How do you shop online
 

Hey folks,

I was just curious how you all shop online for guitar gear. What makes or breaks an e-tailer for you? Is it the site layout, content, etc.? Any feedback would be great!

Thank you!

Greg Priebe
The Rhythm Source

i only order from a site if i know people who have successfully ordered from there before.

of if its amazon.com

^Ditto

Guitar Center and Musician's Friend are pretty good.

Yeah, I prefer to order from web sites I know people have ordered from with out issues. I've gotten electronics (potentiometers, switches, etc.) from stewmac.com and some guitar pickups and my Korg Pitchblack+ tuner from Musiciansfriend.com.


If you have a guitar center near you then you can actually order through a store employee. So if you have issues or you want to return the item you can take it back to the store. If you order from home off guitar center's web site this is not an option. I'm thinking of picking up a new amp before the end of summer and I'll probably use this method.

Thank you for the replies everyone! The site is Amazon based and I even have the little "powered by amazon" logo. My prices are amazon's prices and you check out directly through amazon so the info is secure. Did you all have any input on maybe how a site layout would effect your business?

Thank you again.

Greg

As long as the site looks professional enough to not look like a bunch of high school kids made it...

But, I have order stuff off a fairly non-professional looking site without any drama. The difference was how that site (for a small business) had plenty of personal contact details throughout the content that made it feel trustworthy. Physical street addresses, phone numbers (including mobile phone numbers), emails, etc.
I can understand that a small business may not want or need a flashy website.

As for the layout, just follow best practise with regards to usability. Should be right.

And as long as the site doesn't spit out SSL warnings when you switch to use Amazons check-out service. As that can reduce a users trust.

Ya know, if the poster didn't seem like a nice guy this could be a thread on how to set up a phony internet business...

Joelbassman,

Did the site seem unprofessional? I would love any feedback, both good and bad so I can adjust it more accordingly to my potential customers' liking.

Thank you all again for the replies!

Greg

http://www.therhythmsource.com/

That Accordion left hand navigation is annoying as a motherfuker.
I'd reccomend using 'suckerfish' style dropdowns to avoid having your users want to stab themselves in the face. [url]http://www.htmldog.com/articles/suckerfish/dropdowns/[/url]

My only other comment (a very minor one) is to change the title of the first page to something more identifying.

AES,

I completely agree that the accordion menu is pretty ridiculous. My web designer made a little boo boo on which menu items should be displayed (like only display guitar stuff when a customer clicks GUITARS). I should have that fixed next week some time. As far as the first page, do you recommend changing that actual name of the store or the display title in the browser? i.e. Change "musical instruments online" to......fill in the blank?

Thank you!

Greg
TRS

Maybe "The Rhythm Source" instead of "DISCOUNT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS"
I guess it'll help for brand identification, and I've never been a fan of using caps for emphasis.

I also dont like how the links on the 'cheap prices' pages go off to amazon, instead of the equivalent page on your own site.
I reckon you'll be better off linking to the product pages on your own site. Keep the user within your own site, for consistency.
Hope that makes sense.

[quote=trswebmaster;18007000]Joelbassman,

Did the site seem unprofessional? I would love any feedback, both good and bad so I can adjust it more accordingly to my potential customers' liking.

Thank you all again for the replies!

Greg[/quote]
It was just a joke about how you could be asking for ways to deceive people:p I didn't actually look at the website sorry.

Joel,

No problem. I can understand why there would be some folks who may think this would be just some form of scam, but the site is real, safe and secure and I was just looking for some input.

Thank you for your reply!

Greg
TRS

about your left hand menu...

like when you click guitars, why not break it down into types of guitars instead of having a huge brand list. click type of guitar then it changes the brands listed in your main site area to the right.

The accordion menu is working better now than it was before. But it is still way too long.
Not good to have a left nav that goes beyond the page fold.

Why not have some sort of 'browse by brand' option? Then you can get each individual brand out of the left nav.