Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

My first reaction is that the orange in the nav bar and the coupon offer as well as the brownish bar are pulling my eye away from the items which you actually wish to sell. Y

Additionally, the body area is underutilized. You could add some category photos and pull people into the areas that they may be interested in. Leave the current items as featured items. Perhaps working your offer into this area might prove helpful as well.

Also, I'm curious if it is effective to eliminate the models from an item on an apparel site.

Have you determined what page visitors are exiting from?

I notice that the checkout requires customer information prior to revealing shipping costs. I have found this to be devastating to the conversion process. You should provide all the information the visitor needs before you ask them for info.

The logo in the cart should link you back to the main site and there is no continue shopping link in the cart.

I also don't see any reference in the cart to SSL (I know it is functioning but there is no seal) or reference to free shipping offer.

I have to run to an appointment. If I get a chance I'll look more later.

Best Regards,

Greg Hill
Trinity | Search Engine Marketing

Where are people bouncing out of the process? Are people looking around, but not buying? Are people adding things to their shopping cart, but not completing?

Seeing beautiful people wear your products will help convey that you're selling more than clothing - you're selling a look/lifestyle.

On your home page - you're not showing prices of the "New This Week" (while other sections show the prices).

Consider adding a tagline. JStar doesn't give me a clue to who you are or who you're targeting.

Instead of showing "new this week" on the home page, consider showing a random selection from each category (tops, bottoms, dresses, jackets, etc.) along with its price. It'll show a range of products quickly, and the random image will mean that people will see something new each time they visit. Don't forget to make it more obvious for "On Sale This Week" to entice bargain hunters on the home page (I know you have a menu item).

Consider adding a search by size feature as well. There's no use looking though the selection only to find it's not sold in my size.

PS - Your copyright symbol in your footer doesn't display correctly in Firefox.

Actually one of the most popular and successful online boutiques is www.shopbop.com. It is no more edgy than your site. It makes it easy to find what you want. That is the trick.

I would worry more about how you are going to get relevant traffic to your site. It looks fine.

You've gotten some great feedback so far. I think you're right, in that the site could be more dynamic.

I shop a lot of clothing sites, and I really like to have some "editorial" type of navigation and descriptions. For example, in addition to searching by clothing type (tops, dresses, etc), it's nice to be able to search by categories such as style, occasion, people's choice, editor's picks, new items.

I also like more product information. That is the main thing that makes me not buy on a clothing website. Because I can't try it on and feel the fabric, you have to overcome my fear of buying something that will not meet my expectations for the garment quality. With sites like Nordstrom, you can assume a certain level of quality... but with a lesser known site, you have your work cut out for you. A more detailed product description, and even perhaps links to information on the designer, could help.

Here's a great example of a clothing site: www.anthropologie.com. Click around. The AJAX technology is probably really expensive, but you can learn a lot from their presentation, navigation, design, and descriptions. Hope that helps!