How do we rate a web site? Our monthly e-pinion rates web site features and effectiveness on a number of criteria, using a scale from 0 - 5. These scores are represented by "Surf Boards", with five full "Boards" being a perfect score: = 1.5 = 5 (perfect) The average of all criteria is the site's overall score rounded up to the nearest half, as displayed next to the company's name at the beginning of the review. The sites are rated on the following criteria: Design Usability Branding & Message Content Customer Support Special Features Search Engine Friendly Interactivity Privacy / Security Is there a web site that you would like to see reviewed in the BUZZ e-pinion pages? Send us an email with the web site address, and tell us why you chose them!

e-pinion - Issue #8 web surfer's review:

www.buy.com - 4.5

Design - 4.5

The design is simple, clean and unobtrusive. The green, gold, and blue color combination is very pleasing and eye catching where it needs to be. The interface stretches to fit the browser size and is visually consistent across different browsers. The layout of the design is consistent on all interior pages.

Even though there is a lot of content on the page with several pictures, the simple interface design lends itself to a quick downloading site. The vibrant color choices also make the page appear more colorful with a minimal amount of actual graphics used. The site takes approximately 30 seconds to download on a 56.6 connection speed.

Usability - 4

Navigation: It is very easy to find what you are looking for on the site. The categories are descriptive and eye-catching.

There is a change of color for each category. This normally works well to tell a user what section of the site they are in, but in this case, buy.com uses the same color cue for more than one product category. For example: Computers and Software stay blue like on the home page, Electronics and Wireless is green, Books and Magazines is brown, music and games is red, Video and DVD is teal, and Clearance is a slightly brighter shade of brown. Also, the upper right navigation changes from the gold color on the home page to reflect the color of the navigation on the interior pages. Lumping 2 similar categories such as computers and software into the same color cue may or may not be particularly problematic but a better solution could be found. Either use a complimentary lighter shade of the color for the 2nd category that is similar or have a completely different color. The latter alleviates the problem of availability of color choices.

The navigation at the bottom of the pages, which includes Company Info, Advertising, Help, Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, is not especially prominent, especially on long pages. Help is also available from the top right navigation on every page, so, from an interface design perspective, I will excuse the less-used links for being so inconspicuous.

Cross Browser Compatibility: The site works equally well in all browsers. I could not tell the difference from one browser to the next, which is the mark of an excellent web design achievement.

Branding and Message - 3.5

The categories of products listed makes It apparent that buy.com is a retail site. Their slogan, "It's All Good" does virtually nothing to make them stand out from their competition. The title of the page, which shows up when you bookmark the site is "The Internet Superstore - We Ship Worldwide" is excellent. This would have been a much better slogan than the one they have. I find it amusing that buy.com owns the trademark on "It's All Good".

Content - 4

This month buy.com is highlighting how they beat their competitor's pricing by advertising they offer "10% less than amazon.com." They also feature detailed product descriptions with photos and product reviews, much like Amazon. This feature is clearly for the web site users, as it gives the user the advice of "friends" before they purchase a product. In return, buy.com may make quicker, more frequent sales because visitors feel as if they have done their research.

It's a shame buy.com does not link to the company information section from the top of the site and that the link is hidden in the bottom navigation as it is well written and targeted to make shoppers feel more comfortable to purchase from the site. Testimonials are also hidden in this section.

The "advertising" page is also hidden in the bottom navigation but that doesn't mean it should be overlooked. This page is compelling in it's plea to advertisers. Buy.com lists traffic, visitor demographics, and site awards as well as the many different ways to advertise with buy.com.

The help section is well organized and answers just about every question a consumer would have.

If I were coming to the site to browse, my only complaint is that on the home page, and most interior pages, there is so much content that my eye doesn't know what to look at first. My guess is that most people come to the site with a mission -- to make a particular product purchase. Also, some shoppers might actually feel like they are "rumaging around for bargains".

Customer Support - 4

As mentioned, the help section of the web site is well designed and provides most answers that users will have such as package tracking, how to report problems with a shipment, and return information. A number to contact a real-live person was not offered. What if your question is unique and not answered in the help section? A phone number was not included in the Company Info section either. We deducted a full surfboard for this.

Special Features - 4

Search: I was disappointed in the search feature. I typed "frontpage" into the search field and left the default "Search buy.com" to find FrontPage software or books on the software and I received no results. When I search for "frontpage" and choose the "Search Software" selection, it returned the correct results; and if I search for "frontpage" and choose the "Search Books" selection, this also worked. But I should be able to search the entire site, and get results that represent both sub-categories.

Account Profile: Creating an account profile was easy. Once I signed up for an account, it was simple to modify my preferences. I don't know about you, but I have many different passwords for sites and I welcome the "forgot password" feature. If I have forgotten my password, I fill in my email address and a returned screen gives me a "hint." That would be great -- if I had remembered to supply a hint when I signed up. So now what do I do? If I can't remember my hint, I am given the option to fill in a form for assistance, buy.com returns a screen that tells me I will be contacted within 12 hours regarding my question and I also received an email to that affect. But what if I want to make my purchase NOW? Well, up to this point, security is pretty tight, which is good.

I did receive a well-written response within 4 hours of my request for a password. The gist of the email was as follows:

We are writing in response to your inquiry regarding your My Account password.

We apologize if you had any difficulty logging into your My Account. For your convenience, we have reset your password and billing information.

Your password has been reset and a temporary password will be emailed to you shortly. For your safety and privacy we have deleted your credit card information. Please have your payment information available the next time you place an order using this account.

In addition, please change this temporary password and add a new hint that corresponds to your password the first time you log in to your My Account.

Please write again if you have any other questions or concerns.

We look forward to serving you in the near future!

Team buy.com
www.buy.com

There are several reasons why this email works.

1. the first sentence explains why buy.com is contacting me, which personalizes the message
2. they apologized for any inconvenience
3. my password and billing info was reset to ensure privacy and they provided instructions on how to handle my next order with them
4. I was advised how to change my account preferences to alleviate the problem from happening again.
5. they encouraged me to contact them again if I have any further questions or concerns.
6. the signature provides a feeling of team-work
7. they included my original message, in case I had forgotten what I had contacted them about.

Wish List: The wish list can only be used if you register with the buy.com site. I added a product to my wish list and was presented with a pop-up that gives me other associated products that I may want to purchase. I can see the value of cross-selling but I see the pop-ups as annoying advertisements and immediately closed the distracting pop-up window.

Search Engine Friendly - 5

There are separate meta tags for every page of the web site, including a description and keywords. This is admirable for a site this large and also very smart. When I search for "buy software" on the Google search engine, buy.com comes up in first place below the 2 sponsored links. FYI - amazon.com came up in 3rd place. When I searched on "buy books," amazon.com was in 1st place and buy.com came up 4th.

Interactivity - 5

The two most obvious interactive tools are the "wish list" feature and the "product reviews" feature. Both of these enhance the user experience and encourage users to return to the site to make a purchase. The music section also lets you preview tracks on CDs -- a great feature. When you register, buy.com sends periodic emails making site users aware of coupons and product rebates. An unsubscribe option is included at the end of the email which again reinforces that the user's options are important to them.

Privacy/Security - 5

Privacy. A link to the privacy policy is at the bottom of every page and is also available as an item in their "help" section. There is a link to the privacy policy on the page to register for an account, but this information should have been more prominently displayed on the page to call attention to it. The privacy policy itself is long but it is written in easy to understand language and is organized. The long length is due to the fact that is written in a FAQ style. There are 12 key points listed with a hyperlink to the part of the page that contains that information. An email and snail mail address is offered to people who have further questions about their privacy.

Security. As mentioned earlier, using the "forgot password" feature is as secure as current practices dictate. Email is not a "secure" way to send a password and buy.com adheres to that rule by deleting payment information from an account that is being supplied a new password through email. This way, if my email with the new password fell in the wrong hands, the perpetrator could not buy products using my credit card number.

Overall Score - 4.5

Buy.com is an excellent site, and scored an overall average of 4.5 out of 5 possible surf boards. The site sailed through most of our tests as the shopping experience, for the most part, is easy and convenient with excellent package tracking and other help features. I was disappointed that there was not a phone number to speak to a live person if there was a problem, the search engine was not as flexible as it should be, and there was cross-selling that was a distraction, rather than a motivator to buy.

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