Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

Prices should be shown in local currency. As a minimum, show currency as NZ$100 to avoid confusion.

Add analytics (such as Google Analytics) to your site to track traffic.

Clicking on the "Shop" tab brings up the New Products list, not a overview of your product offerings.

Sizing information. How big is Large? How small is small?

One change I would recommend is that you add quality photo's of your individual pieces. Having your clothing on models is a good display on how it might fit someone. However, as a consumer I want to see the details of the piece. i.e. close up on logos/print and any other details that aren't exactly clear in the current photos that you have. Hope that helps a little!

Cheers

Jonathon Casalou
Business Development & Marketing

The overall look and feel are quite nice.
I am just a bit concerned that I had to search for a way to see what products you have to offer. If I were dropping by your site, as I surfed, I might have moved to an obviously more commercial looking site.

I would like to see more product on the front page.

Once I moved to shop, things looked good, but I would not be certain as to whether I could buy them in the US. I also didnt know what the currency was....

I found myself looking at the company logo and wishing for some type of positioning line that tells me what you do and why you're unique. When I didn't find that my eye scanned to the three beach / environmental images and I was further confused. Then I saw the models and my mind clicked on 'clothing'.

I agree with the comments above that the company needs to focus not just on models, but on the clothing itself - what makes it special, wearable, unique. Is it durable? Washable? Will it shrink? If you visit sites like Timberland or Lands End you'll see that their first priority is to talk up their products as the best in their market. Value is key, especially when you're charging over $100 for a t-shirt. Tell me that there's a sale page somewhere on the site for those of us trying to survive in this economy!

Overall, I wasn't overly motivated to rush out and purchase an item based on the shopping cart. The thumbnails were small making it very difficult to see the product's features - were there buttons, ties? I couldn't tell!

When I visit a web site I want to feel good about my potential purchase - tell me WHY I should buy your product and what it will do FOR ME. the design of the site almost reflects what the company feels about itself, rather than what your customers NEED to feel good about purchasing your products.

It may be very helpful to revisit your mission, vision, values and then work out some constructive corporate messaging about your products. Once you've got a handle on what you want to say, it will be easier to articulate into a marketing sales pitch and sell your products.

Rachel,

I lot of good comments already.

I agree with many others that the images need to be of a higher quality and have more color. If the colors aren't achieved with the garments they must be with the rest of the shot. The image of Sam appears to be out of focus. I agree with another comment that the garment images on the front page should not all be black and no model should be used twice (on the front page).

I also agree that they three images in your banner seem to be out of place. I haven't been to NZ, but I guess something else comes to mind when I think NZ. Think about what image you want to exude. Your copy emphasizes New Zealand, so think about what the rest of the world thinks about when they think NZ.

You also emphasize that your clothing is Merino wool, but do not talk of the the advantages of Merino wool. You should definitely have a page with the benefits of Merino wool.

Since you are trying to reach a global market you might want to have a script that will present the price in a currency the user choses. At a minium you could include an on site currency converter.

Mike

I liked your male model-he had it going on, but I found the female models to look stiff and cold-they looked like they knew someone was taking their pix and looked uncomfortable which in turn made me feel uncomfortable.

You might take a pix with your company name written in the sand on the beach.