Enhanced Stores??
this would be nice. to have store features similar to other sites. fees as needed would be acceptable. its fine the way things are but i think this site has grown and is accepted by the stamp community and will certainly grow in future. added functions would be very nice.
Comments
I think the main thing that would tie everything together is to personalize the stores with seller designated categories (to the left?) and be able to click on these to go to that area of the store. The Hipstamp stores are huge.. this is fantastic by the way and something no one else really offers (huge inventory for low costs). a very big selling point and positive feature. If there were categories on the left to click on - we could let the buyers browse the stores without using search and would be a great seller/buyer tool to add more sales. My guess and bet is it would keep buyers in stores for a lot longer time. I do feel some are simply overwhelmed with the stores without this option..maybe start with say 20 categories per store? Maybe also set it up so we can reach the categories via the store url.. example hipstamp.com/store/name/category. The existing listings would need to have the edit ability to update the new feature to add a category and hopefully can edit in bulk to change or set the categories for existing inventory. "other" would be the default for those not wanting to add categories
Maybe also custom pages? this could be to set up a blog like area in the stores. maybe this needs a lot of thought as to rules like no out going links but similar to the forums here even "with or without" the ability of others to post back there. the custom pages could be used to really personalize the stores and educate the buyers, promote sales or simply blog like posts. i'm sure this is secondary to the above but it would really attract long term store owners if they could post in their store. Some may use this to drive traffic elsewhere but they could have the feature removed (a shut off button for staff?) if abused. seems silly to want to cheat so most likely not an issue. i could see this really being an overall fantastic option if created and could take Hipstamp to another level not available on the internet now. maybe have picture loading ability or even get crazy and allow short videos? (ok a little out there) :-) sort of a Facebook
or twitter feel
many more ideas from me and the members , i'm sure. if the store was put together with more options.. i'm sure more fees to pay would be fine or do it considering more sales will be created. The work required to do a big project like this would create funds for the site through increased sales and interest as it would be a lot more fun and personal for the sellers and buyers.
The custom search categories are a feature sorely missed from the BidStart days. And a custom blog-like page would also be a great feature, allowing store owners to communicate with customers, and create a more interpersonal shopping experience.
the options would be only limited by one's imagination. but the end result would be to increase sales which would increase funds to the site. It would also, imo, get a lot more return traffic to the site here and keep people on the site longer. Browsing one's store would be simple and easy and no strain on the search. this would be especially important and beneficial for the larger stores.
If people are already having a problem with a functional item that is to a degree background noise,IS the need help pop up that after it pops up just sits there and many people can't stand it,what would be the purpose of adding MORE non-functional back ground noise that for many could be viewed as being annoying back ground noise?
some sites charge extra for the better templates and pass some of the fees on to the template designers.
I never stated my preference. My preference would be based on what the buyers are looking for. If the buyers are basically turned off by it or have no desire for that type of enhancement what then would the purpose of adding those type of templates in the first place? My personal preference has NO BEARING on what the buyers are looking for.
We've seen similar data, so we're not planning on offering custom designs and html templates for listings at this time (in fact, we don't allow any html in listing descriptions for just this reason).
If you set up your own website, however, yes, many website providers offer their users different templates - but in that case there would only be one template per site.
Is there any way on being able to have a magic number for using with the topics in the bulk lister on Hipstamp like we do on Hippostcard? That I think could be a big help on the topic listings.
Ted's enhanced store