When ugly works
During a session yesterday that where discussing e-commerce sites, one site that got a lot of criticism was CD-WOW. The arguments against that site was mostly regarding usability, copy and design. Three important, if not the three most important aspects of any site.
CD-WOW is selling their products on two specs. Price and free delivery worldwide. As a Hong-kong company they can compete on these two specs very successfully.
So is CD-WOW a bad e-commerce site? I would say no. Mainly because of two aspects.
1. They create a “cheap” feeling through their design, which is fine when you’re selling cheap products. Example: Ryanair.
2. It’s not music fans that use CD-WOW. Their target group is people who buy records based on currently popular records. They don’t focus on the long tail, instead only the short fat tail. Top 20, maybe top 50 artists. And the Top 20 list is prominently displayed on the start page.
So by focusing on two specs (price and free delivery) and only targeting people who buy mainstream artists they have become a very successful business.
However, note that I think a more effective and user friendly site would increase their sales even more. But still, ugly works on CD-WOW.
For more reading on this topic I would recommend Tomas Beakdals article Ugly websites stinks and Gerry McGovern’s article The best websites are useful and ugly.
[tags]Music, e-commerce, records, CD-WOW, ugly[/tags]
Användbarhet, design, e-handel, musik, cd-wow
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