Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Chaaaaannnngggess

[cchobot]

We're always changing things on the website, but you'll probably notice what may be some pretty significant changes to the website in the next few days. The goal, as always, is to make for a better experience for our clients, community members, and community-member-clients.

The main changes you'll notice are as follows:

- New store homepage w/ New Edge Angling Colors
- Out of Stock items are gone...well sort of...
- New navigation in use
- New "pop-up" basket
- New Bug-Tracker Forum

New store homepage w/ New Edge Angling Colors

First off, the new homepage and colors. We're addressing a major issue here where it was difficult for people to find the products. Now they're right there on the home page and lead you directly into the new navigation system. We hope with a little clicking around you'll find the new system to be worlds ahead of the old style nav. I won't go into great detail here about the new nav, I'll just say it will allow us to greatly increase selection, offer more specials, and keep the product catalog more up-to-date.

As for the new colorscheme, we thought we'd give the lighter color scheme a try in the store to put the emphasis more on the products. Someone also told me that lighter colors use less energy? If this is true and the Edge Angling website is becoming "greener" we'll take that as another positive .

Out of Stock items are gone...well sort of...

after much internal debate, we've made all the Out-of-Stock items inactive, this means we could always bring them back if we were able to secure stock. It should be noted, there is a difference between and "Out-of-Stock" item and one that displays the "Waitlist" option or "Ships in 1-3 days" or "Contact Us" on the website. The Out-of-Stock label was used for items that we don't expect to get back in stock any time soon (think hard-to-find custom plugs for example). Now we know customers love to look at the pictures of these items, but in certain categories they were kind of "crowding out" other more readilly available items, and in some instances providing a false sense of hope that the items in question might become available again in the near future. This has at times led to the belief we never have anything in stock. Which, of course, made us feel sad . Now we know the pictures of these items are a great resource so we'll probably create some sort of "library" for these items in the near future where everyone can go to look at the pictures and info if they so desire.

New navigation in use

So you've probably already seen some of the new-nav pages by now and we believe it offers the ability to slice and dice the products into categories that NEVER would have been possible before. It also allows us to be able to manage the product catalog much better, which will lead to better selection, more sales (just wait, you'll see) and far more current product data. This was important since combining these capabilities, with the new reviews functionality and our extremely helpful membership, we hope to create a not only a killer online store, but a real resource that can be used to help anglers make informed decisions and in turn, become happier with their purchases and time spent using them.

New "pop-up" basket

One thing we hated was that when you put things in your basket, you get directed away from the page you were on. We're going to be trying a new kind of "basket overlay" which can be easilly closed to leave you on the page you added the products from. We like it, but will of course be depending on your feedback to see if it stays or goes, so let your voices be heard on this one.

New Bug-Tracker Forum

The new store header will feature the saying, "Your Tackle Shop Online". Originally this was going to be "Your Online Tackle Shop". Subtle difference we know, and if you have to re-read that sentence to even catch it we wouldn't be surprised. But the point is we're really depending on our membership to drive the changes here. In the coming weeks, there will be new ways for you all to participate directly in the direction of the company. Things like a forum where you can suggest the products you'd like to see added will open dialogue between you and our purchasing department, and while we won't promise every product suggested will be added, we can promise every suggestion will result in a beneficial dialogue. The reasoning behind ideas that foster the participation of our members and clients is that we're trying to bring the best parts of what makes a great local tackle shop, to people who don't have one close by to where they live. One thing that makes a great shop is being able to suggest a product and having the shop listen to your suggestion, either bringing it in, or at least explaining the reason why they can't or won't at a particular time.

So what's all that have to do with a bug-tracking forum? Well, same basic principle, we've created a new forum where you can start threads that detail bugs you find in the website, maybe you find a typo, or missing image or broken link. By posting it in that forum, you'll basically be assigning our web department work to do. In a systematic way we hope to be able to fix the issues and improve the overall experience on the website. By posting in the forum, we'll be able to keep track of the issues and close the threads only after the issue has been resolved.

We also believe this will give yet another opportunity for good-natured ribbing and witty banter between our members and employees, which is yet another positive.

So that's all for now, now go-to-bed everybody (Mason's Dad this means you ) so I can actually get to work on implementing these changes.

[pjjeff]

Looks great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[arden]

New home page is AWESOME

[KGJ]

thumbs up, good stuff

[cchobot]

We're real excited about the capabilities of the new nav, we've got to go through all the "facet" values and boil it down to what's really necessary, but it's apparent you can now get around the store in waaaaaay fewer clicks than ever before.

[beaver]

I like it!

[kytara7]

Well done.I like the idea of a plug library.

[chefchris]

nice stuff chris, this site has come a long way!!!

[stcroixman]

haven't been here much the last week or so. The new home page is very nice
and prodcuts are easier to access. Looks like another order when my tax refund arrives!!!

[Frightnight]

I like it,,,,now that I can find the forums link.