Resale Stores & the Web

I recently attended a wedding – everything was perfect.  As a business person though, what jumped out at me as really perfect for both the guests and the wedding party and ultimately the photographer was this:  As I signed the guest book I spied a business card of the photographer with the website address to see candid photos of the wedding on his website the next evening.  How cool was that… well, maybe it’s been going on for awhile – I haven’t been to too many weddings.   But, I grabbed a card – and probably took less of my own photos because I’d be able to view and buy some really nice photos later.

My daughter and I had him take a photo of us together – In the back of my mind, I know just where I’m going to put that photo…

The next evening I excitedly found myself pulling out that business card, typing in the website address to see the page of phtoos.  And, as promised, there was page of photos of the bride and groom – just a sampling and a note that the rest of the photos would go online as soon as the bride and groom viewed the photos.  Ok – that makes sense!  But there was something that didn’t make sense and that was the ability to sign up for a notification of sorts which would remind me the photos were up and ready for purchase.

I waited a week, checked back on my own and then another week – nothing new. Took a few friends to the website to show them the photos, still nothing… before I know it, 3 weeks have gone by and my visits to his site are becoming less regular and I know at some point I’ll probably forget and that page of photos will be gone and the opportunity to purchase will be gone or at the least I’ll have to jump through some hoops to get the photo.

What is this photographer missing?

Two things jumped out at me – the most prominent:  A sign up form to be notified when the photos are available for purchase.

My next thought since I’d shared this page with friends who didn’t attend the wedding was that a “share this page” link  to email a friend or share on facebook or other social sites was missing.

This is a prime example of missed opportunities. He started out great at the gate – offering something of value to the wedding guests – bringing visitors to his website who might not otherwise even know he had a website as he shot photos all afternoon and into the evening…

But, his effort lost emphasis and importance by not having a way to automate and serve the potential customer and make it easy for them to return to his site.

So, what are you missing in your business? Do you make it easy for potential customers to remember you?

Are your newsletters targeted to the right people?  Do you offer the option in your newsletter sign up forms for different things? Sales & Promotions? Consignment news? General news?

Does your blog have  an RSS feed option so readers can check quickly to see if you’ve got updates?

When you have a shop event do you post photos on your website or a link to an online album like Flickr, Photobucket or Picassa?

The bottom line….

Take it all the way through to the finish line for both your customers and potential customers. Had this photographer done that, he’d probably have a customer in me and many others.  But, rather than creating memorability, he fostered forgetability and potential lost sales.. 

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You may enjoy music, but lets be realistic. Which truly professional and aesthetic website includes music?

Your website should be to provide certain level of convenience for your customers. Music on websites are simply not convenient and serve no tangible purpose. They make visiting your website INconvenient.
It not only slows the loading of your site, it can also be annoying for those who are only visiting your site with a specific purpose in mind.

Think of how many of your visitors are surfing the web while at work and while they my be on a T1 line and the music loads quickly, they are probably multitasking when all of the sudden music blares. It’s amazing how quickly we forget where the volume button on the computer is located. Do you think that will attract goodwill? What it does is form a level of embarrassment between your potential customer and that of his/her peers. NOW everyone knows he/she was surfing. Will that person be returning to your site?

Or think about how many people play music “of their choice” through web radio, itunes, etc. Do you really want them to have to fiddle looking for your off button so they can continue to listen to their music of choice? Don’t let that off button be the most used icon on your site.

Will your visitor enjoy the music just because you do? Itunes – a website about and selling music does not have music playing. They know music is a personal preference.

There are places where music has a place – an example are social networking websites. The music has a purpose in that it is a reflection of you. If anyone has ever been to a “myspace” page, how long does it take to download that music. Does your computer hang? It may not for the newest of computers and those who have T1 lines or broadband. But wireless and dial-up and even DSL – well it consumes time and if they can’t find the off icon, they might just be backing out of the site entirely.

For a business website everything on your website should have a tangible purpose. Whether to make a sale, create goodwill, offer a service or provide useful information about your business or your industry. Music can create an ambiance which is also reflected in your physical store or business. Remember though, the visitor is at your website with a purpose in mind. Meet those needs and they’ll come visit you sooner rather than later.

Deb

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A client of mine asked me to make a post about the different browsers and why they render the information differently.

It’s not a simple answer and really goes back to the early days of the browser. That was the day of Internet Explorer and Netscape for windows based machines. I’ll only touch on the windows based browsers in this post.

Each company was vying to dominate the browser market. The first browser war was followed by a rapid succession of releases of browsers with newer features. Features, meant to win over the consumer took priority over fixing the bugs in both browsers. Both companies also began adding proprietary features to the browser as well in it’s war to win the consumer. This was back in the mid 90’s.

In 1996 IE seemed to follow “more” closely with W3C’s published specifications and standards. CSS (cascading style sheets) was gaining popularity in the design area allowing for ease in layout. Dynamic pages were evolving where the pages and flow of text could change after the page was loaded. IE was better equipped to handle this aspect with its newer releases.

Typically during this time you’d often see “this page best viewed in…” with the logo of the respective company in icon form. There was lots of money to be made by being “the” browser. And, with the advent of the WYSIWYG editors (both Netscape and IE had their own versions – Netscape Composer and FrontPage) both had loyal designer followings to the extent that good and evil evolved through the almost cult level following.

Both of these leaders made huge mistakes. Neither of them focused on fixing the bugs. They both continued to add proprietary features instead of following W3C Standards without waiting for W3C approval. Browsers began rendering the html code much differently because of the packages designers were using. And, the exploits to browsers became much more pronounced.

The result was Microsoft had deeper pockets and greater influence in develpment and creation of markets for its browser. In late 1996 Netscape was later bought by AOL and IE seemed to dominate with a 96% market share. Microsoft took years to release a new version of a browser though, basking in the perceived win.

But, yea, there’s always a “but” in wars. In the wings a foundation called Mozilla and Opera (the third most popular browser on Windows, Linux and Mac) formed a group which would design a browser that was open technology standards which added more capability and was backward-compatible with existing technologies.

What the Mozzila/Opera collaberation did was create a browser which complied with standards already in existence and continues to build upon those standards.

So, here we are in 2007, Netscape (as it was known) is gone and the now dominant browsers are Mozilla based FireFox and Internet Explorer.

The end result of what you see in your browser is a combination of old technology, new technology and designer unawareness. Thus, that new computer will show a web page that looks one way. You’ll go home and view that same page and it will render differently because it could be that you’re still using Netscape, IE v6 or in some cases IE v4 or 5.

I have a client who approached me to maintain and work with the SEO aspect of her website. I almost exclusively work in Firefox for a number of reasons. But, my point is I saw her website one way (a nice solid green background) and she saw it an entirely different way (green left column, white background) based upon the fact that her designer build her website for based upon IE6 standards which was non compliant standards wise.

We all have a browser we like for whatever reason… And, when we view things we assume everyone sees things the same way we are seeing it. It’s my job as the designer of a website to make sure that happens. And, it’s not easy… There are still those who use Netscape there are still those who use IE v 4.0. I must build a site which can be viewed the same on each and every browser. I build the site and test it. Then if there’s a problem I create a fix so that specific browser can view it.

Because the internet is technology based it changes rapidly with consumer wants and what the market “thinks” the consumer wants. Keep this in mind and do keep your browser updated regardless of how comfortable you are with it.
“If it’s not broke don’t fix it” doesn’t bode well with your viewing pleasure.

To see what version of IE you’re using you can go to the Help menu, choose “about” and it will tell you which version you’re using. If it’s not IE 7 go to updates and update your version today! Better yet… go check out FireFox Compare for yourself.

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