgetkiwi.co.nz

What interests me most:
Would you buy something at the site. Why?
Payment systems are bank transfer, paypal, bitcoin. Do you feel comfortable using them? Do we need dps? (expensive)
Do you think the site is a scam? If so, why?
What would make you buy from us?
What do you think about the products?
Advertising ideas? Facebook, Google are one thing but let's face it, a real geek has adwords running, so that's that.

We are currently looking into organizing more events. E.g. our feed-the-gamer event where we sent pizzas to random gamers was a cool thing. Burnt through the budget within hours. At the moment there is a normal competition for Ram and other gadgets.
We are thinking about some kind of midnight release events. Getting a room, setting up a playstation/xbox, chippies and drinks. Very small scale of course, but hey, got to start somewhere. People can play the game and pick up their pre-orders of course.

Customer feedback is amazing so far, but we have way too little of them.
Would be awesome hearing from you guys. I don't think it doesn't get more real than your feedback.
Garry

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#1014334 28-Mar-2014 08:40

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#1014335 28-Mar-2014 08:40

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bener

272 posts

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#1014377 28-Mar-2014 09:35

Just a couple of things I noticed...

If you are listing manually maybe try to keep the titles to a certain length - the front page looks a bit cluttered, especially when some of the item names are many lines long - one of your ASUS boards has a nine line title! I like the look once you get into the categories, and the drop downs on the top menu items are nice.

That site consultant link looks rather cheesy - do you have to use the link they provide? Even using the same image and chopping off the lost looking lady would be better.

bener

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Ultimate Geek

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#1014380 28-Mar-2014 09:36

Have you tried the background without the 'grungy' top section? It might look cleaner with just a solid colour... I don't mean remove the images, just suggesting trying it without the brown stuff.

sarahk

40 posts

Geek

#1014396 28-Mar-2014 09:55

I'm interested that you think dps is expensive. I have a client that will be trialling it because it's cheaper than their current provider :)

Your design isn't responsive and I think thats a big problem. It didn't really gel for me either, the home page is all tech hardware and then you have drink bottles. It's pretty cool to cover all those bases but maybe on the homepage mix it up by only having x items from each category even though that may mean that slower categories have items promoted as new for longer.

GarryJay

17 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#1014414 28-Mar-2014 10:05

Thanks, that's all pretty cool helpful feedback. Will get working on it soon (PS4s just arrived, gahhhh, play, work, play, woork, uhmm)

Just quickly in regards to dps. Yes they are the cheapest/trusted I could find, too. Now, Paypal has higher fees (about 1% more), but that's about it unless you take the full business account.
Premium Paypal allows paying with credit cards without registering an account.
dps on the other hand charges install fee, monthly fee, monthly fee credit card processing and on top of it they dare to charge a percentage on each transaction that is not far from paypals one.
Sounds like a lot of bollocks to me. But the dps logo is the dps logo, nice thing to have.

And, swinging back on topic, I am not sure if those extra dimes will win me customers or not.

Inphinity

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#1014419 28-Mar-2014 10:12

Welcome to Geekzone :)

In terms of the site, my initial thoughts are (and please bear in mind I'm only mentioning *negative* things, to try and be helpful)
1) Graphics look low-res and temporary (e.g. lots of artifacts,
2) Not much range... and some major categories are missing entirely (where are PC games?)
3) Pricing is erratic. For example, an Asus R7 250 is $237, as is the R7 260X. The latter is competitive, the former is nowhere close (and is the same as it's bigger brother in the same example).
4) Descriptors of some items seem, imo, misleading. E.g. the Stitch 64GB usb pen - "Reading speed blows your mind. It's fast. Pumps about 15MB/sec." I'm glad the figure is included, because the text implies it's fast when, sorry, it's not. On that note, four different products have "Cutest USB stick ever" as their description ;)
5) Site consultant. Sorry, good idea, but man that image is horrific (and it's green clashes badly with your colour scheme, imo).
6) "Ships Today from NZ" - please tell me this text dynamically changes after the cutoff time for shipping today... otherwise I will order at 6:30pm and expect it to ship the same day because it says so ;)
7) No contact phone number
8) I can't pay by credit card without going through Paypal?
9) I like stuff that's on sale. I can't see an easy way to view your "current specials" as such.

andrewNZ

2487 posts

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#1014542 28-Mar-2014 12:38

Welcome.

Would I use the site... No.

I hate that site consultant so much (especially the way it swaps colours making it flash) it would prevent me using the site all on it's own. Now it's better, but I still have no clue what it is and it interferes with my viewing by overlapping content.

The site is very cluttered and inconsistent.

Pick a style for dropdowns and use it exclusively (I'd suggest only lists, those pictures are bad)
Choose grid or list for your product category pages. If you're going to use images there, I think you're better off sticking with a grid layout.
Indoors and outdoors could be one category, maybe general or homeware
Every product needs a description.
I don't particularly like the background images either side of the content either.
I don't like facebook and twitter stuff, I'd dump it, but if you really want it I think it belongs on the right. What do facebook likes actually get you anyway?
Not a fan of the dual banners at the top. Drop the narrow one.

Condense the categories at the top and add some of the helpful stuff there too like Support and shipping info.

You don't need two water bottle categories...

If I find a site, the first thing I'm going to try to do is decide if it's legit or not. I'm unlikely to scroll to the bottom of the page for shipping and returns policies, and even if I did, there is nowhere obvious I'd find shipping info.

A FAQ page would be useful. Have basic info about: shipping, warranty returns, other returns, etc.

I don't particularly like the "PC Goodness" wording either. You need to appeal to a fairly wide range of people, I'd go for professional over cool.

robjg63

3840 posts

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#1014559 28-Mar-2014 13:17

I couldnt see a phone number or a physical address, that always makes me think drop shipping.
I am always suspicious of email only contact - even though its what I would probably use anyway.
Nice to know you can actually ring and talk to a human if you need to.

Regarding payments - I would be wanting to use a credit card - because its easy.
If you dont have facilities for that I would not be likely to buy from you unless you had a really good reputation (and you are just new I assume) and really sharp pricing(I havent checked that bit yet).

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

GarryJay

17 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#1014565 28-Mar-2014 13:27

Oh my, you guys create work for years to come lol. Thanks heaps though, appreciated.
Yes, we do a little bit drop shipping. However most of the items are indeed in stock. That's what's hindering us at the moment putting an address on the site. We do have very good security but it only goes so far.

Originally we imported Chinese products. But over the last weeks we got more and more NZ distributors on board. Hence it's a big clusterf#ck at the moment.
Anyway, keep the comments rolling, I'll try to integrate them.

trig42

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#1014580 28-Mar-2014 14:01

Nice enough looking site, PayPal does not bother me.

Shipping time does bother me, so if your site says 'ready to ship', I expect I will have it two days after placing my order.

You should beef up your torches range, and batteries/chargers. I see you have a charger on the site: http://www.gadgetkiwi.co.nz/shop/nitecore-i2 - The specs page does not list the batteries it WILL charge (specifically, I was interested in a charger for 18650s) - to find out I googled, and found the DX listing for it (which told me) and the DX price. If I was in a hurry, I might buy from you, if not, I would save $20ish and get it from DX (you charge $3.99 freight?). Maybe also mention/highlight that these things you are selling come with NZ plugs etc (I assume they do???), as that is another selling point.

Moral of my story, if you don't want a user on your site going off your site, make it easy, and give them heaps of info.

Good luck with the site - keep on top of deliveries and customer service (it is the best way to compete with the DXs etc. and drop shippers), and bring us more gadgets. Geeks love gadgets!

GarryJay

17 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#1014586 28-Mar-2014 14:13

If the site says in stock. It is. We ship via courier, so the $3.99 shipping are a great deal since courier is a lot more.

North Island on average is next day if ordered and paid before 4pm. Today is friday so nothing will arrive before Monday. We don't pay Saturday delivery.
DX might seem cheap, be my guest. Our last 3 orders there took 2 months to arrive, the two before that never did.
Same thing with all the import sites, if you have the patience and deal with 30% (at least) broken products then go ahead, save a dime.

We sort, test and make sure our products work. No cheap as import site will do that for you ;) maybe we should advertise that, too.

Hehe, dang, forgot the important part. Yes, it charges the 18650 AND has an NZ plug. Which DX also does not have.

trig42

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#1014642 28-Mar-2014 14:44

Yes, I know all of that about DX (hence I said if I was in a hurry I would buy from you, or someone close). I have never had a broken or missing DX order, but I know to expect to get what I pay for in terms of quality. I haven't ordered a lot from DX, but probably about 10 orders - all have arrived as ordered, just very slow (but not 2 months).

As said, your prices are OK for NZ tested and compatible items, have you checked them against any other Kiwi/Aus sites?

pbgben

262 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1014649 28-Mar-2014 15:00

The website was a bit slow to load for me the first time, then my local cache kicks in. (It this only me?)

The images could be a higher quality, remember that Open Cart generates thumbnails so you don't have to worry about file size too much.
Some item titles are too long, I don't think you need to have the RAM clock or type in the title, you can list them in nice table on the product page.
The product page looks nice, until you see the description. Add some formatting in there.

Take a look at other E-Commerce stores, and see what they do well, look at how they list their items and how they display data.

Also, if you need help with things, let me know. I've got a bit of experience with opencart.

$5USD 1GB RAM, 10GB SSD VPS in SYD

GarryJay

17 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#1014650 28-Mar-2014 15:00

I try to find as much data as I can. My partners are more financially valuable, so I am just stuck with too much work.
Compared to what I can find it's always the cheapest price in NZ. In regards to imports only.

We don't want to price dump original products, so we have slightly below average prices in that regard (Pc, games, dvds).
Then there are products we are not allowed to change the price, so probably no one will buy them lol. e.g. the awesome Filter Bottles. They do filter radioactive materials, how cool is that?

Sometimes there is quiet a huge step between our price and the cheapest in NZ, e.g. the torches. People quickly judge and say we sell sh*t. Both products are exactly the same, we just wouldn't pay what seller B asks for and in that case come up with a price that we would pay. Might be silly because it can confuse people, but I'd rather sell a $50 torch for $40 than asking $99. If I order that it would leave me pissed. The product is easily worth $40 but not $100.

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