Yesterday, for very differing reasons, I visited two UK online retail sites - one selling goth clothing and t-shirts (www.attitude.uk.com) and one who specialises in clothes for the, let’s say, bigger man (www.bigteeshirt.co.uk).

Here’s the thing - I had my credit card out, I was ready to spend the money. In fact, despite the resistance one of these sites put up, I did spend the money.

But I have no doubt that the owners of Attitude Clothing are wondering why, despite their niche market and almost captive audience, they don’t convert that well.

A quick comparison reveals the basic difference between the two sites:

Bigteeshirt.co.uk, despite having a very basic design, does so much right.

Nice big, clear images of the products; a size chart on every page, a very clear call to action (Order Before 2pm and You’ll Receive It The Next Day) - there’s everything you need to know on every product page.

Plus, they let you browse the site in logical ways : you can view by styles of clothing (ie: t-shirts, shirts, belts, etc.); by size (and here they have sizes in inches or xl, xxl, etc - it’s your choice). You can choose new products, sale products, 100% cotton products - and you can browse through these and see what takes your fancy.

This is ecommerce made simple and done right. They might not be a huge brand name site, but it does exactly what it says on the tin and for that, BigTeeShirt.co.uk should be commended.

Compare this with www.attitude.uk.com - it’s a prettier site, for sure, but it does everything wrong.

Here’s just a couple of examples :

1) Well, they use dhtml menus and javascript drop downs as part of their navigation. However, all I did was click the ‘go’ button next to the ‘by product’ drop down list. What I was expecting to see was a range of product types to choose from or a maybe a landing page pushing me towards particular items.

I didn’t expect this, however,

And that wasn’t all. When I wanted to browse the sale section (again not choosing any particular subcategory - I just wanted to see what was on offer), I got taken back to the homepage.

In fact, all of those graphical links on the left hand side of each page will take you back to the homepage unless you select a sub-category from the dhtml pop up menus.

Ugh. Does nobody test these things to see how user-friendly they are?

Sometimes people just like to browse through a website - without any particular rhyme or reason or idea in mind. Attitude.uk.com makes this impossible and frankly, the whole buying experience was extremely frustrating.

There is a lesson here: converting your customers isn’t really about having a pretty website. It’s about providing them with control over their experience on your website and allowing them to use your website in ways that suit them as individuals.

If your website does that right - like Big Tee Shirt.co.uk , then you will reap the rewards. If you fail to do it, as Attitude Clothing clearly do, don’t be surprised if that niche market gravitates towards a competitor who can provide a satisfying online purchasing experience.

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