22nd ANNUAL MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT AWARDS

Home and Gardening Products, contd.

GOLD: WEB CHANNEL

Cooking.com | www.cooking.com
From conventional bakeware and measuring spoons to magnetic flatware retrievers to get your accidentally discarded utensils safely out of the garbage, Cooking.com sells everything but the kitchen sink. It offers everyone from the dorm room chef to the culinary professional just about any item for cooking.

Why it won a Gold Award
The site's “excellent” copy did not just talk about the product, but went into detail describing merchandise attributes. What's more, plenty of customer reviews complemented the editorial copy. “The product pages are where they really shine,” said one judge. “They are well designed and full of information and customer reviews.”

Cooking.com also offers up a 21st-century way to engage its customers. “They offer an e-newsletter with recipes, and another one to promote specials,” a judge said. “What a great way to drive traffic and build their brand.” The site employs more merchandising tactics than most, creating a cooking community with a slew of product information, customer ratings and, of course, more than 50,000 culinary items.

Cooking.com's navigation from the home page allows for easy linking to the desired destination. The search gives the desired results, even if the product name is spelled wrong. And that's something that could turn “Kweezinart” browsers into multibuyers.

Idea to steal
The site lets customers browse by “top rated” products in numerous categories, and makes that feature a part of the main page as opposed to burying it in the sidebar navigation. The gesture gives the user a sense of community and ownership, and not a feeling that he or she will be force-fed a product to purchase.
— TP

Marketing director: Larry Sales
Creative director: Eike Wintzer (Envisa)
Director of e-commerce: Anna Gould
Webmaster: Robin Kerr
Website designer: Eike Wintzer (Envisa)
Photographer/illustrator: David Frugé
Account supervisor: Francois Pigeaud (Envisa)
Consultants: Envisa, Jeffrey Schneller, Michael Cao, Chris Fargiano

SILVER: WEB CHANNEL

Smith+Noble | www.smithandnoble.com
Window treatments can make or break your home decor, but shopping for shades, drapes, and accessories can be daunting. Unless, of course, you visit Smith+Noble's Website, which sets itself apart by offering a measuring wizard tool and a wealth of helpful white papers, videos, and live chat shows, putting itself at the forefront of Web technology. And that benefits the customer and the bottom line.

Why it won a Silver Award
The site sells many products across all types of window coverings. Its category landing pages have good lead-in descriptive information. For instance, the Roman Shades landing page, which says that these window treatments offer “clean, classic lines suitable for any taste or decor style,” specifies that they come in a variety of styles and fabrics, and how they fall when raised.

Smithandnoble.com's product copy also is detailed and informative, including the benefits of each style and option. The design-your-own feature, said one judge, was beautifully done, and even allowed you to see the product with any room color to offer a realistic setting. Although copy is not bulleted, it is short and tight and perfect for the Web, a member of the panel said.

Take the copy for pleated arch shades, which drives a call to action: “The perfect solution for unique window and door shapes! … Download our Order Guide for details, including measuring tips.” “A host of helpful information was available for measuring and decorating, including easy to access PDF files, videos, and telephone support,” said a panelist.

Why it didn't win a Gold Award
Technology made the Website shine, but it was also its downfall in some places. The product page presentation includes dynamic flash image navigation, multiple HTML pop-ups, embedded tabs and a Web 2.0 swatch filter/search that expands and collapses, but also slowed the site down.

Another problem: Due to the complexity of the customization process, the overall ordering process is difficult, and getting product into the shopping cart is not easy.

The judging panel had some issues with the site's search function as well. “It's hard to judge whether the search finds what it should, as there are so many product combinations and options,” a panelist said. “Navigation is easy to use — as long as one knows the difference between all of the window covering types.”— TP