GCU Forum - Tabs at top

Sue_132963

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 1224

Tabs at top
Jun 11^th, 2009, 6:54am

Shaun, Mindy, anyone who will listen.... Roll Eyes

I haven't been on here much lately, except to load cards. So when I went into my shop this morning and found those bright blue tabs at the top, I was delighted. "Ah," I thought, "Just what I asked for last year." Then I clicked on 'Father's Day'. To my utter dissappointment, up popped Father's Day cards by Everyone!
I do not like this. As a person comes into my shop and notices those lovely bright blue tabs they will do just as I did... click on Father's Day... that is just what they are looking for! Alas they will see, and purchase someone else's card... thinking it is mine!
Please could we have these tabs for each of our stores, JUST FOR our store? And then on the general GCU site, the tabs could be for all of GCU?
Please???
Sue

Back to top

Card Art From The Heart:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/cardartfromtheheart

IP Logged

Delores_132508 Gold Member artist Posts: 978	Re: Tabs at top Reply #1 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 7:08am I agree with you, Sue!!!
Back to top	Grandma Dee's Cards: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/GrandmaDee IP Logged

Nan_137018 Senior Member artist Posts: 297	Re: Tabs at top Reply #2 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 7:16am Oh, Sue... that would be a terrific change! They SHOULD reflect the shop that they show up in. Thanks for catching this. I have not clicked on them prior to your post.
Back to top	Nan's Card Store: http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/nanwright IP Logged

Pamela_135500

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 1945

Re: Tabs at top
Reply #3 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 7:30am

Funny you mention this, Sue

I have just decided to remove the box that says 'Upcoming Holidays' from my store as when I clicked on Father's Day...poof.. I was out of my store and on the about Father's Day page which then takes you to everyone's cards if you click on a card or paper greeting cards.
Of course there needs to be a way for the customer to exit and return to the main pages easily, we cannot hold them hostage, but if they took off the blue bars there would still be the more subtle, Home, and other options that show above it.
Pamela

Back to top

PamJArts:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/PamJArts

IP Logged

Kathy_135811 Gold Member artist Posts: 623	Re: Tabs at top Reply #4 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 7:37am I, too, would love that for our store, but, remember all the "fun" we've had with new programming in the past few months. I would hate to have my store go through all that. Kathy
Back to top	Sensual Moments: http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/sensualmoments IP Logged

Neva_136472

Full Member
artist

Posts: 192

Re: Tabs at top
Reply #5 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 7:58am

I agree also. It's my opinion, for what it's worth, that it might be confusing for a customer to browse thru my store. I've even gone so far as to give them instructions on how to work my shop and find my cards while visiting it. SmugMug and Flickr have galleries, collections, sets with your pics as the entrance to each one, not obscure(meaing they don't stick out as much as the blue tabs on the top) links to the right or left of the page.

If I were a customer, I would be tempted to go to the top of the page, since it stands out so much more than the obscure links and start clicking. Then, I'm sure, I would get lost. Sad

Back to top

Neva Spell Photography:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/nevaspellphotography

IP Logged

Doreen_137017

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 5273

Re: Tabs at top
Reply #6 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 9:49am

I ABSOLUTELY agree with everyone! I HATE that huge section on my store. First of all I created a nice header and as Neva did, created instructions on how to navigate throughout my shop. Now when you load my shop you don't really even see whole cards without scrolling and I advertise my shop and DO NOT wish (nothing personal fellow artists) people who go to my store to immediately to get cards from other artists until they have looked through my store.

If you feel the need to have it in all stores, then place it at the bottom not the top. This will only make customers go browse when we artists have worked VERY HARD to create stores that keep our fellow customers shopping our cards.

I'm very disappointed that GCU did this and hope they will find a suitable comprise soon.

Perhaps GCU could make this a 'feature' that the artists can turn off or on like some of the other goodies?

Back to top

Salon of Art:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/SalonOfArt

IP Logged

Steve_134004 Full Member artist Posts: 222	Re: Tabs at top Reply #7 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 10:07am Hi, I agree with Sue. It should pull up the cards/holiday in the shopkeepers website only. I hope the makes sense? Anyway...... Steve
Back to top	Steve's Card Store: http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/stevescardstore IP Logged

Audrey_132599 Senior Member artist Posts: 429	Re: Tabs at top Reply #8 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 10:36am Hi Sue, My sales were steadily increasing.Since this feature has been implemented, my sales have dropped so much. Only 1 sale last month & 1 sales this month. It is not helping us at all! It appears to the customer that they are searching within the store of the artist. Very deceiving to the buyer. Please fix this GCU ASAP! ~Audrey
Back to top	Audrey Ascenzo: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/audreyascenzo IP Logged

Carol_136775 Full Member artist Posts: 165	Re: Tabs at top Reply #9 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 1:32pm Excellent suggestion - there are many ways to access all cards on GCU, but the individual store would be well served with this idea limiting the cards shown to those of the particular artist. Thanks.
Back to top	Nature's Wonders Photo Cards: http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/136775 IP Logged

Janet_134086

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 610

Re: Tabs at top
Reply #10 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 3:41pm

Sorry to disagree....but, I have noticed since this has been in place,
Ive been selling more cards...
So, I think it gives All Artists a better chance for our cards to be seen this way.
Not every customer goes through the front page..and unless you have sold a card recently, placed a new card in, or have a way to advertise..I like it this way.

I think it would help it you added on your store front to utilize the search in your store to view more of your specific cards.

Sorry to disagree...but, I really think this is helping all artist see more sales, including myself.
Hugs, Janet Lee

Back to top

Janet Lee Designs:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/janetleedesigns

IP Logged

Kathy_131728

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 610

Re: Tabs at top
Reply #11 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 4:57pm

Sue,
I totally agree with you on this. An artist works really hard to get someone to come to their store, so it is a shame to have it be so easy for a customer to leave. After all, the customer came to the particular artist's store because they liked that person's work or were curious about the person's work, so they probably really do want to stay awhile.
Kathy

Back to top

IP Logged

Tom_133317

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 2169

Re: Tabs at top
Reply #12 - Jun 11^th, 2009, 11:56pm

I'm not sure the answer is to get rid of the global header tabs. The whole common GCU navigation header was placed up there since shoppers were getting lost once they went to a store. I do think time has proven this common header to be a good change.

There is clearly a need for easier in-store shopping. The browse by category takes a lot of clicking, even if one knows where they are going. The search is not precise enough, and the keyword cloud only displays a fraction of the 1000s of keywords we have. The sorts do help, but the constrained page range (only can go 2 pages either side of where you are) doesn't help shoppers go very deep within the store.

I've added a category table in my store by doing my own programming. I can't tell if it has helped my sales or not as we don't know yet where the shopper was when they put a card in their cart.

There are many better ways than my table to help shoppers zoom into our best offerings to meet their needs. We've "complained" separately about search, browse, category menus, keywords, paging, and so forth - but what's needed is an overall elegant shopping approach for the sites and for the stores. That's the "Grand Challenge" that will allow GCU to break-out like an Amazon or an Ebay, imo.

Back to top

Comical Captions:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/ComicalCaptions

IP Logged

Neva_136472 Full Member artist Posts: 192	Re: Tabs at top Reply #13 - Jun 12^th, 2009, 6:54am Ok Tom, keep talking like that and you're hired.
Back to top	Neva Spell Photography: http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/nevaspellphotography IP Logged