I wrote a post a few months ago that listed a few criticisms of the Boots website, which contained a number of usability and design flaws.
The website has been much improved recently and we're now singing from the same hymnbook, although one or two notes remain out of tune...
I suggested ten things Boots could improve online in the last article, and the retailer seems to have dealt witth at least six of them... I'd love to hear more from Boots about the effects of these changes.
The site didn't fit the whole screen
Previously, the site was optimised for a screen resolution of 800 x 600, now it has been centred and stretched, and looks much better as a result:
Navigation hidden below the fold
Having navigation and other important links above the fold can make a big difference when it comes to getting visitors to click on them. Boots now has its navigation links visible, though some special offers are still placed where they could be missed.
More visible basket and checkout links
The basket is now more easily spotted, in bold text at the top centre of each page, while the checkout link is one of the clearest on the basket summary.
The idea here is to make links like this, which push customers closer to a purchase as clear as possible.
Making me enter the same details twice
Last time, having already entered my address when registering before the checkout process, I had to re-enter it for my delivery details. This unnecessary step has now been removed, making the process a little bit easier.
Emailing when items are back in stock
If items aren't in stock and retailers choose to still display them, then offering to contact customers is a good idea.
I haven't managed to find any out of stock items today, so perhaps Boots has decided to simply not list unavailable products, which is another good way of dealing with the issue.
Unclear contact details
Boots' contact details were hard to find a few months ago, and weren't listed under a 'contact us' link. Now they are where you would expect to find them, while adding a nice clear link and phone number to the shopping basket is a very good idea:
There remain some areas that could be further optimised...
No delivery details on the product pages
These details, potentially vital to a customer's purchase decision, are still not listed on product pages, which would be a good place to make this information clear.
Boots should be applauded for making its free delivery for orders over £45 nice and clear on the homepage, though it could do better by advising customers with orders under this threshold that they can spend a bit more to get this offer.
It is a problem that customers have to click on the shopping basket, then the checkout link, before they can get information about delivery charges and times.
Product pages lacking detail
This has not changed, with more detail and better product photos required, especially for more complex and expensive medical products like this.
Not enclosing the checkout
Navigation options are still displayed throughout the checkout, so customers can easily click away, exit the process and lose the details they have entered.
No email sign up options
Boots is missing out on the opportunity to get customers on their email list by not displaying email signup forms around the site.
Related articles:
Ten things Asda can do better online
Related research:
Online Shopping and Credit Crunch Survey Report
Reader comments (1)
11:42AM on 24th December 2009
Emailing when items are back in stock is a great idea one I would certainly use.. I mean I love boots and have bought stuff from their site before but it has happened to me that the stuff I want that don't have currently and in such cases I use some other sites..now if they had this option I would rather wait a few days to see if they get it than buy it somewhere else.
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