The products available from the web site are also available in argos stores, where the customer chooses a product from the catelogue and takes the catalogue number to a till where they are sold the product.
Overall first impressions of the site were very good. The layout is clear and easy to follow, the page is not to cluttered and it is not too squashed. There are clear sections of the web site that split up the products into different catergories making it easy to find the right items. The only negative point is that the page is quite boring, however in many ways this is actually a positive thing because it means the web site is nice and simple making navigation and dipping in and out of sections much easier.
How It Is Structured
The web site is very well structured making it clear and easy to follow.
There are different ways of finding items on the web site. Firslty, the user can navigate usign the headings along the top of the screen, for example 'sports and fitness' and 'toys and games', this is useful for customers who do not know exactly what they want to buy and would like to view all items within a particulary category. When you click on one of these categories, a list of different types of product available within that catergory appears narrowing down the search. Once one of these is selected another screen appears with options on what to 'search by', for example when looking at toys and games, the user can search by type, age, brand or character. Although this may seem like a very long and drawn out process to find a game, it actually saves the user a lot of time because it will only show products that are relevant to their requirements.
It is very easy to get between pages because the main navigation bar showing all of the different categories remains at the top of all pages on the web site, as does the search facility, therefore it would be very difficult to get lost on the web site! Everything is very easy to find. Ther is also always a link to the home page at the top of each page just in case, that way it would be easy to get 'un-lost'.
The Goods And/Or Services It Offers
It is very easy to see what types of goods are available on the web site from the very beginning as there are options at the top of the screen showing the different categories of products that are availalbe. Also down the left hand side of the page there is a list of types of product within certain categories with examples of products within that type underneath, for example it says 'Kitchen and Laundry' and underneath it says 'washing machines, heaters...'. This helps the user to get a better idea of the products available on the web site.
The web site also offers a delivery service which it makes clear to the user by displaying two icons next to each product stating whether or not it is available for home delivery or in store pickup.
Here is a list of item categories available at Argos:
- Garden, DIY and leisure
- Sports and fitness
- Personal care and bathroom
- Kitchen and laudry
- Furniture and furnishings
- Baby and nursery
- Office, PC and phones
- Sound and vision
- Photography
- Video games
- Toys and games
- Jewellery and watches
- Chirstmas gifts
The Product Information Provided
Argos generally provides very detailed information about all of the products that are available to make up for the fact that the customer is unable to see or handle the goods before buying them. For example when looking at a digital camera, information is given about the brand, pixels, screen sixe, optical zoom, digital zoom and thememory card, price, design style, size and weight. There are also pictures of the items so the user knows what they look like. There is also an option to 'compare' products to others similar, this then produces a table showing the selected products with a table containing all of the details that are comparable. This helps the user to decide between them as it is made obvious which features are better on which product. The information given varies depending on the product, for example different product information will be given about a watch that a digital camera because differenet features need to be specified.
Types of Transactions that can be Made
A transaction is an interaction with a database management system.
Transactions vary in complexity, a transation could simply be clicking on an image to check if a certain item is in stock or it can be more complex, for example when buying goods entering details into an order form, especially for a new customer because the company need to capture all of their details.
The system needs to collect a number of different details from the customers, for example credit card number and other details used to validate the card and name and address of the person paying the bill and the delivery address. Text boxes are most commonly used as a way of interacting with the page, the user types in information into the text boxes. Another method that can be used is drop down menus, this is when a choice is given to the user in a menu, they select the option they want to use.
On many web sites the customers can track their orders and check if items are in stock or not. Most web sites allow users to become members by registering with the web site, they can then log in to the web site in the future which makes ordering goods much easier because their details will all be stored in an database and they will not have to enter them every time they want to purchase something in the future, they just have to log in. It is usually possible to edit your customer details if necessary.
The Argos web site uses both text boxes and drop down menus to get information from customers. This is good because it means that where there are drop down menus error is less likely to occur, obviously it is not possible to have menus for fields such as 'name' as there are too many different possibilities.
The Methods Used To Capture Customer Information
There are many different ways web sites capture information from customers. Obvious and open methods of data capture are called 'overt' methods. When these methods are used the customer knows that the information is being captured. An example of an overt method of data capture is a data capture form that the customer fills in, this way they know exactly what information is being taken. Argos use a form on their web site to collect the delivery details of the customer, for example it says 'first name' followed by a text box, the customer knows that if they fill this in they will know that the company are collecting information on their name. They know exactly what details are being taken from them because they enter them into a form.
However quite a lot of information is taken without the customer realising, these methods of data capture are called 'covert' methods. It is possible for web sites to log the IP address of a customers computer when they are taking their credit card details or making another transaction. This can then be tracked to a particular computer because IP addresses are allocated to cetain computers by the ISP (however this information is only useful to the company at the time the user is connected to the Internet).
Another method of collecting data is to put a code on a web site that leaves 'cookies' on the user's computer. There is code on the cookie that identifies a computer when it returns to the web site. This enables a company to see how often you visit the web site, what pages you look at, how long you stay on the site for and other information.
Code used on web sites can also log statistics such as what search engine referred them to the web site and what words they put in the search to call it up - they can even see what browser is being used and the computer's operating system.
The Techniques Used To Engage, Retain and Entice Customers
Web sites need to use special techniques to attract customers and help to retain them as there are no salespeople to build up relationships with customers and pursuade them to buy things.
Advertisement is very important
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