Hey everyone,
I made just a few small changes today, based on some usability testing I did earlier in the month. It was fascinating (and sometimes mortifying) to watch HC-newbies navigate the site for the first time, and I made two changes based on some of my observations:
- Shopping cart icon: this probably should have been a no-brainer, but having an e-commerce site without a shopping cart icon is not a good thing. I had considered and dismissed the idea before because, as you know, HCS stores don’t use shopping carts. Plus, it seemed confusing to have a cart icon on the main site pages when shoppers have to check out of each store separately. After some thought, I think I’ve come up with a good and usable compromise. What do you think?
- Grayed out purchase buttons: OK — turns out some people don’t read all the text on a page (that should have been a no-brainer too). I watched a shopper get more and more frustrated as she attempted to purchase an item that was previewing and could *not* find an “add to cart” button. She hovered over the “XX available on such-and-such date” several times, but never read the text. So, on every page now, if the item is previewing, there is a grayed-out “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart”, etc. button that, when clicked, pops up a window explaining that the item will be available for purchase on a future date. Hopefully that will make things more clear to people
Please let me know your thoughts and also any other input on how to make the site better for newbie visitors.
Thanks everyone!
Thank you for working on this. Just yesterday I had something like 5 orders where someone purchased soaps but didn’t finish checking out. I have no contact information, just in my order history “new” orders. It’s really annoying…….
The grayed out BIN button is awesome! Do you know how great this is going to be for stalking? It’s always a guess at where the button will be! It’s also nice to know in advance how the item is listed…..is it BIN or can I cart it along with other items. Love this change!
(And the shopping cart is very cute too. I think that this will help explain the separate stores to new shoppers.)
Fab ideas!! Thanks for all your hard work!!!
Thank you! I was just trying to explain to my sister today some of how HC works so that she could tell her friends 🙂
Perfect! I have been wanting that cart icon for so long, noticed it today and said hooray!
At least a couple times a month I have to respond to emails about wanting to buy but no button, so that grayed out button just saved me having to explain.
Thank you once again Karen!!
Great ideas! I think they are a fantastic addition and helps both the newbie shoppers and the store owners a ton… I find lots of questions coming from new shoppers that seems to just stem from the lack of knowledge of how HC actually works… so I think these are 2 steps in a great direction for embracing new customers and even making it a little easier for some veteran shoppers!
Thanks so much for all you do!
Awesome changes! I love the grayed out button with pop-up idea! Just tried it out – that will save a lot of explaning during sales/previews, etc. Thank-you for all of your hard work!
LOVE IT!! Awesome, as always – you SO rock!!!
I like the idea of your using shopping cart but could you explain how to get more people going to sites?