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Terry
Swack
Maytag’s new site is in tune with its brand—friendly
and helpful. The visual language has the right contemporary, fresh,
consumer-y feel, and Maytag has delivered equally friendly and helpful
functionality. It has squarely addressed the B2B problem facing
manufacturers who try to do e-commerce, by cooperating, rather than
competing, with its channel partners. Now comes the hard part—connecting
with all of its partners’ pricing and inventory systems.
Seamless
cart-to-cart shopping?
The buying process is very easy. The first page carefully explains
the four steps: (1) View cart; (2) select an online partner store,
using a zip code to get relevant store locations; (3) check price
and availability, then transfer your cart to the partner store;
(4) purchase items from the online partner’s Web site. Prices
may vary by store.
Not
always.
I shopped for a microwave and a washing machine using several zip
codes each time. In all instances, at step three, I was presented
with partners who stated the items were available—for a price
of $0.00! The Maytag brand affiliates’ site was “unavailable
at this time” and the general merchandise store said there
were “no items in the order,” but gave me the standard
blurb about having to charge sales tax. Eventually, I was able to
complete both transactions, and prices did in fact vary slightly
between partners.
Product
comparison made easy.
Maytag.com enables you to compare products within and across product
lines. For example, they have three lines of washers, each with
four to six models. You can do side-by-side, feature-by-feature
comparisons of any three models, which really helps to understand
the differences between lines and to make sense of the pricing.
Strong
customer support.
The site’s Solutions Advisor asks: “Too many product
choices? Let us help you.” The lonely Maytag repairman takes
you through a thoughtful, category-specific questionnaire, asking
questions such as, “How do you do laundry?” He even
offered to help me find a handyman in my area.
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Terry Swack
Former CEO and founder
TSDesign
Swack is an experience design analyst and digital product strategist.
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John
Shiple
I wish I had
a place to put a washer and dryer. After visiting Maytag.com, I
wanted to max out my credit cards and buy any appliance I could
get my hands on. I had to pick my jaw up from off the floor and
wipe the drool from my mouth. Maytag.com is an awesome site with
one of the best user experiences I have seen in a long time.
Appliance
central.
Few sites have such a strong online brand and identity.
Browsing products is a sweet experience. The well-structured, cleanly
designed site makes finding products very easy, and the tons of
information available is clearly presented, which makes ordering
simple. Despite a lot of graphics, the site is speedy. The excellent
use of color and images really enhances the experience and goes
a long way toward helping Maytag.com sell its products.
Locking
in lifetime customers.
The ìFix It Yourselfî section makes appliance maintenance a lot
easier. Product manuals are available online, and supporting content
such as cooking and clean-up tips promotes the use of Maytag appliances
in day-to-day life. Whether the appliances are new or old, Maytag.com
makes using them a lot easier. ìMy Maytagî is a nice feature that
helps you manage your Maytag appliances and also ensures that if
you ever need to buy more appliances, youíll go to Maytag.com first.
Slick
brick-and-mortar integration. Shopping help is key in explaining
how to order products through Maytag.com that will be delivered
through a local brick-and-mortar affiliate. A few kinks in the ordering
process, including some cryptic ìout of stockî messages, could inhibit
sales, but overall this was a small problem that was outweighed
by the compelling experience offered throughout the site. Hopefully,
Maytag.com is getting the feedback it needs to improve its site
on an ongoing basis.
Maytag.com
is the place to buy online.
The combination of a killer user experience and world-class quality
products makes this site hard, if not impossible, to beat. If I
were one of their competitors, Iíd be quaking in my boots.
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John Shiple
Principle Squishy Designs
Squishy Designs is a user experience consultancy.
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