Casual Kilts on Sale updated

[James C]

Our website has been updated and with that came some changes. The Casual Kilt on sale page is now back up and better than before. Now you can see the tartan image without having to choose everything else. Try it out and let me know if you like the improvements.

Click here.

[MacBean]

OK, you asked!

The original (2 years ago) Casual Kilt web pages made one choose between different fabric types, and then took one to a set of pages where one could view lots of tartans on a page, but had to choose A-D, E-L, M-MacB, etc. Remember that? It had the nice feature that you could browse tartans in bulk; not many sites allow that. On the other hand, unless you knew in advance which fabric had MacBean Ancient, you had to try them all, and click on all the letter groups until one heard Bingo!

Then this all went missing in a massive simplification. I like simplification, but this was too much. I suspect you are hoping that Casual Kilt sales lead to more lucrative allegiances of customers...they're important. My first kilt was a B&S Casual (as recommended here many times), and it worked well for me. I still like it. Nice light weight kilt.

The new Casual purports to resolve all prior problems. You choose your fabric and your tartan and snap!, the tartan appears. Only it doesn't reliably.

For example, try Heavy (Strome) and MacBean Ancient. It seems like it uploaded something, but instead one gets the default kilt and no indication that this is out of stock (is that right?).

The correct solution is to have the programmer filter the tartan list based on fabric weight and inStock = true, so that you only see tartans that you have. That way you don't have to click on a tartan name to see if it appears. At the very list, out of stock items should announced themselves rather than defaulting to the default kilt image. PM me if this is unclear. It's close, and I do think it's better.

I might still like to have access to the old browse tartan pages just for reference if it were easy to do.

[Calico]

As MacBean says, you did ask!

I really dislike having to look up tartans one at a time based on their name. Way too time consuming and hard to remember which ones I've looked at and liked or disliked.

I'm not Scottish, I'm not intending to buy based on name, I want to see everything so I can select the one(s) I like based on how they look compared to one another.

And an itty-bitty swatch doesn't do it, either. I expected to see a picture of the kilt done in the selected tartan.

This isn't intended to sound too critical, it is simply in honest response to your question (I think). None of your competitors offer what I want, either, if that helps mitigate the criticism.

[Iain Robb]

For me -- and this is not meant to negate what others have said -- it seems good. I can now see the MacFarlane tartan, and verify visually which of the two I want.

Now it's just this exchange rate that's killing me. I paid a lot less in American dollars for my last B&S Casual.

[James C]

For example, try Heavy (Strome) and MacBean Ancient. It seems like it uploaded something, but instead one gets the default kilt and no indication that this is out of stock (is that right?).
The correct solution is to have the programmer filter the tartan list based on fabric weight and inStock = true, so that you only see tartans that you have. That way you don't have to click on a tartan name to see if it appears. At the very list, out of stock items should announced themselves rather than defaulting to the default kilt image. PM me if this is unclear. It's close, and I do think it's better.

Thank you for your feedback MacBean. I should of stated that not all tartans have pictures attached to them yet. There are a few special weaves MacBean Ancient in 16 ounce being one of them I do not have pictures of yet. I will try to get them up this week or as soon as I can to fill those gaps. It's far less than there was before. The combination you chose is in stock. The only time it's not it will say "Sorry this tartan is not available in this weight."

Unfortunately the solution you offered isn't available yet. I agreee with your method but its not possible at this time. I appreciate your feedback. Unfortunately I do not see going back to the old method. I am hoping to make a page though listing all the tartans so you don't need to scroll through the list to see the ones available.

There was the option of making each tartan seperate but we feel it is a better solution the way it is. Also avoids clutter.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts.

[James C]

Now it's just this exchange rate that's killing me. I paid a lot less in American dollars for my last B&S Casual.

Unfortunately this is out of our control. Sorry blame the government.

[James C]

an itty-bitty swatch doesn't do it, either. I expected to see a picture of the kilt done in the selected tartan.

Thank you for your feedback. The swatches can be enlarged when you click on the image some are larger than others.

Unfortunately to make a casual kilt in all the tartans we offer isn't likely to happen due to the amount of labour involved. I will make an effort to take more pictures of casuals that are ordered though. Often though they deplete the tartan in stock and then it is not for sale any more.

To clarify: Are you saying you prefer pages of products with the thumbnails or the current way with the one product and the swatches when you choose the tartan?

[Calico]

Brandon,

Actually, your response to MacBean addressed my major concern:

I am hoping to make a page though listing all the tartans so you don't need to scroll through the list to see the ones available.

When I am kilt shopping (as most of us here are pretty much continually) I want to scan a page like that. Then when I actually go to order I don't need to see anything, thumbnail or otherwise, because my selection has already been made.

Hm, just reread it all. I guess you might not be saying "page of pictures" when you say "page listing". I would want to see all the available tartans, as pictures, together so I can decide which I want. After that, it is strictly a "by name" transaction. Having seen the swatch picture on the "page of all available tartans" would satisfy me completely.

Thanks.

ps: the "picture of a kilt in that tartan" was very much an unrealistic "utopia" desire. I realize it is not really possible at this time, but one day I want a 3-D picture so I can look at a tartan in various pleats and see how it looks on a model, in my size. Just a wish list, not a "please do this on your website".

[Iain Robb]

I just noticed that the list of available tartans does not appear to change when you select different weights, which cannot be right. I don't think you have MacFarlane Hunting Ancient in 10 ounce, 13 ounce, 16 ounce and 18 ounce, for example.

The order of the choices seems correct -- most people would prefer to choose their tartan first. But then the choices of weight should reload based on what is available in that tartan, with the user able to select only the weight that tartan is available in and the other choices grayed out.

For example, if I chose MacFarlane Hunting Ancient, and you had that available in 13 ounce and 16 ounces, I would be able to choose one of those. But I would not be able to choose 10 ounce or 18 ounce because those weights are not available in that tartan.

Now, if you have all of those tartans in all of those weights on sale, I'm completely off target. But if I am correct, I hope this is helpful.

[mookien]

Iain: Underneath the option "Tartan Flashes:" will appear the message, "Sorry this tartan is not available in this weight.", if the tartan is unavailable in that weight. If it is available, a "Quantity:" selection field appears instead.

For example, I just selected MacFarlane Hunting Ancient and then selected in turn each of the 4 possible weights. The "not available" message appeared when I chose the 10 oz. and 18 oz. tartan weight. The "Quantity:" message appeared in the others. The picture of the tartan was present in all four selections. Hope this helps.