Yesterday morning, I got an email from Bed Bath & Beyond asking me to answer a question a customer had asked about an item I bought.
I have never received a request like this from a site I shop, and felt somewhat intrigued. I clicked the “Answer this question” link, which popped up this window from a BazaarVoice URL.
The asked question was a bit of a head scratcher. First, there are three sizes, not just one. And the sizes are found right on the product page, here:
The product page also shows some pictures of the product in use…
So the question seems borne of careless reading, and maybe results in a little bit of wasted time for everyone. Offering a question box often results in people going there first, rather than the product description. While this generates some useless activity, it probably also results in good SEO activity for Google/Bing to track.
But I can also see why “Bernard” was confused about the sizing. Frankly, I was too.
For starters, the sizes aren’t stated right at the top of the description. The description overall seems a bit thrown together, rather than thoughtfully composed. For example, why not combine “Machine wash” with “Reusable, withstands 300-500 washes,” and also eliminate “reusable” since something that is washable is presumably reusable?
The photos also don’t indicate which size is being shown, which is not good.
Out of curiosity, I decided to look up the same product on Amazon.com. There’s a lot more going on in this picture, what with the Visa Card plug and the Prime trial. But it successfully answers the question that brought me down this path in the first place: “What is [the] size?”
I’m not a fan of Amazon the company, but I think this product page is superior to Bed Bath and Beyond’s. Why? Because it enables the shopper to make an informed decision with almost all the relevant information provided right up front (some bullet points are cut off in my above snip). As an added plus, Amazon offers five colors — nice!
So maybe Bed Bath and Beyond could upgrade their page to be more helpful in the purchase decision. I presume that in the time it took to wait for an answer to his question, “Bernard” likely found the same product on another site — like Amazon. Or maybe Bed Bath and Beyond is going for SEO value with the prominent question center.
If they are, I’d strongly recommend focusing more on building a better product page. Better to make the actual sale than rank higher on Google…
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