websites www.landsend.com Reviewed Oct. 17, 12:30 p.m., Explorer 4.5 Bounding onto the Lands’ End Corporate Sales site through its link on the home page, I find an appealing sight: a colorful bar across the top with links to Products, Solutions, Gift Certificates, Login, Register, and View Shopping Cart. Another link, to Logo Mill, lets a customer send an electronic version of his or her company logo, see how it would look on various products, and track its processing progress right up to when it’s ready to ship.
Below the scroll bar, surrounding a vivid photo of a Polartec jacket, are more links: to Popular Products, a catalog request form, and Lands’ End Live. Clicking on the Lands’ End Live link lets me converse via telephone or e-mail in real time with a personal shopper – though it’s hard to believe that I would need further assistance, given how much information the site offers.
Lands’ End does a great job offering its customers the most detailed information about product, including specifics about clothing fiber and care instructions. The Cybercritic appreciates knowing about laundry specifics prior to buying, let alone prior to putting an item in the wash and pulling out a faded rag that would not only barely fit a doll but also turn the rest of the load pink.
As a business owner/ employer, I would find the Solutions index page most helpful. The toll-free phone number and the e-mail address are both listed on the page, along with a bar that offers links to detailed information about Top Five Items, Business Casual, Just For Women, Tradeshow Apparel, and Golf Events, among other product categories. Each category displays copy and images of product to take the user through a smooth decision-making path.
Copy across the site is cheeky but in a refreshing way. For instance, in the clothing section, the company refers to itself as a “close-knit group.” The Overstocks opening page, which displays items on sale up to 40%, touts, “What goes up must come down.” And anyone ordering gift certificates is met with, “We haven’t made one yet that didn’t fit.”
Before heading out, I try to trick the site by “tracking” an order I had not placed. The screen alerts me of a discrepancy. Some other sites would not be as on the ball. For harried corporate shoppers, the Lands’ End corporate site is a gift in and of itself.
www.successories.com Reviewed Oct. 16, 1:30 p.m., Explorer 4.5 It’s ironic that a site promoting motivational gifts and personal/business accessories cannot motivate me to want to stay on the site.
I pretend I am an employer who is trying to buy desk accessories for my staff. Instead of searching blindly for ideas amid Successories’ impressive selection of products, I decide I’ll let the experts get me started. So I click on the Search option and then Gift Finder. After using the pull-down boxes to choose occasion (“business”), product type (“desk accessories”), theme (“teamwork”), and price range (“$50-$89.99”), I hit the Search with anticipation – only to be returned to the original blank option page. Three times.
Deterred but unbeaten, I venture over to the product index on the left side of the home page, which lists eight categories, and select Desk Accessories.
From there I meet with product pages on which some product boxes display “no image available” where a photo should be but that nonetheless have a “view larger image” link below. Fortunately, the product descriptions are detailed and informative, allowing me to be able to visualize the product.
The bottom of the product pages have Browse options with right and left pointing arrows. It is only by clicking on the right pointer can I travel to the next page. To the Cybercritic, “browse” means to stroll throughout a general listing of items. To get to the next page, I think the link should be named Next Page, not Browse.
At least the ordering process is a breath of fresh air – or so I think at first. I choose my product and link to an order form that allows me to add products to the cart, clear or omit any purchases, and view my cart. With bated breath I click Checkout. Much to my disappointment (but alas, not to my surprise), I’m presented with the same order form – blank.
The customer service area provides me with a two-page question-and-answer section, with links to areas such as “Questions about your order” and “Customer service request,” and lists a toll-free number. The company does seem generous with its exchange and return policy, guaranteeing to exchange, refund, or credit my purchase if I am not fully satisfied, for any reason or no reason at all. But there’s nothing explaining why the checkout process didn’t work.
The company’s privacy policy is listed at the bottom of each Web page. The policy assures the highest standards of security features and provides consumers who choose to remove themselves from the catalog’s mailing list with a direct link to an order form to do so. I would feel safe that my credit card and other private information were safely guarded – if I were able to make a purchase, that is. Overall opinion: not the most `success’ful online experience.
www.bestimpressions.com Reviewed Oct. 20, 9:30 a.m., Explorer 4.5 The Best Impressions site makes only an okay impression, primarily because of its limited selection – which may be why the home page so clearly displays its offerings without clutter. I select the Marketing Ideas option and am linked to a scanty page that boasts, “These top selling products are always a hit!” and displays four products, one of which is imageless. Though I do love those Koozie can holders – the pliable, comfortable-grip can holders that are perfect for outdoor athletic games or indoor parties.
Looking for more offerings, I click the Online Catalog link. Not a wide selection of categories and subcategories, but tchochkes galore. If you like magnets, desk clocks, and calendars, you’ve come to the right place. There are 13 product categories, such as Fun Times, Leisure, Writing, and Holiday, with links to product pages.
With the holiday season encroaching, I click the Holiday category button. Only five selections are available, which surprises me, considering that the holiday season is generally when most employers order incentives and gifts. The photos are colorful and tightly cropped, so my eyes aren’t distracted by any background space, but they are fuzzy. My pick: the globe paperweights. Making up in product information what it lacks in product, the site tells me more than I thought I could learn about their design.
Conveniently, each product page displays a box in the upper right corner with options including Order Now, so I don’t have to go back to the home page for that link. One downside is that if I have just ordered a product from the Online Catalog and want to order another item from the Marketing Ideas area, I must return to the home page to enter the second area. But at least on the globe paperweight product page, a column on the left offers links to the other items in the Holiday category. And the Holiday category page includes a column on the left displaying the other product categories from which to shop.
Most disappointing without a doubt is that there is no shopping cart option. Thinking it might be hidden behind another link, I call the catalog’s toll-free number, and a rep named Rhonda tells me that I need to write down the SKU numbers of the items I want and then type them into the order form. A little behind the times, I’d say. But customers who are pressed for time – having spent most of it going back and forth, no doubt – can fill out only the first part of the form and have a sales rep call them back.
I was also perplexed by the nonexistent privacy policy. In fact, another phone representative tells me the company does not list a privacy policy online but that credit card purchases are secure, as indicated by the VeriSign Secure Site button on the home page. A click on that button brings me to a noninformative page that states the secure site is valid, but not much more. The rep tells me that the company does trade mailing lists with other catalogers, but the site doesn’t mention that tidbit. Visitors can make a note in the “additional comments” portion of the order form to inform the company they don’t want their names shared, or they can do what the Cybercritic did and call the 800-number. After speaking with the consumer, the rep will “red flag” the person’s name in its computer database. More proof that Best Impressions is behind the times.