drapers-review of republic website
On the web this week www.republic.co.uk
June 12, 2010
By Dr. Vaughan Watson, Head Of Media Strategy At eCommerce Consultancy 20:20 Technology.
The appeal of young fashion retailer Republic's site is instant: a bright yellow advert on the left of the home page immediately draws attention and alerts the user to the week's hot offer.
Overall, the site is clean and simple to use, with clear markers dividing sections for men, women and special offers. The home page, unlike countless others seen on the web, contains all the information a first-time visitor needs, including clear icons showing what payment methods are accepted ad which countries are delivered to.
Although there are some excellent features, there are also areas for improvement: for example, similar coloured fonts ad backgrounds make some sections difficult to read.
Also, interactive features such as 'What others bought' and 'Write a review' are a nice idea, but in reality they take you away from the product page, which can be irritating.
The review section, which could be a useful tool for visitors, is ruined by the long and convoluted for, which probably causes most people to give up halfway through.
The checkout page is also too long, which runs the risk of people abandoning transactions. Again, the agency building the site should suggest simple ways to keep these pages short and snappy.
All in all, this is a great site, but it needs a few further tweaks to really stand out from its rivals in an already crowded market.