NEW Online Shopping Experience at TSA.. what do YOU think??

[TopShelfAquatics]

Hey R2R Fam!

Here at Top Shelf Aquatics, our team is always thinking of new ways to improve our website and the shopping experience of purchasing corals online in general. We understand how nerve-wracking it can be to order corals online due to common misrepresentation of health, size, and inaccurate coloration. These unfortunate circumstances have caused many hobbyists to shy away from the online coral shopping experience. However, as many of you are aware, Top Shelf Aquatics takes its overall customer experience very seriously. From shipping, which includes: labeling each coral in your order with the name, flow, and lighting recommendations on the bags, to following up with our customers to make sure their corals are happy and healthy a few days after arrival.

Recently, over dinner, our team was discussing the experience of shopping for corals in general and a great point was made. When shopping for coral in-person, a customer has the ability to see the movement of the coral in the flow and different angles that a photo just cannot capture. So, we have decided that one of the new features we want to implement on our website are short video clips of our high-end collector WYSIWYG pieces.

Our team has already started implementing this new and unique feature.

We wanted to get some feedback from our customers directly! Are there any features that YOU wish online coral vendors had that you haven't seen?
What do you think of this new website feature?

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

I'd have to look it over, but i can say you should stop posting here in that awful blue font color that's impossible to read in dark mode... Your corals are great tho!

 

[Gtinnel]

That seems like a great idea to me, I spent several minutes just staring at the corals on your site. I like that it also gives the buyer the ability to have a idea of how much flow to provide the corals from the amount of movement in the video clip.

 

[metzer]

I have notice the new pictures, and i really like it. The shimmer lines adds a unique appearance as well but noting that in some pictures it makes it appear a little dark.

 

[Cell]

That is AWESOME! I kind of want to just leave the page up on my screen as a screen saver tbh.

But my #1 feature that I wish online coral vendors would implement is providing colony pics.

 

[lafarrow]

Wonderful exemplar videos. That will likely become standard for dynamic corals. Gives you a real feel for what you are getting. Very nice and I am sure a good bit of work from how slick it looked.

 

[Pkunk35]

Works particularly well for the LPS imo, especially that HG! dang!
the sps, I dunno, the polyp movement might not be super necessary for me
Either way, great feature, I def like it.

 

[HomebroodExotics]

Alright those picture videos are pretty freaking cool.

 

[vtecintegra]

Moving photo is cool, but frankly the colors look very manipulated. The black background throws up flags with me right off the bat. The coral is almost glowing, but everything behind it is almost black. Immediately makes me think photo shop and I'm being taken.

Here is a ricordia example of what I would call honestly presented in photo 1, vs. suspect in photo 2. I would buy photo 1 over photo 2 every time.

1.


2.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Moving photo is cool, but frankly the colors look very manipulated. The black background throws up flags with me right off the bat. The coral is almost glowing, but everything behind it is almost black. Immediately makes me think photo shop and I'm being taken.

Here is a ricordia example of what I would call honestly presented in photo 1, vs. suspect in photo 2. I would buy photo 1 over photo 2 every time.

1.


2.

Hey there! Regarding the black background, we photograph all of our corals on solid black acrylic racks, underneath Radion G4 Pros (100% Violet, 100% UV, 100% Deep Blue, 50% Blue) which is stated in the description of each of the corals on our website. We have found that the majority of our customers prefer to view the corals under these lighting conditions. However, we are always more than willing to provide photos of a coral underneath different lighting conditions upon customer request!

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

I'd have to look it over, but i can say you should stop posting here in that awful blue font color that's impossible to read in dark mode... Your corals are great tho!

We typically don't use the night theme on the on forum so It looks great on the white background. We will change it now after looking at the night theme.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

We typically don't use the night theme on the on forum so It looks great on the white background. We will change it now after looking at the night theme.

Awesome! I've participated in your live sales before, keep up the good work!

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Yes! Nice! Good job tsa. I was online.coral shopping today. I went to tsa.com
All wysiwyg frags and low and behold some of the smaller pics of the corals are actually videos. Nice! Again good work tsa! Fish on!
D

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Yes! Nice! Good job tsa. I was online.coral shopping today. I went to tsa.com
All wysiwyg frags and low and behold some of the smaller pics of the corals are actually videos. Nice! Again good work tsa! Fish on!
D

Thanks for the kind words.

 

[Slatin]

As someone who has bought corals from you before I think the new feature is cool. That being said, like said before sometimes your pictures look like the colors are edited and over saturated. What I have seen that I really liked on other coral sites was where they had 2 pics one showing the high blue like yours are and another showing "daylight mode". Not everyone runs super high blue and it would be nice to see what it will look like in our tank without having to change our lighting. I will say your customer service is absolutely top notch and I will continue to order from you but I know now wysiwyg isn't really the case for me unless I go all blue.