Beauty store websites don’t live up to full potential

Many UK-based C&T retailers are failing to include features on their websites to encourage repeat visits from consumers and increase customer loyalty, says digital marketing agency dotCommerce. In an assessment of 20 websites, which were scored out of 100 for site content, design, product search, product package, marketing, checkout and after sale efforts, several big retailers performed poorly. While Marks & Spencer and John Lewis came first and second with scores of 82% and 78% respectively, the three lowest scores were given to beauty retailers Virgin Vie At Home (62%), The Fragrance Shop (56%) and Avon (54%). Boots scored a respectable 73%.

Less than half of those assessed offered any kind of editorial material and just 10% allowed users to submit comments or reviews, while only 15% included a blog.

In addition, just half of the retailers used video content and three out of four failed to bookmark links to social networking sites, which would allow visitors to share information with like-minded friends.

Simon Bird, technical director at dotCommerce stressed that retailers should also fully utilise “the role that ecommerce sites can play in encouraging shoppers to sign up for other marketing and promotional efforts, such as email marketing or loyalty schemes”.

There were some positive signs, however, with all retailers featured scoring high marks for the overall design and layout of their websites.