Site review – bestbuy.co.uk

May 28, 2010 in review

I spotted a retweet today from a friend that announced Best Buy had iPads in stock. This in iteself isn’t of particular interest to me, but I thought the site could do with the once-over…so I duly headed over there for a look.

How did the site shape up? Are they ‘Best Buy’, or ‘Best Bye-bye’? (AHA DO YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE? It’s like I’m Anne Robinson or something). This is actually quite a short review, but take a look anyway. Read it over your coffee or something.

Read on!

First impressions

As a new player in the UK retail space and a veteran of the US market, one would expect Best Buy to do pretty well.

We seem to be off to a good start. Ish. The homepage is dominated by a massive Flash banner that rolls through 4 creative options. The blue & yellow brand colours are prominent, but the logo is pretty tiny (relatively-speaking).

Click to enlarge

Further down, though, things seem to start to lose focus and try to do too much. There’s the top nav (which is fine), the nav underneath the Flash banner (which actually looks slightly separate to the Flash creative – even though it’s part of the navigation for it to scroll through the creatives); then there’s the left-navs for the ‘Inspiration & Advice’ content…and then ANOTHER sub left nav for whichever ‘Inspring’ thing you click on…and then yet ANOTHER left nav underneath for ‘Best Buy Information’ (which seems slightly pointless at this stage in the journey – homepage is for selling things, surely?) and then finally a ‘Community’ section at the bottom.

The site is built fairly well from a technical perspective – let down slightly by the fact that it’s very image-heavy. Is that an issue for an e-commerce site? Perhaps not. Or is it…?

Design & hierarchy

Now, it happens I’m in the market for a new TV, and Best Buy have a fairly good reputation, so let’s see what they have to offer me. I click on TV & Home Cinema on the top nav, and I’m taken here:

Click to enlarge

Ok, cool…so now what? Another large scrolling Flash banner, and a left nav. Except apparently I’m already in the TV & Home Cinema bit. So where can I find actual TVs? I can see lots of articles on TVs…but none for sale. I spent about 5 mins clicking around trying to find where they were all hidden, to no avail.

This site gives the impression of being an e-commerce site, but it isn’t: it’s a site full of bloody articles and FAQs and glossaries. Wonderful…just what I wanted. All the scrolling Flash banners and eye-catching colours and transitions – for nothing.

One can only conclude that they’re not yet ready to sell online. This site is completely misleading in that respect. Perhaps it’s just me: maybe I got the wrong end of the stick – but frankly, if you’re going to be a major player in the UK retail market, an online shop is a de-facto standard offering and therefore something I’d expect…or at least have my expectations managed quite quickly with some sort of “We don’t sell online – go in-store for the best deals” messaging.

E-brochures

One of my pet hates is the way companies embed offline brochures into online.

Click to enlarge

It strikes me as:

• Lazy
• Uninspired
• A wasted effort

Lazy because it’s the quickest way out – both in terms of getting your product info online and in terms of the customer journey (i.e. them being forced down a tacky, “Oh look I’m turning a page on a virtual brochure” kinda way…urgh).

Uninspired because there are better ways of doing it.

Wasted effort because this content would be much better used on-site rather than in a Flash brochure. Google would love it, and customers would most likely find it easier to use.

What else is there?

They’ve made an effort to embrace the community, with an entire section dedicated to it. It looks like they’ve teamed up with Pluck (pluck.com) to provide a forum and social network presences on Twitter/FB/Youtube and Flickr. This is good start and, if done correctly, will stand them in good stead.

It’d be great to know what kind of strategy (loose or otherwise) they have in place for their Twitter profile: is going to be a customer service channel? A sales channel? Both? Neither? Do they have dedicated resource for it? Twitter can be so powerful for brands that can afford the resource to manage it properly. Tmobile are good at this, as are Zappos. Will Best Buy be another shining example? Time will tell.

Conclusion

Not happy. Unless this is a phase 1 release, with e-commerce coming later, they’re in trouble. PLEASE prove me wrong, as I’d quite like to buy a TV from you (if you do delivery).

Update

Joerg Granacher (Director of Systems Strategy at Best Buy International) has emailed me to inform me that, yes, the site is in a phased release. They wanted to get bespoke expert content out there first before launching the e-commerce platform. It should be live before the 2010 holidays…

Thanks for the info Joerg – and thanks for getting involved in the discussion. Perhaps a good start to Best Buy’s social media strategy?

Tags: design, usability