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Deck Finesse Ltd

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Deck Finesse Ltd
« on: July 15, 2014, 08:47:09 AM »
 

Robert Adams

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Hopefully some of you will have seen the deck finesse logo somewhere on social media. We had our first product idea over two years ago but have been keeping it quiet whilst we developed our branding and business plan.

Tomorrow morning at 11:00 am UK our website will go live and we'll be revealing our first products- two designs of playing card display case. These designs have been seen by many big names in the industry and we've had great feedback. We are selling exclusively wholesale but wont be taking orders until the 22nd July, which gives me a chance to get some feedback from you, the community, before I commit to sales and production.

So please pay us a visit and let us know what you think!

www.deckfinesse.co.uk
www.facebook.com/deckfinesse
www.twitter.com/deckfinesse
http://deckfinesse.tumblr.com/

Robert
 

Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2014, 07:03:07 AM »
 

Robert Adams

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Website is now live... Would love your feedback on our products!
 

Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2014, 09:29:15 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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Website is now live... Would love your feedback on our products!

Just loaded the page - still have 90 minutes to go.
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Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #3 on: July 16, 2014, 02:12:36 PM »
 

Will W.

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With all due respect....
The white text on a light colored background is kind of hard on the eyes. Also the background is too large of an IMG file (takes too long to load). You might try using a script to preload your images... I personally would have more pages with less content on each instead of mapping your links to a position on the same page. Just my opinion.  ;)
I do realize this may not be the feedback you were interested in but it might help attract more attention to your site if it's more "user friendly". 
I'm by no means an expert, just my 2cents..

I wish you all the luck with your endeavor!
"I collect these objects to learn from them. In some moment these things are going to teach me something. For me, this is like a library. These are my books."
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Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #4 on: July 16, 2014, 02:33:11 PM »
 

Don Boyer

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I'm in agreement with Stircrazy76 on this, and would add that your photo gallery needs a tweak - I gave up after the first three images when they turned out to be so tiny.  I'm older and wear glasses, man!  :))
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Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #5 on: July 16, 2014, 02:56:55 PM »
 

ecNate

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ugh, another website designed by an artist without marketing, technical or sales input?  It's pretty, but how the hell do I order?  Gave up, bought a competitor product instead.

Sorry, but I meant that to be harsh.  I found after digging around that it's not available for a while yet, but seriously you need to think of the USER and provide information and easy access to information.  It needs to be easy to find things, not confusing and most importantly quickly and easily explain and show the product so they can then click 'buy'.  Having a pretty or 'cool' website is pointless if people can't get to what they need and thus don't use it or buy from it.

The white text on some of the light backgrounds is really hard to read as well.  Plus, as already mentioned, if you give the option to zoom in to see a product make it actually be a larger and more detailed image.  Why are the details of the product buried into 3 categories?  Why not SELL people on the neat features and benefits vs throwing a small image in their face and making them look at hard to read text and determine why they care?

EDIT - Oh the product itself?  Not sure, no pricing, availability, too hard to find/read details.  ;)
 

Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2014, 05:09:31 PM »
 

Robert Adams

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Thanks for the feedback.

I agree that the text is a little too hard to read at the moment, on some of the background images. That the gallery needs improving and many other small details need tweaking. These things will be fixed over the next few days.

On the point of usability... we are not retailing our products and think that our potential clients can easily find the information they need (some pictures and our e-mail address). On sales...our sales will come more from making phone calls and sending e-mails than being found on-line.

Clearly the the rest is an expression of our brand, so we do want it to be beautiful. ecNate ...what information did you find difficult to discover? 

What is the problem with drop down boxes for the text on product pages? I see this everywhere!

I will certainly work to make it more easily read.

Robert

« Last Edit: July 16, 2014, 05:09:59 PM by Robert Adams »
 

Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2014, 06:24:06 PM »
 

ecNate

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Some of this is making more sense if you are selling directly, but hopefully you'll include links to retailers via an obvious 'buy' or 'where to buy' link. 

Drop down boxes don't sell product and they are used for technical and more detailed information in addition to the key features of the product which are prominently displayed right with the product photo and information to purchase.  I don't think you have enough information in the sectioned boxes to make them essential, especially since that's the ONLY place there is any information on the product pages.

It was hard to find availability date, where to buy, what are the key features, etc. 
 

Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2014, 11:37:14 PM »
 

Don Boyer

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Companies that create a web presence but expect to do their sales by phone calls and email generally tend to be found in 1997 or 2001 rather than the present day.  Even USPC, who doesn't do direct sales at bicyclecards.com, at the least operates a company store at shopbicyclecards.com and provides links to reach it as well as other noted retailers and wholesalers.  Your site is set up like a retail site minus the retail!
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Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #9 on: July 17, 2014, 04:16:46 AM »
 

Will W.

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In addition to all the aforementioned...People tend to judge you and your products by the image that your website portrays. If its sleek and professional than they will be more apt to buy from (or do business with) you.
"I collect these objects to learn from them. In some moment these things are going to teach me something. For me, this is like a library. These are my books."
- Jose Bedia
 

Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #10 on: July 17, 2014, 06:24:35 PM »
 

Robert Adams

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Some of this is making more sense if you are selling directly, but hopefully you'll include links to retailers via an obvious 'buy' or 'where to buy' link. 

Drop down boxes don't sell product and they are used for technical and more detailed information in addition to the key features of the product which are prominently displayed right with the product photo and information to purchase.  I don't think you have enough information in the sectioned boxes to make them essential, especially since that's the ONLY place there is any information on the product pages.

It was hard to find availability date, where to buy, what are the key features, etc.

- I understand your point about the drop down boxes and will reconsider them!

- Availability date, where to buy will be updated in due course.

- I also understand that by having a web-presence people may assume that I'm retailing but surely It would be stupid not to have social media accounts in our name?

- Don, too much like a shop? I didn't think it was a too obvious shop format but I guess I do see what you mean. Hopefully all will become clearer when we add a list of clients and 'where to buy' etc. I felt that it wouldn't hurt to have some of the details publicly available now and certainly didn't set out to waste anyone's time! :)

By the way it is perfectly common for wholesalers to have websites that are exactly what is being described- a shop format without prices and a price-list available upon request. Perhaps the confusion arises from the site looking nice rather than purely functional but imagine how bad it could look being purely functional with just two products. I couldn't bring myself to build a deliberately bad looking website!
 
 

Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2014, 01:12:50 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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- I understand your point about the drop down boxes and will reconsider them!

- Availability date, where to buy will be updated in due course.

- I also understand that by having a web-presence people may assume that I'm retailing but surely It would be stupid not to have social media accounts in our name?

- Don, too much like a shop? I didn't think it was a too obvious shop format but I guess I do see what you mean. Hopefully all will become clearer when we add a list of clients and 'where to buy' etc. I felt that it wouldn't hurt to have some of the details publicly available now and certainly didn't set out to waste anyone's time! :)

By the way it is perfectly common for wholesalers to have websites that are exactly what is being described- a shop format without prices and a price-list available upon request. Perhaps the confusion arises from the site looking nice rather than purely functional but imagine how bad it could look being purely functional with just two products. I couldn't bring myself to build a deliberately bad looking website!

OK, this is pretty much a summary of what others and I have come up with, explained one piece at a time...

* Instead of all the sections on the home page, place them on separate pages with a menu of links to reach them.  The home page takes a good long while to load in its present state, especially during peak usage hours.

* You already recognize the problem with white text on a light background.  Perhaps simple black text would be better?  Looks lovely on a light background, after all!

* Make it a little more obvious that you are not retailing the products - that you are wholesalers and will sell to people possessing a retail license.  You raise a point about the site's appearance - it does look closer to a retail site than a wholesale site.  Most of the wholesale sites I've seen are actually fairly simple and pedestrian in design, because your typical retailer is more concerned with the bottom line than the bells and whistles.  Your design is far from pedestrian, but that might not be a good thing in this case.  The K.I.S.S. principle applies.

* Instead of breaking all the descriptive text for each product into separate tabbed sections, just make one section, nice and simple.  I could understand the separation if we were talking about voluminous descriptions, but they're really short, so why make people jump through hoops to see them?

* You recognized that some of the photos in the gallery are kinda small.  Thinking on it now, since you're a wholesaler, is the gallery really necessary?  If I'm a retailer looking to buy, I'm going straight to the products, period - I don't have time to waste on anything that doesn't get me straight to the products, 'cause I have my boss breathing down my neck and bitching if I look at YouTube or Amazon!  Time really is money - don't waste your clients' time.

* You know you need a clients' list/"where to buy" page.  Put a placeholder page there, inviting retailers to be the first to carry your fine products, with contact information (or a contact form) for reaching your company and getting on the waiting list (or at least the mailing list).  Request the retailer's license number as a mandatory field, to make it clear to the public that if they aren't a retailer, this form is not for them.

Now that that's out of the way, open this link: http://www.kardwell.com/index.htm

This is a company based on Long Island, east of New York City, that sells gambling supplies and equipment wholesale and retail.  I've purchased from them before - I bought two gross of Streamline decks with the money raised from my first fundraiser to buy cards for the kids I perform for at a hospital in Brooklyn.

It's a perfect example of simple, straight-forward design that's not difficult to figure out, read or navigate - and it's the kind of site a retailer expects to see when buying from a wholesaler online.  It's as boring as counting grains of sand on a large beach, to be sure, especially compared with the site you created, but it's also far easier to use.  Strip down and simplify your site if you want to be a wholesaler and not a retailer and I think you'll find the retailers who buy from you will appreciate the plain, simple functionality.  Function HAS to come BEFORE form, not as an afterthought.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2014, 01:17:49 AM by Don Boyer »
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Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #12 on: July 19, 2014, 03:52:44 PM »
 

Robert Adams

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Don, kind of you to be so thorough. Though I did get most of these points first time round and I believe I responded to them.

It seems you are quite correct, I have had e-mails from people assuming that we are retailing and that we have forgotten to add the price and function to buy. We are now considering retailing as well and I'll come back here to confirm if we do so.

Many of the changes suggested here will be made, as I've previously said. Quite possibly the drop down descriptions included!

Thanks again!
 

Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #13 on: August 02, 2014, 12:54:08 PM »
 

Robert Adams

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Well, whilst we haven't got round to fixing every last detail on the website we have made some progress. We've come to an arrangement with a retailer and are also taking pre-orders from our site via a contact form as from Monday.

Perhaps I'm now posting in the wrong place as we have finished development but as this thread already exists and because I'm sure that there must be some fellow collectors here who'd want to know!...

After two years of refinements to the original designs we are finally about to produce a limited run of these two playing card display cases. We decided to make them a perfect fit for USPC decks to please the modern collecting community that we mainly associate with and have been inspired by. We've done our very best to create something really high quality to pay respect to the quality of design and manufacture of playing cards!

But all this said, what we'd really love to get feedback on is the overall concept. How do people feel about the table-top display case vs a wall mounted display?



 

Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #14 on: August 03, 2014, 12:24:18 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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Well, whilst we haven't got round to fixing every last detail on the website we have made some progress. We've come to an arrangement with a retailer and are also taking pre-orders from our site via a contact form as from Monday.

Perhaps I'm now posting in the wrong place as we have finished development but as this thread already exists and because I'm sure that there must be some fellow collectors here who'd want to know!...

After two years of refinements to the original designs we are finally about to produce a limited run of these two playing card display cases. We decided to make them a perfect fit for USPC decks to please the modern collecting community that we mainly associate with and have been inspired by. We've done our very best to create something really high quality to pay respect to the quality of design and manufacture of playing cards!

But all this said, what we'd really love to get feedback on is the overall concept. How do people feel about the table-top display case vs a wall mounted display?

It's still in development until the first unit is sold!  (Feel free to making a new topic in the Plethora.)

I noted only a few changes to the page so far, but as you said, it's a work in progress.

I like the table mounted display a lot.  But I'm an urban dweller in an expensive city.  That means I don't have the luxury of a lot of table or desk real estate to spare for a display of this type.  It stands to reason that people will generally have more room on the walls than on their desks.

Having said that, it's still a really nice-looking display.  If I had the desk space I'd consider buying it - but for now, I don't even have a desk!
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Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #15 on: August 03, 2014, 01:04:23 AM »
 

Rob Wright

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I really like the glass top display, but $312. Wow! I think I will try to make one though.
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Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #16 on: August 06, 2014, 01:32:39 PM »
 

Robert Adams

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It's still in development until the first unit is sold!  (Feel free to making a new topic in the Plethora.)

I noted only a few changes to the page so far, but as you said, it's a work in progress.

I like the table mounted display a lot.  But I'm an urban dweller in an expensive city.  That means I don't have the luxury of a lot of table or desk real estate to spare for a display of this type.  It stands to reason that people will generally have more room on the walls than on their desks.

Having said that, it's still a really nice-looking display.  If I had the desk space I'd consider buying it - but for now, I don't even have a desk!

Yes it's true... they are a little impractical. I can fit a solid top case on my desk but the glass top case completely dominates whatever piece of furniture it's on. I like to think that being extravagant is a part of their charm  ;)

We've sold some so I'll start again in plethora...
 

Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #17 on: November 18, 2014, 02:12:15 PM »
 

kdklown

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Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #18 on: November 19, 2014, 06:53:56 PM »
 

Jonnypowpow

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Those cases are really stunning looking though great looking boxes just not anywhere near affordable for me. Best of luck!
 

Re: Deck Finesse Ltd
« Reply #19 on: November 20, 2014, 12:38:28 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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Those cases are really stunning looking though great looking boxes just not anywhere near affordable for me. Best of luck!

Yeah, they aren't the run of the mill, to be sure.  It's the kind of thing you'd use to show off only the best of the best and only if you had enough room for it somewhere in your home.  The problem is if you put the window version on a table, people will be tempted to open it, I'd bet!  The enclosed model bears a strong resemblance to a cigar humidor, as well!

Too expensive for most people's tastes, I'm thinking.  I preferred T11's display.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2014, 12:38:47 AM by Don Boyer »
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