By Paul Lang, Editor, Sell It!
April 1998
Overall
CDs are one of the most commonly sold items on the Web and it is difficult for a vendor to differentiate their store from their rivals. So how have CDNow managed to become the largest on-line music retailer, capturing 33% of the market according to a recent issue of Forbes ASAP?
The CDNow store is one of the best thought out and implemented stores on the Web. It’s that simple.
Great design, comprehensive search features and innovative shopping tools that access an inventory of some 250,000 titles.
The store is only let down by the ineffective integration of its back end processes such as inventory reporting. If CDNow can fix this then they will be a serious contender for the best store on the Web.
Construction
This store is really well put together. The visually attractive pages load fairly quickly without the need for any plug-ins, although RealAudio is needed to listen to the wide selection of sound clips available. Most pages are frame-free and a text only version is available. Navigation is straightforward and consistent through out the store. And incredibly, the store is available in no fewer than ten different languages.
The site includes some of the most comprehensive search facilities we have seen. As well as a search engine that can search on artist, title, song title, record label or soundtrack, there are also two extended features, The Lexicon and the Album Advisor. The Lexicon enables the whole of CDNow’s extensive catalog to be browsed, whilst the Album Advisor recommends records based on users inputting the names of their favorite artists.
Another great feature is the Lunchbox. This is basically an extension of the shopping cart model, but instead of users selecting records they want to buy now, they can use the Lunchbox to store details of their selections for possible purchase at a later date.
The only negative point of note is the way that secure communications has been implemented. Although the site has the facility to use SSL to secure all transactions, this is not the default method. Customers have to remember to select the secure mode before entering data otherwise all communications, including the transfer of credit card details, will be unencrypted.
Selling
It might be tempting to think of CDs as commodity items that are bought based on price alone. CDNow, whilst offering discount prices, avoids this temptation and employs several good selling techniques.
The Lunchbox discussed above is a great way of converting “tire kickers” in to customers, if not on their current visit then hopefully on their next one. The Album Advisor is linked in from the bottom of every product page to help users home-in on a selection. And extensive use is made of album covers, album reviews and RealAudio clips.
Order processing
Although the site allows unrestricted browsing of its goods, potential customers are required to register before they can start shopping. This is unusual, as such registration schemes can scare customers away. However, CDNow implement the process exceptionally well, using the registration details to support features such as the Lunchbox and the storing of credit card and address details.
A wide range of payment options are available, including six different credit cards, ecash, and cheques. Orders can be placed either on-line or by fax, telephone, snail mail or PGP encrypted e-mail. There is also an option to have credit card details stored so that they do not need to be re-entered for future orders.
The site uses the common shopping cart model, but it is when selecting goods that the limitations of the store become apparent. Each product has an availability comment beside it, for example “low stock”. Searching through the help files yields the unhelpful information that this means that the selection will “possibly” be available to ship if it is a “Popular Title” and “likely” to ship if it is a “Less Popular Title”!
This is the major problem with the CDNow site – its ineffective back end integration. It is simply not possible to guarantee that a selected product is available to ship. Add to this imprecise international shipping time estimates of “2-5 weeks” and quite simply customers have no idea when their goods are likely to arrive.
On a more positive note, orders are assigned a unique ID number and acknowledged immediately by e-mail . An e-mail is also sent once the goods have shipped. An on-line order tracking facility is available but the poor back end integration means this feature is of limited use as ship status updates are not available until a few days after the goods ship.
Support
In general, the level of support available is good. A clear link at the top of the home page leads to a excellent overview for new visitors and the main menu bar includes links to customer service and help sections.
The customer service section includes the ability to request support by filling in a form. Although this is a feature of most Web stores, it is particularly well implemented by CDNow. The subject of the request is chosen from a drop down list box, the senders e-mail address and name are added automatically and checking a tick-box e-mails a copy of the completed form to the requester.
Responses to our e-mail requests were patchy. A simple request was answered within an hour whilst a more complex request on a backorder issue received an automated response explaining that there would be some delay in responding – five days later, we are still waiting for the response.
The help section contains two main documents covering FAQ and Policies. Whilst CDNow have made a brave attempt to include every possible piece of information a customer might need, the end result is two long, badly formatted pages that are hard to follow. The two documents combined contain over 11,000 words – for comparison, that’s 11 times the length of this article. There are also some inaccuracies – for example it is claimed that the sound clips can only be listened to by using RealAudio 3, where as the current version is 5.
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