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DecorativeDishes · 04-06-2007, 04:53 AM,

This is a pretty fun site to play with. I haven't used it, but it might give you some ideas:

http://www.creationsbydawn.net/graphic/makeaset.html

Kim

misteroriginal · 04-07-2007, 07:04 AM,

Looks like xCart to me. The colors are OK. There is not much to get my pulse going. I had to dig for the girly pics. I wouldn't have exerted that much effort under normal circumstances and probably would have bypassed your site. On the bright side, I guess there is nothing terribly wrong with it. I give it a C-.

BellisimaJ. · (This post was last modified: 04-07-2007, 02:03 PM by BellisimaJ..)

[quote author=misteroriginal link=topic=9027.msg48854#msg48854 date=1175929462]
Looks like xCart to me. The colors are OK. There is not much to get my pulse going. I had to dig for the girly pics. I wouldn't have exerted that much effort under normal circumstances and probably would have bypassed your site. On the bright side, I guess there is nothing terribly wrong with it. I give it a C-.
[/quote]

FG, this guy has an imaginary ax to grind with TT.Please don't take his comments to heart. Smile

Edit:

Quote:Um I like the TT colors, considering they are the same ones on my site.

I like the colors also! Angel1

misteroriginal · 04-07-2007, 05:05 PM,

[quote author=BellisimaJ. link=topic=9027.msg48859#msg48859 date=1175952090]
FG, this guy has an imaginary ax to grind with TT.Please don't take his comments to heart. Smile

[/quote]
Not true. When "judging" at a site, it's hard to put it in proper context.

I think you are missing a number of opportunities to sell me, even though you are somewhat hindered by using xCart. That's why I give you a C-. People will tell you your site looks great when they are trying to sell you something, or just don't want to be bothered with it. I'm trying to give you my honest opinion. There is a lot of room for improvement.

For example, I'm not really into antiques, but I do like World War One stuff. I did a search, and, naturally, the results were crazy. It's a tough thing to search for, any way, since WWI often brings up WWII. The annoyance of that is there is a lot more WWII stuff around, so the typical search means one still has to look through a bunch of unrelated stuff.

You can fix things like that by giving multiple ways to search. You have to go beyond the category tree.

On the bright side, it's not an eyesore. A lot of websites are eyesores. Take TT, for example, ...

BellisimaJ. · 04-07-2007, 05:10 PM,

Quote:A lot of websites are eyesores. Take TT, for example, ...

I think that perhaps you can't appreciate a sophisticated color scheme. Must take an artist's eye........... Tongue

Oh, that's right! You are a graphic designer. Hmmmmmm........... :blinkie:

FiberGuy · 04-07-2007, 05:26 PM,

All comments welcome, make no mistake. This is business, not personal... and misteroriginal's comments harbor no malice, IMO.

I do realize that x-cart has many limitations for the non-professional web developer (ME!) and short of having professional development done, it's something I'm either going to have to learn myself or find another product (which doesn't exist in our price range.)

I do believe however, that x-cart was and is the best choice given the alternatives and what we wanted out of our online store. The primary goal was something we could "own", host it on virtually any web server, and was relatively easy to maintain (once the development learning curve was attained) AND ---- a low initial monetary investment. We got started with x-cart for not much more than one month's "rent" at a hosted cart.

[quote author=misteroriginal link=topic=9027.msg48886#msg48886 date=1175965510]
For example, I'm not really into antiques, but I do like World War One stuff. I did a search, and, naturally, the results were crazy. It's a tough thing to search for, any way, since WWI often brings up WWII. The annoyance of that is there is a lot more WWII stuff around, so the typical search means one still has to look through a bunch of unrelated stuff.

You can fix things like that by giving multiple ways to search. You have to go beyond the category tree.

On the bright side, it's not an eyesore. A lot of websites are eyesores. Take TT, for example, ...
[/quote]

Please do elaborate...

Also, I suppose I should add, here's what we were coming from:

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:we1...wittco.com&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=15&gl=us

(not sure how long the cache will be up)

Anyhow... when asking for comments, sugar-coating is optional!

Cheers

bargainbloodhound · 04-07-2007, 05:59 PM,

Quote:
Quote:You can fix things like that by giving multiple ways to search. You have to go beyond the category tree.

Please do elaborate...

See the left column in our (still unfinished) TulipStuff site for an example: 'shop by category', 'shop by brand'. 'shop by music genre', 'shop by record company'...and if you go to advanced search you can also search on price range, etc.Â On our BBH site we have 'shop by category', 'shop by vehicle type', etc.

misteroriginal · 04-07-2007, 08:09 PM,

It's a MAJOR improvement from where you started!

Also, you should be able to use graphics for searches. So clicking on a picture of magazine takes you to all the magazines, for example. I think that would be a better use than the current single graphic.

Oddly, I prefer ZenCart (free) to xCart ($199???). I'm curious why you chose xCart.

***regic*** · 04-07-2007, 08:37 PM,

Quote:Oddly, I prefer ZenCart (free) to xCart ($199???). I'm curious why you chose xCart.

X-cart can do one thing that ZenCart/osCommerce/CRELoaded/OSCMax can't do--handle traffic. The garbage code/excessive database calls in the osC derived carts make them unsuitable for any site that gets any real traffic unless you have a dedicated server. X-cart can scale, Zen can't.

misteroriginal · 04-07-2007, 11:23 PM,

[quote author=regic link=topic=9027.msg48898#msg48898 date=1175978272]

Quote:Oddly, I prefer ZenCart (free) to xCart ($199???). I'm curious why you chose xCart.

X-cart can do one thing that ZenCart/osCommerce/CRELoaded/OSCMax can't do--handle traffic. The garbage code/excessive database calls in the osC derived carts make them unsuitable for any site that gets any real traffic unless you have a dedicated server. X-cart can scale, Zen can't.
[/quote]OK, that's fine, but how much traffic are you talking about? more than 50 concurrent users? It seems like you'd want to get the traffic first, THEN consider paying for a cart.