Have shop websites got worse?

The_Arbiter

The_Arbiter

The_Arbiter

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Probably not. Though third website i view this morning i'm just bemused at how un user friendly many sites appear to be. The new Overclockers website being one of these. Looking to view the category of 32" flat IPS monitors is a difficult task, and OC isn't the only one who struggles with this. Using search, the first 5 results, a mere one is 32". If i wanted to sort them by price, no chance. If i view the 32" section, which is an improvement versus a competitor who still shows 27" on their 32"+ sizes, i still can't select flat or IPS. If i search 32" TV on a respected A/V store, first 3 results are 55" under a "TVs you might like" section. The lack of simplicity but functionality of sites feels like it's gone out the window in favour of flashy gimmicky presentation focussed on using the search function that doesn't work as well as you'd like.

I'm sure i'll get over it, but still not make a purchase as i'm too busy moaning :D
 
This does seem to be a trend.

The trend setter might be the rainforest who either can't be bothered to have proper filters, or think that showing people only vaguely related items is great. But lots of people and even website developers seem to thing because they are a $trillion monster business they cannot do any wrong.

A few years ago, the fleabay stopped allowing simple Booleans in their site and I think there was a time when even -[minus] would not work. But currently both [minus] and OR do work there even if their OR syntax these days is a comma separated list in normal bracket: (this, that, other)

I guess filtering does mean having to categories things and that is extra work. Most German language sites (and that Austrian website price comparison site) have not follow that trend as they tend to have filters for everything.
 
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Amazon is the worst.

Oh hey, here's a £x off voucher for something sold and distributed by us.

Well let me search for sold by you easily without going through countless sections of finding something on a search that's not sold by you FFS!

I end up not using them most of the time and buying from elsewhere just because they eff me off too much.
 
The_Arbiter said:
Probably not. Though third website i view this morning i'm just bemused at how un user friendly many sites appear to be. The new Overclockers website being one of these. Looking to view the category of 32" flat IPS monitors is a difficult task, and OC isn't the only one who struggles with this. Using search, the first 5 results, a mere one is 32". If i wanted to sort them by price, no chance. If i view the 32" section, which is an improvement versus a competitor who still shows 27" on their 32"+ sizes, i still can't select flat or IPS. If i search 32" TV on a respected A/V store, first 3 results are 55" under a "TVs you might like" section. The lack of simplicity but functionality of sites feels like it's gone out the window in favour of flashy gimmicky presentation focussed on using the search function that doesn't work as well as you'd like.

I'm sure i'll get over it, but still not make a purchase as i'm too busy moaning :D
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I find the biggest problem with many sites is their search function.

It seems to have been designed by marketing and sales rather than anyone with any sense.

What they tend to do is use OR instead of AND when you enter multiple words, and they often add in guesses of what they "think" you want, which are usually wrong.

They think it presents more options to the customer. The customer is just overwhelmed by the options, few of which are actually relevant.
 
Amazon is easily the worst and I buy so much stuff from them.
The stupid thing is I see different stuff on my phone than I see on my PC.
Yesterday I was on a couple of sites just wanting to know specs of certain items and couldn't find the relevant information.
The search engines on a lot are awful.
Sometimes shop sites annoy me.
 
Amazon is brutal. It's got so much worse.

But true it's a lot of sites.

I assume it's like my work. We replaced an old system been there for 10yrs. With a new one. They took no one from the old team started with a new system new staff, mostly programmers. No one with any experience of the old system. What they created is harder to use than the old system. They basically reinvented the wheel, but a worse one.
 
I actually put together an e-commerce site for a customer recently, and all the search filters other than product name were Boolean of some description - the thing is rather equal to/contains the true filter, or it doesn't.

It was so satisfying to be able to return exactly what you want from your searches.
 
OspreyO said:
I wonder is Amazon being paid to promote all the cheap rubbish. Makes no sense to me.
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I fix a lot of cycles and if we go back 3 years I could search for eg a Shimano Derailleur and buy one.
Earlier this year I bought one and quickly realised it was a knock off even though it came under the Shimano search however Shimano wasn't mentioned in the advert.
I then searched for other cycle related stuff and the same was true, cheap knock offs under the Shimano search and then I noticed at the top of the advert page is the supplier under BRAND NAME.
I went to eBay and they do exactly the same and you have to look for the Brand name in the advert.
OK a lesson learnt and the derailleur is still working for my mate but I know it didn't used to be this way because when the item arrived it was Shimano boxed and you can tell the quality etc (yes I know there are a lot of fakes).
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
I fix a lot of cycles and if we go back 3 years I could search for eg a Shimano Derailleur and buy one.
Earlier this year I bought one and quickly realised it was a knock off even though it came under the Shimano search however Shimano wasn't mentioned in the advert.
I then searched for other cycle related stuff and the same was true, cheap knock offs under the Shimano search and then I noticed at the top of the advert page is the supplier under BRAND NAME.
I went to eBay and they do exactly the same and you have to look for the Brand name in the advert.
OK a lesson learnt and the derailleur is still working for my mate but I know it didn't used to be this way because when the item arrived it was Shimano boxed and you can tell the quality etc (yes I know there are a lot of fakes).
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I think they want you to buy the cheap knock off because it's profit margin is higher.

Getting very hard to filter on brand names and the old brands are disappearing. Probably because they can't compete on price and also they are being bumped to lower priority in searches.
 
Amazon search is useless. I needed a new battery for my laptop. Entered the exact model number into Amazon and it listed batteries with a similar but different model number. Went to Google search and it gave me a link to the correct battery... on Amazon!
 
ThePainBarrier said:
Amazon search is useless.
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Came here to post this. It's ******* useless. One example, looking for a rucksack for work, want a 35l one but Amazon gives no option to refine by size. Instead it offers up a load of useless parameters like a list of makes that look like somebody lobbed a scrabble set in the air and let fate choose the name.
 
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