Great Reviews Online Guidance

Online shopping is undoubtedly the future of vast segments of the retail trade, even established high street stores have been forced to make the investment of a robust web presence due to the fear of being left behind. The names of once famous retailers who failed to spot the seismic change in consumer spending habits makes for sobering reading.

Yet the high-street retailer still has an advantage in some ways, it manages to give the consumer a retail experience that the online store can't. The experience of visiting a retail location where the business has almost complete control over the buying environment is extremely powerful. It subtly sells not only the products on sale, but in addition the ethos and values of the brand - an excellent example of this is the focus on detail a major store places on every element of their customer interaction.

If it sounds like the new online shops have their work cut-out, well that is only one side of the story. For all of the ways through which they cannot compete with a physical retail outlet they have one very powerful advantage - convenience. However, the on-line presence of a highly styled and sculpted brand cannot control the surroundings and atmosphere of the location where the consumer is browsing their products - it may be a quiet office or busy internet café. So careful attention has to be paid in an attempt to immerse the our website user in as much of a retail experience as is possible, while you would ever guess, this isn't the easiest of tasks. As much detail as is lavished on embellishments for example music and animated elements it's actually the small obstructions to the retail experience that cause most disruption to that coveted immersion. Any hiccups in the path from browsing to basket to checkout need to be ironed out.

Thought must also be given to the sometimes random path the user wishes to take around the shop. One example is the 'basket' page, many sites don't allow the user to click on the items within their basket to navigate to the individual product pages. This, although partially understandable as a result of the retailer trying to 'guide' the user to the checkout, can be very frustrating to the user that simply want to review a product description before purchasing.

So the internet shop has some way to go, it has inherent strengths and yet suffers some effortlessly avoidable weaknesses. There isn't any stopping the future of retail and with some care and attention it can be the effortless experience that both retailer and consumers want.