Website Features Tour
The Cruz Skate Shop website got a little more badical.
We took one of the world’s first online roller derby stores and made it easier to shop, more secure, and the best place to come for all your roller derby and skating questions.
And we’re just getting started.
Larger images
We made shopping easier by making the the category images 33% larger, and the detail page images 25% larger. We also worked out the the 'fuzzy' images so you can now see the details in the product you are buying. Cruz math: 33% + 25% = 1000% more badical!
Check out the indoor wheels page to see what we mean
Updated secure checkout
Cruz takes security seriously. That's why we upgraded out checkout using a 128-bit encryption SSL on a PCI compliant system. And we never store your credit card information; just your name, email, address and phone number.
When checking out, you may notice that the URL says cruzskateshop.worldsecuresystems.com. This is our secure checkout, and it is normal. (We're working on getting it all under the Cruz domain.)
eGift Certificates: improved!
We had a strange bug in our last website that kept us from being able to have our gift certificates emailed to you immediately following purchase. Well, that's all fixed now.
You now have the option of entering the recipient's email name, address, and a message during checkout, and the website will automatically send them the Gift Certificate. They can use them online or in-store (just bring in the printed email.) It's so easy now. You can order an eGift Certificate here.
Affiliate marketing with Cruz!
We are so stoked about this, it's hard not to write pages and pages on it. We will soon release an affiliate marketing program where you can display a Cruz banner ad (or text link) on your league website, blog, personal website, Twitter, or business website–you get the picture–and each time someone clicks through and buys something, you get a percentage of the sale. How rad is that?
We are working out the details and should have the (free) sign-up page available in early March. Follow us on Twitter to keep up, or better yet, make sure you are on our affiliate email list.
More options + in-store pick-up
We love shipping out gear to all of our peeps around the world, so we worked hard on making the choices and prices better. We will now be offering in-store pickup as an option: shop online; pickup at Cruz SF.
OK, this is some seriously boring stuff, so let's just say that this is win-win, and leave it at that. I know something that isn't boring: let's go look at some new skates.
Brick and Mordor (yes, LoTR!)
Let's not forget our favorite Lady: the San Francisco store. She was the 3rd brick and mortar derby store in the US, 1st in California, and has been around with us since 2008! We just recently spruced her up with some mint and brown paint, new displays and cases, new furniture, a HUGE board wall... It's epic, you'll just have to come by and see it.
In case you can't make it to the shop, stop by our Facebook page to see the during and after images.
Product videos
You don't even know how bad we wanted this to happen. Now we can see the Cruz DVD trailer right on the page, or maybe checking out the Gumball R&D video is your bag? Yep, you can has! And if you know of any good product videos that we should showcase, drop them on our Facebook Wall and we'll see if they make the cut.
And that's just the beginning. There is so much more in the works. Let's not spoil it and just say, we've got plans. You better follow us on Twitter to keep up.
Latest technology
Now, we will be the first to admit that we are not early adopters and preachers of untested stuff. We like to ride on it for a minute and get to know it before start telling our friends to use it. What goes for gear, goes for our website. So, after some initial tests, we are proud to announce that we are using HTML5 and CSS3 for this website. (It just means it's modern and fancy-pants. Only web geeks get off on this.)
BUT! it does mean that those of you looking at this on old, janky browsers (*ahem* Internet Explorer) may suffer. And to that we say stop using that crap and go download a real, modern browser like Firefox, Chrome or Safari. If you find you have any real problems with the site, please see our Website Help page for information and contact info.
Facebook comments
Our blog got a facelift too. And we now have the skateboarding blog on-site. Weehoo! We took it one step further and enabled Facebook Comments for blog posts. This means, you can post comments to our blog using your Facebook login. It also means that spam comments for 'male enhancers' are a thing of the past.
We also think this will be a better way to keep it touch and share the conversation over Facebook so that our friends can see it too. You also have the option of using Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail (but seriously, who uses those?)
You can check out our roller derby blog here. And our skateboarding blog is here.
Advertise on our site
You can now advertise on Cruz Skate Shop! We aren't letting just anyone pollute our site with their ads: only friends and relevant products/services/events to derby and skateboarding. We aren't looking to retire off of it, just give a place for vendors and businesses to get the word out.
Email affiliate@cruzskateshop.com for more information on pricing and how you can get your ad on Cruz. If it isn't roller derby or skateboarding related, good luck.
Other notables:
You can now order back issues of Hellarad! They are in VERY limited supply, and once they are out, they are out. See all Hellarad »
Less waiting around. The site loads much faster now (even on your phone!), and you should experience less downtime. If you ever have a problem with the site or notice it down, let us know!
Limited user tracking. We only use Google Analytics to track user activity on the site. No personal information is received from this, and it is only used to assess the effectiveness of our website and the interest level of certain pages. If you hate being tracked, we advise you download and install Ghostery on your web browser and keep it up to date. We use it, and think you should too.
They made this happen
We would like to take the time to say thanks to the people that make this website and our marketing efforts happen. Without them, we would be, well, website-less and in a deep state of suffering. Really, they rock.
- First, we want to thank Carlos Canas for designing and coding the website that this is based on. He not only created the best looking derby website on the planet, but also kept it running and patching her up when she broke. The site you see today is largely based on his design, and we can't thank him enough for all his hard work over the years.
- Tristan Denyer manages the promotional emails, website, Facebook ads, and other web duties. He also managed the migration and development of the website to the current platform. Starting with Carlos's design, he redesigned the content areas and worked closely with Mike at Symbiotiq to create the website you see now. In most cases, returning customers will hardly notice a change. That's good, it's what we intended.
- Mike Damian of Symbiotiq coded this thing. It's all gobbledygook to us and looks like the damn Matrix back there, but he seems to understand it. Good thing for it, because we need this thing to be able to help us take over the world (or at least make it more badical.) Thanks, Mike! This thing is a work of art.
- All problems and website inquiries should be directed to info@cruzskateshop.com.
For more information on the people that help Cruz Skate Shop be the most badical skate shop on the planet, go check out our About Us page.