e-Commerce Strategy & Research

Free UX Audit

Retail UX reviewed 30 top apparel e-commerce web sites in Q4 of 2012, and created the "Retail UX Audit: Apparel" to present the results. We rated the sites according to a list of 30 user experience feature criteria (listed below). Feature categories included Social Commerce, Purchase Support, Catalog Navigation, and Multichannel Shopping.

The apparel retailer with the highest UX Audit score, with 16 out of a possible 30 points was:

Nordstrom

Also near the top were the following sites:

Saks.com 15
Sears.com 15
Walmart.com 15

The UX criteria we used to score the sites were developed during an initial site review. The criteria included:

Social commerce features:
1. Email To A Friend
2. Product Reviews
3. Share Via Facebook and / or Twitter
4. Google +1
5. Pinterest
6. Facebook Like
7. Customer Q&A in Page
8. Back Side View (*Depends on Product)
9. Alternate Images Visible on Product Page
10. List Page: Rollover Alternate View
11. Expert Advice (Chat, E-mail, Callback)

Purchase support features:
12. Coordinated Products, Outfit
13. Video of Product or Subcategory
14. Multi-Store Marketplace
15. Price Drop Alert
16. Express Shop
17. Virtual Try On or Try Out
18. Personal Info. About the Model
19. Next Prev
20. List Page: Category Specific Filters (Not price, brand, color, or size)

Catalog navigation features:
21. More Like This
22. View Product Detail Page In Spanish
23. Find Product In Local Store
24. Print Page
25. Save To List / Favorites / Wishlist / Bookmark

Multichannel shopping features:
26. Order Online, Pickup in Store
27. Available Colors for Products On List Page
28. E-mail Customer Once Size / Color / Combo Becomes Available
29. BFF Us / Text Me
30. Send To Mobile

The Audit summary results are reproduced below, with the total score for each retailer, and links to their product detail pages at the time of the evaluation. Companies included in the Audit can request a more comprehensive debrief with Retail UX that includes your company's full results as well as those of your main competitors (available at no charge). To request a full debrief, send an email to: audit@Retail UX.com.

Disclaimer: Retail UX consults with top retailers across the USA. We don't mean to imply with this Audit that the total number of UX features is in any way a measure of a successful UX strategy. Developing a winning UX strategy requires an intensive review of research data, web analytics, corporate business goals, marketing and merchandising objectives, the competitive landscape, in-store logistics, IT capabilities and constraints, the state of the art of interaction design, and many other internal and external factors. Retail UX considers such factors when conducting research and strategy engagements for our retail clients. The UX Audit is one small part of the work that goes into a UX strategy, and we choose to give that work away as a means of familiarizing retailers with our UX research and strategy consulting practice. It's a quick, handy way to view the latest UX designs of top retail competitors each quarter.

Notes:

1. We omitted retailers from this list, at our discretion, with respect to whom the UX Audit evaluation could be considered a conflict of interest.
2. We may have missed features if they were not immediately visible on the product detail pages we reviewed. We did not dig throughout the whole catalog to find instances of features, but looked at a few representative pages.
3. Alternate images were only counted if they were visible as thumbnails on the product page, not if the customer needs to click a link to see them.
4. In-page Q&A is a social feature that lets all customers view questions and their answers. It does not encompass links to ask customer service questions or live chat.
5. Many sites have had new releases since the Audit was created.
6. Retail UX offers the above audit summary free of charge as a service to retailers and user experience professionals, and takes no responsibility for its accuracy or completeness. We have made every effort to be fair and thorough, but errors or omissions may be present.
7. Retail UX retains full copyright privileges for this UX Audit and all of its predecessors. Retail UX grants permission to reproduce all or part of this audit under the condition that the words "Produced by Retail UX" accompany any partial or complete reproduction of its contents.

Phone: (706) 254-1589 | Email: info@RetailUX.com | Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/retailux

Copyright RetailUX 2002 through 2012, All rights reserved.