Bus Pirate shop

I just played with the new shop. The focus on the BP products is much better than the dirtypcbs store for this. And the plethora of shipping options (I tried Germany because that is what I’m familiar with) is top notch - and USD 4.37 shipping cost is really cheap.

But as this is all quite new and hacked, I was looking at it with my senses alert for bugs and I poked it a bit with my software tester hat on. So I found some issues:

  • front page: it shows two pages of products with a “1” and “2”. Opening page 2 does a new browser request with a different url, but it shows the same set of products.

  • you wrote that you want to promote the distributors. you put the prominently on the front page. but when you open a product page, the distributors that have this product are hidden behind a panel on the left you have to open by clicking on the “+”. Having it open by default would promote the distributors much more than any front page listing in my opinion - because I guess the buyers look for the product first, and alternative buying options only when they have settled on a product they want.

  • I suggest to make the categories more prominent. They only show up on the bottom of the page. I would have expected them to be part of the menu that you can open at the top left.

  • checkout: I deliberately used a shipping address with the “company” field set, because I know it is a pain point in many shops. The company field I entered is not shown in the next step under shipping address - but the company field is an absolutely vital part of the shipping address because in the case of a company, the company name is often the only thing that the delivery guy will find written on the letter box. So make sure that it is shown as part of the shipping address as feedback to the user and doesn’t get lost in the process.

  • your software requires a “state” for Germany - that isn’t necessary, postal code + city name is enough.

  • your software requires a phone number. I know that in some countries, like for example russia, a phone number is absolutely vital to have your parcel delivered. But in other countries, like Germany, a phone number on the letter is useless and nobody will call it, even in case of problems during delivery.

  • I don’t understand how the VAT (in case of prepaid VAT) is calculated. German VAT is 19%, but it looks to me like you calculate with 20%. (BP 6+$4.37 shipping gave $17.34 tax)

3 Likes