Flower retailer Interflora has just launched a transactional mobile site, offering a limited range of the flowers and gifts that are available on the desktop website.
It's a product which should be well suited to mobile, as it offers shoppers a chance to but last minute gifts when they cannot get to either a shop or a computer.
The fact that Interflora offers a same day delivery service if you order before 1pm makes it even more appealing, especially if you have forgotten someone's birthday.
Most importantly, the site has followed best practice for mobiles and kept it simple for users, with a stripped down version of the standard website. Users can choose flowers in just a couple of steps, selecting the occassion they are intended for, then choosing from a limited range before deciding on a delivery date.
Interflora has provided two choices of payment method on the site; click to call or credit / debit card. Entering delivery addresses and card details on a small mobile screen is potentially tricky, so can this be made usable?
Address details are handled well, with Inteflora taking a postcode first before provide a list of possible addresses in a scrolling menu, which saves too much data entry:
Also, once you begin the checkout process, you know how many stages there are to go through. Eight may seem a lot, but it has been split over this many pages to make each step simpler. However, on slower mobile internet connections, loading so many pages could become a problem.
I think Interflora has made the payment process as easy as it could on a mobile site that has to cater for a range of handsets, and has created a usable mobile version of its site.
It should look at the kinds of mobiles that shoppers are accessing the site on and consider optimising for the most popular ones. I used an iPhone, and while it worked well in general, but I had to scroll sideways to find some of the links. An iPhone optimised site or app would do the job better.
It could also divert mobile users automatically to the most appropriate version of the site. I had to know the mobile URL first, which makes it less likely that Interflora will attract sales from people that type the brand into a search engine on their mobile.
Graham Charlton is Editor at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter or connect via Linkedin or Google+.
CEO at KODIME Ltd
11:38AM on 27th March 2009
Good effort for the mob site, especially the focus on reduced inventory and options. Like the continual prompt to also call (click don't work on iPhones as usual, stooopid Apple). And regarding "put out as an iPhone App" let's be realistic, and check the stats of how many iPhone users there actually are ready to buy flowers prior to spending an additional fortune on a single platform, requiring to actively search, find the app and download it. Not a free game after all.
The "SMS preference" opt-out is
"If you would like to stop SMS communication, please call Customer Services on 08709045459"
which is not quite sticking with the rules - should be "Text STOP to..." in addition.
Might order some flowers for the wife now ...
Editor at Econsultancy
11:43AM on 27th March 2009
Hi Nico, thanks for the comments. I see what you mean about the iPhone app, an optimised site may work better, though I did say that Interflora should look at what devices its customers are using first.
Usability Specialist at Freelance
12:16PM on 27th March 2009
I had a look at this and found that the photograph quality wasn't good enough for me to choose something to order. I know they're trying to optimise for mobiles but I'd like the option to be able to see a larger are better quality image of the product.
9:40AM on 28th March 2009
Thanks for posting the review Graham.
There are a few minor formatting issues, but on the whole it's a great move from Interflora. Anecdotally, many people place orders during 'passive hours' (outside work or activity time... on the train, on their way to meetings, between activites) so providing a handy mobile app is very useful indeed.
I agree with @David - photographs - but with a simple full-screen click through, like Flickr mobile, would easily rectify that.
Also, I'm not sure if the function exists, but a history re-order mechanism would be handy to encourage regular use and handy one-click ordering.
10:09AM on 30th March 2009
Thanks for the review. This looks really good. Logo needs to be resized for my phone, but otherwise it's a snap to use. Really neat piece of work.
9:28AM on 31st March 2009
Thanks all for the positive and constructive feedback - recommendations for future enhancements will be taken on board... The site soft launched just a couple of weeks back and at this point is supported with just a limited level of promotion. Once we've a clearer understanding of devices using the service specific versions can be considered, but the size of market will need to be large enough to warrant this development. At this stage, simplicity has enabled the site to be as usable as possible across the myriad of screen sizes and browsers in use.
As you suggest, we'll shortly be putting an automated redirect in place, enabling customers arriving to interflora.co.uk via mobile devices to be forwarded through automatically to the mobile site (bringing with it the simplicity of promoting a single URL for both services). Early days, but exciting times as the development of m-commerce kicks off!
9:54AM on 23rd August 2010
Also, I'm not sure if the function exists, but a history re-order mechanism would be handy to encourage regular use and handy one-click ordering.I really like your post you done a great jobs . Thanks for sharing valuable information.