Comments on: Examples of Online Shopping Experience

By: Simon Kemp

Simon Kemp — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:20:36 +0000

roger, who is that ‘local e-tailer’ that you mention? I had no idea that there was a widget for electrical appliances, I think that you may be mistaking it for a different widget?
In the mean time, do check uout the excellent and more compatible Ajax Product Finder solution from Jemms b iBlick AB – a superior solution need not cost the earth! http://www.jemms.co.uk/showcase

By: Roger

Roger — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:31:29 +0000

Experience has taught me to avoid “dinky”-looking websites, and any product whose details (picture, description, price) seem out of whack. Example: I bought a trilogy from chapters.com (now Indigo), but even though the price was clearly for a trilogy, the picture was a single book. The return process got messed up and I wound up without the money AND without even ONE book. Think I’ll ever shop Indigo again?

I also recently had to buy a bunch of appliances for my new house. Given the incredible array of options available, I would have been truly stuck if my local e-tailer hadn’t gone and installed the incredible AnswerOil widget (http://www.prismastar.com/). The e-tailer has a reasonably good site, but AnswerOil is clearly the best part of it. I find myself more willing to shop there, and even buy from them even if they aren’t cheapest, just because of that widget.

By: Geoff Sowrey

Geoff Sowrey — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:30:57 +0000

That’s a perfect example of faceted navigation, there, C. It’s a bit of a buzzy term itself, but when you’re faced with a large array of products that have many (often differently-organised) categorisations, faceted navigation is a handy way of not just filtering content, but getting what you want.

By: The Daily Digest « The Ladd Report

The Daily Digest « The Ladd Report — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:52:08 +0000

[...] Critical Mass Experience Matters: Examples of an Online Shopping Experience [...]

By: C. Sharpe

C. Sharpe — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:13:17 +0000

Your post brings up how important it is for a website to easily “narrow down” information and options for visitors. As you mention, if a “search” fails, you’re often left with too much information to process, especially if the navigation isn’t intuitive.

For example, one online experience that I think needs improvement is Home Depot.com. Try shopping for a refrigerator on Home Depot’s site. Depending on how you get to the refrigerator listings, you may only be able to narrow down your options by price and brand. Then, you’d have to open each listing to find the dimensions of the appliance. (Pretty time consuming.)

Now, compare that experience to Sears.com. Sears allows you to quickly narrow down your selections by type of refrigerator, capacity, brand, color, depth, height, width, price, energy savings, ice maker, etc.

On the Sear’s site, I was able to immediately find the model that suited my style AND that fit into my kitchen. (Quite refreshing.)

By: Examples of Online Shopping Experience at Sowrey.org

Examples of Online Shopping Experience at Sowrey.org — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:20:22 +0000

[...] Read more about online shopping at Experience Matters… [...]