Hello tomdavid:
Thanks for the interesting question. I am always happy to do web
reviews. I have experience as both a business analyst and a Chief Web
Officer for a couple of internet-based companies.
My overall opinion of your site is that it is quite well put together
for the task at hand. What is there, for the most part, makes sense
and works the way I would expect it to. My overall impression was
favorable - easy for me to get right to business, not a lot of HTML
"gimmicks" to get in the way - exactly what I would want to avoid in a
site to purchase bulk closeout goods. My impression of your business
sector is that your customers want to get in, get what they want, and
get out fast. This site accomplishes that.
Having said that, however, there are some things I would change/fix.
My detailed impressions follow:
Home Page:
**********
My first impression here was really good - this is a fine homepage! A
lot of information available on the first screen (i.e., without
scrolling) but the columnar design made it so that things weren't
cluttered. I was immediately drawn to click on one of the centrally
located "Editor's Picks".
I like the fact that you've got your products sorted by several
different criteria (by price on the home page, Editor's picks,
merchandise type tabs). This product makes navigation simple.
Suggestion: If someone clicks on a product from the lefthand column on
the homepage, I would think that it would be better to take them to
the product specific tab of the product chosen. For example, if I
select the "Queen Anne Table" I should get the "Premiums and
Promotions" tab, not the "View All Inventory" tab. Why? I think that
your customers are likely to be buying within a specific product
category - get them to those products a.s.a.p.
Bug: When you click on your "Highlight" products, you don't get any
tab chosen. Think this is a programming bug.
Suggestions: The CloseoutSeverices.com logo at upper left should be a
link to home page. Standard.
Suggestion: make sure you have consistent capitalization scheme(s).
For example, in your righthand column, it should read "Ertl cars",
"Halloween novelties" and "Christmas novelties". Small point, but
would leave a better impression of professionalism.
Product Pages:
**************
Again, these product pages are very simple, yet informative. Pictures
are the right size and resolution. Convenient product scroll bar
fingernails on left to choose other similar products. The product
descriptions are short, but to-the-point. The quantity pricing is
clear and well laid-out. Again, I can see everything I need on the
first screen.
Suggestion: One thing that troubled me when I first visited these
pages was I couldn't readily see how to actually buy a product. It
took me some time to figure out I had to click on the Paypal logo. The
"BUY NOW" text is *way too small*. Either make this who logo larger,
move it up on the page, or get a logo where the "BUY NOW" is bigger
than the "Paypal" part - or all three!
Suggestion: I do no understand what the truck picture is for. My first
inclination was to click on it to get shipping information - but
nothing happened. Why is it there? If you could make it a link to a
shipping information page, that would be ideal.
Suggestion: The product pages should have the footer that is on the
homepage: "Home/Contact Us/Customer Service/ View Cart". And maybe
lose the partial contact information that is currently there. Would
give a more consistent feel to the site.
Purchasing Experience
*********************
Overall, once I figured out how to get to the purchasing page, the
buying experience was pretty good - compared to other e-commerce sites
I've been to. A clean, simple purchasing flow, which (usually) spawned
new windows only when necessary.
One thing I missed in the whole purchasing flow was any indication of
what your stock levels were. I was not sure that the volumes I was
requesting were actually available. There seemed to be no maximum
volume to order - what happens when you have insufficient stock?
Fixing this is very important to the customer experience.
Suggestion: If you can get Paypal to change your logo so it includes
the open box picture, that would be better branding.
Bug: Close all cart windows. Buy a product. On cart window, choose
"Continue Shopping". Cart window goes to back, but does not close.
Select to buy another product. You get a new cart window - now you
have two!! Can this be fixed so that there is only ever *one* cart
window?
Suggestion: The cart page does not list the per-case price. This
should be there for reference and so that the customer has confidence
that the math is being done correctly.
Bug: The font in the "Update Cart" button should match that in the
"Continue Shopping" button.
Suggestion: On the "Payment Details" page, you really need to sum the
product price + shipping to give a total charge. Very confusing the
way it is. Feels like the "Amount" number *includes* the "Shipping &
Handling" number!!
Seeing as I wasn't actually buying anything, that was as far as I was
willing to go in the purchasing process.
Help Desk
**********
No problems here.
The Competition
***************
I compared your site to several other closeout sites. Many of them had
nice design, but no e-commerce capabilities. Your e-commerce puts you
ahead of these ones. Two others that did have e-commerce are not
designed as well as you are.
http://www.sav-on-closeouts.com/
You're Better:
* design, feel, layout
* access to products from multiple places/sortings
* no banner ads
* important info on first page
* separate windows for separate page types (e.g., cart page)
They're Better:
* Quantity chooser on product page (like this!)
* Case price on cart page
http://www.closeouts-usa.com/
You're Better
* design, layout, flow
* access to products from multiple places/sortings
* separate windows for separate page types (e.g., cart page)
They're Better
* keeping user informed through purchasing process
* Case price on cart page
However, after having reviewed these other two sites, I must say that
yours is the overall best, most professional site I've seen in this
area. With a few revisions and bug-fixes, you'll be even more solidly
in first.
It's been a pleasure reviewing your site. I hope that this information
has been of help in your search.
If you need any clarification of the information I have provided,
please ask using the Clarification feature and provide me with
additional details as to what you are looking for. As well, please
allow me to provide you with clarification(s) *before* you rate this
answer.
Thank you.
websearcher-ga
Search Strategy (on Google):
closeouts
://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=closeouts&meta= |
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