I opened a new online store?

[Nick Krikunetz]

Now I have opened a new online dog store, selling various products. When I ask people I know to give me advice to better the site, no one gives criticizes the site for me to better it.

I need your help in letting me know how I can better the functionality of the website, appearance, and more. This is not spam, I need people to critique it and let me know what is wrong with it !?!

The site is http://www.accessorizemydog.com

[Laney]

I think out looks good. It does, however need something to make it POP a bit though. My recommendation would be more color and pictures of real dogs wearing the items you're marketing.

Maybe a small white dog with a bright colored something anda large Doug modeling a leash and collar with a rain jacket if you have them.

nice add but I would probably pass it by unless I could relate by seeing a real pet.

Hope I helped

[Pain Addict]

I would disagree with the guy above me. You don't necessarily have to use real photos of dogs. Cartoons are cuter. But the problem is the cartoons you have used are not off the hook. Get a few freelance cartoonists to do that for you. Another huge problem is that the background color is too dull. When you are targeting people who love dogs (pets), use a cute, light color, such as pink, light brown, white, rather than a dark color like the one you have used. Remember, colors generate feelings. They do! Best if you keep the background white or off-white. One more suggestions, put some cute dog videos on your site. Create a facebook fan page targeting people who'd like to buy dogs accessories. Start posting jokes about dogs, photos and videos of cute dogs. When you have 5000+ likers, start talking about your business. Not too often! Once in a full moon. Hope my answer came handy.

[556]

It's a good start but I would suggest a couple of things. Well for starters something doesn't jump out at me. I think its the graphics being used. The picture of the USPS truck really just looks odd stuck in there. Some of the other graphics have some really low quality text on them which needs to be corrected.

I also notice you have an email signup. But it's at the bottom of the page. If you want to use an email marketing tool you really need to get that moved up.

The one thing I did notice was the cart options were not secure. If you don't secure your shop with an SSL certificate you will not only lose business but put customers information at risk. If you are storing customer confidential info especially credit cards you would be at risk of being suspended by the card processing companies.

[Jake]

Perhaps it's your being far north that explains your representing the postal service as USPC, which seems to actually stand for "United States Pony Clubs, Inc."

USPS stands for United States Postal Service

Having only an email link for the contact us page is kind of bush league, you should invest in a tole free phone number service they are not too expensive (more professional companies manage to deal with telemarketers), some have multi-department voicemail navigation that makes you look big time.

Your address is already given up in the Upfront Merchant window, may as well add it to a Contact Us page as a mailing address to boost credibility, along with the tole free number and a contact email form.

The payment description on the about us page seems a bit complicated

Perhaps something like:
Credit card payments securely processed by paypal, no account needed.
Paypal Logo

(paypal members will know what to do with their account)

Adding some vaguely related articles will help you get more search engine traffic, either in an information tab or an added blog, your FAQ while thorough, doesn't have any pet specific answers like how to select a size.

You could probably have a bred to size chart to simply fitting.

It takes money to make money, if you can find paid advertising that is even close to reaching break sales conversions, some sales funnel optimization might turn such traffic into a scalable source of profits.
Read up on split testing, Google Webmaster tools have a free service that compares effectiveness of 2 design variations. Optimization of the sales page conversion rates is a big deal, big players will lose money sending lots of paid ad traffic just so they an get quicker test results leading to an optimal design.

These guys have studied a bunch of design variations. http://43splittests.org/

[karirkoe]

hi..
how to put link in the question form like above http://www.accessorizemydog.com
i try to write down like this <a href="http://www.karirkoe.com">www.karirkoe.com</a>
but cant run
so please advice me n thanks