Sugar & Spice has a new web site!
I think it looks way better than the old one. It is still a basic site, very few bells and whistles.
So far it's only in Spanish. I have to get working on the English part, but that might be in January since we are way, way busy right now.
Some of the segments that are getting more visitors than others is the corporate gift section or regalos.
Under the section called "venta al publico" there is a map showing our location. What do you think of this map? Is it clear enough?
So please take a look and if you spot any errors please feel free to let me know about them. The designers are going to be making some changes but we decided to let them post it before they finished with the modifications that we suggested. Currently the site itself links back to my old blog URL which had a funny little mistake in the spelling; in Spanish it spelled out Species instead of Spices.
Basically there will be several minor changes to the site on any given day.
18 comments:
oops you need to fix your link to sugarandspice.com.ar
Basic is good and I like the update! Clean, simple, and easy to navigate. So glad no one convinced you to go 100% Flash.
Where was this photo taken?
http://www.sugarandspice.com.ar/esp_exportacion.php
Are you selling any budin down here for the holidays? Haven't tried that yet.
Hi Marc,
Thanks! That´s what I get for writing at 2 in the morning. I fixed the link.
That picture was just the web designer having some fun. Everyone that works for us (providers) always project that we are going to be big one day and that was their way of telling us that.
La Anonima does not have budin (pound cake) just yet. They do sell Stollen and it happens to be their number 1 seller, of our products.
Stay tuned though, there just might be some new developments with them down the road.
I always see a truck cab that looks exactly like the one in the photo. Looks all pimped out and I've never seen another so I thought it was unique.
I'll have to look for that stollen
Frank, he sido un ocasional lector de tu blog y revisé tu nuevo sitio. En regalos empresarios encontré varias reiteraciones de conceptos y algún que otro error ortográfico (ej. asimismo que va todo junto y sin acento). Te acerco entre comillas un texto alternativo que dice lo mismo pero con menos palabras (algo que cualquier empresario agradece) para tu consideraciòn. Desde ya el mejor de los éxitos y felicitaciones por la estética.
"Regalos empresarios y corporativos para todo tipo de ocasiones.
Con propuestas personalizadas que satisfagan sus propósitos dentro de su presupuesto.
Dado un mínimo volumen le ofrecemos solucionar sus necesidades y acentuar sus obsequios para que
reflejen la identidad corporativa de su empresa o institución.
Nuestras propuestas incluyen regalos de todo tipo, desayunos, meriendas y servicio de envío a domicilio.
Línea de regalos de fin de año que incluye nuestro exclusivo Pan Dulce Inolvidable.
Haga memorable sus regalos, tanto por su impacto visual como por su exclusiva calidad."
Hola Anon,
Muchas gracias!
Hi Frank,
I like your new site - it is clean, simple and loads fast. A few small comments: maybe it is my screen, but for the picture on the main page, the liquid in the cup has a strange color - I can't even tell if it is coffee or tea. About the map I am missing the subte station "Palermo", and maybe information on suitable colectivo lines. Other than that the map is well done.
Under "venta al publico" and "contacto" there is an unexplained asterisk after "tu futura primera visita".
I have seen lots of really bad corporate website here in Argentina, and I am glad to see your site is well done. Tasteful choice of colors, no annoying flash animations, a good balance of pretty images and text - my compliments to your webdesigner.
Frank:
The new site looks great! I agree with the other posters... you did the right thing not making it 100% flash.
The map was pretty clear. My guess is your not getting a lot of foot traffic to the store from collectivos- so I would not clutter it up with that. I would put the palermo Subte stop for reference though.
Maybe you could do a simple hover state that would animate the red dot slightly to make it visually easier to spot.
Great job. Send me a private email with your web team details. I always have a few projects back in the states and need a good team here.
Hi Benco and Dave,
We are actually not getting a lot of foot traffic period. This is not an area with a lot of people walking around so we did not expect it either. It will be a different story once these towers are done and people start moving in though.
I really liked your suggestions for the map and I have passed your comments on to the web designers. We are actually making a list of all the tweeks and changes that we want to make, while in between I am directly sending these comments to them as they come. Who knows, they may have already seen them since they read this blog as well.
Thanks for the comments. From the start we did not want to load the site with Flash but we did want to protect the product pictures that we used so the products are animated.
As for the rest, we just wanted to make a simple site, nothing fancy, but still pretty to look at.
Maybe I will have a new web site event at our store once we think the biggest changes are done and it is mostly finalized.
What do you guys think of that possibility?
Frank - Another couple of suggestions about the map:
Make the zoom buttons a brighter color so they are more obvious.
Label the Palermo Shopping (Easy/Jumbo), since that's the most recognizable landmark in the area.
Perhaps you also might mention the retail stores that carry a selection of your products so that potential customers are on the lookout for them.
John
Hi Frank, I think events at your cookie store will always get a cheer from the crowd...
I agree with John that adding information about your retail partners would be a good idea. A typical reader of your site might be someone who already knows some of your cookies and now wants to learn more about your company and the full product range. Since coming to your shop is not an option for most people (think about your clients in the interior of the country), they would probably appreciate some information on where to buy your products.
Not sure if you do it already, but "www.sugarandspice.com.ar" should also be printed somewhere on your product labels. Even if it is in small print in a corner it would probably generate significant type-in traffic to your site and add informational value for your clients.
Some more comments on the technical side: in the source code I can see that many of the pages have no doctype specified, so they are rendered by the browsers in quirks mode - this is no good and should be fixed. It also indicates that your web designer has not validated the markup, which is actually a standard procedure (e.g. using the online W3C validator) and helps to eliminate bugs in the code. From a SEO (search engine optimization) perspective the title tags are not optimal, and page descriptions should be added as meta data. But maybe SEO is not so important for you, as long as you rank number one for your trademark, which is the case.
Hi Frank,
Love the new website! Surprisingly it loads really fast, so it doesn't produce that kind of waiting annoyance that you sometimes get on other pages;) Easy to navigate and great pics.
I as a German am of course particularly interested in the Stollen;) And I was happy to find it alongside the Brownies and another product in a supermarket in a mall in Córdoba!! Unfortunately that day I was just strolling around the mall and broke, so I have to go back. But I was really delighted to see it there and called my boyfriend and said, look, this is Frank's stuff, cool, eh? So at least I'm not going to have to miss the Stollen for Christmas this year. I would make it myself but it's so much work...Besos, Coog
Hi John and Benco,
We are currently going back and forth on the point regarding the retail partners. For now, we do want people to write in, or call and ask us about the retail locations in their specific area. One of the complicated things is that our client list is always changing. There are some other complications like giving out too much information for future competitors for example. This is actually a point that we discuss from time to time amongst ourselves.
Also, our contact information is printed out in all of our packaged goods and that includes the website address.
The designers are back at work on the map thanks to all the comments we have received on that one. And I love all the technical observations as well. We do believe that an SEO strategy is very important. Thank you so much for those comments.
Coog,
Thanks! Please keep in mind that this is a local version of Stollen. I still think it is good I just don´t want to pretend that it is 100% authentic like you would find in Germany. We did make one with the spices and covered in powdered sugar and I really loved that one but the powdered sugar coating is a huge problem in the summer.
In any case, we must be doing something right since La Anonima (a Supermarket chain that covers the south of Argentina) has that product as their number one seller of our group of products.
Currently in Cordoba you can get our products in Falabella and in the near future in Libertad. We also have some smaller retailers and I will e-mail you with a list of those since I can´t remember them off hand.
Frank -
I noticed there is an inconsistency when you list the telephone number - sometimes it omits the (5411).
Also you should added the postal code for the business on the contact page.
I liked on the original version where you explained about the company name. Maybe that's too cutesy? I shudder to think what would have happened had you had boys ...
John
Hi John,
Noted...thanks!
I actually like it as well. I just have to be better about private stuff for security´s sake.
I know, "Snips of Snails and Puppy Dog Tails" does not make a good name for anything really.
Hey Frank,
I noticed that if you click the 'brownies' tab, the 'stollen' flash presentation appears.
Very nice site btw, congrats!
(But it's not complete without a full screen 360 degrees virtual tour of your factory ofcourse ;-)
Hi Ronald,
Ah, you found one of those little gems. Yes, there are a couple of little errors and that one was one of the first ones we found. We are making a list of things to fix so that we are not bothering the designers every 5 minutes. Thanks for noticing and for telling me about it.
As for the factory tours... we really don´t let anyone take a look. There is no one else in the market doing what we are doing and we want to try and keep it that way as long as possible.
It´s tempting to show images of all the equipment and the thought put into the layout and attention to detail of the plant, but there is just way too much valuable information in there for any future would be competitor.
Ah, okee, good thinking.
Anyway, I'm just starting here to try to get some customers for my virtual tours. If you know people/companies who might want to put some action in their website, pls let me know. (Or maybe your site designers can offer it to their customers?)
Thanks,
Ronald
Hi Ronald,
Good luck to you and I will keep you in mind. I will also mention it to the designers although they do read this blog so they might already have seen your message.
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