In this assignment I will review various e commerce sites that are designed for a b2b transaction and also sites designed for a b2c transaction. I will in particular be looking at their methods of approach, their layout, their accessibility and their usefulness.
The b2c sites I have chosen for this assignment are www.koolkingdom.co.uk and www yugiohtradingcard.co.uk. These sites both specialise in selling cards so will be a good pair to compare and contrast. The b2b sites I have chosen to review are www.bookerstore.co.uk and www.3663.co.uk both of these sites are catering sites that sell food so will be good to compare what different approaches the two take to the different aspects of web design.
At first glace of the two trading card sites you can see that they both follow a similar main page with options down the side and special offers and new items listed in the main body of the site. But the first main difference is that yugiohtradingcard uses a menu system that drops down options when you move your cursor over it where as koolkingdom just has the buttons taking you to the various sections. Whilst the approach that yugiohtradincard has taken might look better it is not a better method overall. The reason for this is that the drop down menu system will cause accessibility issues with the program meaning that people with poor sight or people using a text reader will have great difficulty finding the items they are looking for
Once you have selected the section you want using the menu systems. Both sites use roughly the same method of selecting what items you want bys showing you pictures of the various cards. You can then select the card you wish to purchase and confirm the order. Again this method is good if a customer wishes to see what they are buying but all the graphics and the lack of a text only function could cause problems for those less able than most.
Once the order has been placed the sites use a very simple method of payment. To pay a user just has to fill in a basic text only form requiring their name their address their email and shipping method. After this they are taken to a page where they have to enter their card details which finalises the order.
Both sites have a search function allowing users to search a site for specific items and order them. The main difference is that the search function for koollkingdom is very flexible in the fact that if you know details about the product you wish to order or don’t know its exact name you can set specific search criteria. Yugiohtradingcard on the other hand only allows you to search which is limited and can cause problems when looking for an item.
The help function on koolkingdom has all the help topics on one page in simple text format meaning it is easy to follow and to find help on what you are looking for. But it does not have help on many things mainly just things order related nothing much ion site navigation or help. The help for yugiohtradingcard is split into about the store, order info and shipping and returns. This is slightly easier to navigate in the fact that you can narrow down what you want to see by selecting a specific subject but again it does not have any help on site navigation.
Looking at the main pages of the two b2b sites I have to review they both use large amounts of flash and a lot of colours and graphics on their main pages booker has its options along the top of the page where as 3663 has its options down the left. The fact that both sites show this leads me to believe that not as high a priority is placed on accessibility to the site for the less able and that the companies expect their sites to be used by fully able people
here is the links to the b2c sites I have reviewed
And here is the links to the b2c sites I have reviewed