MegaShopper.co.za, the online shopping site, has spent the last nine months shaping its offering to fit its oft-publicised aim of being the only place you`ll ever need to go to find whatever you`re looking for. The site, which is owned by McCarthy Retail subsidiary McCarthy Online, has been redesigned and restructured to cater for those return customers who know exactly what they require from it.
In a newsletter sent out to registered users, the MegaShopper team claims: "Improved functionality and user friendliness ensures that MegaShopper is now not only the biggest shopping site in South Africa, but also the easiest to use!"
The site`s offerings have been shuffled into four different categories: MegaGroceries, MegaComputers, MegaLifestyle and MegaOffice.
Appearance
The site has very definitely been given a face-lift - the new look is very streamlined and looks completely different. Its signature colours are now purple and red, the categories have been colour-coded and the overall layout cleaned up which makes it look, for want of a better word, far classier than its predecessor. However, the front page tends to look a bit cluttered with images and buttons crowding to the top of an unnecessarily long page.
The front pages of the four main shopping sections are also based on this design template, which works much better here than on the main page.
Functionality
The four main shopping sections are easily navigated, with users allowed to browse at least two pages deep before being prompted to login or in the case of first time users, to register. I registered, and almost immediately received the customary confirmation mail - but with a noticeable difference from the norm.
This HTML mail, in addition to welcoming me to the MegaShopper fold, also listed what appeared to be literally all the special offers available at the time, including images. This struck me as being very severely on the side of overkill; arguably, if I`d chosen to register as a shopper, it would be because I was already aware of all the products available, and there would be no need to reiterate. I felt like I had been spammed.
To add insult to injury, if you browse without logging in, find a product you`d like to add to your basket and only then login because you`d like to add it to your basket, you`re flipped through to the front page of whichever category in which you`ve been browsing, with no indication whatsoever of whether the product has been added to your basket (it won`t have - you`re back at square one).
One of the new features that promise added functionality is a hideously colourful pop-up chatroom where customers can go to ask questions, and post comments and suggestions. The chatroom is just one of the site`s mysterious anomalies - according to information on the site, it is "open 24-hours-a-day, although an operator will only be available from 8am to 8pm".
Other bits and pieces of "added functionality" include the option to view product lists with or without graphics - this is great for people who don`t have the time or bandwidth to allow for image downloads. But if you change your mind afterwards, there`s no way to revert to either option without backtracking through your browser - which makes timesaving an irrelevant factor from that point of view.
Navigation
The new categories are always visible, which means you can immediately hop to the section most relevant to you. Once within a category, you are presented with threaded navigation, which tells you where exactly in the site you`ve come to find a particular product.
Content quality
The site is extremely low on useful information to aid frequent shoppers, newbies and potential advertisers. There are no FAQs, no how-to`s, no advertising rates and only sketchy contact details on the talkback page, which are mainly links that merely open new mails directed to VariousPeople@megashopper.co.za. There is a call centre number as well, but no details about the MegaShopper team or real world contact details.
Litmus test
When entering my details during the registration process, I was disappointed to see that there`s only one delivery address option - while it isn`t vital to timely delivery, I generally feel much safer knowing that there`s an alternate address to rely on.
MegaShopper has introduced a My Stuff section, which keeps track of your saved orders, your favourite products and a speed list - but there are no explanations about how the latter work, or how to manage them.
In testing the speed list option, I tried entering the keyword "cheese", and received a whopping error message, detailing the things that could have gone wrong - but no helpful guides as to what to do next. Out of curiosity, I clicked through to the dairy section, and found 66 entries for cheese - any one of which I presume I could have added to my speed list, if I hadn`t begun losing patience with it.
Another speedbump on this track to one-stop shopping is the favourites list - you can`t simultaneously add a product to your shopping basket and your favourites list. Once you`ve chosen to carry on shopping, instead of checking out, you get taken back to the most recently visited page, where you can add the product to your favourites list.
I did this and was taken back to the very first page I`d started at. Thinking that my request hadn`t gone through, I clicked a second time before thinking to check up favourites section. Sure enough, there they were - two listings for one product. Hoping to delete one of them, I searched - in vain - for an option allowing me to manage my favourites.
Payment options are standard - you can pay by credit card, but if you`re still wary of providing your details online, the site assures you, you can leave the necessary fields open and a MegaShopper call centre operator will phone you for your credit card details.
On the whole, the new design speaks volumes about the time invested in catering for the customer, and making the site easier and more fun to use. The newer options still require some ironing out, but if the site developers can mend these holes, the result will be a relatively fast and very functional online shopping site.
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