Your Input Into a New Vegan Shopping Website

[Frank]

Hi,

I’m doing analysis for a new potential vegan shopping website and want to hear your views.

It will hopefully be for everyone’s use on this forum – so please post your thoughts.

The following questions are not limited:

What do you want to see when you do a vegan shop on the Internet?

What look and feel do you want from a site?

What products do you want to buy?

How do you want to navigate?

What have you seen on other sites that you like?

How do you want to search?

What have you seen on other sites that you would like to improve?

Any other likes or dislikes on shopping on the web – let’s hear them.

Thank you.

[Tigerlily]

What do you want to see when you do a vegan shop on the Internet?
A lot of variety, good prices, and PAYPAL acceptance. Shipping to Canada also.


What look and feel do you want from a site?
Plain but not boring. I don't want anything too flashy or cheesy.

What products do you want to buy?
Food, treats, supplements, face/hair/body products, sex items like condoms/lubes, *stylish* shoes, *stylish* purses/wallets, cute t-shirts and hoodies with vegan sayings, buttons and stickers...

How do you want to navigate?
Sidebar menus are good. Something simple.

What have you seen on other sites that you like?
http://www.veganstore.com has a nice navigation system.

How do you want to search?
*shrugs* I don'tknow.

What have you seen on other sites that you would like to improve?
Poor navigation or poor pictures of the products. I would like to be able to "zoom in" on objects I'm buying.

Any other likes or dislikes on shopping on the web – let’s hear them.
Likes:
-I can take my time
-Don't have to leave my house
-More vegan selection than my supermarket

Dislikes:
-A lot of sites don't accept Paypal. I don't have a credit card, so I can only buy online with Paypal.
-Some places don't ship to Canada
-Some places over charge on shipping. One vegan store was asking for $10 shipping and all I was going buy was chocolate stuff. I just closed the window after I found that out.

[cookey]

I've done quite a lot of internet shopping. The thing is that you can't pick the item up, smell it or try it on(depending what it is!). I think I'd like to know more about things before I buy them. I know on Amazon, they have reviews of what other people think of a book so maybe that would be possible with other type of product too.
As for what I'd like to see, I've never found any good vegan exercise clothes. I'd like clothes that are fairly plain without slogans on that are ethically sourced without making me look like a complete hippy. Is that too much to ask?
Always a bit worried about buying clothes online anyway as you can't try them on. I got a top and trousers recently and they were "one size" and just hung off me. Maybe information on exactly how big something is would help people get over this problem.
There are a lot of sites already so maybe we need something that directs you to all vegan shopping sites.
I like shopping sites that are pretty plain and just give you information rather than ones that take ages to load because of the graphics.

[fiamma]

What Tigerlily said Easy navigation is a must, I get so frustrated when a site won't let you carry out the simplest search, by keyword or something. Also when you've purchased something and you're completing the transaction it's good to have a confirmation each step of the way. Amazon does this very well. Amazon is my top site for shopping - easy to navigate, secure, there are product reviews and the whole payment/check-out process is very clear.

[focus]

I shop at Pangea because they have the best selection of vegan dog/cat products that I've found so far. Since I order the vegan cat/dog products from them, it's easier just to get items for myself there as well. They have a decent selection, but I would like to see a better selection of vegan dog/cat items, like: food (a tuna substitute would be great, I can't find tuno anymore for my cat, dehydrated vegan seafoods for cats, etc), chews, vegecat, vegedog, toys, clothes, natural flea medicine, etc.

I'm considering ordering some of the vegan seafood here for my cat. Right now I rely partly on vegan canned foods by Worthington.