Need feedback on my websight.

Would love some comments on my websight as this is my first attempt at it, It is www.homemadesoapsbythewaiteestate.weebly.com

i looked at your site and its user friendly. products are clear , navigation around the products is very inviting.
only thing i saw that had me wondering is the one picture at the top of your home page... why is it standing alone from the homepage bio below , to me it would look nicer incorporated closer with the picture of the owners representing store or factory where things are made / or finish products. clicking on it brings me back to the home page but you already have a homepage button as well . the overall site is nice , inviting and not overwhelming , i like it . wishing you abundant success with your soaping venture .

Your site is nice and clean looking, but I do find people sometimes will back off when they see "homemade" I found handmade works better. Of course demographics can make a big difference and where I live in So California handmade works better. My one question would be the ingredient list for your lotion. It appears to be an emulisified lotion, but no preservative is listed. We find customers rely on the descriptions on your site for your products and can be unhappy when they get the product and the ingredient label does not match what is on the site. I am not trying to be picky these are just a couple of things we have found out over time. Hope you have great success in your business

With further looking I would recommend the the Home button go to your main product page, add an "About Us" button for your about you page. Change the More button to a product button and list your products in catagories such as soaps, lotions, scrubs etc. Also make your home page your product page not your 'About Us' page. When I clicked the more menu button I clicked on soaps and it took me to the full product page. If I was shopping I would expect to go to the available soaps page.

It looks nice with colors that are easy on the eyes. I would suggest making your company name a bit bigger though and maybe changing the color of your text a shade or two darker, its kinda hard to read against the pale background.

I do have a question about your naked soap. It looks like you used some kind of colorant to achieve swirls but nothing is listed on the ingredient list. How did you get the two tone bar if no color was used?

Beautiful photos. Your products are packaged nicely also. I would probably put a button along the side or at the top of the Home Page, with the words "Products For Sale" or "Our Products", "Our Store," etc. I did not notice any sizes in oz or grams with any of the product descriptions. Even if you use a purchased lotion base, you must list all of the ingredients including those in the base. With every lotion, lip blam etc., list every ingredient in descending order. With the soap, if you list one ingredient, you must list them all. Best wishes with you new venture.

Your site looks great and unlike so many sites, it doesn't immediately turn me off with cluttered pages, tacky design, and poor spelling. It's very, very professional and well done. I especially appreciate looking a website with correct grammar and spelling.

I would spend a few moments going through the pages with a fine-toothed comb. For instance, the Lavender Bud soap description lists "Lavender france oil" as an ingredient. Possibly ask someone who isn't familiar with your site or product to proofread.

I agree with the previous posters about the great photos; I love the zoom function. Personally, I prefer looking at pictures of unwrapped soap so I can see more of the product, but that's mitigated a bit by that zoom function. I think Carolyn gave good feedback about how to organize the links on your front page.

Good luck!

I like how easy everything is to find, I would also recommend making your home page about your products then have a different link about you and your vision and journey, that would make it feel more like a place to shop. The pictures are nice and your product is appealing to me.

Aloha, agree with much said above.
I only have one thing to add and that is to shorten the web address to something memorable and easy to type in: like www.waitesoaps.weebly.com
Good luck to you!
Aline

Generally, it's a great site.

Personally, I would reduce what you have on the landing page - make a page "About us" or something and put a lot of it there. It would also give a chance to expand more on the lack of lather side of things, as I feel that you leave that sort of hanging and unfinished.

That picture up the top actually does more than just throw me - it hinders the use of the site. When I go through to a product, it means that I have to scroll down to it as I start off looking at this image at the top of the screen. I use a laptop, as many people do, which means I don't have huge amounts of space on my screen. If the image was some sort of logo, I might well feel differently about it. As it is, I think it is a black tooth in an otherwise wonderful smile.

I've not used weebly, so I don't know if this is possible - but you need to have the section for the products itself as a top level menu. Going in to "more" to then be able to go to the products is just simply far too deep. You're selling products, that should be top.

That's me being direct - not to be mean in the slightest, but I didn't want to sugar the pill

I agree with Gent here, and I would have mentioned the picture on top but was afraid I had already said to much. I really feel a home picture is not a good way to go. You would be suprised how many people do not like the idea that a product is made in the home, and I simply would not advertise such. Also the pic just does not add anything to the site.

OK, I am going to tell you on the front end that I am incapable of sugar coating anything. I lack tact. Coming from a military and medical family, I just never learned it. I also had my sister-in-law look at the website as she has much more website, ebay, etc experience than I do. I think you came here for honest feedback. If you really don't want it, please stop reading here.

Overview-the home page needs to be the focus of the first thing I see. What I see now is that blurred image taking up more space than what I am there to see. Re-sizing the center would be better. Use more of the space. Proofread, proofread, proofread. Several typos are present throughout the site. The pictures on the home page don't take me anywhere. They should if they are taking up such prime real estate. Homemade might be better phrased handmade. Take the mental picture of the kitchen out of your product.

Home page- as mentioned above, products need to be there, and at the top. Break the thumbnails down by actual products. Not everything being listed when I click soaps. Move the About Us elsewhere.

About Us-I had my sister-in-law read it without me influencing her. She said(and I agree) that the first paragraph is great. The rest can go. We know that the lather is different. But the way that reads is that one will get no lather from your products because you did not add any of the lovely lather making ingredients. And the final line comes off as snarky. Both of us agree on that.

Product photos- The table is distracting. And the camera is too far away from the product. If I can't see it better, I am not going to trust that the item actually looks like that, and I am not going to buy it. Go check out some of the photos on Etsy of soaps and such. They are your competition.

Lotions-someone will need to verify if you are required to list everything in the base or not. I do not know. I DO know, however, that I would not buy anything with a first ingredient of lotion. I need to know what is in that product before buying. I would also hesitate to order that from a site that claims homemade with an incomplete label.

Lip balm-is not technically moisturizing. It should not have any water in it. If it does have anything besides oils, it needs preservative. Ditto with lotions. All ingredients should be listed.

Gift baskets-I like that you offered those. Makes you different. However, I would more likely order more than 1 item if you offered "bundles" of soap, lip balm, lotion or lotion bar in a box with lower shipping costs than that of a pre-made basket to me. You could conveniently locate the bundle for each scent on the soap page as well as the lotion page. Maybe offer a small discount for the bundle over buying the items individually. Run some dollar store tissue paper through a shredder and use that as festive box filler for gifts.(crumble the tissue paper first, straighten it out a bit, then shred)

Brick of soap-I just don't know of any nice ways to tell you how bad of an idea I think this is. First off, you don't tell them on the website when to cut it, how to cut it safely, or when it will be safe and good for use. I see a lawsuit in your near future. Someone is going to slice open something, or cut it completely off cutting that soap. Then they are going to take it straight to the shower or give it away that day to relatives, regardless of how large the font is on the warning page to wait 6 weeks before using. Never, never, never underestimate human stupidity. Everything must be idiot proof.

Obsidian said:

It looks nice with colors that are easy on the eyes. I would suggest making your company name a bit bigger though and maybe changing the color of your text a shade or two darker, its kinda hard to read against the pale background.

I do have a question about your naked soap. It looks like you used some kind of colorant to achieve swirls but nothing is listed on the ingredient list. How did you get the two tone bar if no color was used?

Click to expand...

I did not use any colors in the naked soap and I was presently surprised as to how they came out.

dalewaite48 said:

Would love some comments on my websight as this is my first attempt at it, It is www.homemadesoapsbythewaiteestate.weebly.com

Click to expand...

Thanks to everyone for your comments and ideas. I will be using some of your ideas on my sight in the next few days.

Dale

Let us know when it's updated and we can have another look over it.

The Efficacious Gentleman said:

Let us know when it's updated and we can have another look over it.

Click to expand...

Okay, made some changes, please check it out.

Better! But I don't know what resolution you work in - here is what welcomes me to the products page....................

Most of the page is the banner - lovely as it is, I don't want to see it all the time.

I agree that the banner is too big making one scroll on every page to see what is underneath it - especially bothersome on individual product pages. Also, you might want to provide more details about each soap and not just list the ingredients - especially overall size and weight of the soap.

Banner is to large and would not have it coming up on all pages. The basket of products picture does not mesh well with the banner and the red font is not good and does not go with the logo font color. Aren't you glad you started this thread....

We just say it because we care

The home page is so very much better! I feel this is much more eye and user friendly!

I would still do something about resizing(if possible) the center to occupy more space. Look at this forum page, for example: What we are here to see occupies about 2/3 of the space. And that is located on the left side of the screen. Ads and quick links to other threads take up the other third. That is a really good proportion allocation.

I still think that I should be able to click on soaps and see nothing but soaps. Maybe put some thumbnails on the left side of home page to take us to each product category, then doing an "all products" choice on that top line?

But, this is much better than before! Truly!

*EDIT* My sister-in-law just saw your site and agreed that this is better. She said the following:

"They need to own all that space on the home page, not just let it sit there doing nothing."

Left links to products are better. Center should be the main ideas. About us belongs elsewhere, but is much better regarding length. Top banner is better.

Should be able to click soap and see soap. Should be able to click somewhere and see lotion, lip balms, lotion bars, gift baskets directly(I think this means individually).

Offer bundles to encourage upselling.

Better photos in some cases.

Soaps should show both in packaged and un-packaged states. Show 3-4 bars in each photo with some strategic stacking and leaning to show movement and try to encourage people to order more than one bar. Offer discount prices for multiple like items. (I asked specifically about prices, she said if you are charging $4/bar, then you could offer 3 for $11 if the same scent if you are not losing money on it. Shipping will be about the same price for 3 bars as 1 bar, so a "save shipping by ordering this" statement needs to be there also.)

From something not technically website related, your "brand" is all over the place - so much variation in the packaging, it looks like you are selling soaps from other people. Have you thought of having a uniform theme running through? Not all the packaging being 100% the same, but certainly something holding it all together, making it clear that it is all one.