Really awesome and simple store with clean design
Although I am not a heavy user of eCommerce I was really excited when testing the fCart store. Its really awesome and has a very nice clean design. I love everything about it.
Here are my notes with some findings, issues and suggestions (random order):
-
Create a new account via standard /registration-page page should have a user consent checkbox confirmation as a separate field
-
There should be ability to completly disable new account registration for the shop (in addition to the wp-admin account creation setting who doesnt take precedence) ex: when someone has the store for closed group of users: non public store or staging site and we want to limit users. It would be also good to have: Public or Hidden store feature (same as for fCommunity)
-
When discount is applied to a product and paid with stripe testing card then full price is on the order/invoice once the payment was processed - it needs verification once again
-
import/export (CSV, JSON) feature for products and orders is needed for portability. Importing products from WOO can attract more users and speed up the migration process. Product Warehouse integration would be also nice.
-
Admin should be able to Enable/Disable the EDD licensing (PRO) module (when disabled then it shouldnt be visible in the dashboard area)
-
Buying a license should not be possible without account account. If someone purchase a license without the account then it should be an easy way for the user to register account or contact admin (ex: raise a ticket with fSupport). User might try to recover pass via lost pass but the account doesnt exist it and it is not the best UX. For Wordpress users its not a big deal as we know how to hande this case but for a new customer it might be a challage
-
There should be a way to disable gravatar feature (GDPR) out of the box
-
I think the charts timeline (axis displaying date format) is in a local language instead of the store language
-
There could be some sorting/filtering (ASC/DESC) icon for example: order > actions activity. Also transactions details could be sorted by clicking the table header columns
-
Table columns size could be adjusted by admin - some columns are not visible for smaller screen resolutions even 1980x1080 (the horizontal scroll bar is not showing)
-
We should be able to Duplicate/Mirror (PRO): manual Orders or Products
-
Image cropping would be nice for images - not sure if its needed only when images are in different sizes etc
-
It would be nice to have product prices changes log so it can be easily tracked if needed
-
There are some countries that are required by the law to publish product prices from the last X days. It would be nice to have this feature build-in so the user can see what was the price in the last X days. It is also a nice feature to prevent fake last fridays discounted prices etc
-
Mobile version needs to be improved - currently it is not the best experience especially for the Admin
-
Checkout page customization (PRO) (ability to hide/show/add some fields or fForms, fBooking).
-
Clicking Place Order button for Visitor doesnt show any message (bug?) and visitors can click few times to realize that something is wrong (duplicated orders are being placed - maybe there should be a delay between clicking again the button or a warning message etc)
-
It would be nice to have hidden products to buy (PRO) - product is not visible in a store listing but it is visible only on a single item/product page - product premiere, limited edition etc
-
I am not sure why I dont see two buttons on the /shop page: View Product button is visible by default but not Add to Cart (staging installation out of the box). Maybe I will figure this out yet once customizing blocks
-
By default fCart installation I am not able to display: Single Product page: /items/... - url shows: "That page can’t be found" - I am not sure if this is related to my setup or my custom settings block all Single Product pages. I will verify this later again.
-
It would be nice to have an option to enable/disable Popups in wp-admin area like: Congrats popup etc for Admin - they might be annoying at some point (I am not sure how many of them they are build in haha)
-
Bread crumbs for Products are needed
-
Maybe there should be a switch between: Basic vs Advanced/Custom Mode for the Admin part where Basic (pre defined) mode shows minimalistic/focused Admin dashboard and Advanced
-
Watch Product/Favourite/Wishlist option would be nice at some point
-
Integration with fCommunity is welcomed - many current users will get the fCart and extend their revenue possibilities
-
I am not sure how to automatically send email to a external user from the Admin dashboard who dont have an account and did not paid for the Product (status: On Hold). I am not sure if this can be done wihout any external integration etc. I am not sure how to change the On Hold status manually in this case once the customer/payment is verified somehow.
-
Will there be a way to move historical Orders between two users accounts or assign Order to a user account with other email
-
For the theme customization it would be nice to show exacly how colors change on a small mockup theme. It would be nice to have the option to Restore or Reset colors to our pallete if changed by mistake
-
When a Gift Card (PRO) feature would be implemented then with a new plugin installation we could have possibilites to add automatically some standard Give Cards instead of shoes.
-
It would be nice to show at some point how it is integrating with Fluent Affiliate but I think all eyes are on a Fluent Cart now.
Gentle Note: running two new products might be challanging and I hope both products will be Winners - just saying this because it is simillar case to launching fBoards and fCommunity and not everybody can focus on both plugins improvements etc).
Shahjahan Jewel Thanks for the awesome product!
Wouldn't Gravatar use be something controlled by WordPress rather than FluentCart?
William Beem I pretty sure there will be an easy way but just highlighted in my notes
Hey Mat. That is some awesome feedback!
More ideas:
- adding visual labels/tags to product images like New, Promo , Hot deal, 10% Off, Presale and any custom text (ability to create own tags list)
- Highlight for Promoted products - different/Brand border color
- customize Orders numbering: id, YYMMDDid and ability to define starting order number (to keep consistency when migrating from other platforms)
- product Star rating at some point
- recommended or trending products section
- bulk/mass changes for orders (shipping status, confirm payment, delete order - double confirmation needed)
- show Stock availability on the product cards (for out of stock it could be greyout card)
- AI icon for product description creation (PRO)
- AJAX search
nice list..... i had the same problem with products, too.... had to create a single product template by hand to be able to display a product page....
more ideas:
- Checkbox in Checkout: Yes, I understand that my right of withdrawal expires prematurely for downloads and services.
- Base price calculation: Price for 100 ml calculated automatically
- E-invoices in ZUGFeRD format
- Cancellation invoices and credit notes
- Delivery times
- EU-compliant information in invoices (B2B tax burden and Swiss handling)
- Min/max number of products to be purchased
"Buying a license should not be possible without account account. " ..... i'd also like to set the wordpress role of the account, so i could have different roles for different license-sets
More suggestions:
- Coupons usage could be also limited to Tags in fCRM so it can limit some special coupons sharing between external users - ex: sharing a coupon only with VIP users and even if they share it outside (users withour fCRM tag) nobody can use them and also vice versa we could set coupons only form new users (without any fCRM tags) aka starter bonus
- Set the Shipping address
same as the Billing address same as default or with one click (instead of filling data manually by the Admin). Customer data can be manage with external integration but it is nice to have such a small things directely in fCart - ability to compare two products side by side
- there are some UI bugs for the User and Admin end ex: fix is needed for the mobile layout - the top fCart menu icon (hamburger) which is outside the mobile screen and require horizontal scrolling /wp-admin/admin.php?page=fluent-cart#/orders. Also popups notifications after some action is done in the Admin view are not disappearing completly or fast - needs additional testing with different browsers and devices
More suggestions:
- copy link to a product for sharing in a social media with openGraph data populated
- product schema for SERP
- manual change for On Hold status ex: for subscription when the order is temporarily paused, ability to change payment method for existing order
- discover verified shops from the main fCart page (fDirectory) to show categorized real eCommerce implementations (business proof)
More suggestions:
- show how many registered users and visitors are in our store plus when someone purchased a product display notification for other users about it
- display a timeline (visual element) for the Status order/Activity so it would be easy to spot the historical steps / milestones with dates
- have a Custom Labels filter for products marked with label: “Sales” or “Deals”, "Hot", "Promo"
- show the Total Number of found Items in the Product List when items are being filtered
- enable product SKU, abbreviation, symbol, and slang searches
- when there is an Exact Match, include the Product at the Top of Ajax Search Results (once Ajax search is implemented)
- create Create Scarcity elements and counters Flash Sales, Last Day Offers, x Days left to the end of the deal
- ability to locked in original price when existing user is upgrading product like membership or a subsciption later
- ability to send selected (not all) products to Google Merchant Center, generate xml file with selected products to feed other resources (including SEO)
More suggestions:
-
conditional pricing (based on product quantity ranges, CRM tags) and conditional discounts for a single purchase (total amount, LTV thresholds etc)
-
ability to block customers/users created in a shop to have access to our community/portal (when available on the same WP instance) - maybe there should be a separeted WP user role assigned for customers (not the default Subscriber role - assessment needed what is the best approach to manage shop users).
We should not allow customers to discover other customers in our shop by visiting the community/portal (Members list, mentions) unless our customer is willing to participate in our community. Also competitors can easily target our customers in our community especially when it has Privacy set to Public.
Sharing some suggestions:
-
Sell external products can be really useful for affiliates who want to incorporate external products into their Shop - Perfect and simple example:
-
Vacation Mode per Product/Category/Store - display as a sidewide baner or per product/category:
-
Prevent automated Bot Attacks on checkout page to avoid promo codes exploit - after 5 incorrect coupons entries, display a warning or captcha
-
Ability to enable manual review for orders above certain amount thresholds (>10k or >20 transactions/user/day)
-
limit hourly/daily total number of purchses to avoid massive db overload - total purchases vs single customer account purchase to prevent some fraud - also there should be some delay between next purchase like 1 min interval (except maybe api call?)
-
Filter menu for products (right sidebar popup) is not closing by clicking outside the canva area on a Mobile - must click the X icon instead
-
when a product has variants on the single product cards (with a button view product) it doesnt display pricing range $x-xx but only the lowest single price - no variant pricing range is visible on the product card too.
-
payment providers should be activated per county or continent (searchbox) so the active payment gateway list is short (payment gateways per country could be installed as a module so it wouldnt take much space/plugin size)
-
ability (as an option) to set minimum and maximum spent value (cart total value) per coupon
Mat external products and vacation mode….so simple but definitely a must
Manuel Müller Nelson did an amazing job to make a modern eComm useful and attractive.
I hope some of his toolkit features (its worth to watch the playlist) will be available out of the box in the fCart PRO so it would be easier to compete and shine from other solutions.
ps. Support ticket integration would be also awesome - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AFQjzorYxuk
More suggestions:
- ability to set custom word in the queryString (replacement of fcart word in the url to our brand) for PRO ?fluent_cart_instant_checkout=6&quantity=1
- Search widget with ajax (product names, picture preview) so we can embed it with a shortcode anywhere in our wordpress (nav bar, side widget, mobile) - it could be part of fForms (filed searchbox) too if that is the case
- embed youtube in the product picture slider
- ability to add a transaction message/note