Hi everyone,
I would really appreciate hearing your viewpoint on a possible change to the Hyena Cart storefronts. Let me start by saying this is far from a done deal. It is in the conceptual stages, no work has been done other than a few mock ups, so now is the time to voice your opinion. Let me also ask that any comments remain positive and constructive. This is supposed to be an improvement, and something that increases the usability of the site for everyone. I am gearing up to start some advertising early next year, and there’s no point in bringing potential shoppers in, only to have them turn away in confusion.
OK – so the background is that newbie shoppers get very confused with the current HC layout. They find it jarring and disconcerting to be at HC one moment, and then immersed in a completely different design/layout in the next (I’ve heard it described as being like going to a mall, entering a shop, and then being stuck in the store, unable to see how to get back out into the hallway). On top of that, I have more functionality I would like to add to the site, and I think it’s getting more and more confusing, where to look on the store pages to find the right link / info. So I’d like to put a header at the top of the stores that contains all the relevant info for the shopper. I’m very sensitive to the fact that people want to protect the look of their stores, but I’m trying to balance this with shoppability for newbies, especially as I start advertising and bringing new traffic in.
So, with all that said, what do you think of this (shown on several example storefronts):
The “This item” menu would only be available if the shopper were viewing an item (as opposed to the main store page, or an info page, etc.) And those would be drop-down menus, so wouldn’t be expanded like that all the time 
I also may need to think of better titles than “This store” “This item” but that’s all I could come up with for now.
And then, of course, all the text that is currently in the store fronts “Hello Karen, you are logged in and ready to shop” etc. etc. would no longer need to be there, meaning your actual listings would be higher up on the page.
I see a few main disadvantages: 1) the addition of this bar at the top of your shop designs, but I think it’s pretty unobtrusive; 2) those of you who have designs that are seamless with your main site… well, when shoppers click through to an HC page, they’ll now see that bar at the top, so it won’t be totally seamless anymore.
Main advantages: 1) shoppers have a really consistent shopping experience as they move through the site, making it much less confusing; 2) spotting, marking favorites, contact page, etc. are all accessible in one easy-to-find location; 3) I can add more functionality and bury it in the menus, thus not taking up more real estate in your shops and listing pages.
Please let me know your thoughts!
You can join the discussion in progress on this thread, or leave a comment on the blog. Thanks!
ETA: based on the discussion so far, if I were to do this, two things would definitely be included: 1) customizable colors for the header bar; 2) a “search this store” option
Edited again to add another option:
OK — here’s another option. It’s a simple replacement of the text that’s already there — and the addition of drop-down choices when the text is clicked (or hovered over — need to think about that some more).
Advantage: no change in seamless nature of carts
Disadvantage: still takes a little hunting by the shopper to find the links back to HC, if that’s their goal. However, it’s occurred to me, after a night’s sleep, that shoppers find many things confusing about HC, not the least of which are previewing items, Buy Nows, lotteries, etc. and I have no plans to change those, so it just might be that the ‘separate but linked stores’ is just another one of those things that shoppers have to get educated about when using HC. I don’t know…
So here are images of what the integrated menu might look like — sellers would be able to adjust the color / fonts, etc. using style sheets, much as they do now:
So. let’s continue the discussion…
I love it! I think anything that makes it easier for customers is a good thing.
i like it. would it be possible to allow us to change the color of the bar/ wording and font to mesh with our existing pages, so its more seamless if not completely?
The biggest change i would like to see is when shopping in the categories, if it could pull up a list of items rather than a list of shops. if i am looking for some sort of toy without an idea of what i want, its annoying to have to click on each shop and a search never brings up everything available.
I think it’s a good idea. I have had plenty of customers who are not HC users who have been frustrated and confused by the site in the past.
It sounds great. As a “newbie” I am never really quite sure how much items on the hyena cart are, until I get to check out or get an invoice. That has been quite interesting and even deterred me from buying at times. I know each shop owner sets their own prices, but when they aren’t clear on the cart, it’s almost like they are using the cart to rip off people. After I do buy, I breathe a big sigh of relief when the invoice is comparable to what I thought I was paying.
Sometimes I am afraid to leave the store to check out the hyena cart for fear I won’t know how to get back. Sorry- just “newbie” stuff.
So, YES, these ideas do sound bright and do-able and helpful.
Thanks for listening.
Godspeed
Red
I like it! I would love the option to change the bar coloring though. That would allow it to mesh with our own designs easier.
I’m don’t like the idea at all. I have always hated that people can easily search for similar products right from my store (all the while thinking they are searching WITHIN my store) with the search option and this will make it much easier. I also think it would make it much more confusing for people who don’t come in through the main HC site. I drive a lot of traffic from non- HC customer and they are confused by the site but I’ve never heard this complaint or anything like it before. Mostly my customers are confused by the checkout and shipping selection process.
I like it. I do agree, though, that having the option to change the color would be helpful for integrating the bar into the background/scheme of each individual store. But as far as being able to navigate, I think it sounds wonderful.
I think it will work fine. If customers are confused, then we need to make it as easy as possible for the customer, thats going to have them shopping.
I like this idea. I am a fairly new vendor and I get confused. While we are talkiing some functionality improvement, is there any way that we could add a feature that lets us know how many times an item or site has been viewed? Or is it already there, I just haven’t found it?
Will this bar show up if someone doesn’t come through HC? That would be my concern. We (at our congo) do our own advertising, off HC. If we bring in a new customer through our site, I don’t really want them linking off to a “mall” of other stores.
I think I like it… I am a newer vendor here, so I don’t really know yet what I feel are flaws in the searching and buying areas, but it does get a bit confusing not having anyway to obviously link you back to where you came from… I don’t think “search for similar items” seems necessary though.
Your customers are already taken to the central hub when they leave feedback or go to their My HC pages, so this shouldn’t be that different should it?
For those sellers who don’t want any cross-shopping between their stores and others, I am working on a separate site, indiecart.com which would have all the functionality of the HC carts, but no shopping community — no calendar, no forums, separate shopper registration, etc. Is that the level of separation from the site that you would be seeking? Please check out this thread to read more about what I’m thinking: http://hyenacart.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=99654
I also like it. I think of HC as a community of vendors…not isolated stores. I think that making it as user friendly as possible is the right idea.
I found HC through a vendor using HC as her cart. I only accidentally found the rest. (How lucky for me!!) I think that making it as easy as possible for our customers to navigate is awesome. If “search” is going to be available from an item page, is it possible to make two options…”search this cart” and “search all of HC”?
Yes, Monica, I think that would be a good thing to add: “search this store”
I like the idea. I agree, anything to make it easier on the customers. I’ve had complaints before on how it’s difficult to navigate & check out, so this seems like a good solution! I like the idea of the “search this store” as well.
Isn’t it possible to code it so that instead of it saying “this store” it would automatically ‘know’ which store the customer is in and it would read
“ACTUAL STORE NAME” instead? I think this would be much better than a generic “this store”. Would be nice if it went the extra step and recognized the store name, especially since it will be easier for customers to realize they are in a ‘shopping mall’.
I agree with the person who said they didn’t like making it easier for customers to search for other similar items.
I would say that I drive more than half of my business to hyenacart from my own site and advertising. They don’t have any idea what hyenacart is, and having those HC search features at the top will be both confusing, and make it easier for them to go off and shop from someone else’s cart based on my advertising dollars, and often thinking they’re still on my site.
I don’t know that I would want to switch to an indie cart, either, though, because then I’d lose the business I *do* get from HC.
If we’re definitely adding these things, is there not a way to add them within the site itself, and not above the header, so we could keep the seamless look? One of the reasons I chose HC was that I could make it seamless with my site.
i like it! i say anything that will help customers is a plus. 😀
I really like it!
I really like it. There are MANY times when I am trying to access different parts of hyena cart from my store and wish it weren’t “so many clicks” away.
yes i think its a great idea! i am often confused by the site too and I have a store here!! lol if it makes is easier for the customer, i’m all for it!
Oh I *MUCH* prefer your second edited option!
Thank you! what a great idea! I much prefer the first one. If the whole point is to make it easier for the shopper, I think the first accomplishes this better. I think if it had been up to me to come up with the idea, I would have just made the current link more obvious… like having it say “Return to HC Home” or something along those lines, and putting it at the top of the page. But the drop-down menu is nice– it is unobtrusive and more helpful. Less clicks is good!
I would definitely like the prefer the editable option.
Sorry… on second thought, I think I like the second one better. It seems much less obtrusive, but still easy for the customer.
I do realize they already leave the store to leave feedback or view their purchased items in My HC but that seems different than leading them directly off to search other stores.
I do think the second option of just adding drop downs to what is already there is at least less obtrusive.
I like it and am all for helping new shoppers. I would like it to be more seamless with current pages but do what you can. 🙂
Yes, I’m back to post again 🙂 I’ve been thinking about this. I think the thing is we are coming from two different directions. You want to make all the HC stores seamless for people that come to a store from HC. Whereas my concern is making HC less confusing for people that come to my store from my store. It is already pretty confusing, as it isn’t your standard cart. I guess that is why I would not like to see the HC info made even more eye catching (and confusing). Your option of being a stand alone cart does solve this, but it would be nice if there was an in between option that considers both types of shoppers – ones coming from HC and ones who are not coming from HC.
I think that it’s important to keep in mind that while it may make it easier to shop other vendors from your store, the reverse is true as well and you benifit from other vendors as well. I maintain my own site as well and do off-site advertising, but I am also taking advantage of the established clients of HC and the lower cost of a mall site.
I like the idea of being able to customize the color and font of the toolbar to make it fit in better.
I also would be interested in a view counter if one was available.
I like the second option best. I like for it to be less obstrusive but still easy for customers.
I think being part of the community is a benefit of HC and we should make the “mall hallways” much more visible. If someone wants to have an isolated store, there are lots of other internet options out there. I like the first option best.
i think it is a wonderful idea! and while i’m inclined to say i prefer the second one because it is less visible, for me that defeats the purpose.
i say the first one is the best option for customers. several sites i’ve seen, including Etsy have similar ones that are far more obstrusive then the first one. It will make it far easier for customers to find their way around. But I would like the option to change the colors and font to match the individiual sites.
And I 100% agree with Dawn that the community is what drew me to HC to begin with. It isn’t just a place to sell my goods.
I think its a great idea! I like the second option best
I like the first option, but either works for me.
I like it, I like the first idea better than the second though (bar with expandable menu’s across the top) I thinks that’s pretty simple to navigate so it would be good for customers. So there’s my $.02. 🙂
i like bar across top, good idea easy to find, as well as possible color change idea to match store front. nice and easy to see for customers, as a newbie would be nice to have standard across store then not so hard to find when in other stores.
search store option would be neat as well as the current seach all stores.
what is easy for customers always good, without customers we would all have no HC!
I like the idea of it. I would also be in for the customizeable color and I think the bar is a better idea than the text.
I like the bar across the top. As a customer, I get lost sometimes just trying to find where to log in because it seems to change with different stores. I like the idea of a feature where someone can ‘search’ your store so they do not have to navigate a long time through listings.
I would really like the drop down menu too, I feel like I have to scroll down a lot to see my items as it is now.
I too like the idea of the bar with drop down menu. It seems to be very user friendly…I am new here and agree that it is a little confusing as a shopper to navigate. It would be best to allow color and font to match individual store fronts. Great idea!
I think this is a great idea. I was a shopper before seller and I remember that I was a bit confused with it. I think it could do alot of good for the customers.