As Valentine’s Day approaches, there are more and more banner ads advertising florist web sites where you can purchase bouquets online. I did a quick poll to find out what the most important aspects of an online flower shop were.
The men agreed that they looked for:
- Pictures (to see if it really was a beautiful bouquet)
- Price (was it affordable for them)
- Quick Purchase (once the above two were established how fast could it be ordered)
The women agreed they looked for:
- Type of flowers (specifics like orchids or lilies)
- Colour and detailed information about what flowers were in the bouquets
- Price (was it affordable)
I visited some of the top florist sites online to see how well they addressed those two different approaches.
Pro Flowers
http://www.proflowers.com
This site had the best structure for purchasing flowers. Right on the main page there were lists of bouquets, with a large easy to read price and equally prominent “Buy Now” button. The same was true once on category pages– excellent photography showing the bouquet, large price and quick “Buy Now” option. They also included an obvious “Details” button which included full flower information, height and vase selection. As for ease of ordering, you could be in and out of the site in a matter of minutes.
The navigation could be a bit larger, but at least it was simple and easy to understand. It included an option to pick a specific flower, or go straight to the special deals.
While the main site itself is not much to look at, and definitely does not encourage an excitement of purchasing, it did have large navigation and was fairly well organized.
There was a clear option for both type of flower and price range, and had a significant number of bouquets available on the main page, although they were below the fold and require scrolling for a while to access.
Unfortunately, although their flower photography is excellent with a minimum amount of distracting background, the prices are difficult to find. Throughout the site, the bouquet prices are tiny and in odd places– the title of the bouquet is much more prominent. People don’t care what a bouquet is titled, they want to see it, then see the price as fast as possible. There was no clear “buy now”. The individual detail pages had almost no information about the type of flowers, and were more interested in flowery language than language about the flowers.
From You Flowers
http://www.fromyouflowers.com
While a much more pleasing site design to the eye, and including many bouquets easily accessible on the homepage, From you Flowers also covers up the prices. You have to squint very carefully to view most of the prices– there is no need to hide them. The faster people see the price, the faster they will buy a bouquet and not leave in frustration.
They desperately need larger and bolder prices, and the orange “Order Now” button is blinding and difficult to click on. It is admirable that they have two obvious buttons for “Order Now” and “More Info” but their colour choice is poor and could drive away business. Their bouquet details are quite informative, however, including the meaning of the flowers, different names for them and exact colours available in the bouquet. It also had a facebook and email option for each bouquet. Their checkout process was obvious and easy to use.
From You Flowers is also the first to offer a “By Colour” option, which many people I talked with said they preferred to “By Occasion”. Often you will know a friend has a favourite colour and want to go straight to that, rather than navigate occasions by guesswork until finding a bouquet with the right colour. That alone puts this flower site on a cut above the rest for user friendly options.
1800 Flowers
http://1800flowers.com
This site is one of the most visually pleasing, with large easy to use links and headlines. Unfortunately, it drops the ball when it comes to prices. I have no idea why flower sites think that by hiding the price, people will be more inclined to purchase a bouquet. It is the exact opposite. Go ahead and be obvious!
The details page is extremely confusing, with suggested other bouquets, links everywhere, and the description difficult to find. Once discovered in the mess of info, banners and links, there is usually quite a lot of information about a bouquet. The ordering process is confusing, busy and difficult to use. Once you find a product that is interesting, it takes a while to figure out how to purchase it, and not a very good experience, compared with the sleek clarity of the From You Flowers checkout.
The navigation dropdowns have pleasantly surprising large readable links, which is admirable. It includes categories for flowers and on sale products, but colour is difficult to find. It also has a cleaner look without the triangles and small fonts that were on the other flower sites navigation bars. It has a side navigation column which lists all the main categories with full lists, including “Narrow by Colour”. Unfortunately, this is the last of the sets on the sidebar, and would never be seen unless knowing exactly where to look and scrolling quite a way.
What we learned:
- Make a quick purchase easy with obvious buttons
- Include full details about a product on the detail page
- Provide search parameters people want (like colour)
- Keep the prices large and easy to read
- Make checkout process fast and simple
- Use readable font sizes
- Don’t hide important link categories
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