New Lee Valley Web Site

[Rob Luter]

Hi All -

A few quick comments on what I've read here...

We had little choice about moving to a mobile compatible platform/schema if we didn't want to disappear from search engines altogether. On top of that - we also have to meet accessibility standards set by various governments - no choice there either. Those two issues alone constrain design choices.

Running a primarily in-house built site was also becoming problematic for us as well - too many operating systems and devices to handle - we needed to switch to a platform that handled that for us.

We started down this road years ago with a small firm that was just not able to handle the project. We had to switch to a tier one firm that could scale to re-develop and re-code what was necessary to get us up for this fall.

Additionally - we implemented suites of tools to manage digital assets, as well as product information - all of which pour data into the website through another tool. As a result - the first time many of our folks see a "page" is when is goes live (and the data from multiple systems feeds a template).

There's a lot we are working on cleaning up - now that it's "visible". There were some decisions made that just did not turn out the way we had expected. Those we'll work through too.

The previous site had been continuously refined for 19 years and two days. This one has about 2 weeks under t's belt. And - it does not have the richness of function and content that we have planned, and designed. We'll continue to roll that out as time goes on.

Today - we are continuing to work on straitening out product treatment issues (I agree with the comment about "options" - too many dimensions!), working with navigation and filtering, tuning the search function, and load balancing the site.

None of this is much fun on this side of the counter either....

We'll get there though. We have the same group of folks here that have been working on web and content for decades. They'll become more proficient with the new tools, and will wrangle the content into a format that's much more accommodating.

Please keep the comments coming - our staff appreciate the feedback, and are acting on it.

Cheers -

Rob

I takes time to suss out the bugs. No worries. Just keep plugging. I did a little more testing of the site Monday and was pleased to see the whole ordering part worked well. The whole currency thing surprised me, with the prices adjusting to US dollars based on the shipping address at checkout. The adjustment went the right way and it was a nice surprise. I see you have a location selection on the front page. I guess it wasn't working right. It seems to be today.

[bill godber]

I'll add "thumbs down".The old site was far less complicated and quicker. Lee Valley What have you done?? I don't understand the need for change for the sake of change. One I miss is the small tech reference link on many catalogue items.

[Wojciech Tryc]

The browser and/or platform related bugs are normal and will get fixed once identified. After all it's a brand new front end.
What I see as a problem is content inconsistency; try to find a hard pad for Rotex 150mm, not there, however 125mm shows no problem. Couple of weeks ago I could not find Domino 500 connectors set, but now they show up.... The back end is a problem, but I am sure that it will get solved soon...

[Jim Becker]

I'll add "thumbs down".The old site was far less complicated and quicker. Lee Valley What have you done?? I don't understand the need for change for the sake of change. One I miss is the small tech reference link on many catalogue items.

It's not "a change for the sake of change"...it's a change pretty much required to be able to support they way an increasing number of people shop using mobile devices and to attend to security. Rob stated they would be adding back certain "goodies" after they attend to the major things. Hopefully, the technical information that was available on some products will be restored as part of those subsequent efforts. I don't disagree, however, that the previous iteration was easier/simpler, particularly for those of us who shop from computers, rather than mobile devices.

[Will Blick]

I agree with Jim, harder to find things vs. before
I was always impressed with the original LV web site,
it seems all new software updates has to go through growing pains...
we support you Rob Lee !!!!

[Günter VögelBerg]

I really feel like LV missed the boat on the UX here. It is harder to browse. The nested menus are clunky. I was browsing for planes to whet my appetite for my upcoming trip to Toronto and I could see either the entire list including all accessories or I could sort through the list and differentiate the various categories of planes. Chisels were a similar experience.

[Frederick Skelly]

One thing seems new, or at least I havent noticed it before..... Yesterday I was browsing carving supplies on the LV website and others. Today I got the usual email announcing free shipping. But instead of showing a wide variety of garden and shop items, every single item was related to carving. This hasnt happened to me before in an email from Lee Valley.

Is this just a strange coincidence? Did everyone else get an email from LV that only had carving supplies?

[Jim Becker]

Frederick, the most recent ad email I got was indeed for a special carving set. The first free shipping for orders over $40 email I received came out on 17 October after the new site went up. They haven't put a termination date on the free shipping offer, but it's labeled as "limited time".

[Frederick Skelly]

Ok. Thanks Jim. Sounds like it really was just a coincidence. Really odd timing!
Fred

[Jim Becker]

I think that part of the confusion here, Fred, is that this is an "open ended" "free shipping over $40" offer...they didn't do that previously to my memory. It makes sense because it encourages shopping and getting used to the new site. Which reminds me...I need some drawer slides. LOL

[Adam Grund]

I saw a post on Instagram that said free shipping over $40 through nov 4th. Not that I know what Instagram is or anything....

[David Bassett]

I saw a post on Instagram that said free shipping over $40 through nov 4th. ...

The website has been updated to say this now.

ETA: and an email with that info just arrived.

[Rob Lee]

Thanks for that Will....

We know there are lots of things to improve. We are still working through base code issues that prevent us from doing what we need. One would think a world-class Experience Platform would have all the bugs worked out....

Cheers -

Rob
(slogging ahead ....)

[Günter VögelBerg]

I'm unsure why searches are refined by "activity". Is this some kind of millennial-inspired marketing trend? I suppose "clamping" is an activity, but it would be more intuitive to just look for clamps.

[Mike Corwin]

I don't mind the new website at all. I just wish that anything I want to order was ever in stock. Been waiting on a medium shoulder plane for months and months and months. Same thing with about 5 other items in my wish list. A call to customer service just relays the info that it's expected on a certain date, and then once the date comes it's pushed back another month.