seanmpuckett
Oct-10-2006, 02:11 PM
I've paid for my Pro membership, and I'm fairly pleased with most areas of the service. Customizability is very good, organization is okay, and general navigation and responsiveness are reasonable.
As a pro, though, who expects to make money with this thing, I feel there are issues with the cart system that need to be addressed. These are issues raised by my customers -- the ones good enough to comment -- the ones who didn't just say "the hell with it" after they got turned off.
1. It is very offputting to be asked for credit card information before a total is displayed. Every one of my customers and potential customers has commented on this. For me, personally, it is a dealbreaker, especially when dealing with a new Internet vendor. I will not give a credit card number if I do not see the final amount that will be charged first.
Solution 1: Allow the user to enter a country and/or zipcode at any point in the shopping cart process so the Shipping and Tax fields can be correct at time of checkout.
Solution 2: Remove credit card data entry from the first cart page and just collect billing/shipping addresses. Ask for credit card info on the next page when totals are shown. This should be easy, and is a bare minimum required change.
2. It is difficult to find informaition about shipping fees. While I managed to find it by googling, it should be available from any point in the cart system, and updated in real time.
Solution 1: Provide an obvious SHIPPING FEES link on the cart pages and in the help system under "ordering prints."
3. My customers don't like the "javascript" in the cart system. The U-CROP-IT feature is nice for geeks like me, but confusing to computer beginners, and doesn't work well in all browsers (this is based on actual customer reports). The last thing I want is confused customers. Confused customers don't buy prints.
Solution: A simpler shopping cart system with no javascript perhaps as a Pro account option, with an "advanced" cart available for those who choose it. All I really want to see in my shopping cart system is a single drop list of print sizes and finish options.
4. The print size options in the cart system are horribly convoluted. Three different sub menus of prints in various proportions with gloss/matte/lustre intermingled? Disastrously difficult to understand, even for me. Even if I preselect print sizes for a print, the sizes are still difficult to manage.
Solution: One drop list for size, with "closest match" aspect ratios highlighted and shown at the top of the list, a second drop list for finish quality. Put the "gifts" at the bottom of the size list.
5. Cart themes. White on black text is nasty, especially when my customers are coming from my subdued gallery pages. I don't care so much about full reskinnability, I just want consistent background and foreground text colours so my eyes don't go "WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?" This also helps reinforce the idea that SmugMug and I are partners.
Solution: At the very least allow me to enter background/foreground colours for the cart system as a Pro option.
I like SmugMug, even as a developer/designer of a competing service, which is why just today I removed my colocated server from the rack host. I like you guys enough to trust you with my customers and my images.
Please make some of these changes a high priority. I consider them very important and in some cases essential, and if I were developing a competitor (as I was not too long ago), I would make sure these items were addressed very quickly.
Thank you.
As a pro, though, who expects to make money with this thing, I feel there are issues with the cart system that need to be addressed. These are issues raised by my customers -- the ones good enough to comment -- the ones who didn't just say "the hell with it" after they got turned off.
1. It is very offputting to be asked for credit card information before a total is displayed. Every one of my customers and potential customers has commented on this. For me, personally, it is a dealbreaker, especially when dealing with a new Internet vendor. I will not give a credit card number if I do not see the final amount that will be charged first.
Solution 1: Allow the user to enter a country and/or zipcode at any point in the shopping cart process so the Shipping and Tax fields can be correct at time of checkout.
Solution 2: Remove credit card data entry from the first cart page and just collect billing/shipping addresses. Ask for credit card info on the next page when totals are shown. This should be easy, and is a bare minimum required change.
2. It is difficult to find informaition about shipping fees. While I managed to find it by googling, it should be available from any point in the cart system, and updated in real time.
Solution 1: Provide an obvious SHIPPING FEES link on the cart pages and in the help system under "ordering prints."
3. My customers don't like the "javascript" in the cart system. The U-CROP-IT feature is nice for geeks like me, but confusing to computer beginners, and doesn't work well in all browsers (this is based on actual customer reports). The last thing I want is confused customers. Confused customers don't buy prints.
Solution: A simpler shopping cart system with no javascript perhaps as a Pro account option, with an "advanced" cart available for those who choose it. All I really want to see in my shopping cart system is a single drop list of print sizes and finish options.
4. The print size options in the cart system are horribly convoluted. Three different sub menus of prints in various proportions with gloss/matte/lustre intermingled? Disastrously difficult to understand, even for me. Even if I preselect print sizes for a print, the sizes are still difficult to manage.
Solution: One drop list for size, with "closest match" aspect ratios highlighted and shown at the top of the list, a second drop list for finish quality. Put the "gifts" at the bottom of the size list.
5. Cart themes. White on black text is nasty, especially when my customers are coming from my subdued gallery pages. I don't care so much about full reskinnability, I just want consistent background and foreground text colours so my eyes don't go "WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?" This also helps reinforce the idea that SmugMug and I are partners.
Solution: At the very least allow me to enter background/foreground colours for the cart system as a Pro option.
I like SmugMug, even as a developer/designer of a competing service, which is why just today I removed my colocated server from the rack host. I like you guys enough to trust you with my customers and my images.
Please make some of these changes a high priority. I consider them very important and in some cases essential, and if I were developing a competitor (as I was not too long ago), I would make sure these items were addressed very quickly.
Thank you.