A well trodden path

I have come across a few examples recently where email campaigns have failed to provide a smooth customer journey through from email to website simply because they hadn’t tested as a user. I am sure that in each case a pretty customer journey diagram was drawn up and is sat in a shared area for everyone in the respective departments to see. What I am finding just lately though is that these perhaps lack the depth needed to be of real value. I wont name any particular examples but as I am currently working in fashion I will stick to the same area as an example. I receive an email about high heeled shows offer up a selection of 4 with the suggestion of there being more for me to see. I decide I like the rather striking red and black spotty pair. As a customer I would ideally like this link to take me straight to the red and black spotty shoes but I am perfectly understanding when it instead takes me to a product listing page showing twenty or more different styles, I understand that the company selling these shoes wants me to have a look at the whole range before I go specifically into those lovely shoes that whetted my appetite; After all I do have rather large feet and if they don’t have my size then I now know that they also have a pair of stripy blue shoes that might also go with some crazy outfit. What drives me mad however is when I click the link for those shoes, only to be presented with a list of other shoes but with no sign of the ones I wanted. Most modern ecommerce systems are capable of allowing you to order pages in a specific order so there really aren’t any technical excuses for this. This has happened to me about 4 times in the last fortnight. p.s. In no way do I condone the wearing of brightly coloured, stripy or spotty shoes unless you are accompanied by a responsible adult.

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