Question:
Greetings hereers!
Without spamming the main forum, I thought I'd drop by here and get a specific perspective from the textiles and sewing crowd. After all, that's about 70% of our business.
I've completely redone our store front side of the web site and would greatly appreciate any comments, suggestions, bug reports, etc. etc.
The "landing page" (linked below) is not finished, as I'm not satisfied with the slide show. But do have a look and drop me a line if anything catches your eye... or if something SHOULD catch your eye and doesn't!
Thanks!
http://dewittco.com/storefront/xcart/catalog/index.html
Answer:
Hey, it ALL catches my eye.
Way to go on setting up the xcart!
How's it going? How did you do the shipping area? I've got to redo ours, with the USPS changes that are coming.
Are you using the built-in search? Or did you get another one?
Answer:
Hi Elaine,
Thanks for having a look!
It was slow going setting up... learning the templates (which I still am not 100% comfortable editing), importing our goodies, etc. The import took about three weeks or so, one category at a time.
For shipping, I'm using flat-rate by weight for USPS services only. I haven't set up FedEx yet. I'm not pleased with the automated shipping system, as it works best with "traditional" x-cart stores that have users log-in. I've pretty much eliminated the "log-in" features of x-cart and all references to "enter your password" on the site. This created problems with the shipping system, but I've managed to work around them. And YES, our shipping reflects the new rates coming in May... I can't believe I actually remembered to do that!
I'm using the built-in search that comes with x-cart, but I'm looking at other options. I'm happy with the search for now, because it's a huge step up from our other site at bCentral. The search engine there would only search the titles of products, and if there was a single character off, the product wouldn't come up at all. IE - searching for 1940's pattern wouldn't bring up a product with "1940s pattern" in the title.
All in all, I think it's the best product for the money that's available at this time. No recurring fees other than web hosting... gotta like that!
Cheers
Answer:
I also use a calculated by ME (flat) rate by weight for shipping. I decided long ago I didn't want to be dependent on a look-up from another site.
It's been quite a while since I did it, but if I remember correctly, I used a formula for FCM/Priority/Media options and then do some correction for the odd stuff when I put in the weight when listing.
So far, so good. But I do have to revisit it all soon...
I'd be interested in your work-arounds for the log-in/shipping thing. But it's probably not the best idea to post it here.
Answer:
Wow, I think it looks great! I spent mucho time just browsing. Your photos are very nice.
I don't know anything about the technical details like Elaine does but I appreciate all the work it must have been to put the site together. I hope you have much success with it.