New Shopify Store!

Celti · 03-23-2023, 09:53 PM

Just made my first purchase on the new store (Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Thieves, hooray!) and it's... not good. I wrote a really long, angry, ranty post about it, and then deleted it; my apologies if any of that tone has crept back into this post.

My problems today boil down to one fundamental issue: This store does not tell me where to download my new purchase, and that is unacceptable.

When checking out, i am told i will receive a confirmation email, and that's it. Every prior iteration of this store, every other site i purchase books from, and most sites i purchase other download content from will offer a download link on the confirmation page after hitting checkout. The vanishingly few sites that insist i use email will at least tell me that there will be download links in my inbox. This does neither.

Compounding that pain point, the download links are in a separate email from the confirmation, and the two emails have different From: fields (the download email having no name there), which makes it very easy to spot one and miss the other when skimming a crowded inbox.

Further problems come from the big, obvious product links on one's account page linking to the item's store page, not to any kind of download page; and from the links on one's downloads page linking to the order page, and not to any kind of download page.

As a final aggravation, when one finally finds the download button on the order page, it can only open the purchased document in the browser, and completely defeats any attempt to right-click and “Save As,” — when some of the files for sale are over 100MB, and definitely not something one wants to open in a browser over a slow connection!

There are numerous other technical flaws i could harp on here. The worst part is, i'm not sure how much of this is even fixable. Shopify is a predatory operation whose target audience is mostly startups who don't care about the longevity of their business — just getting it off the ground — and small businesses who don't know any better. Their goal is to offer a minimum viable product while sucking as much money out of you as they can, until you wise up and switch to a sustainable platform. Steve Jackson Games deserves better than that.

03-23-2023, 09:53 PM	#11
Celti Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: USA, Arizona, Mesa	Re: New Shopify Store! Just made my first purchase on the new store (Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Thieves, hooray!) and it's... not good. I wrote a really long, angry, ranty post about it, and then deleted it; my apologies if any of that tone has crept back into this post. My problems today boil down to one fundamental issue: This store does not tell me where to download my new purchase, and that is unacceptable. When checking out, i am told i will receive a confirmation email, and that's it. Every prior iteration of this store, every other site i purchase books from, and most sites i purchase other download content from will offer a download link on the confirmation page after hitting checkout. The vanishingly few sites that insist i use email will at least tell me that there will be download links in my inbox. This does neither. Compounding that pain point, the download links are in a separate email from the confirmation, and the two emails have different From: fields (the download email having no name there), which makes it very easy to spot one and miss the other when skimming a crowded inbox. Further problems come from the big, obvious product links on one's account page linking to the item's store page, not to any kind of download page; and from the links on one's downloads page linking to the order page, and not to any kind of download page. As a final aggravation, when one finally finds the download button on the order page, it can only open the purchased document in the browser, and completely defeats any attempt to right-click and “Save As,” — when some of the files for sale are over 100MB, and definitely not something one wants to open in a browser over a slow connection! There are numerous other technical flaws i could harp on here. The worst part is, i'm not sure how much of this is even fixable. Shopify is a predatory operation whose target audience is mostly startups who don't care about the longevity of their business — just getting it off the ground — and small businesses who don't know any better. Their goal is to offer a minimum viable product while sucking as much money out of you as they can, until you wise up and switch to a sustainable platform. Steve Jackson Games deserves better than that.