Competition Winner (newsletter issue 5th May 2010)

We are pleased to announce our first winner of our new fortnightly competition. It is James Johnston from St. Albans. Congratulations!!

For full details of how to be included in this competition please click here


Time for a change...

For better or worse I have taken the decision to move back to Blogger to host the Kit Chat blog. The new address is http://www.kit-chat.com.
One of the main reasons is that it has improved immensely in the last few years, including making available a number of really useful tools to make visitors' experience much more fulfilling.
We will keep this one live for the foreseeable future because of the valuable content, but we will not be adding any new posts to this blog site. In fact we may end up moving some of the more useful and interesting posts across as time goes on.
Thanks for your continued support!
Tom.


Stock Take Clearance Sale

We will be carrying out a full stock take at the end of March so we thought we would give you the opportunity to bag a bargain before we count the stock.


In addition, for the month of March, loyalty points at The Model Catalogue will be worth TWICE AS MUCH when they are redeemed for gift vouchers. In other words if you already have points, March is the time to spend them, but if you don't have points on your account, March is the time to earn them and turn them into a voucher.

For a reminder of how our loyalty points system works, click here.

And don't forget, this offer will only be running for the 31 days of March, so check if there is anything you need before someone else buys it and it goes out of stock!

"We would rather sell them, than count them"


Glass Bottle and Screw Top Lid and Pipette is a true revelation...

Glass Bottle and Screw Top Lid with Integrated PippetteI know we have recently posted an article about this product, which we recently added to the site, however I really couldn't help shouting from the rooftop what a brilliant addition this simple bottle is to my workbench. I have been painting most of today and I have used it constantly! If I am holding a model while detail painting it is so nice just to reach across the bench and grab a bottle and unscrew the dropper / lid with one hand, take it out of the bottle and drop just the right amount of thinner onto my palette to thin the paint. It has been a real timesaver and because I can screw the lid on again with one hand it means knocking it over won't cause a drama! If you want to try one out just click on the image.


Plastic kit skill level is now fully searchable!

Good news for our customers that need to search by skill level! We have just upgraded the database and product search facility to include searching by skill level. If you go to the Search page you will now find an option to search by Skill Level.

For example, let's say your 10 year old nephew has told you he would like a Spitfire kit for his birthday, and because you know he has only just started modelling, he will need a kit which will be fairly easy to build. What you need to do is type "Spitfire Easy" in the "With all of the words" textbox. See the screen shot image below for guidance. Then click the search button. This will bring up all the products with "Spitfire" in the Product Name field and "Easy" in the Skill Level field.



The Skill Level feature of many kits has also been included in the product listing page (see screen shot below) ...

... and the detail page (see second screen shot below) ...

So it is now also much easier to simply browse through the catalogue and visually identify the complexity of a kit before you buy it.

We have had a lot of requests for this feature recently and I am really happy that we have been able to make the change. It will make kit selection according to personal skill level, or the skill level of someone you might be buying for, much easier.


Want to know how to save on your kit modelling costs?

Question 1: Do you own or edit a kit modelling related web site?
Question 2: Do you contribute to online modelling community discussions?
Question 3: Do you recommend kits, accessories and paints to fellow modellers?
Question 4: Do you publish a modelling related blog?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above, you may be extremely interested in the rest of this article. Here is why...

Anyone who has registered with us as a customer has the option of upgrading it to an affiliate account by following a very simple process taking no more than a couple of minutes.

There is hardly anything to do to set yourself up; it literally takes a few clicks and the completion of one brief form to upgrade your existing account into an affiliate account. Once this is done all you need to do to is place some relevant links in some well-chosen locations on blogs and discussion groups.

When a visitor clicks on the links you created they will be directed to a page at The Model Catalogue where they will may find something that they wish to purchase. If they end up buying something, we will reward you.

Read all of Want to know how to save on your kit modelling costs?

Plastic kit searching now even easier...

New Catalogue SectionsFor many weeks, on and off, I have been working on a complimentary catalogue section to make searching for plastic kit models even easier.

The new system is based on searching by brand and the sub-sections are very similar to the sections that can be found within each manufacturer's official product catalogue, the idea being that if you are browsing the catalogue and find a kit you are interested in buying, you will be able to find it pretty easily online too.

I still need to do a little work on the images, which are all generic manufacturer logo images, however that should not take long.

It adds a new dimension to your kit searching options and I really hope it makes your life just a little bit easier for you.


Who is she?

I thought I would write a piece for the blog to introduce myself to you. My name is Faith Mixer and I have been working for The Model Catalogue for a while now but  recently have become more involved in marketing and customer service.  I have had email contact with a number of our customers and my name has cropped up a couple of times in the blog and you probably wondered "who on earth are they talking about?"

I try my hardest to keep all our customers happy with the service we offer and trust that they remain loyal to us. I also spend many hours (usually while I am doing the washing-up or making packed lunches) trying to think up new and exciting offers for you lucky people. Recently inspiration struck me and I will be posting news of this wonderful brainwave soon so keep your eyes peeled for this.

If any of you need to contact me for whatever reason, I seem to be glued to my laptop so email is usually the best form of communication for me.

Well, there it is - my first blog entry. Hope you now are clearer as to who I am and what I am trying to achieve. If any of you have an idea or suggestion that would improve our service or website and you would like to share this with me, please get in touch.


A payment page mystery solved ... I hope!

There has been a mystery at The Model Catalogue recently that has had me stumped for quite a few weeks. Faith noticed that a number of our customers have not been able to complete their orders despite several attempts. The baffling thing was that there was nothing wrong with the web site or with Paypal as both my internet host and I could put orders through with no problems at all. The only option was to be patient and trust that customer feedback would reveal the glitch. I believe I have now identified the problem! As is often the case it is not technology related, but user interface related.

It appears that some customers may have been getting confused with our payment information page; the one where you can either fill in your credit card details and pay that way, or proceed to the Paypal site or chose the Other Payment Type option.

I suspect what these customers were doing was filling out the credit card payment form and then clicking the "Continue" button at the bottom of the page. The problem though is that this button relates to the Other Payment Type section of the page not the Credit Card payment section. It meant that because no Other Payment Type option was selected from the drop-down menu in that section, the page was being refreshed resulting in the credit card section of the page being reset and the customer's payment details being cleared from the form. The customer would then have to re-enter their credit card information much to their confusion (and presumably annoyance). This naturally would happen again and again until either the customer realised that the button to click was the one immediately below the credit card form and not the one at the bottom of the page or they gave up completely. Obviously I am mortified that this should have become an issue: the last thing I would do is intentionally frustrate a customer - it is obviously not in my interests!

Anyway, after a number of feedback examples we managed to figure out a solution. I have now made what I hope will be the changes needed to eliminate any ambiguity regarding the payment options. The changes include a paragraph of explanatory text at the top, in addition to modifications to the text in each button to make it absolutely clear which button to use for each part of the payment information page.

Of course you believe there are further improvements to be made please let me know by emailing me with the Contact Us form.


A fresh catalogue structure to make things easier to find

As I alluded to in a post a couple of weeks ago I have been working feverishly on reworking the catalogue structure to make it easier to use and more intuitive. As you can see in the image on the left there are more sections and they are presented in a logical sequence and the content is self-explanatory.

As you will know if you are familiar with the site you can navigate the stroe from this menu by either clicking on a section heading or if it has an elipsis (...) it indicates there are sub-sections to navigate before you can click a heading to view products. Use this by moving your mouse over an ellipsis heading to activate a sub-menu pop-up. This shows the next level down and will either allow you to click on a product containing section header or navigate along another sub-menu pop-up.

Regarding the increased number of top level sections, the key benefit is that customers and visitors get a really good view of what we stock in a very short space of time. It also allows you to navigate to the relevant section within 2-3 clicks thereby saving you time.

I very much hope you will agree with me that it is a big improvement. If you have any feedback (good or bad) about these changes or your browsing experience at The Model Catalogue please let me know.

When customers and visitors provide me with feedback it does actually make a difference (unlike many other online stores) because I make a point of taking the trouble to respond and to continue the dialogue, to establish what the issues are and then respond to them accordingly.

Make a difference and let me know your opinion! Click here to go to the contact us form...


Kit Chat Paint Conversion Tool & other goodies...

I just received an email from a customer asking whether the Paint Conversion Tool was still available. Well, we still have it but I thought "WOW! I didn't realise it was so hard to find!"

It is obviously an issue if a tool that is so useful is so inaccessible so my first thought was to write a post to remind you all where to find it.

With that in mind, here is the link: Paint Conversion Tool. You will be able to find the link on the home page of the Kit Chat Blog, but you might want to bookmark it as well.

In addition to the Paint Conversion Tool there are the following reference tools:

- Scale Reference
- Search Modelling Sites with Google Custom Search
- Modeller's First Aid Advice
- Recommended Groups


Improving the organisation of the store category structure

I have finally managed to find some time to give some attention to the catalogue structure of the online store. I was not that happy with the untidy appearance of some of the accessory sections, such as the cutting tools and spares, which were all lumped into the same unwieldy section. This must have been a bit trying for some visitors and customers so, where it has been appropriate to do so, I have split some sections into logical sub-sections. I think it makes it easier to browse round the tools section and find what you are looking for.

Now that the tools have been sorted out I am going to turn my attention to the painting and realism section and then the kits.

Currently the kits are grouped into genre and then by scale. In the old days before we switched to the new shopping cart we grouped by manufacturer and then type and scale. What I would like to do is recreate manufacturer specific branches within the catalogue and try to replicate the manufacturer's own catalogue structure if there is one or create one if there isn't. I would also like to create category sections that focus on skill level so that customer can be guided to those kits that are most appropriate for their experience.

The above will all be actioned over the coming fortnight, however in the meantime have a look at the tools section of the store and let me know what you think of the changes, or even whether or not you like the way it is laid out.


You can now buy gift certificates from us...

GiftIt has been a long time coming but customers of The Model Catalogue can now take advantage of the option to buy a gift certificate instead of guessing what their friends and family members mentioned they would like bought for them.
It could be seen as quite timely, what with Christmas only 4 months away! Only joking - lol - I know how ridiculous it is for shops to start leaning on that crutch when it is still warm and humid outside! Did I read in the paper the other day that a town in the UK had already put up its Christmas decorations! It is a over used statement but seems to have some truth - it gets earlier every year!
Anyway, back to the gift certificate option; it is now live and can be purchased through your account page (i.e. not the main product catalogue). Simply log in and scroll to near the bottom of your account detail page. You will see a section devoted entirely to the giving and redeeming of gift certificates. I will also add a few FAQs the blog as well to help with common queries.


New page added to the Blog...

I have created a new page on Kit Chat blog site to store a list of web site jewels; it will contain a list of the best modelling sites that the web has to offer. I have called the page Modelling Crown Jewels for a bit of fun and the link can be found in the menu list on right hand side of the Kit Chat home page. There are only a few on there at the moment but the list will grow. Naturally if you have any suggestions please let me know at tom at themodelcatalogue dot com.


We've been accepted by Blogged.com!

We are pleased to announce that we are now part of the Blogged.com network of Blogs. Here is how they describe themselves on their About Us page:

"At Blogged, our vision is to provide a destination where people can talk about news with their friends and family. Not only do we provide the breaking news from various media sources, but we also try to create conversation by integrating social discussions from your trusted network." It goes on for a bit longer so click on the link above if you want to read more.

I have had a good look around and it has got great potential to allow you to follow a number of Blogs in one place, write your own comments about them and share interesting posts around easily and see what others are reading. Why not take a look and perhaps even make a comment or two about the Kit Chat blog - Be nice! ; )


New Mailing List Management System

We have been forced to switch to another mailing list management system. Our new partner is iContact; a highly respected firm that will help us to help our readers. For those of you who were already subscribed to one or more of the mailing lists we have maintained in the past, you don't need to do anything. Your account has been transferred automatically. The only real difference is that you do not need to have a password for the new mailing list management system going forward; to unsubscribe from any of the lists you simply need an email from us because at the bottom of each are instructions on how to remove your email address from the list that that email came from.
One thing I can promise you is that the quality of the news and information will go up, as will the frequency of blog posting! Thanks for you support.
 


Shipping prices now included in the drop-down selector

I have just implemented an improvement in the checkout page to allow the customer to view the cost of each shipping option at the same time as selecting it. It sounds like an obvious feature to include but I had to have the code written specially. Hope you find it useful and more transparent.


We're back and ready to take your order!

The software upgrade is now complete and we are back online, ready to take orders. The upgrade process went smoothly (with no big surprises thankfully); I am pretty pleased with the outcome. Certainly the feedback received so far has been very positive, which is encouraging.

No doubt there will be some unforeseen issues that will need to be resolved over the next few weeks and we will work to fix these as quickly as possible. Clearly we are going to have to rely on you to let us know if you experience difficulties of any sort, so please do ping me a quick email using the Contact Us form if you do spot anything.

So what has changed? Quite a lot actually. In terms of appearance it has obviously changed significantly; it is cleaner and simpler with a much more compact site structure (as can be seen in the site map page). Across the top of virtually every page there is a horizontal menu section providing access to a number of useful pages including the account login page, About Us etc. On the left hand margin there is another menu section that appears on virtually every store page. It provides information such as what is in your shopping cart, top level store category pick list with pop-out menu, a short list of top selling products and below that a list of links to a number of information pages, the blog and so on. The main body of the page below the header section on the right hand side is where the main content of each page is displayed, whether information about the store or a list of products or the checkout.

On a more technical note, the previous shopping cart system exployed static .html pages whereas this new system uses dynamically generated .asp pages. This allows a lot more flexibility, imagination and interactivity. Here are some examples of the new tools available for customers to use:

  • Consistent look and feel and quick links from virtually every page to key site information and management pages.
  • Pop out category selection menu to save time finding what you need.
  • A superb product search engine.
  • A best seller list and a constantly changing list of products displayed on the main page providing interest and inspiration.
  • Ability to set up your own account with us allowing you to manage your information required to provide you with a top notch service very easily.
  • Ask questions about specific products without having to email us through your email client.
  • Tell a friend about a product with ease.
  • Ability to stay logged into your account using cookies.
  • Ability to review past orders and manage returns online.
  • Ability to save a number of shopping carts and wish lists for use in future.

I could go on but I should leave some things for later or for you to discover!

Regarding payment providers, we used to provide various options including Worldpay, Paypal and Nochex. We have slimmed this right down to just one payment provider, Paypal, however it is a much much capable system we use now, meaning that you can now complete your purchase right in our store now if you are purchasing using a credit or debit card (even though the details are still being sent only to Paypal) and as normal if you wish to use standard Paypal. Pay by cheque or over the phone is still available.

Once your order has gone through there are a whole host of post-purchase customer order management systems to help you find out where you order is if you don't receive it as expected, return goods, check past orders and so forth. I will probably deal with each of these elements in a series of tutorial articles on the blog over the next few weeks.

So, to wrap up for today, we are back, we are fresher, leaner and now that we have got a much more capable platform in place we will be able to focus again on keeping the product range fresh and creating and publishing articles for the blog.

We hope you like what we have done and look forward to hearing from you. Happy modelling and stay clear of swines!

Kindest regards,

Tom.


The upgrade has begun...

If you have come to Kit Chat and are a little confused regarding the change in appearance, don't worry. Tonight (Sunday 26th April) marked the start of the process of migrating The Model Catalogue and Kit Chat to it's new home.

There is a whole new look and feel to both the online store and Kit Chat following a major software upgrade, which we hope you will approve of.

Ordering has been suspended as a precaution while the switch takes place. There are likely to be 'issues' to be ironed out so please bear with us for the next few days. When ordering is switched back on again I'll make sure everyone knows!


Welcome to the new and improved Kit Chat Blog

This great looking new version of the Kit Chat blog (courtesy of our the designers at Host Forest) has been set up to coincide with the long planned and eagerly awaited release of the new online store.

With the new look and feel of the online store it was felt it was just as important to make sure that all the sections of the site look fresh and consistent in look and feel. I hope you like it and find the additional functionality, such as a better comments feature, useful.

To access the blog posts published on the previous blog site, please click here. You may find that some of the image links get broken as things continue to evolve. If so please let me know and I will get them fixed.

As always if you have any questions we will be very grateful to hear from you. Please use the Contact Us page at the online store or post a comment on this blog.