I was curious to see how retailers are handling and delivering mobile content. I decided to visit a variety of e-commerce stores, on my iPod Touch, and captured the results. Consider this a beginning of the year snapshot of the mobile online retail web - I look forward to capturing these sites again in 12 months and seeing what changes.
A few observations:
6 of the 50 retailers redirect iPhone users to a mobile-optimized website: Amazon, Best Buy, Foot Locker, Target, Victoria’s Secret, and Walmart. Ralph Lauren should be on this list, since they offer a mobile-optimized website, but the server doesn’t redirect iPhone visitors.
Way too many retailers have Flash movies with no non-Flash support. Typically these are promotion pieces and don’t interfere with the navigation. However, the Nike shop redirects the iPhone user to a page that tells them they should download Flash with no way to view the site otherwise. I also have to note Ralph Lauren’s Rugby store and Express, both sites are just about completely unusable without Flash.
Kudos to retailers like Gap and J.Crew who have javascript animations for their homepage promotions. The iPhone user still has a pleasant visual experience.
If you are interested or involved with the design, development, or user experience of e-commerce stores, please visit ecommr. ecommr is a website showcasing the best (and sometimes worst) in e-commerce design, with a clear focus on the individual elements that make up online stores.
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Abercrombie & Fitch -
American Eagle -
Amazon -
Anthropologie -
Armani Exchange -
Best Buy -
Bloomingdale’s -
Bluefly
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Banana Republic -
Boscov’s -
Buy.com -
Calvin Klein -
Crate and Barrel -
Dicks Sporting Goods -
Shop Ecko -
Express -
Foot Locker -
Fossil -
Free People -
Gap -
Hollister -
Hot Topic -
JCPenney -
J.Crew -
Kohl’s -
Lands End -
Lord and Taylor -
Macy’s -
Modell’s -
Neon Monster -
North Face -
Nike -
Nordstrom -
New York and Company -
Old Navy -
PacSun -
Piperlime -
Ralph Lauren -
Rugby -
Sean John -
Shoon -
Sports Authority -
Talbots -
Target -
Threadless -
Tommy Hilfiger USA -
Toys R Us -
Urban Outfitters -
Von Dutch -
Victorias Secret -
Walmart -
Zumiez
Digged:
http://digg.com/design/Screen_shots_52_E_Commerce_Stores_on_the_iPhone
Awesome work compiling that, it’s a total eye opener.
I’m torn between thinking Walmart and Victoria are great for having an iphone version, or evil for not having a regular site that works in the iphone browser. I thought the whole idea of the iphone browser was that sites should look how they look normally.
I agree with JP.
I am using an ipod Touch for browsing and i am sometimes redirected to rubbing second rate mobile website instead of letting me watch their normal html page.
If Amazon and other websites wants us to have a special experience using our ipod/iphone, then they should produce an app.
Sears also redirects to an iPhone optimized site.
While I agree that a benefit of the iPhone is the real web experience on a mobile device, I do think that redirecting users to iPhone optimized version of the site is a step in the right direction. There is a middle ground, in functionality and user experience, between the real web and the “mobile web” as it exists on some of these retail sites.
I don’t think that the iPhone user needs to be redirected to a completely stripped down, bare bones version of the site. But I think that, after an audit of the site functionality is done, a retailer can come up with a version of a site that cuts down on the noise and creates an efficient mobile experience.
I don’t think that every retailer needs a mobile-optimized website in 2009. It’s going to come own to demographics, their goals, and retailers’ needs - some retailers will benefit, some won’t. This said, the fundamental lack of non-Flash support on a good deal of these websites is really frustrating. Not only are they creating a negative mobile experience, but they are also neglecting a significant share of web users. Making sure your site works with Flash turned off is a fundamental web development consideration and I’m surprised that so many retailers fail there.
[...] suis tombé sur ce site aujourd’hui qui a eu la bonne idée de faire des screenshot’s de 52 sites e-commerce US [...]
[...] Sullivan took screen shots of 52 of the top ecommerce sites on his iphone to see what the support was like. 6 of the 50 retailers redirect iPhone users to a mobile-optimized [...]
[...] No turn on red zeigt Screenshots von 52 E-Commerce Anbietern und deren Darstellung auf dem IPhone. Nur 6 von 52 haben eine Mobile Version. Wir auch nicht… [...]
up until recently Amazon.com didn’t allow easy access to one of my favorite features - wishlist! but now they put a big fat button right on the product page of the mobile version. But now it’s quicker and easier to just use the Amazon iPhone app.
52 E-Commerce Stores on the iPhone - No Turn On Red…
Génail ! 52 exemples de sites ecommerce sur iPhone. Seuls 5 sont optimisés pour ce support….
How many of the redirected sites have a link to see the ‘normal’ site?
Personally I think it is a good idea to get the user to a site that is most usable, however, sometimes you want the ‘browser’ experience (or access to a feature that hasn’t yet been optimized, such as the mentioned Amazon Wishlist wasn’t until recently.)
I’m amazed non of this places have ecommerce apps, or at least the ones i’ve found
we should do a list of the ecommerce stores with iphone apps
cheers!
@sabross, I agree. I am currently looking for some apps where you can actually buy something and I am thinking it might be pretty hard to get an App like that in the AppStore because of Apple will be missing out on the profit. Amazon is the first I found, but because I am not in the US i cannot get the app on my iphone.