Online Shipping Before Black Friday

It is so painful to do this activity without actually buying anything, especially around the time of the Black Friday Sale!
   -Gary

ThinkGeek.com

•  Product: pop culture inspired items, geek toys and gadgets, collectables, and T-shirts and Apparels
• Search: search bar is great and located at the upper-middle part of the site, self-populating result as user type in words, extremely accurate.
• Add to Cart: They have the BUY NOW button in a bright orange color, the only orange button on the website. Once the button is click, it brings the user to the shopping cart. Perhaps a “add to cart” without bring the user to the cart is a better choice, but I’m ok with it (for now!)
• Features that I like: The rotating banner is a good feature, shows me all the current deals on the site. The site separates the catalogues of items into both “Shop by Category” (Home & Office, Geek toys etc.) and “Shop by Interest” (Star Wars, The Big Bang Theory etc.). It makes it very easy to narrow down my choice. The site encourage user to send them picture using the item, and in turn they will post it on their website – Show Off All Your Geeky Glory. They also motivate user to post picture via social media platform with a chance to win a $100 certificate.

BestBuy.ca

• Product: Home and portable electronics, video games and consoles, Furniture and recreational toys
• Search: search bar is located at the top left corner, self-populating result as user type in words. Categories are organized in both product type and brands.
• Add to Cart: They do have an “Add to Cart” function, so user can continue on the same page clicking that button.
• Features that I like: The “We also recommend” is a good feature located under the description of the current product; sometimes I will end up purchase a few more things from there and I don’t have to look through the website for it/them. The categories are done very well, once the user mouse over a product type, it populate the screen with some examples (usually 5 items) of that particular category. BestBuy, being that they are also a retail store, has an online inventory system. It can inform me that I can also make the purchase in-store if needed. It also has an area of customer review with a 5 star system.

SuperdryStore.ca

• Product: wearable items such as jackets, tops, bottoms, shoes, accessories
• Search: search bar is located at the top right corner, self-populating result WITH PICTURES as user type in words, and it show examples of Men’s and Women’s items. Categories are organized in Men’s, Women and NEW IN (or new items).
• Add to Cart: They do have an “Add to Bag” function, so user can continue on the same page clicking that button. Once you click that button, the top right corner will flash with a window for a few second with the option to view bad and checkout before it disappears.
• Features that I like: As a clothing-focused e-store, I like how all the colors are displayed for each item. They also have multiple pictures (far shot, close up, front, back) available on each color, along with a enlarge picture function. They also have a video for most of their item; a model displaying “the look” in motion. They also have an area that suggests complimentary pieces that goes along with the current selected item near the bottom. A recently view function at the bottom is also a good feature; it allows me to go back and revisit something I previously selected.

EBgames.ca

• Product: Video games and related items
• Search: search bar is located at the top left corner, self-populating result with small images as user type in words. Categories are organized by game consoles and platforms.
• Add to Cart: There are two types of buttons, both of which are in Red color. First one is the “Buy Now” button, which is located under each game that got displayed on the main screen due to its popularity at the time. This particular button brings the use to the selected item page with more product description. This is also where the second Red button located, called the “Add to Cart”. This button fills the cart at the top right corner once it’s clicked without leaving this description page.
• Features that I like: This site has an area early on for their best sellers. And also, the item descriptions and additional information are extremely detailed, telling the user exactly what they expect to experience after the purchase. Video games are natural packaged in a very colorful case, so the website chooses to go with a simply White background to ease the contrast of each video game.

IKEA.com/ca

• Product: Furniture, Appliances and home accessories
• Search: search bar is located at the very top, self-populating result as user type in words. Categories are organized room type – Kitchen, living room, bathroom etc.
• Add to Cart: There is “Save to list” button, once clicked it will show a smaller window telling a user that the product is added to the shopping list. In that same window, it gives the user an option to register (or log on to) an account to save the list for later.
• Features that I like: Subcategories shows the number item available under that particular category. Items are shown in their respective titles and a large enough pictures. Product information is extremely detailed. Along with the downloadable Assembly instructions, users can plan ahead without the actual purchase.