Seeking feedback on new website

Hello all... we are one week into the launch of our new website and we are eager to benefit from the experience of regular on-line bead purchasers. 

We think we have brought a new contemporary slant to on-line bead shopping with some useful tools and a visually clean and clear approach - but that said we are really keen to hear what you think. There are a few holes in our offerings as the photography catches up with the product entries (!) but this aside we are looking for your thoughts about the look and feel of the site, the level of information entered, and the usefulness of the tools we have provided. 

So if you can spare the time your constructive feedback will definitely be used to improve our site and ultimately your shopping experience! 

Please drop by www.bigbeadlittlebead.com when you get the chance, send us a private message or add a post to this topic. 

Thanks in advance, 

Anna

 welcome to Beading Daily Forum Anna.

Welcome !!!

I DO like your category View -- clean, neat, and orderly !!!!

Hi Anna,

I've been to your website and love the features Project Tray and Bead Calculator. And the category site gives a good overview. And a big plus is that you're in UK, so much closer to my part of the world than all the US bead shops.

Hi. Thanks for the positive comments!  We can handle negative ones too - anything that you find is less successful?  

 Ok, LOVE your ideas on the bead tray and the bead calculator. I do have a thought on them. While I like that your photos try to keep the same scale, so you can compair sizes in the bead tray, I wish that when you held your mouse over the item, it'd come up with a pop-up window that says the size and package number. It would save a lot of time and agrivation if you didn't have to keep going back.... I also think it would be nice if you could add things to the bead tray with OUT being automatically taken there. I personally like to select a bunch of things, and THEN go and play with them in the bead tray.

GREAT ideas though!

Lois

 Anna:

I really like the look of your site - nice and clean and very fresh.  So many of the bead sites really look cluttered, or they look like the all use the same template. 

One area that I have a little concern with is the "Semi-Precious Birthstone" section. I realise that you're offering a reasonable cost substitute, but Rock Crystal is not the birthstone for April (diamond), and cornelian (carnelian) is a strange substitute for ruby.  I think, if you want to promote the birthstone aspect, you should be as accurate and as informative as you can - Wikipedia has a lot of great information on the subject, and it wouldn't require a really huge change in your set up.

Or, you may want to eliminate the whole birthstone thing altogether, since it really limits you to the same twelve types of stones.

Good luck,

Lita

Hi Lois and Lita,

Thanks for taking the time to look and comment.  I really appreciate it as it really is useful to have 'fresh eyes' (and brains!) looking at the site.

Lois, I agree the pop-up box would be a useful way to gain information without leaving the current page.  I am not 100% certain, but I think we decided against having pop-up windows on the site for technical reasons - i.e. not all browsers support them.  I also agree that it would be good to have the option to look at the project tray only once one had put a selection of products into it - the page refreshes so that you can be certain the product had been added to the tray, but perhaps we could offer the option of disabling this.

Lita, from clicking on your Wilkipedia link I have learnt something interesting - that America has a different 'official' set of birthstones to the UK!  The birthstones I have listed match the list created by the National Association of Goldsmiths of Great Britain in 1937 (see jewellers-online.org). I felt I would need to know rather a lot about semi-precious materials before I could seriously trade in them, so for that reason I have for the moment limited what I have on offer to the twelve birthstones.  With time I would love to increase my knowledge, and/or find trustworthy sources, and be able to offer more of what are frequently, absolutely stunning beads.

Best wishes,

Anna

 Anna:  I love the clean look of your site.  Also the project tray and bead calculator are great!  The only suggestion I would have is if you want to make it easy for us stubborn Americans, you might have a convertor somewhere on your site.  You know we are backwards and don't use the metric system and a currency convertor would be nice too.  :)    I have an app on my iPhone that do this for me but I know a lot of people don't have that readily available.  Depends on who your focus buyers are but if you want us Yanks to buy, you had better make it easy.  LOL

bblb:

Lita, from clicking on your Wilkipedia link I have learnt something interesting - that America has a different 'official' set of birthstones to the UK!  The birthstones I have listed match the list created by the National Association of Goldsmiths of Great Britain in 1937 (see jewellers-online.org). I felt I would need to know rather a lot about semi-precious materials before I could seriously trade in them, so for that reason I have for the moment limited what I have on offer to the twelve birthstones.  With time I would love to increase my knowledge, and/or find trustworthy sources, and be able to offer more of what are frequently, absolutely stunning beads.

Best wishes,

Anna

Anna,

::putting on my jeweler's wife hat::

There are actually several different "correct" birthstone lists. I have a couple of them in the store. The traditional or genuine stone list is (in order from January to December) Garnet, Amethyst, Aquamarine, Diamond, Emerald, Pearl or Alexandrite, Ruby, Peridot, Sapphire, Opal or Tourmaline, Topaz and Turquoise or Blue Topaz.  Another list substitutes White Sapphire for Diamond, Green Spinel for Emerald, Alexandrite for Pearl, Rose Zircon for Opal, Golden Sapphire for Topaz and Blue Zircon for Turquoise.

Swarovski has its own lists - with several suggestions for some of the months, such as Lt. Rose instead of Opal for October and Lt. Amethyst instead of Pearl or Alexandrite for June.

If nothing else, your list gave some options that the Yanks wouldn't think about. I go through the same thing all the time with my customers. It's surprising how many don't know their own birthstone, anyway. If there are less expensive alternatives to diamond$, I know there are many of my customers who would go for it!

Deb

Thanks for taking a look at the site.  A currency convertor is a good idea, perhaps converting to dollars, pounds sterling and euros.

Hi Deb,

Thanks for the extra information.  Interesting to learn that Swarovski have their own list too - although that makes commercial sense!

A

bblb:

I think we decided against having pop-up windows on the site for technical reasons - i.e. not all browsers support them.

Mozilla does not like them, and also blocks redirecting to another page.

Re: birthstones -- In the last two centuries, there has been a plethora of 'birthstones'; my grandmother [b. Mar. 27, 1888] claimed Garnet was hers, 50+ years ago I saw, on a calendar, that Dec. [mine] was Blue Sapphitre.

"The only constant is change."  [Author unknown]