New Webstore

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

Morning gents,

We are in the later stages of developing a new Warlord Games webstore. Our Web Developer, Andy, will be making a more comprehensive announcement in the next few days but I wanted our loyal forum-dwellers to hear the news first.

Whilst we have BIG pans for the new store I wanted to know what you would like toi see in terms of functionality and features, what you like about a webstore and what you don't. You never know, this may inform some of our decisions...

[Cubster]

One tricky thing about the old webstore is the eccentric manner in which certain things are listed and it can be tough to find what you want because it has been filed under something odd. What would be great is, instead of a filter system for searching items in a panel down the side, perhaps a more graphic approach with icons over the whole screen showing exactly what is available within that category (a bit more flexibility over what is within the categories would also be welcome).

For example, if you selected 'WW2', it would be great to then have a spread of icons showing each WW2 nation, then by selecting 'British and Commonwealth' you get each category etc.. I know theoretically this is what happens now, but there have been quite a few times when people have been unable to find certain things in the store and have assumed they have been withdrawn. I think this happens with sets and bundle deals a fair bit because someone is looking in the 'home' category instead of a specific 'deals' one.

Incidentally, whilst looking in the 'British and Commonwealth' section I clicked on the 'Late War British Paint Offer' and it shows six bottles of paint, then the description says it contains five bottles (missing out the Flat Brown shown on the pic) for £12 ... which is more than buying the colours individually!

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

Good catch on the paint offer - will rectify that in a minute.

Don't worry about the hierarchy and how to find stuff - Andy will explain the changes there. You'll find it LOADS easier to find stuff on the new store.

[Centurio Cunibus]

Pretty much what Cubster said, the current system isn't very clear, and especially now the ranges are growing rapidly, a more organised system would be nice.

First obvious step would be to place all in a category depending on period, so that there no longer is a long list of peoples or nations, just some 7-8 periods of history.
The same is true for something within a category, 'Imperial Romans - Legionaries' is a big list of different kits, but there doesn't really seem to be any logic in it: some command, models, sprues, shields, casualties, more shields, more models, yet more shields, more command, heads, casualty markers, even more shields, and then again models.
A new store seems like the perfect opportunity to get it slightly more organised!
EDIT: and then I don't mean that seperate heads should just be in the armoury and command only under, well, command, as it's good to see seperate shields along the models they are supposed to be used on. Just that the list has, say, models first, then command, then casualties, then all seperate bits etc.

I also wouldn't mind some, how would you say, clickable menus. Now you have to move the cursor over, for example, Imperial Romans, then to, say, Missile Troops and then Reinforcements. If you then want to see the Legionary Transfers, you have search for Romans again, and repeat the above. I personally prefer something where you can expand the range by clicking a + behind the name of the range and it stays expanded until you click a - (that way, one can 'travel' across the range more quickly and expand several ranges and see everything that's there). The current 'sliding over' is nice though, would it be possible to slide over the menu to find something, but when that is selected, the submenus stay opened or so?
What would also help, is if range or part of it could be opened in a new tab, at the moment at least I can't do so through the menu (latest IE).

I do very much like the current way in which pictures are shown: big and, unlike the old way, they actually stay opened. I also think a seperate 'Armoury' is good, as some people don't want to browse through all the menus and submenus to find some seperate shields or so.

That's it for now.. hope it's more or less clear!

[Parus Ater]

I'm not keen on the hover over to show drop down menus since it's a but of a bugger to do when you're on a laptop, click expands are better if you're using that kind of system.

[grant]

I'll second the hover over feature. On my iPhone, which is where I do the largest chunk of both browsing and ordering, the menus take a LOOOONG time to drill down to what I want.

What I would like kept is the no-VAT for foreigners like me. Some UK companies charge it. I like that Warlord (Perey does this too) will de-VAT the foreign purchase.

Better product descriptions and more pictures can't be a bad thing. GW is really good at this. You know down to th sprue contents what you are getting for that mortgage refinance at GW.
I like their description and sprue - completed models way of listing.

Those are my meager thoughts.

[Invisible officer]

I had never any problems with the Webstore but would second Grant's view about more product pictures.
I like pictures of all what I get. Take the Rorke's drift set, nice pics of a ready building but I would like to see the kit.

The Pike & Shotte Starter Battalia is a good example how I would like it to be.

Sure, there are some strange settings, that the German transport column and the German Reconnaissance zug
are under tanks. That happens in every Webstore.

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

Soon...

[Parus Ater]

Soon...

Just to save Mr King Tiger some time, will it have Dutch and Belgian Napoleonics in it?

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

Holland and Belgium weren't involved in the Napoleonic Wars.

Everyone knows that's CGI...