Review for Beauty Care Store

[RestOwner]

Update - Please review the site at this link http://gloriacosmetics.webs.com/

I have a friend who just opened this online store, and asked me to help her promote her site for opinions and suggestions. She still needs to add more products. She's new to this and can use others' experience or thoughts. So, if you can share some input that would be great.

Old Site, please ignore http://www.vendio.com/stores/MKcosmetics

I think it looks great, and has it well organized. But I'm not an expert in online stores.

[JamesD31]

Few things, you would want to tell her to put a background to the content - even a white background would do great (which I suggest would be a good feel for the whole site. Though, do not have the content over the background image, it just looks "bad."

She needs a nicer logo, though that's not to bad right now. The navigation should be white - easier to read. Get rid of the pink links and pinkish headers, those are hard to read on the pink/purple background.

So, I would suggest her make a white background for the content, change the normal text to black (on the white background) and white for the navigation links. She than can use some pink/purple for content links if she moves to the white background.

She should make the whole image click able, not just the image of the product itself. As for the page counters, I would get those off, they really are an outdated trend and just can make a website look "unpopular." If she is in need of a tracker, suggest to her the Google Analytics.

[Tecknowoman]

I agree pretty much with everything said above. I didn't stay on the site very long to give you more of an idea because I actually found the pink/black difficult to look at - a little eye hurting - sorry.

[RestOwner]

lol ok, in other words she should change the whole color design or choose a more decent template. thanks for your input guys I'll let her know!

[GekiDan]

Hi Restowner.
I pretty much agree everything said above, including the background color. Honestly, it does really hurts my eyes.
Anyways, I'm thinking she is using a store from a site called Vendio. According to WOT (Web of Trust) add-on on Firefox, it received an UNSATISFACTORY rating for the top three categories namely Trustworthiness, Vendor Reliability and Privacy. Here's a link to the WOT Reputation Scoreboard for Vendio: http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/vendio.com/comment#comment

I definitely suggest using eBay for this kind of business since ebay is much more reliable.
Besides, it's the first time I heard about Vendio.

Hope that helps.

[Fergal]

Your friend might try using a white background colour, a white background works very well for some of the major e-commerce stores, such as Amazon. She should also look at optimizing the size of her image files, they really are much too large and slow down her page load. For example the image of the lipstick on the right of the site, is over 1,000 KB's, she should be including images that are less than 20KB.

[RestOwner]

Hi Restowner.
I pretty much agree everything said above, including the background color. Honestly, it does really hurts my eyes.
Anyways, I'm thinking she is using a store from a site called Vendio. According to WOT (Web of Trust) add-on on Firefox, it received an UNSATISFACTORY rating for the top three categories namely Trustworthiness, Vendor Reliability and Privacy. Here's a link to the WOT Reputation Scoreboard for Vendio: http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/vendio.com/comment#comment

I definitely suggest using eBay for this kind of business since ebay is much more reliable.
Besides, it's the first time I heard about Vendio.

Hope that helps.

Interesting link GekiDan, I bet she might want to know this. I had heard a bit about Vendio, I've seen people use it on their ebay listings, but I've never used it before. Thanks!


Your friend might try using a white background colour, a white background works very well for some of the major e-commerce stores, such as Amazon. She should also look at optimizing the size of her image files, they really are much too large and slow down her page load. For example the image of the lipstick on the right of the site, is over 1,000 KB's, she should be including images that are less than 20KB.

I agree with you on this Fergal, you can't just throw in images like that. You need to consider other people's page load connection speeds. Thanks.

[CarlJackley]

Hi RestOwner.

They are right... The color your friend used isn't good. Just turned down the brightness of my laptop when I saw the site. It gives a terrible eye reaction which is bad...

The Site Name is the thing I noticed first. It will look better if your friend can add a little left margin on it. Perhaps, moving the site name to the Center of the left header border and the search bar is nice....

The Whole Pinkish template may not be the best one to use for this site. Try using white as the main color theme and give it a pink touch on the header banner, the links or texts, the sidebar and the borders. In that way, the images that your friend used will blend with the content area background since they all have white background color. I hope I've explained myself clear...

GoodLuck!

[Business Forms]

Yes.. your friend should change the background color.. it does not look good.. I think she should add some graphics also.. I think she can do so many things as this site is about beauty care store and she can really put so many nice graphics. The most of the women like pretty graphics with light yet attractive colors like light pink, light purple, etc.. White is also a nice option..

[RestOwner]

Hey guys, thanks for all of your opinions, my friend has actually created a new site on webs.com she decided she didn't like vendio.com anymore because of some technical glitches. Here's the new site link: http://gloriacosmetics.webs.com/

I think the new design is much better than the one before, what do you think guys?

[Tecknowoman]

That is a much more visually pleasing store. It has a much more professional appearance is so much easier on the eye. Didn't take a look around but wow what an improvement!

[GekiDan]

Your friend's store is much better now. It has a clean and elegant layout. She even used the actual product as a background image which I think is good since it can definitely attract customers.

I'm just wondering why is there a need for a Spanish translation on the navbar and Policies page since other pages don't have that? And the site says that theyonly shipped within the US so I think being consisted with English only is much better.

[jennifer_colins]

I like that design as well, good job indeed

[Kay]

Are there supposed to be half bottles on the right hand side? At first I thought it wasn't displaying right in Firefox but on second thoughts that might be the design. I like it very much apart from that.

Her contact form needs fixed. It showing some HTML code as text eg *Name <br>.

(The old one with the pink wallpaper background looked terribly dated. Those backgrounds are way out of style. Glad she changed it!)

I would agree with GekiDan on the Spanish. Since most of her clientele will be English speaking, I'd be putting that text before the Spanish. Overall it's distracting and better done away with. She could instead create a separate site that was entirely in Spanish or add a Google translate widget (http://translate.google.com/translate_tools) in her sidebar. That would give her the added advantage of more languages too.

[RestOwner]

That's a good point about the Spanish Language. I'll mention it to her, I'm guessing she also has spanish speaking clients.

[GekiDan]

That's a good point about the Spanish Language. I'll mention it to her, I'm guessing she also has spanish speaking clients.
If it's that so, why isn't the other parts of the site untranslated?

[RestOwner]

If it's that so, why isn't the other parts of the site untranslated?

What other parts are you looking at GekiDan?

[GekiDan]

What other parts are you looking at GekiDan?
This page is an example: http://gloriacosmetics.webs.com/limitededition.htm
There's no Spanish translation here like this page (http://gloriacosmetics.webs.com/productosproducts.htm) and the nav bar.
It isn't consistent at all...

[RestOwner]

oh I get what you mean now. she didn't translate the title pages of the products? Is there a limit for how long a title for a page can be? Reason I ask is, she might have ran out of allowed amount of characters, or I don't know.

[GekiDan]

oh I get what you mean now. she didn't translate the title pages of the products? Is there a limit for how long a title for a page can be? Reason I ask is, she might have ran out of allowed amount of characters, or I don't know.
It can be any number of characters you want but it is suggested to use characters below 180.

[Fergal]

oh I get what you mean now. she didn't translate the title pages of the products? Is there a limit for how long a title for a page can be? Reason I ask is, she might have ran out of allowed amount of characters, or I don't know.

The page title used on the site can be any length that works and quickly communicates the purpose of the page, to the visitor. If you're referring to the length of the title tag used in the website code, most writers on the subject of SEO suggest that you keep it to 65 characters or less.

[RestOwner]

So, what would you guys suggest, a short and concise title or a long and informative title?

[GekiDan]

So, what would you guys suggest, a short and concise title or a long and informative title?
A short and informative title.

[Fergal]

So, what would you guys suggest, a short and concise title or a long and informative title?

I'd agree with GekiDan and go for a short and concise title. Try to make the title interesting and perhaps a little dramatic, so that anyone reading it wants to know more - something that makes them curious and want to read the rest of the content.

[GekiDan]

Take note: A long title can be boring and it maybe one of the reasons why visitors leave a certain site.

[RestOwner]

Thanks! I think I'll also take this advice for myself aside of helping my friend lol.

[wingmaiker]

A website with pink and black color contrast isnt something that I enjoyed as it started hurting my eyes. I prefer lighter backgrounds.

[susanbekar]

I found the site really pleasing to the eyes. It has an easy look and has a professional look about it which I like.

[Alexishost]

I suggest your product list image blend with the theme of your site.

It will be more professional

this is not professional

http://www.vendio.com/stores/.template/mkcosmetics/current/mycontent/355200.gif

[A-L-I-E-N]

Actually looks decent. However, the main page looks not symmetric. And in some places, the site seems unfinished.

[GekiDan]

Guys, here's the updated site that RestOwner would like us to review: http://gloriacosmetics.webs.com/
@RestOwner, I think you should ask Fergal to add the new link to your first post in the thread.

[Fergal]

...ask Fergal to add the new link to your first post in the thread.

Thanks GekiDan, that's done now.

Personally I feel the site needs a lot of work to make it professional enough so that visitors will have the trust and confidence to buy from it. The external ads displayed on the site are a bit overbearing and don't look professional. Removing some of those ads, especially the PhotoShop tutorial ones, would be a good start.

[SLWebDesign]

Hi there!
I haven't read the above comments in order not to be influenced by their opinions - sorry if I repeat what has been said before but I thought it'd be better if I wasn't biased.
I like the overall site, but think it needs some professional touching up.
Why are there half bottles or products in the background? It looks like some design didn't work properly.
I like the color scheme : gray and pink, very nice.
I think you could work on the buttons so they 'pop out' more. If your goal is to sell a lot of products on this site, it needs to focus more on this, and display the products very well. Maybe the pictures could enlarge when you click on them so the product is easier to see?
Overall it's not clear what is the goal of the site : promote the products, encourage people to become MK representatives?
Cheers!

[DavidL]

Upon opening the site, I was so distracted by the background, and when I scrolled down, so did the background. I think, design-wise, you should fix the background, as in not make to move. I thought the ad banner at the top was the name of your site, so that could be a little misleading.

The color scheme is nice and appropriate, and your links are optimized, which is all good.

[RestOwner]

Guys, thanks for all of your tips. Like I said, before this site is not mine, it's a fellow cyberfriend's site.
Regarding the objective of the site, I believe her aim is to sell the products and recruit people as well. She may not have time to finish the website I guess, I haven't heard from her in a while.

[denial]

Beauty care store is a highly professional website that offers a good display of graphics and comprises of informative content. The site really appears to be very promising.

[davidgehlen]

Which CMS was used for this store?

[Bwendo]

Oh, just loaded on an internal page and it was bare except for a MK product.

Perhaps you need a landing page so that you can make a show of all of your range before narrowing in on the particular item.

[timpane]

I would propose her make a white backdrop for the content, change the usual text to very dark (on the white background) and white for the navigation links. She than can use some pink/purple for content connections if she proceeds to the white background.