The web site is clear enough but the font is hard to read. The returns policy does not comply with distance selling law but the terms and conditions are clear. The main area you seem to want to focus on is marketing and sales and perhaps another web site developer could advise on search engine optimisation? Even though you are all on line you still can use traditional marketing to raise profile and generate interest.
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LawHound Limited www.lawhound.co.uk
01244 300413

I think your site could do with a little tidy up and I am not keen on the navigation bar to the left of the screen. Maybe have a standard menu across the top of the page. I also think you don't need to use one of the standard FrontPage themes for the site. Your site also needs your <meta> tags. That aside, your images are of good quality and a good size. Have a look at Dabs, Scan...etc for good examples of these type of sites. Regards Jay Design R Web Solutions http://www.designrweb.co.uk Plesk and Cpanel Hosting http://forums.designrweb.co.uk Support Forums http://tutorial.designrweb.co.uk Flash Hosting Tutorials
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http://www.designrweb.co.uk Plesk and Cpanel Hosting
http://forums.designrweb.co.uk Support Forums
http://oscommerce.designrweb.co.uk Modified Oscommerce/ ecommerce Stores

Sorry to say this, but your site looks unprofessional. Scrap it and start again. http://www.hypermania.com

I never said I was a proffesional, I was just asking for 'constructive' feedback. I dont consider @scrap it and start again' to be a very professional comment. Have you any constructive feedback please? As for the other replies, many thanks, I had originally added metatags but for some reason I seem to have lost them from the site. Much appreciated, any other comments? Regards Kev
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www.hawkeye-pcs.co.uk
info@hawkeye-pcs.co.uk
01724 866172

Could EMPLOR elaborate on the returns policy for distance selling please? I thought I had covered every legal aspect but could do with a little help here as I notice you are a legal advisor. Regards Kev
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www.hawkeye-pcs.co.uk
info@hawkeye-pcs.co.uk
01724 866172

I clicked on the uk-netcard image which says 'click here to find out more' but it doesnt tell me more, it just links to sending an email - is it supposed to link to a page giving more info on the netcard ?
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www.makemoneyonline-makemoneyonline.co.uk

I think that for your target market, which from the "case mods" and wide array of strange computing bits, is primarily techys, the look and feel is less important than the price. Of course, it doesnt help to have a professional and glossy looking site. Tryto keep the page lengths shorter, browsers dont like to scroll downhuge pages. Also, I would try to include a few more graphics in the structure of the site as it does look a little techy and dry. If you can make it look like there is a big organisation behind your site you will find that customer numbers improve. For some inspiration why not check out some of our recent work, you can see a recent in progress example site here: http://www.a4internet.com/temp/cnc/flash/dynamic/cnc_flash.htm Prices start from less than £29 per month in the first year and then £10 per month thereafter. Or a slightly less sophisticated site for the same company : http://www.a4internet.com/temp/cnc/html/ Might provide some inspiration. Regards James

For business to business selling there are no problems with the site the legal issues come with the sale of goods over the internet to consumers. Have a look at http://www.dti.gov.uk/access/ria/consumer_pro.htm on the distance selling regs for some background and we are happy to help with specific concerns. Also in selling to the consumer the onus is now (through another EU directive) on your business to ensure faults did not exist at the point of sale and not for the customer to prove they did, for faults occuring in the first 6 months so you might want to consider amending the T&C to reflect this. Whilst the T&Cs are adequate they do not really go far enough into the law and do have a DIY ( ie non legal) feel to them.
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LawHound Limited www.lawhound.co.uk
01244 300413

You could change your website over to oscommerce which is free and very advanced but has a simple interface for users, if you don't fancy installing it yourself do a search on google for it and look at the sponsered adds, people are offering hosting with free installation for very reasonable prices. I hope this helps.

Hi We can offer OS Commerce installed for free as part of our Explorer hosting package. Regards James Hirst A4 Internet ltd www.a4internet.com 0845 108 0411

Hi Kev and Jason, just had a quick look through your site and have a few constructive comments to make: Firstly, you say you are having a problem with buyer confidence which i think is understandable as there are two key problems to address. 1.First impressions mean a lot with this type of site and at the moment there isn't a strong sense of who you are, and people are more inclined to buy from people they feel they have got know. I am aware that you need to keep spending to a minimum, but in order of priority, I would suggest investing in a good logo/brand identity and add some information about who you are at the outset, just a short welcoming paragraph. Companies like Dabs don't have to do this as most people know who they are dealing with before they get to the site. 2. - Another fisrt impressions issue. The site looks too home-made which undermines your credibility. Again, being cost concious, perhaps you could have at least a home page designed so that when visitors first hit your site they they are met with something that projects professionalism and capability and a warm welcome. If you would like more detailed advice, feel free to contact me either via my web site, or via my email address in my profile info. Yes, I am a web designer, but no, I won't go into hard sell mode if you contact me. I fully understand the plight of the new business as I have been through it a few times, including a Mac dealership! Best of luck - Mark. http://www.imagic.co.uk
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Most people fail rather than succeed because they give up what they want most for what they want at the moment. - Lady Onyx

I actually didnt notice the left navigation until i read a reply mentioning it. I just scrolled down. I wonder if other people are doing that. Why not try to make the first thing your visitors see, be some special deals that you have. Show the product and give some basic info and maybe a link to view more of that product. Try to show the customer that you have things to interest them at a reasonable price. I think that e-commerce sites need to pull the customer from the index page into the store - if theres nothing to grab their attention then they wont stay. Its hard to get a site together without spending big bucks but their are free and low cost "templates" out there: http://www.steves-templates.com/templates.html http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=free+website+templates Most require a link back but thats not too much hassle. http://hardwiredesign.com High quality Website Design and Hosting
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Simon Meech
http://www.startups.co.uk/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2990 - Startups Web Design offer!
http://www.hardwiredesign.co.uk

Kev & Jason, Being constructive, and thinking of things you could do to your site that won't cost you anything (or much), here are the immediate things that jump out at me that you may like to address: General impression of the site: this is not to criticise but there is a sort of general "home-made" feel about it, although I fully appreciate that finances often stop the employment of a web designer to change how it looks. Dig around in your local area or on some of the forums - you may well find web designers who are scratching around for work to build up their portfolios, while producing you a (free) site that has a slightly more professional look to it. The issue with selling anything on the net is that if the potential customer feels as if the company isn't fully established, or is run from a back bedroom, they may not risk dealing with the company. A revamped web site design can significantly help to change the impression customers get of your business. Navigation bar: I like the way it works but would agree with what someone said about it not being really obvious that it was there and pops out. Products page: although you've got pictures of products, I'd recommend also having text describing each sub-section. You may also like to consider a search facility so that someone can type something like "Epson printer" and get taken to the right part of the site. A cheaper option would be to create an A-Z page where people are led to and can click on the letter of interest (e.g. P for printer to be taken to the part of the site that displays your printers for sale). Download price list page: this throws up an excel list of current prices. I feel you'd be better off instead creating this as part of a database within your site that is consistently being updated. Plus, of course, prices should be next to each product on the site anyway. Newsletter: this appears to be just a newsletter on the site. My recommendation is to create an email newsletter, offered to local businesses, that provides useful information about PC's etc. Definitely NOT a sales pitch, but instead articles of interest that have a vague link into your products and services. Being in the business that you are in there is a multitude of pieces you could write within your email newsletters. By building your list of email newsletter subscribers you'll build trust as they open the email (monthly/fortnightly) each time knowing they'll get useful information out of it - THEN, at some stage they may be ready to buy from you. Missing opportunity: depending what stage your business is at, you'd be wise to create a section of the site that has case studies of clients that have benefited through what you've done for them - ideally, also have a positive testimonial in the same position on every page - it all builds reassurance. Overall: although it can cost money, a re-design would be the first step that I'd recommend. Follow that with an email newsletter that is full of useful information (to be offered to local businesses). You may be lucky and find a talented web designer locally who will help you for nothing more than inclusion of your site in their portfolio - otherwise, expect to have to shell out some cash to get someone professional on board. If I had to say what really jumped out at me about your company, it was the fact that you offer a lot of snazzy stuff - if I wanted a PC that looked nice and had flashing bits etc. then I'd know where to go. You could perhaps capitalise on that fact and start local competitions getting companies to compete with each other to see who has the best looking kit. The definite impression I got was that you're sort of like the PC equivalent of these people who specialise in flashing up cars etc. with lights etc. I hope that all helps a bit but please do shout if I've not been clear about anything. Regards, Andy Andy Harris Focust Tel: 01634 365277 Mob: 07810 350816 http://www.focust.biz andy@focust.biz
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Andy Harris
Focust

Tel: 01634 365277
Mob: 07810 350816
http://www.focust.biz
andy@focust.biz
Free web strategy tips email newsletter: http://www.focust.biz/newsletter.htm

Hi Kev and Jason Congratulations on what sounds like a good first few months in business - I think after my first four months I still had a turnover of zero! There are possibly two different issues here - are you saying you're not getting enough prospective customers to your site, or that you're getting the traffic, but few are converting to sales? If it's the first: optimise your site and submit it pronto. Don't just chuck in some meta tags. Think about the words and phrases your potential customers are typing into search engines, create a 'description' tag around them (more important than the 'keywords' tag, by the way) and make sure you use those words/phrases in the page copy. Good site for everything you ever wanted to know about search engine optimisation is [url]http://www.searchenginewatch.com[/url]. Research your key words at the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool: [url]http://www.content.overture.com/d/UKm/adcenter/tools/index.jhtml?mkt=uk[/url]. Don't forget to optimise for your location too (far easier to be number one for 'computer parts S****horpe' than 'computer parts'). (That's the auto filter that took those three letters out, by the way, not me - sorry, S****horpe! ) I realise you're targeting a national market, but since you offer free delivery in a ten mile radius it's worth promoting yourself locally online too. Once optimised, submit to Google and the Open Directory. See 'searchenginewatch' for more suggestions and submit page URLs. As has already been suggested, don't ignore offline promo. Second issue: poor conversions. If this is your problem, you're not alone, it's something we all struggle with. I notice that many of the suggestions so far have been about the overall look of the site. We all make judgements about a company on viewing their website, and those judgements may be unfair or ungrounded, but the look of the site is all we have to go on, and it's your one shot at convincing people to do business with you. So I would suggest you stop thinking of the site as an expense, and look upon it as an investment. That doesn't mean you have to spend a ton of money, but it does mean spending time researching exactly what your target customers want, and what influences them. It means doing your sums and deciding how much you're prepared to pay to acquire a new customer, how many customers you want the site to generate and what you need to do to generate them. For example, your site contains full contact details and a map - that's great, because it helps build trust. So don't hide the link in an obscure nav bar that's easy to miss. I found a really good newsletter on your site. You can write, you are articulate, you have the ability to hold a useful dialogue with your potential customers - so again, don't hide it. You apparently have satisfied customers - so where are the testimonials? Sounds corny, but genuine testimonials can be influential. I hate to bring up the scrolling issue again, but the most important real estate on your webpage is within the first couple of inches, so don't waste it with lots of white space and large fonts. Those first few words are all-important - spend time on writing your homepage, and the first couple of lines of your homepage - it's worth it. Analysis of your log files will show you what percentage of visitors leave without going further than the homepage. If it's more than 50% you're in trouble. Hope that helps, and best of luck. Robin [url]http://www.robinhoughton.com[/url]
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Eggbox: Cracking Online Marketing
http://www.eggboxmarketing.co.uk

Hi Kev and Jason, Congratulations on being so successful in your first few months. I hope that I will be able to say the same when I start [] As for the site. IMHO it needs a bit of work. There are a lot of computer component sites on the net at the minute and you need a snappy design to lift you above them. As you seem to be aiming more at the b2b market than the b2c market I think you can get away with a more functional design. You could do a lot worse then copying the dabs design (but please not red []). Small thigs that you could quickly do to improve the site include:

• Don't underline things that aren't links. It's really confusing.
• Putting the shopping basket in a little window in the middle of the page is more than a little non-standard. Could you provide a dedicated page. It also means that you can't easily see what you have in your basket. You have to scroll to the basket and them scroll agian in another window.
• The navigation menu is ok but I would make it more obvious. Maybe a couple of arrows on it to indicate that it opens. I am not a big fan of things opening / sliding about on web pages but this is a pretty good implimentation.
• Taking the network page as an example. Every product had the word INFO next to it but none of them do anything. If none of your products have extra info perhaps think about leaving that out.