First thoughts; cute design, works well with the target market. Shame it doesn't work on smaller resolutions, though, particularly as the navigation is at the bottom. This means that people may miss it if they don't scroll down.

Extending Jason's excellent earlier points about using Flash exclusively, another downside is the fact that by Macromedia's own admission, 3% of browsers don't support Flash (of course, they word it as '97% of browsers supprt Flash') - with no alternative version, this is akin to Tesco telling every 30th customer that they're not wanted because they're wearing the wrong shoes.

I tried to place an order but couldn't because I have cookies disabled for all but a few sites. Nothing wrong with relying on cookies, in my opinion, but it's a simple job to display a warning if the person viewing the website doesn't have them enabled - without a warning it just seems like the site is broken.

If you accidentally order two of an item (because you click the button twice or something) you get an opportunity in the View Basket page to amend the quantity. However, you have to place 'enter' after you make the change or it doesn't work. If you had an 'update quantity' button next to it, it would avoid confusion for the less computer-savvy.

Where you have products requiring personalisation, if I was designing the site I'd have a separate input box on the order page where you can type in the name. Your current system, where the customer has to remember to put the name in later in the order process, in a box which is labelled 'Gift Box Details', is unnecessarily complicated. I would expect that about 50% of your customers won't remember to type it in, and will need a time consuming call or email to ask them.

Apart from that, it works, looks different, and I wish you luck with it.

Iain.
------
Iain Row
Prominent Media Ltd
http://www.prominentmedia.com/

Overall, the site looks clean, fresh and fun. The choice of creatives gives it a fun feel and I'm sure that first-time shoppers will enjoy interacting with it.

However, there are some improvements that could be made.

The site currently uses Flash movies on each page. It's worth noting that the movies are different per page and have been embedded in HTML. However, while this makes it great to look at, but not likely to rank well within the major search engines because any text seen on the site isn't accessible to search engines. Macromedia also have a search engine optimisation software developers kits that allows the textual content from a Flash site and produce a static HTML version of it. However, this approach is not very good (IMHO).

The idea of providing a text only version is ok. Although, I personally believe that it isn't an ideal solution for an ecommerce site where there is a lot of interaction and where visitors need to be able to see the products that they are purchasing. A HTML version of the site would be a better solution all-round. By using CSS cleverly, the site can be read using text readers, so everyone is happy.

Congratulations to the web designer on not disabling the browser back button!

Of course, the other issue with Flash is the time that it takes to download. On a 56K modem connection, the site would take about 11 seconds to load. This is actually great. I have recently viewed sites that take over a minute to load!!

From an accessibility perspective, Flash sites can be made more accessible, and Flash MX (the latest version of the Flash development tool) has a number of options to improve accessibility.

From a search engine optimisation perspective, it is essential to make sure that every page has a different title and description. At the moment, I believe all pages have the same title and description. Make the title about 60 - 70 characters long and the description about 140 characters long.

From a usability perspective, the add to basket button is too far away from the options dropdowns. For example, on http://www.littlebluedog.co.uk/products/TSWP.htm it is easy to click the add to basket button without remembering to select the options. By placing these closer together, the visitor is more likely to remember to select the options. I would also recommend that all options default to an accepted value. For example, the default selection for 'do you require a gift box' should be no. This means that the visitor does not need to select a value for every option. Failing to select an option takes the visitor to a fairly un-friendly page.

To ensure that your site has a good chance of conversion, it is important to remember to clearly display:
- delivery charges and times
- stock availability
- contact information in the case of a problem
- refund policy
- privacy policy
- methods of payment
- whether prices include VAT


Although some of this information is listed in the Info page, it would be great to remind the visitor on every page.

One of the biggest flaws at the moment is that after a visitor adds an idem to the basket, there appears to be no way to view the basket or checkout if they move off to another page unless they view a product page.

Another thing to consider is that visitors like to be able to see as much detail about the products they are considering purchasing. Although some products have a couple of images (front and back), many don't. It would be helpful to show some of the emblems in a little more detail.

Credibility is a major issue with ecommerce sites. It's important to include a terms and conditions page as well as clearly state your limited company registration number (if you are registered). It's also helpful to show data protection act registration number if you are registered. You might also like to consider membership of one of the Trust organisations, such as Safebuy.

As part of the checkout process, it is always useful to provide a link back from each product in the basket back to the product page.

ANother bugbear (as well as unclear delivery prices on many sites) is the need to register before a purchase can be made. This is a major cause of abandonment. It is much better to simply collect the vital information needed to complete a purchase and then ask whether the visitor would like to register (with clear benefits of why it makes sense to) once you have collected payment for their purchases.

Finally, always tell visitors where they are in the checkout process and how many steps they have to go. This can be done by numbering the steps and clearly showing what's left to do.

Kind Regards,
James Saunders
Site-Report.com Limited
http://www.site-report.com
Helping small busiesses do better business online

Edited by author 21-04-2005 12:25 PM
A few more things have come to mind having taken a second look.

Most ecommerce sites fail to tell visitors much about their products. This is a key problem. When trying to sell online, you need to enthuse visitors to dig deeper into your site and then persuade them to purchase. Currently, as a visitor, I'm left wondering what material T-Shirts are made from, is the emblem dyed into the fabric, or a transfer, etc, etc.

Also, the prices of the products are a little small and easy to miss. Make these more prominent and also mention the £3 per order delivery charge and that'll be a big improvement.

Grandparents and Great-Grandparents love to buy for young children. You therefore have a captive audience. It would be worth thinking about cross-selling opportunities. You've bought the T-Shirt, you might also be interested in the hat and the sleepsuit and hey, you know they'll love it, the sleepsuit too! This adds a little more complexity to the back-end system, but would open up the opportunity for larger orders. Of course, you could also look at database marketing to ensure when visitor X buys the T-shirt that a week later the email newsletter they have subscribed to includes a special offer on the sleepsuit in the same style with a nice clear buy now link that takes them to the page with the size pre-selected! OK, so now I'm getting carried away, but hopefully you get the idea.

Back to a technical issue.... On closer inspection, the product pages of the pages within the site are primarily HTML with Flash used for the menu at the bottom of the page. I'll be frank and say that you could achieve exactly the same effect without Flash.

Again, good luck with the site. I think it has real potential.

Kind Regards,
James Saunders
Site-Report.com Limited
Call 0800 0436908 today for a free consultation about improving the conversion rate of your ecommerce site
http://www.site-report.com/summary_report.php

I like the design, very clean and menus are easy to follow.

Might I suggest some photos of babies wearing the clothes. That is what I really wanted to see. What do the items look like on a baby.

Best,

Rob Worth
Worth Solutions
tel : 020 7739 3861

Edited by author 21-04-2005 12:34 PM
Here are some great books that will help readers improve their ecommerce websites. They focus primarily on site usability:

Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Websites - Chak (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...026-2355882-2998860)

Don't Make Me Think - Krug (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...026-2355882-2998860)

Call to Action - Eisenberg (http://www.calltoactionbook.com/)

Each of these are very helpful to help website owners and designers improve the usabulity of their websites in order to increase conversion.

Also, although rather more expensive, Neilsen have the E-Commerce User Experience Series at http://www.nngroup.com/reports/ecommerce/

Kind Regards,
James Saunders
Site-Report.com Limited
Safebuy-accredited internet consultancy
http://www.site-report.com
Call free on 0800 0436908

Firstly - love the name. Anything that matches a commonly known object (dog) with a colour that isn't natural, will certainly help the name stick in the mind.

Homepage: On an 800x600 resolution the main links (tabs) at the bottom of the page are below the fold, and although the links are duplicated in the main area of the homepage - these links don't immediately look like links. (800x600 is still quite common - see Google Zeitgeist for a breakdown percentage of users.)

1024x768 - a lot better and the tabs are visible without scrolling. However, I would still make the navigation tabs available at the top or at the left hand side of the screen.

I would also make more of your tag line: "The home of infantly recognisable babywear." I don't mean change it - I just mean make it more prominent on the page.

Rest of site:
From an SEO (search engine optimisation) perspective, all of your ineternal pages have the same title, meta tags.

ie <TITLE>little blue dog baby clothes</TITLE>

Without getting into a massive spiel on keyword density, keyword prominence and body text, the TITLE element is one of the main on-page elements that the search engine's look for. So in order to make the most of this, you should have a page that is optimised for all of your different elements of stock.

For example, on your tee shirts page:
http://www.littlebluedog.co.uk/tshirts.htm

the title should read something along the lines of:
Baby T Shirts from LittleBlueDog baby clothes.

This will help you gain greater coverage in the SERPs (search engine results pages) for multiple keyword terms, rather than just "baby clothes".

Hope this hasn't sounded too in your face. on the whole - like the feel of the site and the graphics. I wish you all the best.

Kind Regards

Barry Smith

SkyScanner.net
http://www.skyscanner.net
Cheap flight price comparison

Nice bold bright design for the home page, but no sales message. The home page could get this sales site off to a better start by promoting the benefits of this great range of clothes, preparing the customer to make a purchase.

I didn't see any "special offers" or copy telling me that I am getting a good deal/low price/etc - really pushing sales. Also the benefits, quality, cuteness of the products could be more prominent.

I'd rather see pictures of the goods rather than cartoons which kind of lowers the tone a little. What about some models?

You might like to look at www.asos.com, a very successful fashion site. When you land at the home page you have products right in your face, with prices, and I particularly like the ability to click through and zoom in close to look at the products.

Edited by author 21-04-2005 12:52 PM
Well, I've visited your site half a dozen times already so you must be doing something right!! ;-)

On my last visit, I only just noticed the links to the major sections within the main area of the home page. The big red boxes were very prominent and my eyes were drawn there instead. Because of the attraction to the red buttons, I also missed 'The Home of Infantly recognisable babywear'. This is what your site is, but the message gets a little lost in the home page. What are your unique selling points, what do you offer visitors that other baby-clothing sites don't? These are the messages you need to use to persuade visitors deeper into the site.

I use a tool called No!Flash from http://www.bbshare.com/noflash/ which temporarily disables Flash for Internet Explorer. I recommend that you install it, run it and then look at the home page. This is what 3% of your visitors will see. An empty browser screen. Nothing to entice the visitor into the site to spend their money and make you both millionaires. I personally believe that Macromedia's claim that 97% of webusers have flash installed is an exaggeration. Let's say that it's 5% (I think it's possibly even more than that), one important question to ask is 'can you afford to lose 1 in every 20 possible shoppers?'
 
With regards to the domain name, are you in anyway connected to http://www.littlebluedog.com/?

That's all for now!

Kind Regards,
James Saunders
Site-Report.com Limited
Safebuy-accredited internet consultancy
http://www.site-report.com
Call free on 0800 0436908

Edited by author 21-04-2005 12:56 PM
Love the concept and the clothes, but am I be the only person so far who's eyes were first drawn to the catch-phrase (which is nice, make more of it), then to the cloud with 'info' on it above - problematic as I then tried to find the answer to the question 'how do i shop' in the list of useful answers to your questions, and then had to go back to the homepage and spot the kennel saying SHOP.
Sounds stupid, but if it isn't immeidately obvious that it is an online shop you may lose out.

How about having a pic of a baby in the clothes on the homepage as a 'featured item' every week with a if you click on it to the sales page for it? The baby would stand out (because its a cut out picture not a cartoon), and instantly be recognisable as a demo of what kind of clothes you could find on the site.

Best of luck from a future customer also!

Jan Harrison
The Really Special Events Company
01625 521113
www.reallyspecialevents.co.uk

Firstly, loved the design - great use of cute illustrations that really bang home the corporate identity.

Love the dog logo too.

The only real criticisms I have are with the shopping cart system.

The little icons that you use to navigate between sections weren't immediately obvious, leading to a few seconds of confusion and a move back to the home page before I realised what I should have been doing.

Design-wise, all of the site uses anti-aliased text except for the shopping cart, so when you get to the cart pages, it feels like the cart is a bit of a plug-in - layout isn't as good on those pages too (quantity box too far away from the 'add' button, and text not centered on the right hand side)

I'd try removing the anti-alias from the front pages, and use the same font throughout to keep the continuity.

I'm just being picky because that's what you've asked for though - it's a great site, well done.

Paul McGillivray
Remote New Media
http://www.remote.uk.com

The home page was very fresh with great colours and a good 'childlike' feel to it. Does it remind anyone of a 'fuzzy felts' picture?
My main problem was the use of the cartoons instead of pics showing the actual products. Compare your product pages with the ones on your linked maternity t-shirts site. Their pics really show off the product and get the viewer more involved. Personally I would not be comforatble with buying from an illustration.
Best of luck
Steve

Great clear graphics. Simple and unfussy web. Very user friendly with good information

I think this site looks to be more or less there - very good well done. I would focus on marketing it.
Didn't have any problems with the shopping cart system and I think the thing you now need the most is customers!

A couple of small things:
Testimonials, happy customers?!
A gallery of cute/funny pictures of baby's in your gear? (not sure about this one...)

Good luck

Robin@win-it.com

Excellent and engaging, good use of flash, could increase range by using embroidery to enforce the branding ie embroidered bibs with personalisation etc.

I love it!

Really - as soon as someone I know produces, you can be sure I'll be back. It's a great site.

Just a couple of comments:

On the 'shop' page, the icons at the bottom don't have any info with them at all. Perhaps a pop-up box with descriptive text that appears when the cursor hovers over would help?

I do agree about the photo's: perhaps a seperate page with examples could be attached to each section. As a customer, I need to know what the colours are really like, what the fabric looks like, and how it actually fits a child. I don't want to get over-excited and use my imagination, in case I'm disappointed when the goods arrive.

Good luck!

Sarah
The Datca Soap Company
http://www.datcasoap.com

Loved the overall look and feel of the website. It's nice to see an e-commerce website that does not look like every other. As a first time father myself I was interested in your site not only from a critic point of view, but also as a potential customer.

My main concern was that I could not buy anything.

I looked though your shop and chose a product, I then clicked on 'add to basket' nothing happened. When I went to the cart it was empty. Now I know am in a minority as I use Safari on an Apple Mac, but do you know if your website has been tested on different browsers and different systems? Apple users only account for 3% of all internet users, but that runs in to millions of people.

Also I loved the style of the shop, I felt it really fitted in with the product, but I was slightly disappointed with the photography. I know as a small business budgets are limited, but with an e-commerce site such as yours photography is critical to its success. What people see on your site is what they expect to get, and the pictures I feel do not properly do justice to the quality of the goods. I apologies if this seems a little harsh, but showing white clothes on a pure white background made them look dirty and unclean (http://www.littlebluedog.co.uk/products/GSWT.htm). The brilliant white background overpowers the white clothes, and it should be the other way round.

Overall I think you have made an excellent start and have really captured a unique look and feel for your business. It looks friendly approachable and that you understand the needs of parents.

All the best in your new adventure.

Nigel Lamb
http://www.x-vc.co.uk