They tend to have an easy and user friendly search function for finding the products through their website.
They have discounts and coupon codes listed at the top of the website to entice people into buying more things
or signing up for their mailing lists. These are usually in a solid color to draw peoples attention and it seems like
good marketing.
Along with the constant sales showing on the site, they have pop up discounts for new visitors to the website that
again could entice people to sign up for their mailing list to get an extra 10%-15% off of their first item.
Like most websites they have all of the relevant contact info down at the bottom of the website, as well as any other
information the consumer might need. About us, TOS, FAQ, Reviews, Job opportunities, Affiliate options, etc.
What the competition is doing wrong
The competition seems to have more or less the exact same copy paste website. It seems very standardized and there is very little
variation. When I see variation it can be confusing and annoying.
There is a lack of color on these websites. They all tend to have white background and a very very small amount of color
to draw attention to specific things. But that can be done other ways than making everything white and doing a single color.
The websites seem boring to me and I know the main goal is to sell stuff but marketing can be pushed a lot farther
if you can find a way to connect with your customers by allowing them to have fun in some way on the website. Shopping
doesn't have to be boring task.
There is very little use of any images or art of any kind aside from the products being sold on these sites.
it may be counter productive, but also to a certain extent maybe not if you had for example a mascot or some
little characters to imprint on the shoppers to make them remember the website. These websites lack any sort of
Branding other than the use of their Logo.
How I can do it better
I want to have more color on a website other than just white. So people don't feel bored and have something
to look at and maybe feel some kind of way.
I would like to somehow make the shopping experience fun without causing too much confusion or upseting
the customers. instead of forcing things on them; I can maybe put in fun aspects that arent intrusive and bothersome, just some
cool little gimmics for the site. I will have to brainstorm ideas. But I want to allow an experience that
customers will remember rather than them just going to another copy paste website that looks like every other website
they have shopped at. An example of a website I personally remember due to the experience is this one, They allowed me to
steal their product and made a bunch of jokes about it during the process and it was really funny and that is the first time I've
seen someone do something like that on a website before. I think Professionality is pushed way too far and shopping has become more
of a chore when it doesn't have to be and it could be a little more fun.
Along with the lack of color in the websites I want to be able to maybe draw some of my own stuff, maybe some little characters
as mascots of the website for marketing purposes.
I would like to add interactive things on the website if possible but I am not sure how limited I will be in doing that
with this class due to not knowing any CSS/HTML. I don't have a grasp on the capabilities yet but I have things I would like to do
such as making a functioning piano for the website that can be controlled by the users (a-;) keys for the white keys and some upper ones
as black keys. I have no idea how to map that or if I can with CSS or html but that to me would be very fun to make and I think of things
like that cat keyboard that says meow on every note pitched differently, I could have my own thing and adjust it to a sound. My site is called
The Status Crow so I could have crow sounds. Just going to have to look into what is doable.