Preliminary Website Analysis for David Jones
www.davidjones.com.au website report
Domain Name: www.davidjones.com.au
Date: 06/01/2012
Conducted By: Armin Nehzat
As one of the leading Australian department stores it’s crucially important for David Jones to stay up to date with existing brand and image across various media platforms. This brief analysis was put together to serve as a preliminary assessment on ways David Jones can improve its existing ecommerce solution.
Website Research
So how David Jones ranks against competition?
David Jones Myer Kmart and OO
daily page view comparison
Bounce rates represents the percentage of visitors who enter the site and "bounce" (leave the site) rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site.
| David Jones | Myer | Kmart | OO | |
| Website | www.davidjones.com.au | www.myer.com.au | www.kmart.com.au | www.oo.com.au |
| AU Rank | 560 | 222 | 258 | 209 |
| Page Rank | 6 | 5 | 6 | 4 |
| Links | 138 | 116 | 57 | 36 |
| Load Time | Fast | Slow | Fast | Slow |
| 82,848 | 67,017 | 737,740 | 32,188 | |
| Youtube | NA | 418 | 2,010 | 8 |
| 2,950 | 6,419 | 3,051 | 27 |
Now let’s investigate why David Jones performs poorly in some areas compared to other department stores.
Aesthetically
Why does David Jones use white text on black background for the product pages?
It makes the user experience extremely bad, if the colors are not easy on the eyes people are more likely to look elsewhere (increasing bounce rate).
Selecting the right text color and font style for user experience is critical
This is even more important when you consider the audience demographics.
know your demographics and who you are building for
Current website width is 1020px, this is far too big for industry standards and results in content been cut from the users window. Attached is the view from an iPad tablet.
the web standards are there to make life easy, conform where possible
Why does the site use so many frames? This affects the user experience when browsing the site as various areas of the website move when scrolling down the page.
avoid iframes where possible, search engines dont like them and user are confused by them
Why do most products have single images? Consumers won’t buy clothing or electronics with a single product photo. They want to make sure the product is right for them when buying online.
give me more then one reason to buy, critical to any eCommerce success
Could the products be better grouped to improve user experience?
don't make me look for it, showcase your portfolio to me
Why isn’t there a proper breadcrumb navigation system on the site? Users should always be able to easily trace back their steps. Below is an illustrations of how Myer has implemented that system.
online you have a sitemap and breadcrumb trail
Why are there dead links on the site with PDF files that have no call to action? When browsing the site I had to click 3 links from the home page only to land on a dead link.
you would not send your customer through to the fire exit, so why send them to a dead link
Why is there so much wasted space on the product page? This is compromising the potential sales as the buy now is pushed all the way to the bottom of the page.
You have limited screen space, so use it as effectively as possible
Does David Jones currently have a corporate style guide? There seems to be a lack of consistency in style and fonts, this can be damaging for the brand. Your retail stores seem to send a different image and vibe compared to your website.
pick one image and style, then follow it like a religion....
Facebook page icons need to be changed, the similar icons confuse user. The one on the left is what David Jones currently has and the one on the right is what St George has.
icons are there to improve user experience, not to add to confusion
Technically
It’s great to see David jones take on the initiative to develop a mobile site. The problem is that if I’m using my mobile device I probably want to locate a store or search for a product to compare prices. The other concern is the graphics should be optimized for mobile devices. Great Illustration of initiative but poor execution.
if you are going to build any website, write down its purpose on paper before you start to develop
Why are they using www2.davidjones.com.au? Search engines place high ranking on friendly URLs. It would be more suitable to have something like shop.davidjones.com.au.
Queries like product-details.jsp?productID=64880&category=2770325 should also be avoided where possible.
Why doesn’t the site have a print friendly CSS? People still do tend to print items from a websites to take into store.
retailers rely on image, so perfect that image where possible
Source code needs to be reviewed and optimized? There are lots of blank spaces in the source code and html tags inside meta descriptions. This creates problems, reduces page load times and increases errors.
always try to write good optimized code, it can go a long way
Alt Image tags are not been used correctly, they can be powerful for increasing organic search results. Myer seems to be doing it right.
spoon feed search engines, computer are not as smart as you think
Does the website have a search feature? This is a fundamental feature for any modern website. Users should generally be able to find what they are looking for with a maximum of 4 clicks from the homepage.
a website without a search feature is like a car without wheels
Why is the website not properly W3 validated? 13 Errors, 22 warning(s) according to http://validator.w3.org
try to fix errors where possible, they do effect how the website renders on different browsers
How long does David Jones intend on using flash? Most modern websites have started to move away from it.
Recommendations
David Jones should have a YouTube channel. Fashion and consumer electronics are hot topics on social media networks and David jones should promote its current activities on those topics.
no marketing is bad marketing, your business to the public and the public will open to you
Product recommendation engine have been proven to increase sales dramatically. CEO Todd Humphrey claims that the 75 online retailers using his engine are averaging a 22 percent increase in revenue per visitor. While David Jones does have that feature on the site, I don’t see it been actively implemented like other major sites.
your website is the best sales person you can ever employ
Additional features such as product comparison, rating and feedback systems can help to create a community of buyers.
facilitation of information, supply me with as much data as possible
The wedding registry is a powerful tool no one has done right yet. If this is done right (integrated with social media) it can be a powerful point of differentiation for David Jones and dramatically increase sales.
reinvent your business every 5 years, simple changes can make for huge profits
David Jones should defiantly consider purchasing davidjones.com if it aims to compete on a global level.
always buy .com if you want people to take you seriously
Simplifying to the website wireframe, the current system is extremely hard to navigate and does make users confused when they switch between www. and www2. with the change in templates.
Updating the website more frequently, the about page seem to have been last updated in 2000.
update your website frequently or else people will forget about you
Educate and market the facebook page to increase likes by giving people incentives. If people land on your facebook page you want them to instantly connect so you should make the like (subscribe) before they can take benefit of special offers and ect. This is an example of what we created for St George bank.
Educate your customers with today's technology, forget about newsletter and start with social media.
It seems that most of the content of the website is generated using aggregated feeds. A company the size of David Jones should be taking ownership of the site.
In the annual general meeting report PAUL ZAHRA (Chief Executive Officer) of David Jones mentioned “It is our intention to be a major player in multi-channel retailing in the future and to provide our customers with the best shopping experience and range of products regardless of which channel they choose to shop from (i.e. online, in-store, mobile application or a combination)”. With that quote in mind I developed a mockup of what I think the David Jones website should look like.
anyone can criticize but not many can contribute
Please note that this report was developed only for research purposes. Any other use, including for any commercial purposes, is strictly prohibited without our express prior written consent. In consideration, the individual, group, organization, business, spectator, or other, does hereby release and forever discharge Armin Nehzat severally from any and all actions, causes of actions, claims and demands for, upon or by reason of any damage, loss or injury, which hereafter may be sustained by this report.
This release extends and applies to, and also covers and includes, all unknown, unforeseen, unanticipated and unsuspected injuries, damages, loss and liability and the consequences thereof, as well as those now disclosed and known to exist. The provisions of any state, federal, local or territorial law or state providing substance that releases shall not extend to claims, demands, injuries, or damages which are known or unsuspected to exist at this time, to the person executing such release, are hereby expressly waived.
The Result
It's great to know that my recommendations actually got heard and David Jones is working on resolving these issues.
