"Purdy" vs Sales -- Should I go live now?

In 1980, a guy by the name of Clive Sinclair came up with a basic programming language. He put it together in a little package known as the Sinclair ZX-80. You could buy it pre-assembled or in kit form

Clive's basic was like no other. Where the Commodore 64, Macintosh, and others who came along later required all the code to be entered and then ran to test the code, Clive's would not allow a line to be entered unless the syntax was correct. You might have the wrong value for a variable and it would be accepted but, if you had the wrong syntax for a screen or print output, the cursor would blink at the point of the line of code where the problem started. This was not available from anywhere else.

Imagine having to line enter all the code required for Zen Cart AND, having to run it before you had any idea you made a mistake on line 3 of the code! "Illegal bounds, interrupt" was far worse than the 404 or 500 error codes today.

Anyone who ever used a TRS-80 or Commodore 64 can attest to the coding problem.

Well, Timex (yes, the watch people) fell in love witht the ZX-80 and bought the rights to sell the product in the American market as the Timex/Sinclair 1000.

IBM came out with a personal computer in 1981 and some upstart named Gates came up with MS-DOS to go with it.

So, in late 1981 Timex had a model ready to go. The Timex/Sinclair 1000. As in most products, they did marketing research and folks were not pleased with the keyboard of their product. It was cramped and often took a number of combinations to output the right info. It didn't even have a space bar. As a result of the marketing study, Timex pulled their 1000's in order to bring out the Timex/Sinclair 1500. Then, one of the engineers said, "What if we created pre-programmed cartridges for the system for games and the like?" They stopped the 1500 production to develop the 2068. You can see the three at https://www.timexsinclair.com/

Meanwhile, a little-known company decided to realease their product. No, it didn't use Clive's operating system. And, yes, it required a whole lot of coding and then running to let you know the code didn't work. And, it never told you where or what line the problem was in!

Yet, it was there, had some cartridges, was relatively easy to hook up, and operated properly enough to please the audience (other than the coding).

Even though I have a couple of Clive's originals and a Timex/Sinclair 2068, I bet you never heard of one. And, I bet you HAVE heard of the Commodore 64.

The Point?

Had Timex left the 1000 or the 1500 on the market and touted the fact that the OS was better than anybody else's you probably would not have seen the Commodore last six months.

If your product is not out there, is it any surprise that you are not making sales? Are you willing to delay sales for "purdy"? Can you gain customer's after your competitor is active?

I would venture to say that a lot of Amazon users have not seen the home page very often. Searches take the customer straight to an informational page like https://www.amazon.com/s?k=computer+monitor+27+inch&i=specialty-aps&srs=19927317011&crid=HQIVZ0L0PD5H&sprefix=computer+monitor%2Cspecialty-aps%2C91&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_3.

Things to notice:

1. Fancy Color Scheme? -- Nope
2. Pictures other than of the Product? -- Nope
3. Enticing description even on the multiple listing page? -- Yep
4. "Friendly URLs"? -- Nope
5. Single product page information? -- Bunches
6. Does it look like they wanted to Sell or Advertise? -- Sell

Unless you are simply using Zen Cart as a Showcase, why would you delay getting the product in front of the people? Really, the same applies for a Showcase site. It may need to be a little prettier than most but, it still can be adjusted as you go.

1.5.8 comes out of the box ready to sell. It is HTML5, free of type A and AA accessibility problems, and works with PHP 8.2. No other cart comes close!

Just add products, basic images, good descriptions, a shipping mod, and a payment mod. All the rest can be added, adjusted, and beautified bit by bit. And meanwhile, the products selling will be paying for the improvements. A win-win scenario.

Don't be like Timex. Be more like Commodore. They remained in business for 13 years before being bought out. There reward for being out there first.