When I recently reviewed the Glamour UK website I mentioned I’d be looking at other women’s magazine sites – so here goes. This week I’ve had a chance to look at Elle UK who have just launched a brand new online store which looks great but could do with a few tweaks here and there.
In short, although the team have taken steps to integrate the online store into the main site, the two experiences are quite different. Any steps to blend these experiences will result in an increase in conversions. Consumers (and editors!) just love consistency.
Here’s my content strategy recommendations and, as always, I’d welcome any feedback.
Main site
- ‘Shop’ has been highlighted in the navigation. Really, the promotion of the shop should be sufficient in the page layouts to avoid any tampering with the navigation. A small but necessary point – defend your navigation from departmental promotions. Including shopping modules in the page layouts should help here.
- Some ecommerce sites offer widgets that you can stitch into your site so you can see your shopping cart on each page. I think users would appreciate this as they navigate throughout the site.
- Small point but it bugs me – the ‘Most Popular’ module in the right hand column uses a different font from the rest of the page (Georgia). I know this is being picky but the main site is already challenged when it comes to readability – there are multiple font sizes used and sometimes the overlays used over images makes the text difficult to read. So adding another font into the equation just attacks the consistency of the design. Hopefully, a quick fix in the CSS?
- It looks like the editorial team have been tasked to create features to highlight the product they have in store. This is great, but it would be fantastic if there was a closer connection between what the celebrities wore and the store. Again, celebrity-led fashion trends closely tied in with product recommendations will boost conversions.
Online store
- The store has been supplied by UK Edit, but the references to this company should be removed. Is this store called Shop Elle UK or UK Edit? There are also links to UK Edit in the footer which causes additional confusion. Obviously, not all links to UK Edit should be removed, after all they handle all facilitation and customer service. Masking the domain so it reads something like ‘www.shopelleuk.com’ might also help. The current set-up provides no SEO benefit for the company.
- Also, where possible, the same style guidelines on the main site should be applied in the store. Once customers are in the funnel then consistency is only going to help conversions. Sometimes images have been compressed too heavily or squashed – not good for magazine site that prides itself on style.
Summary
Teething problems are always expected when a site launches a new online store. As Elle UK improves the integration it will be interesting to see how this affects their content strategy. Blending ecommerce and editorial isn’t about just boosting conversions – it’s about trying to create a unique proposition and giving users a clear reason to shop at your store. Elle UK already boast a brilliant editorial team so, no doubt, we’ll see this in the months ahead.
Do you have any thoughts on the content strategy recommendations? Please feel free to leave your comments below.
Steven Wilson-Beales
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