Retail UX Audit: Apparel

Usography reviewed 30 top apparel e-commerce web sites in Spring 2012, and created the "Retail UX Audit: Apparel" to present the results. We rated the sites according to a list of 30 user experience feature criteria (listed below). Feature categories included Social Commerce, Purchase Support, Catalog Navigation, and Multichannel Shopping.

Two apparel retailers tied for the highest UX Audit score, with 13 out of a possible 30 points:

Amazon.com
Sears.com

Also near the top were the following sites:

Target.com 12
Express.com 11
Walmart.com 11

The UX criteria we used to score the sites were developed during an initial site review. The criteria included:

Social commerce features:
1. Email To A Friend
2. Product Reviews
3. Share Via Social Media
4. Facebook Like
5. In-page Product Discussion or Q&A
6. Customer Tags
7. Customer Images Of Product
8. Facebook Send
9. Google +1
10. Pinterest
11. Video Product Reviews

Purchase support features:
12. List Page, Rollover Alternate View
13. Alternate Images Visible on Detail Page
14. Expert Advice (Chat, Callback)
15. Coordinated Products, Outfit
16. Video Of Product Or Subcategory
17. Multi-Store Marketplace
18. Price Drop Alert
19. Express, One-Click Purchase
20. Virtual Try On Or Try Out

Catalog navigation features:
21. Next, Previous Product In List
22. Category-Specific Filters (vary per category)
23. More Like This
24. Narrow Product List By Keyword
25. View Product Page In Spanish

Multichannel shopping features:
26. Find Product In Local Store
27. Print Page
28. Save To List / Favorites / Bookmark
29. Order Online, Pickup In Store
30. BFF Us / Text Me

The Audit summary results are reproduced below, with the total score for each retailer, and links to their product detail pages at the time of the evaluation. Companies included in the Audit can request a more comprehensive debrief with Usography that includes your company's full results as well as those of your main competitors (available at no charge). To request a full debrief, send an email to: audit@usography.com.

Disclaimer: Usography consults with top retailers across the USA. We don't mean to imply with this Audit that the total number of UX features is in any way a measure of a successful UX strategy. Developing a winning UX strategy requires an intensive review of research data, web analytics, corporate business goals, marketing and merchandising objectives, the competitive landscape, in-store logistics, IT capabilities and constraints, the state of the art of interaction design, and many other internal and external factors. Usography considers such factors when conducting research and strategy engagements for our retail clients. The UX Audit is one small part of the work that goes into a UX strategy, and we choose to give that work away as a means of familiarizing retailers with our UX research and strategy consulting practice. It's a quick, handy way to view the latest UX designs of top retail competitors each quarter.

Notes:

1. We omitted retailers from this list, at our discretion, with respect to whom the UX Audit evaluation could be considered a conflict of interest.
2. We may have missed features if they were not immediately visible on the product detail pages we reviewed. We did not dig throughout the whole catalog to find instances of features, but looked at a few representative pages.
3. Alternate images were only counted if they were visible as thumbnails on the product page, not if the customer needs to click a link to see them.
4. In-page Q&A is a social feature that lets all customers view questions and their answers. It does not encompass links to ask customer service questions or live chat.
5. Many sites have had new releases since the Audit was created.
6. Usography offers the above audit summary free of charge as a service to retailers and user experience professionals, and takes no responsibility for its accuracy or completeness. We have made every effort to be fair and thorough, but errors or omissions may be present.
7. Usography retains full copyright privileges for this UX Audit and all of its predecessors. Usography grants permission to reproduce all or part of this audit under the condition that the words "Produced by Usography" accompany any partial or complete reproduction of its contents.