While doing some Web strategy consulting work recently for a large office products company, I evaluated several competitors' Web sites. One site -- Avery.com -- stood out not only as the best in the industry, but as an example of creativity and utility uncommon | | in any industry. Another competitor -- MeadWestvaco -- unfortunately for them, served as a prime counter-example (or perhaps an example of how to do almost everything wrong). I have no association with either of these companies, and my comments are intended to be illustrative and constructively critical rather than disparaging.
Avery is a company that really "gets" the Web, and it shows throughout their site. It has all of the basics one would expect, such as full e-commerce capability and a newsletter aimed at their target market, office managers. A nice touch is that all past issues of the newsletter are kept online in a searchable archive. Even more impressive, back issues are searchable by section, topic or specific issue; and most are available in both HTML (better for online reading) and PDF (better for printing) format.
In the Photo ID section, the "Three Ways to Buy" feature simplifies this process (online, by phone, or using an online form to contact an Avery representative).
The Ideas section shows Avery products in use for specific business and home projects (e.g. Give thoughtful client gifts). Their Advanced SearchOffice Products feature is very useful it enables visitors to select exactly what areas of the site they want to search (site-wide, products, ideas or software).
Avery has a large selection of clever and creative product demos done in Flash these show the features and advantages of each product. For example, heres one for Printable Hanging File Tabs. This is very cool.
Possibly the coolest feature on the site, however, is rather than merely providing templates or downloadable software, they have a feature called Avery Print." You simply select which Avery product youd like to print for example, 1/3-cut filing labels click Next, personalize a design, enter your text for the labels, review your labels, then print them. Complete instructions and troubleshooting help are provided. You can even save projects on their site for later re-use or modification. This is way ahead of their competition.
On the other end of the spectrum is MeadWestvaco. Ive never seen a large company Web site, and rarely even a small company Web site, this incredibly awful. They still use frames, for example, which are highly navigation- and search-engine-unfriendly.
The logo in the upper left corner of the site leads to a separate corporate site rather than to the MeadWestvaco home page, which would be standard navigation practice.
They offer free clipart -- but the selection is extremely limited. Their |
| | which are highly navigation- and search-engine-unfriendly.
The logo in the upper left corner of the site leads to a separate corporate site rather than to the MeadWestvaco home page, which would be standard navigation practice.
They offer free clipart -- but the selection is extremely limited. Their templates apparently don't support versions of Microsoft Word newer than Word 2000 (PC) or Word 98 (Mac). They also offer two free applications for download, called KwikFill and EzEnvelope -- but the site offers no explanation of what these applications do, how they work, or what they are compatible with, just a "download" button.
The copyright date on this page is 2000, and the companys history abruptly ends in 2001.
Although the site lists products (catalog items) on pages like this one, it provides absolutely no information about how or where to purchase their products. Maybe you should click that shopping basket graphic on the left (Whoops, sorry, forgot about the frames; from that last link, you'll have to go back to the home page to see the shopping cart.) Nope, that tells you that your cart is empty and sends you back to the catalog!
MeadWestvacos sister sites are a bit better, but not much. AtAGlance.com offers e-commerce functionality, but when I clicked on the first product in the Expanding Files product line, the site gave me this message: OUT OF STOCK We're sorry, this product is currently out of stock and there are no substitutes available at this time. Note: Color is determined at time of shipment. We cannot accept requests for specific colors. The product comes in different colors, but I cant tell them which color I want!! In fact, when I first visited this site, three of the four products listed in this category were out of stock. Hmmmtry a different category How about Folders / Portfolios Two of the first three products in that category were also listed as out of stock.
In the Where to Find Our Products section on the At-A-Glance site, they list retail stores that carry their products but they dont link to any of their sites online, so you cant immediately check the retailers Web sites for availability of any of the products listed as out of stock on the At-A-Glance site. Are you a business purchaser looking for a dealer The site doesnt list dealers on their site, but gives you a link to email us for dealer information unfortunately, this is a dead link.
What would you expect to find in the Whats New section of the site the latest company news perhaps Nope, it just shows a photo and description of a new product but no way to order the product from this page!
In the FAQ section on the At-A-Glance site, under Why isnt the Mead product Im looking for on your Web site, one answer is that some products can be found on Mead.com. However, when you visit the Mead site, and click on Shop, the link takes youback to the At-A-Glance site. Ouch.
Some companies get this stuff, and some don't; in short order, the latter are likely to have their lunch eaten by the former.
About The Author
Tom Pick provides resoures, commentary and helpful advice to Web marketers and e-commerce professionals on his site (www.webmarketcentral.com) and related blog (webmarketcentral.blogspot.com).
This article was posted on October 06, 2005 |
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