Yes, its been
a LONG time since we've had a major overhaul of our web site (about
5 years), so I figured it was time for a change.
But I didn't
want to do the same old format. With our ever-expanding selection
of products coming in, we needed a way to easily update the web
site when new products arrive, and when existing products change.
The 'old' way was too time consuming- we had to take the pages
offline and manually update the html and javascript code, and then
re-upload them to the server for the change to be viewed publicly.
Creating new pages was a Nightmare (pardon my BattleBots pun)-
everything had to be done manually from scratch. That old method
is OUT! Our new system has a database backend with our entire product
selection. This database can build the new and updated html pages
for us, and uploads them to the server with amazing speed (it can
build over 300 html files in about 7 seconds!) This makes it possible
for us to do nearly real-time updates on any particular product,
including its stock status.
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Differences
you may notice about the new format:
- Every page
now has a new simple navigation bar at the top of the screen.
- Every page (except the main page) has
an advanced navigation menu bar along
the left side. This will be your main way to navigate around
through our site. Click on any green category link to view that
main category page, or any gray subcategory link to see that
list.
- No
more frames to mess with browser performance and search engine
robots!
- The Featured
Products list appears along the right side of the screen on every
page. This is a random list of featured items. Click on any product
photo to go directly to it.
- We have
a completely new Hobby RC section featuring R/C Cars, Airplanes,
Helicopters and Boats, along with thousands of R/C accessories.
We will be expanding this section dramatically over the coming
months.
- Every product
now has its own web page. The true URL can be copied/emailed/bookmarked
in your browser. This will be a huge relief to those of us that
were frustrated by the old framed format that wasn't friendly
for bookmarks/emails.
- Category
pages (List Pages) also have their own new pages. These URLs are just
as friendly. In many cases you will now see a list of products
rather than the old drop-down menus we had on several pages in
the past. (i.e. the R/C Crystals pages)
- Stock Status
has been introduced. This will show if an item is in stock, backordered,
etc. Look for it below the product picture. Note that if an item
is shown as "Available" that means it may either be a drop-ship
item from one of our vendors, or an item that we can usually
get in within 2-3 days.
- Large photo
previews are available for most items. If you see the magnifying
glass icon below any product photo, you can click on that photo
to see an enlarged view. This does not open a new window, as
it used to do, it simply scales the text in the window to accommodate
the larger image. Double-click on the enlarged image to shrink
it again.
- Shipping
prices may should overall be more fair and realistic. Sometimes
our shopping cart would get confused and appear to charge a
higher amount for shipping that seems reasonable for the items
purchased. We have taken steps to correct this, but I'm sure
it's not foolproof yet. However, since we still process orders
manually, we can always update your shipping to the correct
price, so don't be alarmed if the cart still shows a too-high
shipping amount, it will likely be adjusted when we process
your order, and over time we will eliminate the problem areas.
- The Classifieds
section has been removed.
- The Team Merchandise
sections have been removed.
Overall, I am
very pleased with the result, and I hope you will enjoy the new
format as well.
As the customer,
you will be the true judge of the usefulness of the new format,
and I really want your feedback! If you have any suggestions, or
especially if you notice a problem with any performance, bad links,
broken images, missing products, etc., PLEASE contact
us.
Report anything you find, regardless how insignificant. This was
a huge change for us, and I'm sure there are some things we missed.
Thank you for
your support of the Robot MarketPlace
Jim Smentowski
Owner
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