DISNEY STORE IS the natural destination for a variety of groups looking to buy its branded merchandise. Children – or their parents – visit the site looking for gifts and toys, as do fans of all ages. This is, after all, the home of the latest collectibles for franchises ranging from Frozen through to Star Wars.
The site, therefore, has a job to do in meeting the needs of all those groups. It does so with a trading strategy that makes it easy for customers to find and research products.
Shoppers visiting the site can enter via a horizontal navigation that offers choices from characters, Star Wars and Marvel to kids, baby and adults, and also reflects seasonal options, such as ‘summer’ or ‘Christmas’. Product lister pages enable visitors to narrow down choices by price, character, product type, whether or not it can be personalised, and the rating that other shoppers gave it.
On the product page itself, strong zoomable images sit alongside product information, and highly visible ratings and reviews. Inspirational imagery is visible throughout, as might be expected from an ecommerce site featuring strong entertainment brands. But beyond the inspiration, this is a site where pinpoint accuracy is important. A ‘magic in the details’ section includes the type of technical detail that buyers from parents to collectors would be interested in: from which, and how many, batteries a product takes through to the exact dimensions both of the product and of the packaged product.
Banners are used effectively as signposting throughout the site, offering updates on delivery and other areas of the sales process. The home page clearly flags up any sales or discount events, while discounts are marked on product pages. The search features dropdown suggestions, helping to guide visitors to the specific items they are looking for.
Social sharing is made easy on this site, as is keeping details of products browsed for another time. Shoppers can save products to their bag, or to a favourites list, and can also share them on four social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. A Facebook Like button enables consumers to respond to the item directly from the product listing.
All in all, this is a site that’s rich with detailed imagery and information about the products it sells. It’s useful not only for parents looking for gifts, but to fans keen to have some in-depth detail on the items they’re considering buying.
