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On a recent flight, I read that interactive transactional

relationship marketing is the Next Big Thing. Must mean electronic

commerce, I thought, as I trundled through the airport lounge and into

good old Dixons to snap up a duty free digital camera.

Dixons has always been a satisfying but irksome shopping experience for

me. Satisfying, in that I’ve bought things; irksome, because the staff

are irritating and there’s no information about the products. ’Did you

know you had a web site?,’ I asked at the counter. ’No,’ they said.

Indeed there’s no mention of dixons.co.uk anywhere in the store, which

is a bit rich as you can get directions to every Dixons store on the web

site.

Later I point my browser to Dixons Online. Full marks to this retailer

for making it possible to buy quality electrical goods online. Fewer

marks for creating a quality user experience. There are quite a few

usability issues that need work. Even fewer marks for making me register

and give all my details before entering the buying zone. I felt like I

was being interviewed before being allowed in - which is an unusual

retail idea, to say the least.

Once in, I felt I was at a Dixons warehouse (the secret one where they

keep the manager’s specials). It’s bold, big and brassy, and no staff

hassling, so I could get what I wanted in my own time - exactly what you

can’t do at the Heathrow store. And in true Dixons form, the signage

outweighs the goods - it’s red and white with big blue buttons to jump

from section to section. There’s no flashing animation, in fact nothing

flashy at all.

The deeper you drill down into the site, the more you get large areas of

red and oversized images. Adding stuff to the shopping basket is

straightforward, and the buying process is not too arduous.

My advice would be to work on the user interface and get better staff to

write the code. All in all, a satisfying if slightly irksome shopping

experience, which somehow seems entirely right for Dixons.

New Media is edited by Binnur Beyaztas, who can be contacted at

binnur.beyaztas@ haynet.com

Client: Dixons

Where to find it: www.dixons.co.uk