Need Input for Store Website!

[tylur14]

Hi, my name is Tylur and I have been working for the past week or so on website for selling video games new and old, and I need help! I have known for some time that I have wanted to have a store of some kind but unsure if video games were the way to go. I have my feet in the water, managed a local game store, sold stuff on amazon, and sold stuff to people I know and took a few trade-ins. I like the feel of it and I could work into a local franchise (a lot more common for game stores than I thought) or just have my own brand.

ANYWAYS

I have been working on a website that I am moderately pleased with but obviously needs work and revision. Here is the link to it - http://tylursims.wix.com/tjandco . And as it stands, since there are tons of things that need to be done first, the inventory is not live and cannot be ordered at the moment. If you are serious about buying an item you could PM me but otherwise I just need thoughts and input on the idea as a whole.

Thanks! (Also if this isn't the right place to post this let me know....)

[matimo]

Ngl, any site that uses these free make build a website seem really shady imo, i'd start by getting your own domain and paying someone to build a site for you. Also you'll find it pretty hard to find anyone who wants to deal outside of ebay, Amazon, or at the very least Paypal because of the protection they offer buyers (This is assuming you don't plan on using any of them in favour of Credit card numbers). The best thing to do imo would be open a brick and mortar and then move into the opening the website. Btw sorry if this comes off as rude or anything, i'm just giving my thoughts.

Edit; Also upon a quick google search i found that your company name is very common, there might be an issue with brand recognition there. >.<

[desocietas]

Ngl, any site that uses these free make build a website seem really shady imo, i'd start by getting your own domain and paying someone to build a site for you. Also you'll find it pretty hard to find anyone who wants to deal outside of ebay, Amazon, or at the very least Paypal because of the protection they offer buyers (This is assuming you don't plan on using any of them in favour of Credit card numbers). The best thing to do imo would be open a brick and mortar and then move into the opening the website. Btw sorry if this comes off as rude or anything, i'm just giving my thoughts.

Edit; Also upon a quick google search i found that your company name is very common, there might be an issue with brand recognition there. >.<

^ pretty much my thoughts as well.

[tylur14]

Ngl, any site that uses these free make build a website seem really shady imo, i'd start by getting your own domain and paying someone to build a site for you. Also you'll find it pretty hard to find anyone who wants to deal outside of ebay, Amazon, or at the very least Paypal because of the protection they offer buyers (This is assuming you don't plan on using any of them in favour of Credit card numbers). The best thing to do imo would be open a brick and mortar and then move into the opening the website. Btw sorry if this comes off as rude or anything, i'm just giving my thoughts.

Edit; Also upon a quick google search i found that your company name is very common, there might be an issue with brand recognition there. >.<

Thanks for the input and I am glad to say that there are fixes to everything you mentioned!
 The free website is the place holder as Wix has a partners with domain hosting (so for the live site it would look more like a real website).
As far as the payments go there are several methods that I am offering and to be honest I don't really plan on using the website to bring in anything outside of flashy advertising as to what I have inventory wise and to let people know I take trade-ins. There are plugins that can be used to out-source security methods for payments.
Getting a physical location is TOP PRIORITY at the moment so no need to worry there.
And lastly the name is absolutely just a placeholder. It's basically saying "here is were the logo would go".
 Most likely once it's all said and done the site will be remolded and the code custom written by me and paid coders.

Again thank you for the input!

[rayne315]

Ngl, any site that uses these free make build a website seem really shady imo, i'd start by getting your own domain and paying someone to build a site for you. Also you'll find it pretty hard to find anyone who wants to deal outside of ebay, Amazon, or at the very least Paypal because of the protection they offer buyers (This is assuming you don't plan on using any of them in favour of Credit card numbers). The best thing to do imo would be open a brick and mortar and then move into the opening the website. Btw sorry if this comes off as rude or anything, i'm just giving my thoughts.

Edit; Also upon a quick google search i found that your company name is very common, there might be an issue with brand recognition there. >.<

Thanks for the input and I am glad to say that there are fixes to everything you mentioned!
 The free website is the place holder as Wix has a partners with domain hosting (so for the live site it would look more like a real website).
As far as the payments go there are several methods that I am offering and to be honest I don't really plan on using the website to bring in anything outside of flashy advertising as to what I have inventory wise and to let people know I take trade-ins. There are plugins that can be used to out-source security methods for payments.
Getting a physical location is TOP PRIORITY at the moment so no need to worry there.
And lastly the name is absolutely just a placeholder. It's basically saying "here is were the logo would go".
 Most likely once it's all said and done the site will be remolded and the code custom written by me and paid coders.

Again thank you for the input!

A few things I noticed,
1. for trade in value you mentioned that missing cases, manuels/inserts, covers affect how much the trade in value will be. BUT when clicking around through the games for sale their is no indication of completeness of games.
2. your site mentions cards/dvds in the trade in info and on the front page but there is no tabs for them (even as a placeholder)
3. The lack of games. As a serious collector I have very seriously thrown around the idea of creating my own brick and mortar shop just for this. You know what stopped me? Before people are going to be willing to trade stuff in to you they are going to come in and buy things. Beyond going out and buying fullprice things to sell now at a loose just to build up business you will have to start by selling what you personally own. for me with only 1300 games that just isn't realistically enough to get a business going without having to go buy fullprice games. (sorry for the jumbled thought)
4. Just personally as a collector seeing that what you consider retro scares me. to me and just about anyone else who collects, retro is anything cartridge based, maybe ps1. not ps2 or xbox.
5. this may just be the current site but it is rather sluggish.
6. Is their any reason why the quick view that pops up under the image is half the size of the picture? I clicked on it a few times on accident. which I can see how it will become incredibly annoying.
7. following the quick view from above. I do not understand the need for the game page itself, all the necessary information like description, condition, ETC can all be arranged neatly on the pop-up window for quick view. the only difference I can see is that the game page is just a resized image that can be zoomed in on.
8. no placeholder for systems themselves.
9. one VERY major thing is people are already taking picks of their products (games, movies, trading cards), and shipping it to you for quote. what happens if you cannot take something in (more expensive to ship than it is worth. are you just telling those people that they wasted their money shipping it to you? or are you paying the shipping from them to you? also why wouldn't they just post it on ebay? to me it seams like the same amount of effort and if they priced it for what you would be giving them anyway a faster sell.

Wow. I think I found a few issues. Sorry if I may sound like a dick. all the best luck! tell us If you get something rare in.

[ignition365]

4. Just personally as a collector seeing that what you consider retro scares me. to me and just about anyone else who collects, retro is anything cartridge based, maybe ps1. not ps2 or xbox.

I disagree.  That is all.

[desocietas]

Ah, that reminds me - I'm not a fan of stock photos or closely cropped photos if I'm buying used items.  I know it can be difficult to have a picture for everything in your stock, especially if you have dupes, but good photos usually will entice me to buy something more as I'll be more confident in knowing what I'll be receiving.  That's a big factor for me on eBay, for sure.

[tylur14]

Ngl, any site that uses these free make build a website seem really shady imo, i'd start by getting your own domain and paying someone to build a site for you. Also you'll find it pretty hard to find anyone who wants to deal outside of ebay, Amazon, or at the very least Paypal because of the protection they offer buyers (This is assuming you don't plan on using any of them in favour of Credit card numbers). The best thing to do imo would be open a brick and mortar and then move into the opening the website. Btw sorry if this comes off as rude or anything, i'm just giving my thoughts.

Edit; Also upon a quick google search i found that your company name is very common, there might be an issue with brand recognition there. >.<

Thanks for the input and I am glad to say that there are fixes to everything you mentioned!
 The free website is the place holder as Wix has a partners with domain hosting (so for the live site it would look more like a real website).
As far as the payments go there are several methods that I am offering and to be honest I don't really plan on using the website to bring in anything outside of flashy advertising as to what I have inventory wise and to let people know I take trade-ins. There are plugins that can be used to out-source security methods for payments.
Getting a physical location is TOP PRIORITY at the moment so no need to worry there.
And lastly the name is absolutely just a placeholder. It's basically saying "here is were the logo would go".
 Most likely once it's all said and done the site will be remolded and the code custom written by me and paid coders.

Again thank you for the input!

A few things I noticed,
1. for trade in value you mentioned that missing cases, manuels/inserts, covers affect how much the trade in value will be. BUT when clicking around through the games for sale their is no indication of completeness of games.
2. your site mentions cards/dvds in the trade in info and on the front page but there is no tabs for them (even as a placeholder)
3. The lack of games. As a serious collector I have very seriously thrown around the idea of creating my own brick and mortar shop just for this. You know what stopped me? Before people are going to be willing to trade stuff in to you they are going to come in and buy things. Beyond going out and buying fullprice things to sell now at a loose just to build up business you will have to start by selling what you personally own. for me with only 1300 games that just isn't realistically enough to get a business going without having to go buy fullprice games. (sorry for the jumbled thought)
4. Just personally as a collector seeing that what you consider retro scares me. to me and just about anyone else who collects, retro is anything cartridge based, maybe ps1. not ps2 or xbox.
5. this may just be the current site but it is rather sluggish.
6. Is their any reason why the quick view that pops up under the image is half the size of the picture? I clicked on it a few times on accident. which I can see how it will become incredibly annoying.
7. following the quick view from above. I do not understand the need for the game page itself, all the necessary information like description, condition, ETC can all be arranged neatly on the pop-up window for quick view. the only difference I can see is that the game page is just a resized image that can be zoomed in on.
8. no placeholder for systems themselves.
9. one VERY major thing is people are already taking picks of their products (games, movies, trading cards), and shipping it to you for quote. what happens if you cannot take something in (more expensive to ship than it is worth. are you just telling those people that they wasted their money shipping it to you? or are you paying the shipping from them to you? also why wouldn't they just post it on ebay? to me it seams like the same amount of effort and if they priced it for what you would be giving them anyway a faster sell.

Wow. I think I found a few issues. Sorry if I may sound like a dick. all the best luck! tell us If you get something rare in.

Yes you did find some issues that I would love to fix! Most of which is being worked on (many pages are actually hidden from non-admin view) and there is A LOT that needs to be done to the site. The best thing I think you helped me figure out is that Wix is a SLOW build. I don't think I am going to stay with them because of this reason. Another major thing is the trade-in. I have been trying to figure out what to do about it and I think the best thing to do is to drop any notion that I can quote buy prices via e-mail or phone calls. This site is going to be launched and advertised after I get the store built so I shouldn't have much trouble (I only open it up like this when I want some advice which you have provided plenty of help!) with people trying to ship stuff to me or anything like that.

Now let's talk about inventory. Yes it looks like I have almost nothing. Which is fairly true. HOWEVER. I am taking inventory in through various sources, cleaning them, and waiting to post them. I am waiting because I don't want to waste my time listing all of them and just have it be a waste if / when I switch off Wix since the store isn't open sourced to me. I didn't write any kind of code for the store I am merely using it as a design tool to see if Online selling through my own store would be worth my time. Oh and side note I totally think that PS2 / Xbox / GameCube aren't even retro (not to me at least) but I haven't actually picked up carts. for older stuff yet. I might be doing that today or tomorrow.

There are plenty of issues I haven't addressed but I think I have expressed my intentions plainly and well enough. Once again the site will be going back under the radar and worked on heavily (maybe COMPLETELY redone). Thanks for all the input!

[tylur14]

Ah, that reminds me - I'm not a fan of stock photos or closely cropped photos if I'm buying used items.  I know it can be difficult to have a picture for everything in your stock, especially if you have dupes, but good photos usually will entice me to buy something more as I'll be more confident in knowing what I'll be receiving.  That's a big factor for me on eBay, for sure.

I completely understand. Although I haven't run into much issue with it with 99% of my customers so far, I know it will eventually lead to failed sales so I am actually working on a dedicated area for taking studio quality pictures of EVERY item listed. It will be time consuming but hopefully worth it.