The Online Insider Walks Down Memory Lane Via Vermont Country Store
Written: Apr 12 '04
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I had read a few reviews about The Vermont Country Store Online and was particularly interested in the "store within a store concept" that they feature called Brands from the Past.
This is a common theme in offline retailing, (think Starbucks cafes in Barnes and Noble outlets) but it's not often done in online -- so, as the online marketing nerd, the Insider needed to take a peek.
Site Design and Navigation
The overall design of the site is cluttered, but the effect is somewhat homey, which I suspect was the intention. The Orton family (the owners of the offline Vermont Store and the site's founders) are displayed right on the homepage, which will give the user a feeling of trust right off the bat. The site is divided into several merchandising areas.
The top area features the homespun logo, with the message --"Vermont Country Store -- Purveyors of the Practical and Hard to Find." Underneath this, they feature a tab format that will connect the user with their stores, enable a catalog request and let the user interact with customer service.
The right side of the site are all placements that look like banner advertisements. In reality, they direct the user to areas within the site.
On the left side of the site there is a list of their specialty stores -- The Stores within the Store. These kitschy named outlets are sure to get the uninterested browser engaged. You can click on: New This Spring, Brands From The Past, Customers' Favorites, Customer Requested, Internet Exclusives, Pamper Yourself, Problem Solvers or Yankee Bargains.
If you're looking to shop via category, you can click on the list of store areas. These are fairly basic categories, but the site's designers have made sure to make change some of the names to reflect the site's rural roots. You might click on: Accessories, Apothecary, Clothing, Domestics, Food & Candy, Footwear, Home Accessories, Household, Kitchen, Outdoor, Sleepwear, Socks & Hosiery, Underwear, Toys & Games
All in all, they've done a nice job letting the user pick and choose how they'd like to browse about.
If you click on the Brands from the Past area, you can navigate through pages of items that you might remember from growing up. I was excited to see Black Jack gum, Buster Brown shoes, Charms lollipops, and Charles Chips potato chips.
Purchasing From The Vermont Country Store Online Store
Unfortunately, though I love the concept of the store and even love the brands from the past section more, ordering from this site is completely unintuitive. Let's go through the process together to determine where they fall down.
After clicking into the Brands from The Past area, I was excited to see the Charles Chips display, and decided to send a canister of Chips to my father.
NOTE: If you're not from the Northeast, Charles Chips used to be distributed by a van that would come to your neighborhood. The chips were sold by the can -- large yellow aluminum cylinders -- and they were really good. My dad and grandfather especially loved them.
The Chips products are displayed as an icon and some text --"Since 1942 Charles Chips Has Been Delivering Smiles". Once I decided to learn more about the product, I attempted to click on the words and although they are blue and emboldened, they are not clickable. The product icon is clickable, however, so I can progress to the next page. This is a slight problem and it shouldn't effect too many people, but it's easy to fix and should be rectified.
Once you arrive on the product page for Charles Chips, you are presented with a truly interesting display. The product picture is now bigger and there is more text to read. But there is no add to cart icon -- just a large text block saying, "1. Select a product". This is a problem. Although I read it a few times, I kept looking for exactly how I could select the product. It turns out that the icons next to the products (small pale blue button-like things) are what you must use to select the product. This is very strange and MUST confuse the majority of people.
After depressing the icon, the page reloads and lets you select the quantity of items you'd like and select your ship to address. You can then click the "Check Out" button at the bottom of the page.
However, after you click "Check Out" you land on the same page you were just on, with a new shaded area on top. This area contains a text message -- "Charles Chips, 16 oz Tin is currently available. It has been added to your basket.
To view contents of shopping basket click here." What this doesn't directly say is that you need to click on the link to actually finish the check out process. Very bad job here, as people will now be totally confused and will stop the transaction process.
Once you figure this last step out, you arrive at a confirmation screen where you need to scroll to the bottom and hit a "Go To CheckOut" button.
Then and only then can you check out of the site. After you pass through the problem zone, it's a fairly standard billing and shipping process.
I recieved an order confirmation email and a shipping notice for my order, so I was satisfied with the transaction.
Overall Experience
The folks behind this site need to look a bit more closely at the design of the transaction path. They are losing customers because of the non-intuitive structures they've used in the site -- and they are costing themselves money.
It's a shame, because this IS a good site and it IS run by trustworthy folks...it's just not built the right way.
BHWEB22
Recommended:
No
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bhweb22
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Member: Brian H
Location: Northeast
Reviews written: 297
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