Improving the WSI Online Store

Before the article/blog: I just wanted to say that I wrote this because I really love the Witch School Store and want to see it become very successful, but also I worte this to enter into the Beltane Blog Contest. So please, pass this on and comment about it, add your own suggestions and hit that like button if you like the blog, subject or think it's helpful. I appreciate all the reads it can get because I do feel so strongly about this. [And yes winning the contest would be awesome too, of course...]

The Witch School Store is a wonderful resource for all students and non-students alike. There is a generous variety of goods ranging from books a plenty to jewelry, stones and tarot. There is also an option to custom order something if they don't have it listed.

Though all this is true, I've come up with some things to improve the store for everyones benefit, including making the store more appealing and accessible to draw in new customers.
First let me start with the opening page. This is easily navigatable, even for someone as myself who is completely blind and using a screen reader, in my case JAWS. The graphics that distinguish each category are labelled clearly so that I can tell which section each one goes to. I can't see how this could be any cleaer. But let's move on to inside a category.

I'm going to use the jewerly and stone sections as my examples. In the jewerly section we find a list of pendants and necklaces with accompanying pictures [Or so I've been infromed as far as the photos go.]. Each set has a sort of sub category such as Dragon Jewelry or Fairy. There is the name of the piece such as 'Garden Pentacle' with the price, in this case $8.

This works for those who can see the fhoto next to it but other than that there is nothing to describe the item at all. I had a friend describe this particular pendant to me and found it was one I have in my possession that is also known as 'the Pentacle of the Goddess'. I know this pendant to be, at least in my incarnation of it, to be pewter, two sided and about an inch and a half high. By two sided I mean that the pictured design of flowers and the flower-like star is also on the opposite side, both the same.

The point to this is that some more information would go a long way here. It would vastly improve my personal interest to have a basic idea of size and materials of the pendant. The Aurora pentacle is another example, and a beautiful piece. I own this one as well. Again it is pewter and the star is crystal with a pewter base on which it is mounted. It's about an inch tall.

In all examples of the jewelry there is the same essential problem. Each has a name and picture but nothing else to describe it in any way. It would be wonderful to see, at the very least, some measurements of pieces and if known, the material it's made of. What would overjoy me would be a basic description telling us what it looks like. Not only will this provide people like myself who have no sight or little sight an idea of the item being sold, it would lend itself to being a great hook.

For an example of a hook from an item sold by WSI on ebay read on. When I went looking at the elemental dragons on ebay a while back there was a cute description that went with each, describing them and their color so that even I had a basic idea of what they looked like. This made me want them even more.

The jewelry section is not the only section I see this lack of description in. The stone section has the same inherent problem. There are a few sets listed here such as element, chakra, prosperity, money, power and love sets to name a few. I have to assume there is a photo going along with each, but again there is not even a basic description of what these sets may contain. Let's look at the Power and Chakra sets for our examples here. I can only assume a photo is next to each showing off what one set may look like, however, for those of us who aren't privy to many stones we may have no idea what they are.

Both sets I can only assume have a picture of what may come in each set, but I have not had a sighted friend confirm this yet. Both the Power and Chakra sets have their title, in this case who selected the set of stones, and the price. I can only guess various things about each set such as how many stones come in each, with exception of the chakra set as I am aware of the seven main chakras, the approximate sizes of the stones, what stones come with the set, etc. This would be especially helpful for myself but moreso for anyone who may be interested in them. It would be cool to also have a little blurb about how each set can be used, just a line or two with ideas how to best implement the stones in the power set or any of the sets.

Rather than having to constantly email questions such as 'What stones come in the Chakra set?' or 'Does a card come with the stone set telling what each stone is?' we could easily see these answered on the item page under each title. There could be a description of what stones may come in each set, approximate sizes for them, as all stones will most definitely vary, and what exactly is included as in a bag to carry them in, a card with the stone names or something else that may come with the set.

This covers the sets only, though. On this page there are also other stones listed in forms of wands, towers, scrying balls, points, clusters, slices and polished stones. I cannot see the photos myself so if there is anything such as a ruler for approximate size of each stone, I can not make use of that. I would rather see these approximate sizes for each in a description of the stone and maybe even a few facts about the stone for those who aren't that knowledgeable. It would be nice to have a general idea of what color variations, if any are available in the stones. Agate is a good example of a stone that has a myriad of color options.

There are some sections that have basic descriptions, primarily in the book section. This is great but some areas can still be improved upon.

One real problem I did have was a lack of shipping cost being listed. Now for me this means a shipping cost listed for the United States. It would be helpful to have at least an idea of it listed somewhere. Also, this may be more a PayPal thing than anything else, but at checkout I couldn't seem to figure out how to get shipping estimated for my order I had put together to test the system. Perhaps this is made more difficult by my use of a screen reader, and though I am completely familiar with PayPal I found this frustrating. I was able to find the Ship to United States button but there were no clear instructions on where, if anywhere I was tu put a zip code or state. There was a text box but no label near it told me what it was all about.

So with this in mind, for ease of use, I'd like to suggest a section somewhere that is easy to get to that explains how to go through the checkout process and calculate shipping and the like to help lower confusion. Again this is a PayPal thing coupled with my own use of a screnn reader, however, I feel it may be useful just the same as the process is really not all that self explanatory.

My final thoughts on this is that I feel with a little more work the Witch School Store can become an even more awesome source for everyone interested in all the store has to offer. I hope that some of these changes and improvements can be made soon because I know that for me it would definitly grab more of my attention. I realize this is a big job, but I feel it would be extremely beneficial for the store itself in the long run.

Please share all thoughts and comments on the store or this blog and don't forget to hit the like button on the page if you find it helpful. Thanks a lot!

Love, Light and Blessings,

~ Adaria


Note: I used specific areas as examples but I really urge anyone working on the store to look at ALL sections to see if improvements can be made in some way to each of them.


Addendum regarding shipping calculations: In regard to the above after playing with the system again I found it simple bit still confusing to figure this out. There are two buttons, perhaps they are mislabelled, it's hard to say. After the cart it goes to Calculate shipping and handling. Then there is a balnk box. This is to enter the zip code if in the US. Then there is a button labelled 'ship to outside the United States' then one called calculate and another Cancel. Then there is another box, a drop box or text entry box I'm not sure, it was hard to tell. Then another button 'Ship to United States' and the same Calculate and Cancel buttons. This was confusing as the layout on the screen of these buttons is not known, however once I put my zip code in the first box and hit the first calculate button

this was resolved. So, this particular section on shipping instuctions is not wholly necessary nor is a listing of general shipping ideas for the US because PayPal does this for us. I'm keeping this section and the above in this blog for informational reasons but would love feedback just the same.