Whew! I have been working for what feels like months on the storetop menus and they are finally ready for beta testing. What I mean by that is that I have not rolled the change out across the site yet, but I’ve created links that allow users to turn them on and off and try them out.
What are storetop menus?
They are menu bars that will appear at the top of every store that allow the shopper to navigate through HC much more easily. In addition, in Firefox and Chrome, the menu bars stay fixed at the top of the window, so no matter where you’ve scrolled down to on the item listing, you can still see what time it is, and access all the features of the menu.
So what are these wonderful new features?
- There are drop-down menus so the shopper can navigate to his/her My HC and other utility pages
- There are drop-downs to navigate back to the HC calendar or search page
- There are store-level drop downs that can take the shopper to the store’s feedback page, main page, mark the store as a favorite or share the store via social networking sites like facebook, twitter, etc. There’s also a new store-level search page to search through the listings of a single store
- There are item-level drop downs which allow the shopper to spot the item, share it via social networks, or my favorite new feature: we’ve partnered with MyRegistry.com to allow the items to be added to a universal registry list (along with items from any other site on the web)
So, how do you access this amazing new menu?
Click on this link to turn the menu on site-wide: http://hyenacart.com/calendar.php?stmenu=1
After clicking on that link, all the stores will have the storetop menu.
If you’d like to revert back to non-storemenu view, you can click on http://hyenacart.com/calendar.php?stmenu=0
Please leave comments, questions, and bugs under this blog posting. I’m especially interested in having you test this on your own store, to confirm that the menu does not conflict with your store’s design. I’ve tested a lot of stores, but obviously, I can’t test them all. I know of two bugs that will need to be fixed via modifying a store’s design. If, in your style sheet, you define a body tag margin at the top of the page, it causes a horizontal white bar to appear. Zeroing out the margin fixes this. Also, any store with white or very light font will not work well with the menu since it has a white background, so we’ll need to put a quick fix in. I have an idea how to do this, but need a store to test it on, so please send me a link if this applies to you.
In addition to the store menu, there are a few other enhancements:
- Slight reformatting of product listing pages to make them more readable and user friendly (in HCS, price is now shown up by the title, and time left until stocking is listed at bottom of listing)
- Stores with paid time longer than two months in the past will show up as inactive. This is to prevent sales from stores where sellers have not listed in a while (we’ve had both annoyed sellers who assumed their listings would expire with their paid time, and annoyed shoppers who have purchased items from old stores)
I’ll add more if I can think of it, but that’s the main gist. Please let me know what you all think. I’ve had the menus turned on for a week or so now and find it much easier to navigate. Plus, I’ve had a ton of fun sharing links via facebook and twitter. Which reminds me, we’d love to have you join the HC facebook page, fan page, and follow us on twitter.
Thanks everyone!
*ETA* OK — known bug — the drop downs are not working in IE. Will get that fixed as soon as I can figure it out! Fixed that error. Please refresh a few times if the menus are looking funky
Wow! That is so much less intrusive! On first glance, I really like it.
I love it!!!! It’s working well with my store, I see no issues at this point.
The only issue I could see is that for me at least it slows down refreshing time. Could be dicey for stalking high-demand items.
But other than that, I LOVE it. It makes a lot of things on HC so much easier to navigate! Great job!
I am loving the search this store & share this store. Really awesome! I wondered if it wouldn’t help to make it a bit more visible? Or are we going for less intrusive?
It’s kind of weird and chopped off on my store- I can’t see the bottom of the bar, and the letters are chopped off. Also, the text is overlapping in some of the drop-down menus.
I do like the share and registry links, though!
It also doesn’t seem to want to turn off again?…
I REALLY like it but would like to have it larger/bolder, or at least have the option of having my store’s version larger. Thanks for doing this, I think overall it’s a great idea!
I’m trying to test it in my store, but nothing is happening when I click the down arrows on the menu options. Shouldn’t a list be dropping down?
It doesn’t seem to be working for me. I see the titles with the little arrows beside them but nothing drops down for me (at least in my store). Not sure how to see what options there are.
looks good on my store….really like it!
Mine pops out a menu as soon as my arrow gets close to the heading, I don’t have to click on anything. In Safari the item menu is cut off on the main page, in Firefox it’s very close to the bottom but readable. Otherwise it’s working perfectly for me.
I like the new options, but I think it may be too unintrusive…I didn’t even see it at first…I think it looked to much like my pop-up blocker and I just screened it out till I was specifically looking for it.
Same as Crystal. I see the titles with the arrows, but nothing drops down. If I click on it, then it takes me to some main page of that menu.
Crystal, Ula, Kristina – what browsers are you using?
Sorry — the ‘turn the menus off’ link was wrong. It’s fixed now!
It’s been hard to balance findable and unobtrusive to each store’s design. Maybe we still need to tweak that?
Works perfectly for me! I love it so far!
Love it! Works great for me too!
I really like it, but I would like it if the bar was just a bit bigger,maybe bolder text~ just to make it easier to see. I was curious, under This Item,it says My Registry…what’s that?
AOL for me.
not working as drop-downs for me which means my feedback is not visible to customers (a HUGE deal for me)
It works just fine for me, I love the functionality. I am in the boat that thinks it might be too unintrusive, but it may just be a matter of getting used to it. When in Firefox it’s easy to hit my Bookmarks Toolbar tabs instead of these menus. It may be a matter of just making a bit of space between the pull down menus and the bottom of the top of the nav window. Right now they seem a tad crammed up there. But, I think overall you did a great job of doing all the things you intended functionality wise while still allowing very little intrusion into the stores themselves, and that I really appreciate.
Oh, I just tried to spot an item on a store and the query failed.
When I first heard of this idea I hated it, but now that I’ve seen it I love it! I agree that it would be nicer if it were bigger, and if we had the option to customize the background color, the font, size, etc. I think it needs something to stand out a little – right now it hides under my other tabs.
I really like it and it works/looks great on my store. The only thing that looks a bit odd is that I see the bar at the top with text, then a stripe of whatever the background color is, and then another white stripe before you get to the main part of the page. I also agree that it would be nice to have it a bit larger – it could still be unobtrusive but a little easier to see.
i like the idea, but it looks funky on my site…..there is a white bar across the top that interferes with my background.
I personally love how unobstrusive it is – nicely done. I think it is a nice compromise for those of us that weren’t excited about a more fluid, “mall” look. The drop downs do not work on a mac using opera though. They drop down, but it’s like the options are hidden behind the club thread page. I can see the first option as it is above where our page starts, but not the rest.
OK – it should work on IE now. Those who are getting errors when trying to spot items — could you link me to the item you’re trying to spot? Thanks!
I like it! It doesnt interfere with the overall look of anything I think. Perfect!
Works well with my store – I like it a lot.
For HCS you say it will show time left until stocking and its listed at bottom of listing.
But it does not show the minutes or seconds.
That is what helps for stalking.
I also think for anyone not familiar with HC, the drop downs are too small and will be missed.
I wouldnt know to look there for feedback or anything else.
Looks great! just tested in joyful earth and the drop down does not link once it gets to the joyful earth header…. works great in tush!
love it! and works well with my store 🙂
Looks great, no problems with my store design. I love it.
I LOVE it. Thanks so much Karen! I’m switched over now and will be stalking with it this week. 🙂
It works great on my site as well. i love it! i have been wanting to see somethign like this for a wihle! nice job! thank you
I like it much better than what was previously there. I like that it is so unobtrusive, so doesn’t interfere with the overall look and feel of my store.
I wonder if there is a way to customize it on each store? If somebody wants a bigger and bolder font, if maybe they can choose something in their store setup that would do that for them? I’m perfectly content with it being small.
So, in order to remain open, we have to pay/list things every 2 months now???? If sellers were confused by that it’s (IMO) their own fault for not reading the instructions. To me that was a feature that I really appreciated, and one of (if not THE) main reason I use hyena cart. Is there no other option here?
Glad it’s working for most people 🙂
Mandie — the intent of the ‘pay as you go’ philosophy is that I understand sometimes life gets hectic and we just don’t have time for our stores. Those are the months it makes sense not to have to pay the monthly fee. If you’re actively using your store to make sales, then I’m not sure why you wouldn’t expect to pay?
Erin — the minutes and seconds show up as the stocking time gets closer 🙂
I’ll think on how to make it customizable. I don’t want to go too far with that because the point is to make it a consistent experience for the shopper.
Thanks for all your input!
Robin – joyful earth should be fixed now. Thanks for the head’s up!
Those who are seeing the white bar (like zbaby) — that is what I meant by “If, in your style sheet, you define a body tag margin at the top of the page, it causes a horizontal white bar to appear. Zeroing out the margin fixes this.” If you zero out the margin-top in your css file, that should be fixed.
I can spot stuff now, so whatever it was before, it’s working now.
Oops, spoke too soon. I couldn’t spot this:
http://hyenacart.com/Babybeandesign/index.php?c=0&p=44211
For stalking it made it super slow when the stocking time hit for WSK. It stalled saying it was waiting for myregistry.com
I never have a problem with stalking and stalling out like that.
Thank you for posting that link, Tickety Bu! Got the problem fixed.
Erin — slowing down stalking is no good. I think there might be a way around that. Will keep working it!
Hey Karen – I replied to you on Twitter and now am officially here lol.
With the menu off, I have links in my shop (cajunfiberco) on the top black bar under the header. With the menu on, the links disapear
When I convert to the new top ‘drop down’ menus, my main page is fine, but the product listings have lost the side borders of color (as on the main page of the site). When I revert back to the ‘old’ version, everything shows just fine on my listings. At present, I have 2 sold out listings showing at srgoddess. Please advise? Thanks!
It works great for me. I didn’t see it at first though. The other thing I would add is “sign in” That way customers don’t have to look for yet another place to do that.
Never mind my last post. I just saw the login on the left side of the bar, lol
When I read the entry at first I though it would be much more like the topper on blogger but I like the size and the function and so far with all of the websties I have checked out it matches easily color wise using the css for the original links. I like that. I wonder though if instead of having the end user decide if their links are going to be up there is it possible for each cart to decide for itself?
I just visited this store:
http://hyenacart.com/bbbuttsdiapers/
and the words don’t show up for me on the pull down menus.
on my congo it made all the listings look funny. I don’t know why, but the imagages and text were running into the background when I had it on. not good. otherwise, I loved it.
Wow I like it, though I have to admit I’m going to be looking for the old links by habit. Its just something I’ll have to get used to I suppose. I like that I can search the store for something I want, it seems very intuitive.
I really like the idea behind it and on many of the shops I’ve seen it looks perfect!
On my shop, unfortunately, it’s making the table wider than my header and it looks really silly: http://hyenacart.com/joyfulrose/
I’ve tried mine in both Firefox and Internet Explorer, and it’s making the tables too wide in both browsers. 🙁
I agree with previous comments; it looks nice and unobtrusive, but if possible I’d love to be able to change the background color of the new topbar and the font.
Thanks for working so hard on this!
Christina 🙂
It works for me! I agree that it is a bit too small and easy to miss.
I love it, so far I haven’t found any bugs and it is a great set up!!
I really don’t like it. One reason is that it takes the background color out of my store. Honestly, most people wouldn’t even notice small black letters at the top of the site. I love the way Etsy has buttons and nice graphics to click on. It seems more visual friendly with their thumbnail pictures of products. Hope that we may evolve to have a more visual look someday to appeal to non-HC users. Or HC “virgins” as it were. If I were a newbie just clicking and wound up in HC, I would be totally lost. 🙁
I love it, though it would be nice if it were a tad bigger for better visual. Also, Im not sure if its just a programming html thing on my end, but it wipes out my background color – so for now, I will probably stick to the original format.
I loved it at first, but just noticed that in my store it seems to mess up the footer of my store. Otherwise I think it’s brilliant!
I like this A LOT!!! I wouldn’t be objecting to making it bigger, but I wouldn’t make it TOO much bigger, at all. The only issue I would have with that, is that it needs to not cover up the layout, but move the layout below it. I say this, because, on my site, the border is JUST below the bar, right now, which is the same spot as if it were not there. Making it bigger would then start to cover it up. I also wouldn’t mind the ability to change it’s colors, but it’s not necessary either. I’m loving the share the store (can twitter be added??) link, and the registry option. So cool! Thanks for this!!
first, I really like this new menu. Second, I went to the iCrave congo and it’s looking a bit funky for me. the welcome is in the middle of the screen and there’s a second blank bar under that and all the other options are off the screen. Third, just to clarify… this isn’t being used by the general hyena population right now right? otherwise I need to change some registering instructions in my store 🙂
I finally got to looking at this in the new format and I have a funky white bar across the top of my store. Also, my font is white so I suspect I am missing alot in that while bar space.
I am NOT a html chicka 😉 so Karen,..yes you have my permission to go and tweek it for me……oh pleeeessseeee tweak it for me 🙂
It seems to be making my background white instead of the purple. 🙁 Will that work itself out? Do I need to do something?
Thanks!
Your doing a good job guys. I like it so far…