Every E-commerce site needs to have 6 important characteristics in order to be successful. Below, I have analyzed each characteristic according to the Allsaints.com website.
1. Addressability-PROS
-Remembers you as a shopper
-Identifies recent items you have viewed and purchased
-When viewing a product, it recommends new items that identify
with your taste:
*When looking at the Warp Pullover:
*AllSaints recommends these 3 similar items:
- Thorough overview of privacy and security policies
- Includes Privacy and Cookie FAQ's
- Offers 'Out of Stock' email updates
- When you sign up with an account, and email updates, they do a very good job with the following:
1. By using segmentation: they know I’m female! Showing pictures of this season’s must-have fashion pieces.
2. By reinforcing the value of the proposition: including a brief
summary of what to expect and also the benefits of shopping at
Allsaints online.
3. By having a clear call to action: including links to shop by section;
dresses, denim, footwear which will hopefully lead to an upsell.
4. By reminding the reader to add Allsaints to their address book: very important to help deliverability and correct display
5. By being sociable: including ‘join the community’ links as well as a download the App link – ‘like’.
-Offers an 'Add to Wishlist' and 'E-mail to a friend' option
on each product
Addressability-CONS
-Customer service hours are limited if living in the US
-> Monday-Friday:8:00am-6:00pm
-> Closed on Saturday and Sunday
- Only full refunds offered from on-line merchandise within 14
days of receiving
- When you sign up for an account (as shown above) and you get
the first email, they assume that you are living in the UK.
They offer services that are only offered if living in the UK
and not anywhere else. For example, free shipping anywhere,
24 hour customer service, and next-day delivery options,
causing confusion for the customer.
SWOT:
- Strengths:
- remembers you as a shopper
- recommends product that identifies with your taste
- offers out of stock and email updates
- Weaknesses:
- limited customer service
- not geographically aware of where you are
- Opportunities:
- expand customer service house
- when signing up for an account, AllSaints should ask where the you live so that it keeps record of which site to always show you (UK or US site)
- Threats:
- technological change- AllSaints must keep up with the ever changing technology and e-commerce demands
2. Interactivity-PROS
- Offer the site in 5 different languages
-Many FAQ: Questions and answers over a variety of categories.
They offer FAQ for:
*PRIVACY AND COOKIES
*SHIPPING
* RETURNS
* SHOPPING
*CONTACT US/ CUSTOMER SERVICES
-When viewing an item, AllSaints will recommend other items to
'complete the look'
-This is an excellent cross selling strategy that AllSaints
uses to make the shopper purchase more
-Allows shopper to see 'recently viewed' items as well as a
'more products' option:
- Ex: leather jacket- more product option will show you
other merchandise in leather
- Offers 5 different views of each items, 1 of the views being
a model
- Zoom option
- Offer a detailed description of each item, delivery method,
and care guide for each item
-Offer LookBook options
-Allows customer to like on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,and
others
- Basement Sessions
-Bring customers new music and exclusive content
-Recorded and filmed in a warehouse space below their
London design studios
-Weekly sessions present live performances, insightful
interviews and upfront podcasts
-Provide brief history of who you are currently listening
too
LISTEN HERE:http://www.us.allsaints.com/music/
Interactivity-CONS
-Overall Allsaints.com does a remarkable job in the interactivity characteristic. The only con that I found significant is that Allsaints does not offer live chat with personal shoppers or customer service representatives.
SWOT:
- Strengths:
- Offer the site in 5 different languages, and 2 different currencies
- offer 'complete the look' option (cross selling strategy)
- excellent quality of photos that show product and details and offer multiple views and zoom
- Weaknesses:
- Assume the customer lives in the UK
- Opportunities:
- Offer live chat with sales associate
- Threats:
- changes in the market place
3. Memory-PROS
-Website remembers you as a shopper and what you've previously
viewed
-Remembers what you have purchased
-If shopper creates and account, it will keep on file credit
card information, your addresses, your orders, your wishlist
and gift cards.
Memory-CONS
-Overall Allsaints.com does an excellent job with memory. The
only negative characteristic I could find on this website as
far is memory is it only shows up to 3 recently viewed items.
They should show more recently viewed items because many
customers are viewing more than three items, and would like
the website to remember every item they have viewed, for easy
access if they decide to purchase or view again.
SWOT:
- Strengths:
- remembers you as a shopper
- remembers what you have purchased
- keeps record of credit cards used
- Weaknesses:
- only show last 3 recently viewed items
- Opportunities:
- Allow the customer to view more than 3 recently viewed items
- technological advances
- Threats:
- technological changes
4. Control
-Easy overall shopping experience
- Offers product category or search engine tools
->Search Engine:
->Product Category:
Ex: Leather Jacket
-Women
-Leathers
-Color:Black
-Price Range: $250-$500
SWOT:
- Strengths:
- easy overall shopping experience
- offers product category or search engine
- Weaknesses:
- no sale or promotions
- Opportunities:
- offer a sale/promotion or discounted portion of the site, even if it is relatively small
- Threats:
- socio-cultural changes
- technological changs
5. Accessibility-PROS
-Offer videos that show the shopper the hand crafted techniques
and intricate production processes that develop the essential
styles as well as being inspired by the most influential
pieces from each collection
-Provide store locator, career, and company information
-Not For Sale Campaign
- Proceeds from this line made specifically for AllSaints
benefit Not For Sale's work to combat human trafficking
globally, and producers continue to promote the shared
vision of the Not For Sale and AllSaints to prevent
forced labor and end human trafficking.
-Links to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, G+
Accessibility-CON
-Under the company information link, AllSaints does not provide
information about the company history, who they are, ect
-> Provide information on office locations, addresses,
phone numbers, ect
SWOT:
- Strengths:
- offer video collections of product and campaigns
- basement sessions
- provide a store locator
- Weaknesses:
- no company information can be found on website
- Opportunities:
- personal AllSaints information about the company (history, founding, ect) should be presented on the website
- Threats:
- Continual changing market place and customers that are not brand loyal
6. Digitilization
- Excellent quality of pictures
-> Details, Colors, patterns, ect
-> Ex: Clear pictures show details of a black leather
jacket
- Option to view Basement Session in HD
- Fast and incredibly efficient download speed
SWOT:
- Strengths:
- excellent quality of pictures
- option to view videos in HD
- fast download speed
- Weaknesses:
- No video of clothing displayed on a live video model
- Opportunities:
- Other online stores are starting to offer the option of viewing the product on a model who walks down a run way, this allows the customer to really get a feel for the product they are looking at
- By doing this AllSaints is staying in line and up-to-date with competitors
- Threats:
- due to the financial crisis going on right now, the AllSaints business may not be as successful as it once was, leaving less money to use towards their online site
This is the conclusion of the 6 characteristics that every E-commerce site should have. Addressability, interactivity, memory, control, accessibility, and digitilization are all characteristics that a website must have and succeed at in order to be successful. Allsaints.com overall does an incredible job with all 6 of these characteristics, with only a few that they could improve.
