# Design Finalization
###### tags: `Research`

## Design
### [Dailytown](https://www.templatemonster.com/shopify-themes/dailytown-the-grocery-food-responsive-premium-shopify-theme-107443.html)
[Interactive Preview](https://www.templatemonsterpreview.com/demo/107443.html?_gl=1*1q9z4pb*_ga*MTU0MDk1MDQ1MS4xNjA5OTYwNjQy*_ga_FTPYEGT5LY*MTYwOTk2MDY0MS4xLjEuMTYwOTk2MTIzOC4yMw..&_ga=2.36322720.1839242227.1609960642-1540950451.1609960642&_gac=1.79720933.1609960643.Cj0KCQiA3NX_BRDQARIsALA3fILU7mOV3_oO5O3KDpaFTBCYBu9ylBz9Nk5uHl0L-iddFay_xnWhv38aAjlDEALw_wcB)

DailyTown offers a great starting platform for the store portion of the website. It has a similar design to our main inspiration ([Shenzhen Audio](https://shenzhenaudio.com/)), and has already been designed specifically for grocer and food purposes.

The main options that this template lacks are:
- No integrated support for Group Buys (though still possible)
- No easy way to integrate Recipes (though still possible)
- No integrated support for Forums (may take more time)

#### Forums
As we discussed, it might make sense to host another site on another domain to start the forum, and just have them link back and forth between each other. If we wanted, we could also host it on a subdomain so that the site stays at `asian-master.com`. It might instead look like `community.asian-master.com` to keep continuity and avoid too much confusion.

Some services like [Invasion](https://invisioncommunity.com/features/) or [vBulletin](https://www.vbulletin.com/) could help us build our community site.

#### Recipes
Recipe pages don't really need to be very dynamic, so it should be possible to build a barebones recipe page from any theme. It will link to the products, and have adequate readings and imagery. The only catch is that it will be a static page, and for the time being, users won't be able to customize it and post it to the forums.

#### Group Buys
Using a normal buy page, given that we give correct notices on the product page, we should also be able to host group guys relatively easily.

Take this example from KBDFans:
They don't have a counter for MOQ, and the site just appears as a normal buy page. The only difference is that the "Buy" button is a "Pre-Order" button instead.

#### Summary

While it doesn't offer all the features we hope to add, it is a great platform that we can build on top of in the future.

We've decicded it made the most sense for us to focus on building the main portion of the website - **the store** - and make that as best we can before we start working on the community integration.

For the time being, we will have a **storefront**, **recipes**, and a barebones version of the **"Ask Asian 101"** Q&A feature, since we* will be the ones maintaining that for the time being. It will be an email-based support feature.

`* "we" as in someone who works for us but isn't specifically Niko & Kyle since we know very little to nothing about cooking with a lot of the stuff we're gonna be selling`

## Technical
Installtion services are offered by template monster to quickly have your site up and running with your selected theme. However, it seems that theme installation is extremely easy.

While it may appear that selecting one of these packages is quicker or easier. We believe it isn't that binary. More expensive options provide configuration. Configuration is not a difficult process and is likely not worth the $50 -> $630 we would spend on it.

Regardless of the time we save by paying others to set up the site for us, it benefits us much more if we're able to understand how the theme works early on - by essentially putting it together ourselves - and we don't need to spend time figuring everything out as we go later on.

#### Packages

- Installation & Setup (**$50**)
- This is essentially clicking the "upload theme" button on shopify.
- Quick Store Setup (**$100**)
- Offers configuration
- Premium Store setup (**$300**)
- Configuration
- Products will be automatically set up via a csv file.
- We'd still need to prepare the csv file so this doesn't actually save us that much time.
- All in one (**$680**)
- Installation
- "SEO optimization"
- Images
- Writing service

In general, while they could theoretically save us time, none of these are really worthwhile for us. They are all simple services that they are offering because they make can make a quick buck.

Search Engine Optimization isn't as difficult as what they are charging. In addition this service would take nearly 20 days. Doing this ourselves could save time and money. (Not to mention there were already other plans we had to get SEO done properly farther down the line)

These services are probably directed more at the independant sellers that doesn't have time or resources for a dedicated web development team.

#### Combining Themes
**TL;DR:** Possible, but not easy. We should avoid it for now.

Themes come with two parts:
- Visual customization
- Custom applications

Visual customizations are relatively easy to port over. They all use the same information, and just may require some remapping to make then fit nicely.

Custom apps require much more work as they may reference other apps within the theme that aren't in the theme we're using.

It will depend on the theme and how much of it uses apps versus jsut visual modifications.

For now, we should just avoid this and make sure we get the first version of the site working by one week from now (1/15).

### Notes: