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So while on the previous blog post I briefly went through some details of the eCommerce market of Kosovo, the second part of the series will continue with the case study of Smard.info, which is one of the biggest players on the market.
According to fortune3, Amazon is the largest or one of the largest eCommerce websites, because it offers personalization to users, which means that if you are signed in, you will see books, music, apparel, etc. that are recommended to you. On the other hand when you visit smard.info there’s no such feature of personalized items, but eventually the message that it is an eCommerce site is clearly visible on the home page, where a user can see the latest offers/promotions on a dynamic banner, and in which he is also able to click for more details.
The User Experience Design (UXD)
The User Experience Design
It is known that Eastern Europe, in general is lacking UX Designers (including UI Designers), and that problem becomes especially visible when you analyze a customer’s journey on a web page. What happens is that most of the designers focus more on design rather than usability, which eventually results in customer frustration, and that means bad business. So while first Smard.info looks like a website with a good design and with a lot of energy/money spent to make it appealing to customers, in fact while we go through an analysis journey, you will get to understand more of the flaws.
Featured offers and ease of access
According to Wikipedia, the user experience (UX) is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service. When you go onto smard.info, a customer from this region gets a good feeling of a serious business that offers a comprehensive list of products to be bought online, and where you have the ability to easily navigate while clicking on the featured items. On this point a customer, when it finds the right product, he will get some details like the brand, model and the price (where applicable also a discount), and if you click on the picture you will get to see a bigger picture of the product. A list of related products is shown below (with price and brand name details) while on the left you will see the list of your last searches on Smard.info, which is based on Browser Cookies and Search History.
The “missing” shopping cart
After you click on “Add to Cart”, you will see a +1 and the button turn red, but you won’t see your shopping cart. In fact the issue is that the shopping cart is somehow hidden below the main menu, which eventually will be found by the user after a couple of seconds of searching through the screen. Eventually as a customer I found the shopping cart to show also on the left side of my screen, which was even more difficult to find, because it stands below the categories widget of the website…. After you find it you will see the number of items and total price, and after clicking on it, you will see the price per unit, with the minimum order (which is 10.00 Euros) and the checkout button. After you click check-out you are able to move forward only with an account, so at this point the user gets notified that it needs to register in order to proceed. After registration, the user fills in the information for the shipping address and selects payment options (cash or bank transfer) and confirms order. Remember from the previous blog that online payments do not work in Kosovo.
Find the Shopping Cart!
Based on customer feedback, the customer support is great and it’s a really reliable service, which is a great asset to every company, may it be online or offline. But back to the shopping cart, there are some issues with the how to delete an item, since there’s no delete button, and it is only possible if you select an item (a bit weird for the user experience), and click update! \
“Call us now” (or Never!)
If you take a look at the bottom right corner, there is a Call us Now option, which looks more like an instant chat feature, and is useless, since it doesn’t work. Instead of being an online customer support service through the site, it looks more like a feature forgotten to be made inactive from the website administrator.
Categories – Easy to access, sometimes outdated
Smard.info offers a vast range of products possible to buy online, and they are very easy to access from the categories menu, and then by clicking on the sub-categories, which include: office materials, furniture, electronic devices, books, etc. Again the process is the same of adding a product to your shopping cart, but you will sometimes see offers like an iPhone 4 with an outdated price (during the blog post, this section of the website was updated with Coming Soon offers). Quality content is key for customers, and that’s why it is very important to be always up to date, especially in a business like this, where a customer could see a price for an iPhone 4 which is 2 times more expensive then the real market price. You can also access the latest products menu, to see the latest products on the web site.
Specials – It’s empty!
Empty Specials Section
About Us, the User Profile and the Languages
The about us Section is filled with information, even though it could be a bit more attractive. Interesting enough in the about section you will see that the minimum price for orders is “25 Euros”, while in the Shopping Cart it shows that the minimum order is 10 Euros. The Customer is able to get the product shipped within 24 hours in the region of Prishtina with no additional cost, while for extra fast orders, it costs 1.5 Euros. The shipping cost for cities is 2.5 Euros.
On the user profile you can edit your information, and see payment history while on the other hand on the top-left corner, you can choose English or Albanian, as a main language for the site, which in fact gives you some additional trouble in navigation. Most of the content is in Albanian, and if you require offers in English, that means that you won’t have most of the content display in the language you require.
Terms & Conditions
This is something that lacks in different eCommerce Businesses in Kosovo, but Smard.info has it and gives you all the details regarding how it should be used. In the footer of the website you will see also company details, and the information that the company works only from 08:00 – 17:00 during the working week days, and with limited schedule on Saturdays.
Online Catalogue and Customer Feedback
There’s an online catalogue with the products in a PDF format, with more details, but remember it is shown only on the homepage and on the footer of the website. Smard.info has some points when it comes to customer feedback that it gets through online questioners, and also with the weekly offers that it sends to its subscribed users.
Wrap up
All in all we could say that:
- Sometimes hard to navigate
- No ability to compare products or see user recommendation
- Two languages are confusing. 95 is in Albanian, and only some get translated in English.
- There’s no commuting possibility , but there are tweet/like buttons for products
- Missing content in some sections
- Weekly Specials are a strong point
- Different Categories bring a bigger scope of customers
Recommendations
- Invest in the user experience, get constant feedback
- While it could definitely emphasis more visibility to the shopping cart
- Add more features to the products you can browse (so that the user doesn’t Google for more
- information, but find’s it there with more pictures, and recommendations)
- Update the Search box, with more relevant searches not with brand only search
- Update the special offers section
Lexo tek faqja e tij...
According to fortune3, Amazon is the largest or one of the largest eCommerce websites, because it offers personalization to users, which means that if you are signed in, you will see books, music, apparel, etc. that are recommended to you. On the other hand when you visit smard.info there’s no such feature of personalized items, but eventually the message that it is an eCommerce site is clearly visible on the home page, where a user can see the latest offers/promotions on a dynamic banner, and in which he is also able to click for more details.
The User Experience Design (UXD)
The User Experience Design
It is known that Eastern Europe, in general is lacking UX Designers (including UI Designers), and that problem becomes especially visible when you analyze a customer’s journey on a web page. What happens is that most of the designers focus more on design rather than usability, which eventually results in customer frustration, and that means bad business. So while first Smard.info looks like a website with a good design and with a lot of energy/money spent to make it appealing to customers, in fact while we go through an analysis journey, you will get to understand more of the flaws.
Featured offers and ease of access
According to Wikipedia, the user experience (UX) is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service. When you go onto smard.info, a customer from this region gets a good feeling of a serious business that offers a comprehensive list of products to be bought online, and where you have the ability to easily navigate while clicking on the featured items. On this point a customer, when it finds the right product, he will get some details like the brand, model and the price (where applicable also a discount), and if you click on the picture you will get to see a bigger picture of the product. A list of related products is shown below (with price and brand name details) while on the left you will see the list of your last searches on Smard.info, which is based on Browser Cookies and Search History.
The “missing” shopping cart
After you click on “Add to Cart”, you will see a +1 and the button turn red, but you won’t see your shopping cart. In fact the issue is that the shopping cart is somehow hidden below the main menu, which eventually will be found by the user after a couple of seconds of searching through the screen. Eventually as a customer I found the shopping cart to show also on the left side of my screen, which was even more difficult to find, because it stands below the categories widget of the website…. After you find it you will see the number of items and total price, and after clicking on it, you will see the price per unit, with the minimum order (which is 10.00 Euros) and the checkout button. After you click check-out you are able to move forward only with an account, so at this point the user gets notified that it needs to register in order to proceed. After registration, the user fills in the information for the shipping address and selects payment options (cash or bank transfer) and confirms order. Remember from the previous blog that online payments do not work in Kosovo.
Find the Shopping Cart!
Based on customer feedback, the customer support is great and it’s a really reliable service, which is a great asset to every company, may it be online or offline. But back to the shopping cart, there are some issues with the how to delete an item, since there’s no delete button, and it is only possible if you select an item (a bit weird for the user experience), and click update! \
“Call us now” (or Never!)
If you take a look at the bottom right corner, there is a Call us Now option, which looks more like an instant chat feature, and is useless, since it doesn’t work. Instead of being an online customer support service through the site, it looks more like a feature forgotten to be made inactive from the website administrator.
Categories – Easy to access, sometimes outdated
Smard.info offers a vast range of products possible to buy online, and they are very easy to access from the categories menu, and then by clicking on the sub-categories, which include: office materials, furniture, electronic devices, books, etc. Again the process is the same of adding a product to your shopping cart, but you will sometimes see offers like an iPhone 4 with an outdated price (during the blog post, this section of the website was updated with Coming Soon offers). Quality content is key for customers, and that’s why it is very important to be always up to date, especially in a business like this, where a customer could see a price for an iPhone 4 which is 2 times more expensive then the real market price. You can also access the latest products menu, to see the latest products on the web site.
Specials – It’s empty!
Empty Specials Section
About Us, the User Profile and the Languages
The about us Section is filled with information, even though it could be a bit more attractive. Interesting enough in the about section you will see that the minimum price for orders is “25 Euros”, while in the Shopping Cart it shows that the minimum order is 10 Euros. The Customer is able to get the product shipped within 24 hours in the region of Prishtina with no additional cost, while for extra fast orders, it costs 1.5 Euros. The shipping cost for cities is 2.5 Euros.
On the user profile you can edit your information, and see payment history while on the other hand on the top-left corner, you can choose English or Albanian, as a main language for the site, which in fact gives you some additional trouble in navigation. Most of the content is in Albanian, and if you require offers in English, that means that you won’t have most of the content display in the language you require.
Terms & Conditions
This is something that lacks in different eCommerce Businesses in Kosovo, but Smard.info has it and gives you all the details regarding how it should be used. In the footer of the website you will see also company details, and the information that the company works only from 08:00 – 17:00 during the working week days, and with limited schedule on Saturdays.
Online Catalogue and Customer Feedback
There’s an online catalogue with the products in a PDF format, with more details, but remember it is shown only on the homepage and on the footer of the website. Smard.info has some points when it comes to customer feedback that it gets through online questioners, and also with the weekly offers that it sends to its subscribed users.
Wrap up
All in all we could say that:
- Sometimes hard to navigate
- No ability to compare products or see user recommendation
- Two languages are confusing. 95 is in Albanian, and only some get translated in English.
- There’s no commuting possibility , but there are tweet/like buttons for products
- Missing content in some sections
- Weekly Specials are a strong point
- Different Categories bring a bigger scope of customers
Recommendations
- Invest in the user experience, get constant feedback
- While it could definitely emphasis more visibility to the shopping cart
- Add more features to the products you can browse (so that the user doesn’t Google for more
- information, but find’s it there with more pictures, and recommendations)
- Update the Search box, with more relevant searches not with brand only search
- Update the special offers section
Lexo tek faqja e tij...