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A simple grey and white colour scheme works well, accompanying sharp, striking pictures |
Website of the week: KrisShop
Singapore Airlines has grown from a regional airline founded in 1947 into one of the world’s leading carriers. Spanning five continents, the airline has a gained an enviable reputation as a highly respected travel brand. The carrier’s KrisShop pre-order shopping site is part of the Singapore Airlines website, found under the section titled “The Experience”. We hoped it would live up to its name. Let’s see what happened.
Style
A simple grey and white colour scheme works well here along with sharp, striking pictures. The KrisShop website has an elegant and classic appearance without looking overly corporate. Neat alignments and font add to the upscale image.
Content and usability
The homepage offers a brief welcome note telling shoppers about the benefits of the KrisShop website. We only needed to read this intro to excite our retail tastebuds. Here’s what they say:
“With KrisShop, you can literally shop anywhere. Before you fly, you can browse the entire range of products through our website. When you fly, just pick up the catalogue in your seat pocket. What is more, KrisShop has highly competitive prices – just compare them with those of downtown and airport shops. And forget the hassle of visiting the post office or shipping the gift; just shop by Mail Order and the gifts will be delivered to your doorstep, or the home of a friend. This is shopping – at its best.”
Thanks to this crisp, breezy intro, the company has whetted this shopper’s appetite. We think this offers a fine example to other retailers who want to convey the energy and dynamism of duty free shopping from your home via a pre-order catalogue.
And it gets better. The next paragraph enthuses: “Just for July/August 2006, take advantage of a special promotion on selected SIA Exclusives products”. Terms and conditions apply, but why wouldn’t the now-hungry shopper explore the website further?
Also included is a note about SIA Boarding Pass Privileges which offers a 15% discount on specific items for SIA travellers. Even better. We’re hooked.
Below this are three thumbnails pointing to KrisShop specials – What’s Hot, What’s New, Boarding pass privileges. They are also featured on the left-hand side menu which offer seven other options: Exclusively SIA, Fashion, Liquor & Wine, Living, Timepieces, Travel Essentials and Mail Order Form.
All products are smartly showcased, with a concise description and enlargeable thumbnail image. Two sets of prices are given – Mail Order and Singapore Mail Order. The latter is cheaper. A red NEW! logo shouts about what’s new, a blue one tells you if the product is a Singapore Airlines exclusive, and an orange one tells you if you get a gwp. A simple concept and very well executed.
The KrisShop Mail Order form is a downloadable PDF document accessed by either clicking on the product picture or via the homepage menu. This can be a slow procedure. The KrisShop Mail Order form calls for shoppers to fill out their details and post or fax the form to KrisShop or SIA ticketing office. Perhaps this could be done online instead, we wonder? Goods are delivered to the address you state on the form, making this a convenient, flexible way to shop – in tune with today’s ultra-busy consumers.
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To celebrate the launch of our new Travel Retail Web-Wide Index, each week we put the spotlight on one of the growing array of dedicated travel retail websites or web sections. Click here or on the image to read the index. |
Boarding pass privileges offers (SIA travellers only) four items which may be purchased at a 15% discount.
Exclusively SIA consists of a huge selection of Singapore Airlines memorabilia and souvenirs – from model airplanes to teddy bears. Destination merchandise above the norm.
Liquor & Wine has everything a drinks lover could wish for. For wine connoisseurs, there is a range of Liebherr wine storage cabinets, top-end Screwpull bottle openers, a Georg Jensen gift set for wine buffs, Riedel wine glasses, plus a well-chosen selection of red wines, such as Château Pibran in six-bottle cases.
Fashion spans jewellery, sunglasses, leathergoods and accessories. Jewellery brands include Swarovski, Folli Follie, Thomas Sabo, Misaki, Antica Murrina, Carlo Gioelliere, Pierre Cardin and Crislu. Sunglasses are by Silhouette; leathergoods come from Braun Buffel – specially custom-designed for SIA – as well as Bally; plus a selection of leather accessories designed by Mitch & Marc Australia.
Living showcases items such as stereo systems, vases and candleholders. A fantastic selection of upmarket products and brand names. Brands include Georg Jensen, Royal Copenhagen, Bodum and Wedgwood.
Travel essentials is a good idea and merits its own section. It includes cameras, video cameras, trolley bags and other handy travel-related goods. Brands include Minox, Braun, Sennheiser, Bang & Olufsen and Bose.
Duty free allowances are available in PDF format.
A handy FAQ section for frequently asked questions is also included.
Navigating this site is smooth and uncomplicated thanks to a good layout and sign-posting.
What we like:
Smart, inviting image with great wording
Solid product showcase – perhaps even unbeatable in a pre-order catalogue
Easy navigation due to a simple layout
What we think needs improving/adding:
Slow page loads and difficulty downloading PDFs
Insert the total number of pages under each product category, so shoppers can see the huge breadth of the offer at a glance. The “Next page” button is the only indication there are more pages to come – tell us how many.
Visit KrisShop.
COMING SOON: The Moodie Report Travel Retail Worldwide Web Awards.
Sponsored by P&G Prestige Products
Which websites offer the best service to consumers? Which are most user-friendly? Which are the most stylish? And which, crucially, offer the greatest incentive to shop?
Every year we will judge, through a combination of industry polling, consumer opinion and specialist judges, who is doing most to wow travellers on the web. International and regional awards.
The main award – Travel Retail Website of the Year – will be unveiled at this year’s ‘Oscars’ of the industry: the Frontier Awards in Cannes. More details coming soon.
MORE WEBSITES OF THE WEEK
Website of the week: Turkish Airlines – 05/07/06
Website of the week: Virgin Atlantic Airways – 28/06/06
