Get Expert Feedback on Your Square Online Store, December 2021 Edition

[AdamB]

Hello again!

It’s time for the holiday 2021 edition of “Get Expert Feedback on Your Square Online Store”!  🎁 🎁 🎁

Now is a really great time to make some changes in preparation for the holiday shopping season. Just like the other threads in this series, comment below with a link to your Square Online store. I’ll take a look and provide some tips and advice you can use to take your online store to the next level. 

This event will run until December 16th. 

Related:

Get More Expert Feedback on Your Square Online Store

Get Expert Feedback on Your Square Online Store

[#2]

12/13 Update: The response has been fantastic! Just so everyone is aware, if you haven't gotten a response yet - don't worry. We'll get to your site over the next couple of weeks. We'll also tag you when we reply, so you'll get an additional email saying one of us "mentioned" you.

[Horsebits]

Yes, please! www.sugarandbake.com

[BoutiqueForward]

It looks so professional!

The only advice I would give you, which you probably already know and are working on, is to not have the image of the cake on the homepage be cut off at the bottom. The Stay in The Loop banner cutting off the cake is a bit of a turn off, and makes it look less professional.

But other than that great job on your website, and the photos are really nicely done too!

[Horsebits]

Thank you for pointing that out. It’s like having someone proofread a report for you.

[Horsebits]

I tried adjusting the cake photo on the first page but i can’t resize it to fit in the designated area. I can zoom in, cutting off more of the cake. However, I can’t zoom out more to see more of the cake. The photo is zoomed out as much as possible. Any ideas?

[ElisabethB]

Hi @Horsebits - I love the soft, pretty color scheme you've chosen! I agree with the comments left by @BoutiqueForward and I have some additional notes for you:
- I'm sure you're already working on this, but having at least one photo for each item you're selling makes a big difference for people browsing your site.

- I noticed that your Sugar and Bake Blog link in the navigation menu reloads the home page instead of taking me to a blog.

- I also noticed you're using the Shop All page template, which is designed more for sellers who are shipping retail items. That's totally okay if you like the look of it, but I wanted to mention the "Order Online" page template in case you haven't seen it. It's designed more for food and beverage sellers who are doing pickup and/or delivery. Here's an article in our support center that has more details. 

[Horsebits]

Hi! Thanks for the feedback. The first 2 things (photos, blogs) are things I am working on. The other thing you mentioned “Order online” template instead of “Shop all” is something I did not know about. I will definitely look into the Order online page. Thank you!

[MAXSDELI]

I’d love some expert feedback on our online ordering site. I’ve considered expanding the page and getting rid of our Squarespace hosted website and moving our domain to Square. 

http://eatatmaxs.square.site

[ElisabethB]

Hey @MAXSDELI! Your site looks fantastic, and the food pictures are really making me wish we were close enough to order from you! 🤤

I can't really think of anything to change or add to what you have now - even with the two sites it's a very seamless experience, but you could maybe add a link back to the main site in the navigation menu for the ordering site. If you do decide to switch to Square Online, I think you'd be able to recreate the look for your current site pretty easily. 

[tl6734]

Hey! My store is torilenell.square.site/shop

[ElisabethB]

Hi @tl6734 ! I love how you have your items laid out, and the holiday gift guide is a really nice addition! I just have a couple of suggestions for you:

- Consider adding your curbside pickup information to an announcement pop-up. Text within an image can't be indexed by search engines or read by screen readers, so it's always better to use plain text instead. I think an announcement pop-up is a good way to display that information, but you could also use a plain image background and add text instead. 

- You could move your Shop All link under the Shop menu, or add a call to action button on the header that links to the Shop All page. 

[BoutiqueForward]

boutique-forward.square.site

I am still working on adding more items, but right now they're all on the same page, and I would like some feedback on whether I should leave it the way it is to give my website the thrift store feel by scrolling down all the items on one single page, or if I should categorize them all on different pages the way other apparel sites do with theirs.

Thank you!!

[ElisabethB]

Hi @BoutiqueForward - thanks for sharing your site! Are you editing all of your images by hand? If so, wow - that's a lot of work and can be tricky (I know from experience!), but you've done a great job on them. Did you know about the Square Photo Studio app? It makes removing backgrounds effortless, and could be a big time-saver for you if you have an iPhone. 

I noticed that your Blog link is loading an empty page, but I assume you are working on that. 🙂

As far as your shop page layout, I think it makes sense to have categories for your items so people can browse more easily. The Shop All page template you're using will allow people to browse literally all of your items, but they can also pick and choose using the category and filter options in the side bar. 

[BoutiqueForward]

https://boutique-forward.square.site/s/shop

Any feedback appreciated!

We are just starting out, so we have much to learn, and I'm sure a lot to improve on too.

[ObscenicAtelier]

https://www.aaronwilloughby.com 

Any opinion or pointers would be great. Or if you have any ideas that might get me closer to having more info on a category page or a work around for that. Thanks.

[ElisabethB]

Hi @ObscenicAtelier! First of all, I'm in love with the Stormy Cloud necklace! Actually, everything on your site is amazing and so unique - I really like your work! ❤️

The site looks awesome overall - I love the clean, bold design and color choices. I don't think there's anything I would change or add. Regarding your comment about category pages, there isn't a way at this time to add more content to them. You could create a standard (blank) page, and then use the featured items or featured categories sections on that page. That would allow you to add more content beyond just the items themselves and might be what you're looking for. Hope that helps!

[ObscenicAtelier]

Thank you for the compliments @ElisabethB. 😊

And thanks for the suggestion. Although that solution seems like it would make using the Square shopping cart system a lot more work for me. Since I would have to make so many Items featured items on a page by hand rather than have them go into a category automatically like the system is designed to do. But again thanks for the suggestion. I'll see if something like that work around would will work for me.

It would be great if square could work this simple issue out. All it would take is being able to add a section to a category page just like a standard page. I just want some copy and an image at the top of my category page😫 LoL.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Aaron

[ElisabethB]

Hey @ObscenicAtelier - thanks for following up! You are absolutely right - it is more work to do what I described. 😑

The intent with item and category pages was to make it easy for sellers - the pages are automatically generated whenever you create a category or item, so it eliminates extra steps. Unfortunately, that also limits your ability to customize things to your liking. I did a little poking around and found a thread where one of our product managers mentioned updating item and category pages to make them more customizable. If you want, you could leave a reply and ask about adding sections to category pages. 😊
This link goes right to the comment I mentioned. 

[ObscenicAtelier]

Uh Yeah 😑 I'm already in that thread. And it basically goes nowhere. 

But nice try.👍

Thanks @ElisabethB 

[norabirt]

My website is www.bestdogltd.com

Thanks!

Nora

[ElisabethB]

Hi @norabirt - thanks for sharing your site! You've done a great job - all of the important details, like your policies, services, and information about the business are easy to access. I also love your customer testimonials page - it's laid out really nicely and very professional-looking. Did you know that Square Online has a product review feature? You can set it up to automatically request a review after a certain period of time. You can learn more about the feature in this support article.

[smoothemporium]

I really  need help

www.smoothindustries.square.site

I have no clue what I'm doing online I've been a in the field sales executive for 15 years but the online sakes is a different animal all together please help so I can continue to grow and expand my business  thank you