[quote name=‘Ion_Cannon’]Thanks, it seems the slowest thing is from step 1 to 2 and I think it has to do with getting the shipping rates. Not sure how this can be sped up?[/QUOTE]
Not much you can do there that I can think of since it appears you are using realtime shipping rates from Fedex & of course the delay is due to the rates being calculated & returned back to your site.
The fewer Fedex services you offer the faster the rates will be calculated & returned.
No question at all that the fastest rate calculations would be manually configured vs. realtime, however that is absolutely not an option for me! 
Would one of you please be so kind as to post info on how to go about changing the checkout links so I can force my customers into their carts first?
My conversions are also down since upgrading from 1.3.5 and would love to see this become a configuration option in the cart.
[quote name=‘Ion_Cannon’]I have to say I am very sorry I have changed my shop over to CS-Cart. Every other day I get these types of e-mails:
[/QUOTE]
Ion_Cannon,
Good to see you get by with the help from this forum, that’s great to see.
A hypothetical question going back to your topic title…‘Huge mistake selecting CS-Cart’.
If you had not slecteded CS-Cart, what other alternative(s) did you have or had considered before making a decision to go with CS-Cart?
[quote name=‘adodric’]Ask some of these complaining customers what it is that they find confusing. If they are complaining then they must be able to provide some insight into what they find difficult to comprehend.[/quote]
Ion cannon,
We all feel for you - something is wrong - no doubt.
Adodric,
Has given you far and away your most important suggestion.
It is always good to speed up our carts and fix bugs etc…
But nothing is a substitute from long conversations with your customers and then thank them with a coupon for a free order and ask them to report back after you make your changes.
So before we reinvent the wheel lets hear back on the precise comments from your customers.
[quote name=‘ecb1’]Would one of you please be so kind as to post info on how to go about changing the checkout links so I can force my customers into their carts first?
Me too. i either want to change the pop up so checkout button actually goes to “view cart” or I’m quite happy not seeing the pop up box at all so the user can work from the main page and choose view chart or checkout.
Im sure there are more reasons why people quit the cart. Are there any more reasons people have found so we can sort out those niggles in this thread as well. the only one i heard about was the cart being emptied but thats more of a software problem rather than a usability problem.
Are there any more usability problems we need to look at?
[quote name=‘sellon’]Ion_Cannon,
Good to see you get by with the help from this forum, that’s great to see.
A hypothetical question going back to your topic title…‘Huge mistake selecting CS-Cart’.
If you had not slecteded CS-Cart, what other alternative(s) did you have or had considered before making a decision to go with CS-Cart?[/QUOTE]
DigiShop. We have another store that uses digishop selling the same products and conversions are extremely high…that is probably the cart we’ll switch this one to if things do not turn around…
[quote name=‘Ion_Cannon’]DigiShop. We have another store that uses digishop selling the same products and conversions are extremely high…that is probably the cart we’ll switch this one to if things do not turn around…[/QUOTE]
Ion_Canon,
I read with interest your EXTENSIVE contribution(months & months…) on Prestashop forum in working on the checkout process and I am surprised you have left all that work to turn over to CS-Cart.
What actually happened there and for all the effort you put towards Prestashop that you gave up and moved to CS-Cart ?
I could not find anything wrong with your site,. The left side of your banner is very attractive and caught my attention. The right side of the banner is repetitive because you have the credit card logos listed at the bottom of the page. I suppose I’m trying to say it looks a little cluttered. However, I don’t think its going to take any sales away.
[quote name=‘sellon’]Ion_Canon,
I read with interest your EXTENSIVE contribution(months & months…) on Prestashop forum in working on the checkout process and I am surprised you have left all that work to turn over to CS-Cart.
What actually happened there and for all the effort you put towards Prestashop that you gave up and moved to CS-Cart ?[/QUOTE]
Sellon, the biggest issue was lack of shipping module support for FedEx. We desperately needed a label printing solution and since one was available for CS-Cart I made the switch.
[quote name=‘Ion_Cannon’]DigiShop. We have another store that uses digishop selling the same products and conversions are extremely high…that is probably the cart we’ll switch this one to if things do not turn around…[/QUOTE]
Just thought i would take a peek at digishop, man… You talk about some slow sites! It “hurt” me just to view their customer demo sites, every single one of them was painfully slow. :neutral:
[quote name=‘Struck’]Just thought i would take a peek at digishop, man… You talk about some slow sites! It “hurt” me just to view their customer demo sites, every single one of them was painfully slow. :neutral:[/QUOTE]
Our digishop site here does really well: www.thelolitastore.com Definitely our best performing shop. Never any complaints and the conversion rates are amazing so that’s all that matters. I personally do not like the software but it was what was given to us by the developers. There are no issues with the checkout process. It’s easy and straight forward. No lingering problems like with CS-cart. It makes a difference to customers. That is undeniable…If CS-Cart can fix some of these lingering checkout issues, I think it will be a good cart but it has to convert. I am willing to bet most everyone’s shop suffers with the way 2.0 handles order processing. It’s definitely not as clean as I had hoped. 
[quote name=‘Ion_Cannon’]Our digishop site here does really well: www.thelolitastore.com Definitely our best performing shop. Never any complaints and the conversion rates are amazing so that’s all that matters. I personally do not like the software but it was what was given to us by the developers. There are no issues with the checkout process. It’s easy and straight forward. No lingering problems like with CS-cart. It makes a difference to customers. That is undeniable…If CS-Cart can fix some of these lingering checkout issues, I think it will be a good cart but it has to convert. I am willing to bet most everyone’s shop suffers with the way 2.0 handles order processing. It’s definitely not as clean as I had hoped. :([/QUOTE]
Yes, your site is certainly the fastest of all digishops I visited, nice design as well!
This site has a very simple 1-page checkout I noticed (almost fealt old fashioned, although hey, sometimes that is still best).
[quote name=‘Struck’]Yes, your site is certainly the fastest of all digishops I visited, nice design as well!
This site has a very simple 1-page checkout I noticed (almost fealt old fashioned, although hey, sometimes that is still best).[/QUOTE]
Yeah if CS-Cart could model that checkout for 1 page, it would be amazing IMO…no need for all the fancy things. Just streamline the process and make it as easy as possible I say…
Wow! I got to the checkout page and scrolled down. My eyes nearly popped out when I saw “submit order”. Talk about simplicity! Love it!!
Does anyone know how to get the cart contents listed on the review page on multi-step checkout (just before submitting)?
YES! I love the simple “old-fashioned” style of checkout. Customers need that.
[quote name=‘moka’]Does anyone know how to get the cart contents listed on the review page on multi-step checkout (just before submitting)?[/QUOTE]
That is my next project. I want to disable one-page checkout, but I think the multi-page checkout is just as bad due to not having the cart contents displayed. I submitted a feature request, but maybe we need to write up a feature request that addresses all these issues with one-page checkout and multi-page checkout.
Here is a link that covers both:
[url]http://cscart.uservoice.com/forums/40782-general/suggestions/539155-simplify-and-improve-checkout[/url]
[quote name=‘moka’]Wow! I got to the checkout page and scrolled down. My eyes nearly popped out when I saw “submit order”. Talk about simplicity! Love it!![/QUOTE]
Yeah, I guess you could call it a super simple one page checkout with zero “flash”.
To me the simplicity comes from everything being displayed on one long page, and nothing grayed out from view.
I just switched from CS-Cart 1 page checkout to the 3 page checkout AGAIN to re-think it after all the talk, didn’t like it again, and immediately switched back to the single page checkout… Overall I still prefer the CS-Cart one page checkout, and I believe that with a little attention to detail it can be made less confusing.
I mean, everything a customer needs to see is actually right there on the page even without scrolling. From what I have gathered with our customers, the part that has sometimes caused some of them confusion is that the address details are grayed out when they have logged in prior to getting to checkout, it is as if they overlook the little “edit” link. Now, to me this is very cool and creates a very fast simple checkout process, and I believe our repeat customers also “get it” after placing an order or two. It is the 1st timers that seem to stumble which makes complete sense considering it is different than a traditional checkout they have experienced in the past! One simple way to improve this would be to always let them start at the address details section rather than skipping over to either the shipping or payment section (as configurable in the admin). The very 1st thing people want to confirm is “what items am I ordering?” Next logical step is “Are my billing and most importantly ship to addresses entered correctly?” And when they have multiple ship to addresses setup, even more importantly to verify. I just think with a bit more attention the CS-Cart one page checkout can be made very simple.
For the record, I had a fairly nice increase in sales today with the 3 page checkout. One day is not a good enough sample but I’ll let everyone know. I think there needs to be a cart section on the top of the Summary page though like mentioned. I got some feedback from some long time customers and NONE liked the other version (single page) checkout. I consider these people above average computer users as far as knowledge goes and they all stated that it was confusing in some manner or the other. They are more used to the multiple-page style.
Being new to CSC I’m still figuring things out but after reading this thread I too went to the multi page checkout and think customers will like it better as well.
I would also prefer an option to force the customer to view their full cart before starting the checkout process. Bypassing steps will only confuse some customers.