RATING: 7/10
City Software's site has a simple, yet professional look and feel. Despite the lack of flashy screens and cute options that are common on other sites, City Software comes up with the goods. Fulfilment of orders is extremely quick with same-day delivery available in Melbourne and the next day for the rest of Australia. It's easy to navigate, but some products are particularly hard to find. Customers are rewarded for their loyalty and can become a member of the "SmartBuy Club" to receive special benefits--a marketing ploy that should never be underestimated. Incredibly though, the registration process for this store is offline, which seems ludicrous when you can purchase products online, and this is perceived to be a barrier to even registering at all--who can be bothered? Regardless, our testers found this site to be useful and easy to use, so it fared well in comparison.
Hits
- The site has a professional, yet simple, look and feel. It gives excellent feedback that helps users keep track of their path though the site.
- Same-day delivery for Melbourne and next-day Australia-wide is available if orders are received by 11:30am. Delivery is free for purchases over $200.
- The vendor offers to send you a free catalogue for you to browse through.
Misses
- When the site was reviewed detailed descriptions were not available for products on the site, but a representative from City Software indicated that these would be available soon.
- There is no personalisation option for repeat purchasers.
Purchasing Process
- Each item has an indication of whether it is available, stock is low or has to be ordered.
- The shopping basket is clear and usable; but it is not always visible on the screen.
- There is good feedback to confirm orders.
Member/Other benefits
- There is a three-percent reward for joining the "Smart Buy" club and special product promotions offered only to members. It costs $50 to join.
- Registration is offline and no indication is given as to what the special offers are.
- Special offers are sent via e-mail to "Smart Buy" members. Search facility
- Our testers were unable to quickly and easily find a notebook using the menu and search.
General Usability
- The site is easy to navigate and the colour contrast and fonts make it easy to read.
- It would be useful if the main navigation system allowed customers to preview the areas of choice before having to actually click through.
- Along the same lines, it would have been useful if the product menu remained on the left-hand side of the screen so customers didn't have to go back to access it.
- There was a particularly slow download on product lists.
- When no products were in the basket, checking the basket offered an error message that was not clean or clear (eg, Microsoft VB script runtime error), this is inappropriate as it does not adequately feedback to the customer what is wrong--why not say, "You have no items in your basket"?
- The site does not comply with W3C accessibility guidelines.
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