Online Bathrooms Blog

As you may be aware we have not been blogging on the site much. This is down to the effort being put into more technical modifications to the site, and maintenance of all the products. We want to ensure that you have all th information you need right in front of you. About the products, deliveries returns and more.
So a lot of time has been spent on each product, filling the details with information allowing you to make the right choice when buying anything from OnlineBathrooms.com.

So, what else have we done over the past few weeks? Firstly, the Multi-Buy feature can now include up to 3 Multi-buy products, compared to the original one multi-buy. This means we can not only recommend more products to you, but give you massive savings when you choose to purchase the items as a bundle. Want to try it out? Check out the Anico Quadrant Shower Enclosure at only £229! You can choose to add a shower valve at a discounted price. If you want to get more than one to get a higher saving, feel free!

Secondly, we have been putting together a newsletter manager to allow us to generate email newsletters very quickly. If you have selected the option to receive the newsletter, it is possible you will already have one by now! Check your emails every Friday as this tends to be when we send them out and also tends to be when the new offers begin!

And finally we have been working on improving the system which monitors customers who have left their baskets. The system will now flag up any shopping carts which have been left by current customers, and only allow us to notify you once, as we don’t wish to mither but we know that with our understanding of bathroom products we can give you enough information to make good decisions on your bathroom goods and it is likely we will have exactly what you need.

I will keep you up to date more regularly from now on. If you have any questions, problems or general queries please do not hesitate to contact one of our friendly sales team.

That’s all for now!

Online Bathrooms Freephone: 0800 389 4857
Customer Services Email: info@onlinebathrooms.com

Welcome to a special blog about our newly launched mobile site! Online Bathrooms is now mobile! Which means you can now buy your bathrooms from the comfort of, well, anywhere! If you visit the site on your iPhone, (We’ll be testing consistency for all other mobile browsers soon), you will be automatically redirected to our mobile site. But don’t worry, you can still access the full version if needs be with the simple push of a button. The mobile site can also be viewed on your PC, just click the link below!

OnlineBathrooms Mobile Site!

This also works if you type the above link in your non-iPhone, mobile browser! But be warned, it may not look as tidy!

I would like to point out that the mobile site is as secure as our real site, as your phone browser connects to our secure web page, and your payment is still taken through our fully secure protx payment site. If you have any queries about security on your mobile, please don’t hesitate to give us a call!

We have also developed a newsletter feature which allows us to send you on a weekly basis an up-to-date list of either our best sellers, our hot-picks or just a list of our favourite products to tempt you into bringing that bathroom idea to life! So if you haven’t already, head over to the Online Bathrooms Registration Page, and be sure to check the ‘Newsletter’ box to get the regular email. If you feel like you’ve missed out, you can always view the Most Recent Online Bathrooms Newsletter by clicking this link.

Just a quick update on what new features have been added to the site recently. The first, will hopefully cut down on the number of queries from customers asking whether our site has picked up on the Multi-Buy option they added to their cart. This was because, confirmation of the discount only appears on the final page of the checkout. But now, when a product and it’s linked product are placed within the cart, a small notifier appears next to the price, just to let you know we’ve noticed. There is also a key at the bottom of the pace explaining that the discount is taken at the checkout. The small notifiers also carry a hover effect which displays a bubble with more information about the multi-buy product. Why not check it out? Have a look at the Anico quadrant Shower Enclosure and add the discounted Thermostatic shower Valve. Then look at the checkout!

The new cart with a notifier of Multi-Buy confirmation

Another feature I implemented into the admin section of the site will hopefully save the Warehouse staff some time looking for the BOM codes of products! Originally, they had to print the PDF order off to view the BOM breakdown, one of my earlier mods, but now, with a similar rollover to above, they can view the BOM breakdown of each main product (if one is in the system) and it’s one or many options (if in the system). This will save time and trees!

I’m still working on some other mods but will keep you posted when they have been implemented!

At Online Bathrooms we are continuously striving to bring you the best bathrooms at the best proces. Thats why we add new bathroom suites almost everyday, to continually give you the most modern looking bathrooms in the UK and a shockingly good price. The bathroom suites we get are of high standards and because of our good reputation with bathroom suppliers, we can buy large quantities and pass these fantastic savings on to you. Take a look at our New bathroom products, where our latest addittions include..

Kalahari Steam Cabinet

In creating the Kalahari Steam Cabinet, the manufacturer has given you the opportunity to share in the wonderful experience of surrounding yourself in delicious, warm, hazy water.

Sahara Shower Cabinet

The Sahara Steam Cabinet comes with a host of clever accessories, so your enjoyment features high up. Tune out the days stresses with a hydro massage, or tune into your favourite music with the built in FM radio.

Gobi Shower Cabinet

Stepping into the Gobi Steam Cabinet and letting the heat and humidity envelope you, is still one of life’s luxuries. Just sheer bliss.

We also have a large number of stocked items in our Next Day Delivery category which, depending on courier availability, can be with you the very next day.

So for the latest bathroom trands at the lowest proces, Visit OnlineBathrooms.com NOW!

As promised this is the second part of yesterdays blog Online Bathrooms Tech Update.

I can proudly announce that soon after completing the blog yesterday I fixed the fault with the multi-buy which is now working correctly. You may have noticed the temporary ‘confirm options’ located at the top of the pop-up which was effectively a way for the options of the main product to be submitted with the form of product b. (Confusing I know!). This was messy and generally pointless considering you have selected the options previously. So with some fancy Javascript which copies the value of one text box to another, all the options are automatically remembered. PHEW!

On a more general note, we now have full control over our showroom site, DaleBathrooms which means we can now link the two together for a combined showroom experience and Internet site, our main business focus. We can also update the site whenever necessary, updating special offers and allowing a direct link to the online shop.

Dale Bathrooms Site - Now with a direct link to OnlineBathrooms!

I have also been working on improving the way showroom orders are input into the system, allowing the showroom staff full control over the whole process which means one less breakable link in the chain. (i.e. from the order on paper, to the order being received on the warehouse system). The process is now maintained by the showroom staff who make sure the order is online, and the warehouse can now tell who is responsible when an order is not online!

I can also reveal that our new radio ad is now LIVE! listen out on Key 103 for our new ad which is extremely catchy and gets across exactly what we want it too!

Our marketing is crucial for us to get our amazing prices and offers noticed by as many people as possible, and this means, we need a good idea of how effective different marketing types are and in what ares. This lead me to develop an online order marketing system and a showroom marketing system which tally’s up marketing type counts and sorts by area so we know exactly how well our marketing is getting to you. This will give us the information we need to invest more in marketing in specific areas, and pull away from marketing which is not quite getting to you.

That’s all for now but as always I’ll keep you posted!!

Thanks for reading!

It’s been a whIle since I updated you on the techy part of Online Bathrooms, which means I have got a lot to cover! I will split the post over two days so you don’t get too bored!

Firstly, I mentioned not too long ago about the possibility that an iPhone site may be on the horizon, well, its almost here! Myself and Michael have been working on maximising usability of the site, but minimizing file size. We want the iPhone experience to be compared to that of large e-commerce sites such as Amazon and we feel our efforts in customizing the mobile site to suit our needs can be seen throughout. We have also begun working on implementing a fully Mobile Safari compatible image gallery, to showcase all of the images attached to our vast product catalogue. This will mean flicking around our site is done with ease and you can get all the information straight from your phone. The site is fully implemented to our current checkout so orders made at your PC or on the move will be received by us in the same way, and we can get on to processing your order as soon as it comes through. The mobile site also offers full account control allowing you to view, add to and modify your details wherever you are! The full site will also have an auto redirect feature so that it will know if you are on aniPhone and can take you straight to the tailored mobile site. Upon completion we will let you all know that the iPhone site is ready, for you to begin making your on-the-move Online Bathrooms purchases!

The ‘Work in Progress’ mobile site on an iPhone

It pains me to do so but I will also keep you informed about some minor problems we have had over the past week with some of the features of the Online Bathrooms store.

The first problem was with the Next Day Delivery selection box, which failed to pass your request through to our delivery team. I do apologise for this inconvenience and this was resolved after about an hour of finding out there was a problem. And just for you interested in what the problem was, it was down to me reverting to a previous backup of one of the checkout pages. Yes, the one which writes the request to our database! Luckily only a couple of customers rang to inform us that their request had not been met, which means our ability to process orders for next day delivery even without it being requested is stillup to scratch and working as we like it.

Secondly, I have now resolved the problem with the shipping cost calculator, which for some reason decided to say that everything only incurred a £12 delivery charge, and this only when the customer was logged in! How bizarre! However after small bit of digging I realised that thepopup window which holds the data was messing with the URL of the calculator page. This meant the variables that are A, the product, and B your postcode were not referenced properly. a smalltweakand a PHP condition later, the problem was resolved.

Finally, we noticed that with our new together specials feature popup, the options selected for the main product were too not being passed though to our warehouse upon an order being placed. I am still working on resolving this problem which is very, very nearly done. We do have a temporary solution in place so if you spot it and do notice what the problem is (which hopefully you won’t), be sure to let us know. It has involved a bit of research into more complex javascript, where I normally only dip my toes in the sea that is Javascript, and that is why the problem is taking slightlyloger to resolve. Each day I get ever closer to the solution. Ill keep you posted on this and when its sorted I will explain the solution.

And touch wood, those are the only major problems with the site this week, but if you notice anything unusual at any time, pleasedont hesitate to contact us on our freephone 0800 389 4857 or via our live support feature on the site.

That’s all for today but I will continue tomorrow with back-end updates and some info on how we can now track how effectively our marketing is working! So be sure to check back tomorrow and we will keep youupto date with all the news, at Online Bathrooms!

It’s been awhile since a new range has been added to the website but as Alan has mentioned in previous posts there has been a lot going on at Online Bathrooms to make the site more pleasant and easier to use. However we now have a brand new supplier with a great range of high quality shower systems, Aqualisa are one of the leading and most desirable suppliers.

The first range is the Quartz electric shower systems with adjustable height head, the system is available in Chrome, White/Chrome & Graphite/Chrome finishes and 3 different performance ratings: 8.5kW, 9.5kW & 10.5kW (except the White/Chrome system which is not available in 10.5kW).

(Click any of the images above to see the Quartz range)

The quartz range is an ideal choice for anyone who is conscious of energy usage or needs to save stored hot water, Quartz Electric heats water for showering on demand – providing hot water for as long as it’s required. It’s control dial helps give the best performance all year round and because it’s BEAB approved, it’s safe, too.

All of these systems also come with 2 Years Manufacturer’s warranty and start from only £164 (inc VAT).

I will update with more great products from Aqualisa within the next few days, so stay tuned.

As mentioned in the previous post ‘More mods and improvements soon to come!’ we were in the process of developing the new popup suggest ferature of the site. This has now replaced the orange ‘2gether specials’ displayed on each page. The recommendation is now displayed right infront of your eyes for you to decide whether you need it or not! Have a look at this new feature on the Anico White Vanity Unit! (Why not add the matching tap?)

This feature opens up a world of opportunity for us to recommend products to you. Whether that be products that others’ bought with an item, our professional recommendations or a finishing touch that will make that product specific to your design ideas. So keep checking as you may see some changes to this pop up over the next few weeks. I have already started work on displaying multiple products within the popup and it is developing nicely and you should soon be able to add more than one recommended product to your cart at once.

I have also begun developing an iPhone specific section of the site, currently at a very early stage of developement, but soon, if browsing on an iPhone or iPod touch, the site will automatically adjust to display perfectly. This means you will be able to browse products, view this blog and login to your account, without getting cramp in your fingers from zooming in and out just to read the text.

Stay tuned for more on this!

With many people still unsure about what extra products they may need to accompany their bathroom purchase, at OnlineBathrooms we’re consistently trying to make it more simple to add all the products that you may need, to your cart. Originally done with the ‘Related Items’ tab placed on each product, it came to our attention that only the minority of customers thought to click through the tabs to the related items, resulting in customers only receiving half the number of goods to get started. For example, a bath, would not come with taps or a waste, so what were aiming to do now is, upon placing your product into your shopping cart, a small pop up will identify any products you may need to fully install your bath. For inexperienced home owners wishing to install their new bathroom suite, this information will prove invaluable, and save them having to make a trip to online bathrooms to pick up the £5 part they need, or paying an additional delivery charge for us to send it out to you.

So how will we go about this? Well, over the past week, I have been putting together the suggestion box, which uses CSS and a small amount of JS to grab related items from the database, and allow you to add these to your cart alongside your main product. A screenshot of what we hope to have in the near future is below. Some final design tweaks upon completion will hopefully keep with the current OnlineBathrooms colour scheme and fit in perfectly.

Sneak preview of the awaited pop up suggest!

Also, if you registered within the past week or so, you will have noticed a ‘Where did you hear about us?’ select list on the ‘Create Account‘ page. This allows us to see the effectiveness of the marketing we have in place. So if you intend to register, please be as accurate as possible to put where you heard about us, it would be greatly appreciated! This information will allows us to see which of our marketing, i.e. TV, radio, Google, is the most effective, and will allow us to then see where we can further branch out to get our products to more potential customers!

Another small behind the scenes mod, now allows us to change a customer’s account password on demand. This has given us control over the customers confidential details, without anyone ever laying their eyes on their data. Our encryption secures this, and this new mod lets an administrator change the password, allowing the customer to log in and then change their password in the ‘My Account‘ section to anything they wish!

(If you have forgotten your password, you can change it yourself via the ‘Forgotten Password’ page, or call us on 0800 389 4857 and one of our technical staff will be more than happy to help!)

As I always say, we at OnlineBathrooms are always trying to make the site as functional and easy to use as possible, and its these small changes that all add up to give a memorable OnlineBathrooms experience!

I will begin this blog by first apologising for the post Happy new year, happy new checkout! which states we installed a new checkout at the start of the year, in order to reduce the number of pages you pass to make an order at onlinebathrooms.com. We had to remove the checkout as some data wasn’t being passed through into our sales area. I cannot stress enough, this in no way affected the customers or their orders when this checkout was live. But noticing this small problem we immediately reverted back to the original checkout and orders continued to come in. I have been working on and off to resolve this problem and after thorough testing, testing and more testing, I can now announce that the new checkout is live once again! So to experience our reduced page checkout, visit onlinebathrooms.com, place goods in your cart and follow the on-screen instructions through the checkout process! This new condensed checkout is fully compatible with the Next Day Delivery request, meaning we can process your order with added priority if it is possible to get your goods to you next working day.

I can also announce that that a modification to the search feature on the site has also massively increased the accuracy of your search. A bit of code which removes the ’s’ from a search has increased the number of products which display when typing in a plural search. For example, a search for ‘vanity units’ may list no products, as we have no products called, ‘anico 750 vanity units’. Your search now, for ‘vanity units’ would be the same as a search for ‘vanity unit’, (as in 750 vanity unit!). This will make searching easier and much more intuitive.

Alongside this mod to the search, I have been putting myself in the place of the customer, and searching for products and seeing what result I get to ensure your search gives you exactly what you want! Some of the product searches we log are as vague as ’showers’ or ‘baths’, so we made the search navigate to the relevant category for you to further narrow down your search to a product list of exactly what you want. (Good Eh!).

So head on over to onlinebathrooms.com now, to experience our new, more powerful search and our improved checkout!