Traditional Catalogers Turn to the Web

What can be expected when traditional catalogers turn to the World Wide Web? Does their direct marketing expertise makes for websites the rest of us should emulate? Not necessarily...as Computerworld columnist Kim S. Nash reported in a review entitled "‘Net Shopping Not So Merry."

Nash checked out a number of websites the day after Thanksgiving...traditionally the busiest day of the year at retail stores. According to the columnist, "rather than hip-checking and feinting to ensure I got what I wanted, I browsed, clicked and sipped hot cocoa."

None of the sites got a perfect score, but L.L. Bean (www.llbean.com) came closest with fast-loading graphics and a layout that followed the theme of the paper catalog. Among others, there were several recurring problems which we’ve also found in our own web browsing including:

* Graphics which may look great on a paper catalog page, but take far too long to download over the web.

* A cluttered and confusing layout. (Once again, a "paper" metaphor which translates poorly to the web.)

* Difficulty finding specific items, and/or a limited selection.

* And transaction processing which is more difficult than in-person or telephone shopping.

Nash gave initial high marks to camping outfitter REI (www.rei.com) for its innovative Holiday Gift Finder, but using that search function returned several duplicate items. The Spiegel website (www.spiegel.com) could take an order but not compute sales tax, a function that should be easy to automate.

The Lillian Vernon site (www.lillianvernon.com) looked good but featured several dead links including one with an ungrammatical explanation of the problem. Ozark Mountain Family (www.ozarkfamily.com) got points for its humor (something that’s easy to include on any site at very low cost if you have a good writer) but was marked down for trumpeting products which could not be found on the website.

Reading this article, it occurred to us that experienced catalogers actually might take a lesson from newfangled retailers who have built their web businesses from scratch. The most obvious example is amazon.com (www.amazon.com), the mega bookstore that combines sophisticated search functions (and remembers your selection so it can make appropriate suggestions next time you shop) and a "shopping cart" which automatically calculates all components of the final price including shipping, gift wrap and several delivery options.

About the Author

Robert McKim

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