Digg ThisMany times, when I’m researching items on the Internet, I’ll look to shopping sites as one possible source of information.
You can glean a lot of information on a product this way, especially if the manufacturer’s site lacks enough. Radica’s Girl Tech Password Journal is one such item (my niece is interested in this item, hence the research).
So I googled “Radica Girl Tech Password Journal,” and I found the item at (naturally) shopping.com. Since their web site gave some information, and little more than Radica’s site, I decided to look at the online resellers of this product to see if they had yet more info for me.
Amazon.com has some information, but no more than shopping.com. I’m not sure if the lack of information has to do with the out-of-stock status of the item, but it might. At least there’s something there.
Spillsbury, however, takes a different tack: they act as if the item doesn’t even exist. “Keep Shopping” is all you see (translated: “Hint: go buy something else and don’t bother me”).
Ouch.
Now, how the hell am I going to learn more about this particular item? I have to go to yet another site, perhaps a forum, and read more about it. The problem is that online forums tend to be difficult reading since many of online forum users don’t have the best writing and spelling skills.
Unfortunately, I’m most likely to buy this at Wal*Mart online rather than from Spillsbury, even though I’m not their biggest fan (but, alas, Wal*Mart is out of stock on this item, too): at least they give me the information I seek — not a blank page.
Note to online retailers: you attract more bees with honey than vinegar; leave the information there, and don’t be so skimpy about bandwidth. If you’re that concerned about bandwidth, you could always go to a CSS-driven, tableless design that would save you about 40% of your current bandwidth — even with the full information, images and all, for out-of-stock product.
