well said Stu
In respect to the mini-cart. Here is what I know. DONT SHOOT THE MESSENGER.
Ive been told that CS has reviewed large etailers, such as
Amazon, Buy, Newegg, Ebay, etc.
They studied their checkout processes.
None of these stores offer a mini-cart, they only allow product changes/viewing at the last step of the process just before you confirm purchase.
So my understanding is this is why they made the changes.
Right or wrong, just explaining it.
Maybe CS should allow an admin option to show mini-cart or not during checkout (admin tick box)?
Not all customers are the same, so maybe an option would allow CS the flexibility to work for everyone??
I don’t see why CS-Cart would remove it - saying it’s better for their clients company (ours), when they don’t know their clients, clients customer base
Imagine how that goes with the T-shirt mod? Yet alone those whom use multiple product options
(Oops - wrong color → Back to cart → Change → Checkout)
Just because one believes themselves to be correct, don’t try to justify cramming it down my throat - Give me options!
This pisses me off personally because now I have to consider another shopping cart if I intend to move forward in the future. Mods that I can write are better invested in a new product as opposed to 2.0.15 for various reasons, 2.1.2 is a big improvement sure. But it’s like putting 80" rims on a monster truck and expecting it to be used as a bus.
Staff retraining, Manual rewrites (yes we do have one), business order flow, manufacturing, even product options, SEO links, bloody everything and simply because ‘CS-Cart said so’.
If you want to reconsider an unused payment processor - be my guest. At least use the ‘Send configuration back to CS-Cart’ (for what it was bloody created for?) and consider how many customers use the feature before you try to become a bigboy cart.
TonyK,
I believe you are correct, that cs-cart looked at other carts to decide on the layout.
The problem I have is related to this statement:[QUOTE] [HTML]they only allow product changes/viewing at the last step of the process just before you confirm purchase.[/HTML][/QUOTE]
The current review/last step does not allow for any changes. You can review, but can’t change anything. This is why I ended up having a to insert a link back to the cart page in order to make product changes.
Bob
Guess I missed that part of the conversation.
So then it is a bit different in that CS doesn’t allow ANY changes on checkout at all vs the big boys who allow links to edit on last step.
appears that you need to click back on the Cart link in the top header to get back there and make changes.
[quote name=‘pbannette’]TonyK,
I believe you are correct, that cs-cart looked at other carts to decide on the layout.
The problem I have is related to this statement:
The current review/last step does not allow for any changes. You can review, but can’t change anything. This is why I ended up having a to insert a link back to the cart page in order to make product changes.
Bob[/quote]
[quote name=‘TonyK’]appears that you need to click back on the Cart link in the top header to get back there and make changes.[/quote]
I’ll make sure I tell my customers that :evil:
when cs-cart release 2.1.3 ?
its been 2 weeks;
When it’s right I hope. Better than prematurely releasing an incomplete product. Trust me it’s worth the delay even if it takes two more weeks or two more months.
Stu
WHEN THE MINI CART IS PUT BACK IN AS AN OPTION!
Let me clarify our position.
- We’ve begun collecting ideas and suggestions through UserVoice to find out what most of our clients want to have in further versions of CS-Cart. And we try to follow these directions to the greatest possible extent. As you can see, we work on the most popular and supported ideas. UserVoice is actually a more fair means of collecting ideas than a simple forum because it demonstrates it clearly which ideas are is really in demand, and which are essential to only few customers.
- As regards the announcements, we always discuss all major changes in the Roadmap thread thread. There you can find our explanaition of the new functionality, see some screenshots as well as share your opinion and suggestions. You can easily find that the changes to the checkout process were actively discussed there.
- Also, you can find the list of planned and developed features in the roadmap at [url]https://www.cs-cart.com/roadmap.html[/url] .
P.S. We see the complains about mini-cart at checkout, and we will find a solution.
P.P.S We are open to discuss everything what you may find weak in the procedure that we’ve adopted for developing new features and functionalities: UserVoice (idea) → Roadmap thread (discussion)-> Beta Release (implementation)
[quote name=‘imac’]Let me clarify our position.[/quote]
You need to seriously consider having an official CS-Cart Mod Repository where you can add tons of free user requested features like the minicart mod instead of bloating the default install with a ton of features that others may find useless, this way users can decide what they want included and install it themselves - Sno
Here’s a problem with user voice. I have 20 cs-cart licenses. I have the vote of one user. That’s not very democratic.
Regarding the roadmap… I would suggest that you create a final set of requirements and changes that will occur. It starts as a list of requriments/ideas from you. Feedback occurs but there is never an indication of what may have changed from the orginal. Also, when you’re going to remove functionality, please ensure you state it explicitly rather than it just not appearing in a screenshot of a configurable system. The mini-cart could just have easily become an optiion that simply wasn’t set for the screen shots.
An example of information that would be helpful is like: In 2.1 you completely changed the way that pricing is updated on the customer pages. Never discussed in the roadmap. It now requires an ajax request to get the value of an option and takes a couple of seconds, where before it was immediate since it was done in javascript. So basically it’s 100 times slower and places twice the load on the underlying server.
[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]Here’s a problem with user voice. I have 20 cs-cart licenses. I have the vote of one user. That’s not very democratic.
[/QUOTE]
I believe, it’s quite the reverse: despite the amount of property, everybody has the same number of votes and equal opportunities. From my point of view, it is the basis for democracy.
[quote name=‘imac’]I believe, it’s quite the reverse: despite the amount of property, everybody has the same number of votes and equal opportunities. From my point of view, it is the basis for democracy.[/QUOTE]
A very interesting post that I enjoyed reading - I am serious.
In a literal sense you are completely 100% correct. A wealthy person has no more votes than a poor one in political elections.
Of course in the business world the person who owns lots of voting stock has a bigger say.
But in this case the owners of CS cart have 100% of the voting rights and we the customers have zero - and this is the way it should be in a capitalist world.
And it is hard to say exactly how to shape CS cart for the future I understand that you deal in the real world and have limited resources of time and capital - as we all do. So in the end you have to make your best decisions and take your chances. Again this is how it should be and makes capitalism fun and exciting…
Also CS Cart is improving very quickly in its ability to listen to its users - good work - spasibo!
But you have a very long way to go to reach international best practices in terms of customer service and when I say this I am speaking softly and politely and diplomatically… Of course you are much better than X cart staff but that is not saying much at all…
I understand that you do not feel that it is a good use of your time to be answering forum questions more often than now.
But 99%+ of your customers do not agree and want more forum interaction. Trust me you do have the time if you want to make it. I have two small children and a business that I work in 7 days a week - long hours and I have time to read the CS cart forum almost daily.
This is your business you have time to interact more and still improve the software - if you want to. You will grow your business faster and make more money if you listen and interact more - end of story - this is a fact.
I look forward with great interest to your reply.
[quote]
I believe, it’s quite the reverse: despite the amount of property, everybody has the same number of votes and equal opportunities. From my point of view, it is the basis for democracy.
[/quote]
If you gave the cart away, I might agree with you. But you charge by the unit. Hence, each unit has a unique use and unique needs. I think of it as owning stock in cs-cart. Each license is a share and should be treated as such. Just more of that pesky customer input.
I agree with…
- Need mod repository of mods listed on cs-cart. This way others can add if they wish. Keep items at low at either “free” for simple items or no more than $10-$20 cost and more people will buy add ons if they wish. It would also be great to have a place to go to easily see what the “community” has to offer.
- More license should = “more votes”. It is not a matter of voting for who the president should be. It is a matter of having more of an “investment” already in the cart. While we only have 6 professional license it is still more of an investment for us than the person who has 1 license and should be considered as such. Each license should be it’s own vote. It’s not that the person with 1 vote doesn’t “count” it just another user has more money on the line.
- Either way on the uservoice, I would almost bet money that some of the people on that have more than 1 account! Many of the post sure do sound like the same person.
I disagree with…
—CS trying to look like “Amazon”–with checkout or anything. If CS is somehow trying to look like Amazon they have messed up big time. Each page or product of Amazon is a perfect example as CS still uses “tabs” and Amazon uses a huge, long page that causes the customer to scroll down. Quite honestly, I would prefer to not look like Amazon or Ebay.
[quote name=‘clips’]
If CS is somehow trying to look like Amazon they have messed up big time. Each page or product of Amazon is a perfect example as CS still uses “tabs” and Amazon uses a huge, long page that causes the customer to scroll down. Quite honestly, I would prefer to not look like Amazon or Ebay.[/quote]
That’s why they allow the removal of tabs :rolleyes: via single checkbox in appearance…
-I like the top bar in Amazon. there you have all the categories, the search bar and the basket. Cs-cart have 3 bars for all this, taking a lot of space.
Also there is also subcategory top bars, that appear later, helping you narrow your search. You don’t need to have the category always present in the left bar, instead you want new tools to narrow your search.
-Also, the front page have 1 product feature, big enough to invite you to stay and a right column wide enough to show you more info about other products.
-All the “about us” info is in the footer, which make sense, since the most important part for a customers is to know what you have first, and later inquire about who you are. like walking to a store, you never ask for the owner…you are there to see products…
-The detail page use all the space, almost forcing you to know more about the product. And if you know more, there is more chance you’ll buy it. Amazon has mastered the user rating, allowing to make some money writing reviews. And if you see that people are happy with the product, well…you just want to be happy too…
Finally, they have only just two colors, orange and light blue, which means no distractions, you are there just to read about the product.
In cs-cart… let’s see:
-first, you have 3 bars, that are useless for a first time visitor: Search? what is gonna search if he does not know what you have. My account? view cart? sign-in? register? “hey, I just step in and you ask me for all this?..”
Ok lets see what you have… Hot deals? … what deals? I can barely see those small pictures… what are they about?.. why don’t you just show me one well done, and others later…ok?.
Product of the day? come on, first you put the price and later the description in very small letters… are you kiding? is this the way you want me to buy?
Features product?.. damn. I can barely see those pictures, and by the way, why do you have the description in underline text? “…this site needs improvements…”
[quote name=‘JesseLeeStringer’]That’s why they allow the removal of tabs :rolleyes: via single checkbox in appearance…[/QUOTE]
Very interesting. I’ve just started moving in to the 2.? of CS-Cart this year and I’m still not fully converted. Remember, I’m the one that got stuck in the past and stuck with the old version…and we’re still going to use an old copy on one of our sites. So I’m still trying to figure out 2.?..unless it was in 1.3.5 too and I just never saw it or knew what it was.
BTW, is it called something different than “tabs”? I can’t seem to find it in 2.1.2 either. I looked in “appearance” but I don’t see anything about tabs. Do I maybe have to have a particular add-on turned on?
[quote name=‘clips’]BTW, is it called something different than “tabs”? I can’t seem to find it in 2.1.2 either. I looked in “appearance” but I don’t see anything about tabs. Do I maybe have to have a particular add-on turned on?[/quote]
Hi Jim, this is now all done with blocks so you won’t find any mention of tabs anymore, you just use the block manager and create blocks in the details area and they show up as blocks, they can be displayed vertically or horizontally (tabbed).