Isn't it obvious that we're selling?
 

Hey gang,

Need your opinion... I own/operate the website https://alconkits.com selling Alcon brand brake kits. We all-to-frequently questions like "Where can I buy such and such brake pad for my Alcon brake kit?"

I'm rather confused because the consumer must have at least gone to home page to get the email address/phone number. However if they write and ask "Where they can get XYZ product?" it seems to me that it's just not obvious that we are a retailer of Alcon brake products.

When you go to the site, is this not clear?

We worked hard to put a lot of good content on our website as a resource for folks, but I'm wondering if maybe we went too far and they see it as just an information site, and not a retail outlet. Your opinion greatly appreciated... I've been looking at it too long. :(

hmmmm, i would have though the big block that says "shop by category" would have clued most people in....seems pretty obvious to me looking at it.

^agree.

"Shop" appearing in multiple locations..."Checkout"

Pretty obvious e-commerce website, but then I'm a reader.

Yeah, obvious, but then "people are idiots" springs to mind.

"Shop by category"
"Checkout"
"Shop Brake Pads"
"Shop Brake Kits"

THose should make it pretty obvious.

Maybe reorder "shop brake kits" "shop brake pads" and "stasis hardware". Put the "stasis hardware on the right.

Do you have a tracker that identifies the screen resolution of your shoppers, and is your website setup to display well on that size?

I clicked "shop brake pads" and it was even more obvious with the way to filter on the left and the "your price $336" under each item.

Not really hard to find, but your home page is very busy with lots of small print so things kind of blend together, in my opinion.

Maybe less verbiage and more links- if pads seem to be the issue, maybe a large box in a bright color saying "buy pads here." Or something similar.

If a lot of customers are having an issue, it is a problem with the site and layout, not the customer. Blaming the customer is just being lazy.

I hate to say it, but you need a new website. Its way, way too busy. Nobody is going to spend 10 minutes of their day reading your main page. All the text and shapes everywhere are a huge distraction. Get rid of most of it and put it on other pages, where if someone wants it, they can access with one click.

Also, your site is not responsive. It needs to be.

I know you don't want to hear this stuff, but web design is changing very quickly these days.

As hard as it is to swallow this reality, Thom is correct.

It doesn't look bad on my macbook, if someone is hell-bent on finding prices it's fairly easy.

I would do buttons for categories with pictures of items representing them,, but overall it's quick and easy to find stuff.

You might be getting complaints from people using mobile phones. Optimize a page for them...

The first thing that jumps out at me from the Home page is "CLOSEOUTS" because of the attention getting color.

I'd recommend "Shop Alcon Kits" should be highlighted instead.

I like linearity. I want a few choices allowing me to further refine my search nearer and nearer my destination. Sort of like a dichotomous key if you're familiar with those things. A little flashiness to help me along. Too much of the same and I'm lost.

I think it looks just fine.

Right over on the right hand side is "Shop by category".

What kind of dimwit doesn't understand you click something over there to purchase?

Heck....there's SEVEN categories with links to click on......how easy is that?

Very.

I'd also leave the red color on closeouts....that's where it belongs, IMHO.

For the record, I maintain my own business website too and while it's not as up to date as I'd always like - I do spend a little time tinkering with navigation and content layout.

Your website is not the problem.

People are idiots and your web site is too busy for anyone not really dedicated to buying your product. Yes, you CAN figure it out, but it takes effort (did I say people are lazy?)
I could only spend a couple of minutes on it right now, but:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1459899905.jpg

The button doesn't work on my MacBook Pro running Firefox. You have to click on the words. What does "All Alcon Components" mean? There are multiple brands of brake pads listed, but no other components.

If the question really is ""Where ON YOUR SITE can I buy such and such brake pad for my Alcon brake kit?" Then I don't think it is perfectly clear.

No offense taken. I'm not blaming the customer at all, and that's why I'm asking. I know I'm missing something and needed an outsiders opinion. I agree I need to move to a more responsive design, I just haven't had the time to figure out a way to organize the information to make it easily findable, but within a simple responsive layout.

Appreciate the feedback greatly, really need the constructive criticism. My biggest worry about changing Design at this point is broken links... If I change menu structures, a lot of my google links will be no longer valid. I don't have the time for a ton of manual redirect setup.

It's definitely busy. I think I'll go look at my Google analytics reports and see if anyone is using the informational links off the main page... If not, perhaps they should not be there eh?

I would also remove the dates on your links. Seeing a date from 2012 make me think that the site is no longer being maintained.

Reading this with interest, as I need to join the e-commerce bandwagon too. I agree your site is a bit over crowded. For example why a blog and news. Those things are pretty much interchangeable these days, and should only be sidebar links. If you want to sell, put that up front.
I use Wordpress for my site, and am soon to change to this theme: Savoy - Minimalist AJAX WooCommerce Theme Preview - ThemeForest
Take a flip through the sample pages to get an idea of what modern e-commerce sites look like.

The Closeouts highlighted in red is very distracting.

Site is too busy.

The thing is, when you're selling a lot of products that look alike, but differ in spec, those fancy product boxes don't really look appealing when all the products are visually the same.

I'll work on simplifying the main page and putting more products up front for now. We have a mobile theme for phones already.

I am no expert on this type of consumer marketing/advertising, but as someone previously said, if the questions are about brake pads, then perhaps it may be good to focus on making that part of things easier/more clear.

There can be a lot of different part numbers for brake pad applications in general, and some folks are likely not good at keeping records of what they need from their ongoing purchases. So maybe consider some different ways of making the brake pad aspects easier for folks. I'd certainly consider listing the pad application(s) for each kit, if that is not there already.

It looks to me like your pad look-up is based on Alcon caliper, which seems to make sense, as long as people with these things know which caliper they have. Perhaps whether or not they do can be gleaned from the e-mails.

If there are a variety of questions about just about everything you sell coming through on e-mails, and the responses are hogging down your resources, I might also consider asking the folks for their feedback on the navigation. Asking the highly motivated folks in forums like this can be helpful, but may not be optimally informative.

Good luck!