Reevoo provides reviews for retailers like Currys and Tesco, and launched its own website last year. It has recently had a revamp, including a new homepage and updated product pages.
The Reevoo website gathers together a wide range of product reviews, and should be a good resource for online shoppers, so how does it shape up?
Homepage
The homepage (above) is a big improvement on the first version (below), which devoted much of its space to a map plotting the location of reviewers, something that doesn't really help buyers.
The site displays electrical goods, and the six main product categories are displayed on the top navigation bar, with a drop down for the rest. Though the drop down shows 31 products it stays there until you close it, making it more usable than some.
On the right hand side, Reevoo provides bullet points explaining what the site offers consumers, which is useful for first time visitors.
The rest of the page is still pretty basic, but well laid out any easy to understand and, for the visitor looking for reviews and prices on a particular product, it is easy to scan and find the product category you want.
Site search
This is a useful destination for shoppers looking for reviews for gadgets they are thinking of buying, and many will head to the search box with a product name or model number.
The search box is prominent, easy to spot, and big enough to handle all but the longest of serial numbers. The search button is the same colour as the header background, and could stand out a little more though.
Reevoo has recently added search suggestions, which appear as you type a keyword into the box. Always a good idea this, as it can avoid misspellings and helps ensure that users searches return results.
However, if users blunder on and enter a misspelled search term, they won't get alternative search suggestions on the results page.
Also, search results pages have inadequate filtering and sorting options. For instance, after searching for 'Sony Vaio', I can select 'laptops' from the product categories in the drop-down, but this still leaves me with 10+ pages of laptops, and no way to narrow my choice further.
Browsing
When browsing through the product categories on Reevoo, the filtering options are much more useful. For instance, if I want a Sony Vaio, I can select 'laptops', then 'Sony' from the links, and the result is much more useful:
Now I can sort through the range of Sony laptops using 20+ filtering options, including the ability to search by price range and average review score, which is especially useful.
Similar sorting options are provided for other products, making the site very easy to browse through, and a valuable resource for people researching products.
Product pages
The product pages are well laid out, and the essential information is provided, though, for some products, descriptions lack detail and some photos are too basic.
The comparison of prices from different retailers is one of the most useful features on the product page, though when I clicked on these links, I found that:
- The laptop was out of stock at Currys.
- The first Amazon link sent me to a different Sony Vaio laptop.
- On the microdirect website, the price was actually £100 cheaper than shown on Reevoo.
A useful summary of reviews is provided, scored according to battery life, performance, and so on, while related products are also displayed to offer alternative options:
Conclusion
While the site is easy to browse through, the lack of filters and sorting options lets the site search function down, though it's OK if you know the exact product you are looking for.
Likewise, though the product pages are well laid out and contain useful information, prices and links need to be kept up to date to be as relevant as possible for shoppers.
All these problems could be fixed relatively easily though, and the site is still a useful tool for product research, thanks to the range of reviews on offer, as well as sending some valuable traffic to its retail partners.
Related articles:
Reevoo receives funding from French VC firm
Reevoo launches reviews website
Graham Charlton is Senior Reporter at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter or connect via Linkedin.
Posted 10 December 2008 09:32am by Graham Charlton with 1 comment
Tags: Web 2.0, Search, Social Shopping, Shopping
Topics: Ecommerce, User Experience & Usability
Sectors: Retail
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Graham Charlton
Online Advertising
8:38AM on 18th December 2008
Good article, Mr.Charlton, the Reevoo site concept has significant appeal (and I've used it to guide several major purchases) but just how objective is the site? Your experience matches with mine but I'd also like to add that I've been asked to write a number of reviews for Reevoo, none of which have ever made it to the site. They've been balanced, concise and accurate but have also highlighted product flaws in the "negatives" section (what else is it for?). I bothered to submit them because they're what I would like to read before making a large electrical purchase. Are we only being shown what Currys/Dixons/Tesco etc. want us to see? The process of censorship is unclear but, from repeated personal experience, I know it happens. Maybe my reviews are just rubbish but a journalistic exploration of the true objectivity of the site would make for a particularly interesting follow up article. Best wishes of the season and for 2009.