New Website "Test help" please

[Cap-a-pie]

I'm in the process of putting together a new website, running an e-commerce system. Not quite finished yet but would appreciate any comments on it so far.

The main website is still in the same location so this test is running off a different url - will move to the main one when this is complete.

So in the meantime, if anyone has a spare few moments to take a peek, please go to http://shop.capapie.co.uk

Still need to do the following

1. add all the stock.
2. organise the on line payment system
3. Sort out speed issues, not sure if its my connection but seems a little slow at times.
4. Currency other than £
5. Postal charges for various countries

As far as im aware, it works OK in the following browsers, IE, Chrome, Firefox (apart from 3.0). Need to check it on a few others though.
Mobile devices, BlackBerry, Iphone and Android all seem OK

Anyway would appreciate any comments on the site so far.

Cheers

Mark

[steven pole]

Hi chap.
I've just had a nose round your website using my macbook on Google Chrome and it's working fine.

[Cap-a-pie]

Hi chap.
I've just had a nose round your website using my macbook on Google Chrome and it's working fine.

Cheers. Hadn't been able to test on Mac yet so thats great

[Senilis Pravus]

Works fine for me - PC, IE9,

You have a typo that I spotted - in gifts section it says t-shirts and hoddies, which I assume should be "hoodies", unless you're selling a type of construction worker!

[uksimes]

Seems fine on iPad2!

[Cap-a-pie]

Works fine for me - PC, IE9,

You have a typo that I spotted

LOL - Many thanks - just changed that one

[Catherine of Gwent]

Just had a quick look - I should be getting ready for work!

On the Maille home page, where you talk about the maker's mark ring - it should be "this unique addition" not edition.

Will have a further look when I have a little more time.

Kindest regards
Ann

[Cap-a-pie]

Whoops - thanks for that.

Also was worried that section would get missed so thanks for proving me wrong on that

[ForTheMarshal]

Works fine on Firefox 8 (I think - latest version anyway).

Also, looking damned fine

[nathan]

Looks good consistant behaviour on Chrome/Firefox/Opera on Windows 7

A lot of it isn't working for me [every link shows me 'We are currently performing some scheduled maintenance.
Please visit our current site at www.capapie.co.uk.'] but you are probably fiddling with it's content.

Niggles
no dropdown displayed for Helmets/Weapons (probably because there is no/little stock) it's inconsistent (as per your existing website) and makes the user wonder if it's missing.
the dropdowns have categories with 0 items in (you probably can;t set this to auto-hide)
Lots of categories with very little stuff in [e.g. under 'Gifts' (for example) you only have 3 items, would suggest that you have a single category] you might even go Maile / Tools & Materials / Weapons, Helmets & Padding / Jewellery / Branded Merch. as top level categories with no sub-categories at this stage (unless you are displaying more than 20-30 items per page that should work good for you display-wise.
Maille > Tools & Materials seems to be a duplicate of Tools & Materials

You are right it's not fast, looks like that it's the response-time from your host that's the issue (the time they are taking to process the php and start sendign stuff back). Not much to be done about it short of shopping around (and paying more for guarenteed performance) or customising the code (but flattening your site so the user gets 'more' for each click helps them feel the wait was worth it.

HTH
N.

[Cap-a-pie]

Hi Nathan

Thanks for the feedback, very much appreciated, yeah the categories with zero is a reminder for me where I need to add things (that is now off, which interestingly, has helped with the site speed a little) The lack of drop downs is because I am currently adding the stock, still creating the basic structure and then slowly adding the items, have a couple of other new things where i'm trying to find a home. So things will start to appear once the items get added. Point taken on the Weapons and combining. For the moment this will be small as its going to be very much development stuff that im working on, a case of seeing how that develops in its own right. The warhammer was only intended as a fun thing for myself but that has proved rather popular and now getting more requests to make other things, but yeah I did think it looked kind of lost, although there will be a pole axe to keep it company soon - But your right that could move.

Its currently in maintenance mode now as im testing the payment options so need to ensure I can tweak that without anyone diving in just yet. I am also testing other currency settings and shipping options etc so lots of backend stuff happening just now. Essentially I just wanted to get some initial feedback before I went too far, its quite a major change from what I am used of with basic HTML so steep learning curve - Almost vertical at times Hopefully will get this on line over the Christmas break now as seen the sound of music on TV enough times so should have some spare time on my hands LOL

Point taken on the duplication, although there is method in my madness, this was to ensure that folk could find things from a number of roots, had a problem on the existing site where I had numerous e-mails from folk asking if I sold loose rings and tools, despite it being on the site from off the maille section I had comments it was "buried". So figured I would try that route and add a different way in.

OK on the speed, this is a real odd one at the moment, although I have added a few mods which have improved things a little, im getting inconsistent results with some on line test systems, showing sometimes faster than my current site which is odd, also getting different results with various machines and OS despite clearing cache etc. Certainly there is a lot more going on under the hood compared to the last one but its something I want to see if I can tweak. I am actually testing this on an alternative host but still early days at the moment.

Anyway thanks for the feedback. Site will remain in maintenance mode now until I get the payment things sorted, then It will be moving to the main domain URL

Cheers