What's Wrong with Wal-Mart.com?
Setting up a great website is a lot of work. Unfortunately, building the site is only a small part of the job. The hardest part may be creating an infrastructure of people, workflows and tools to support a site.
Many companies make the mistake of hiring experts to come in and set up their sites, only to find that once the experts leave, they have a complex site that needs constant attention and maintenance. Too much of the time, companies are not up to the task.
Companies that are serious about competing on the Internet have to devote the resources necessary to ensure that customers feel at home at the site, and that they will have good reason to come back.
How To Do It Wrong: The Wal-Mart Way
I recently visited Wal-Mart's new
site. Wal-Mart made headlines when they took their web site offline
for the month of October so they could completely rebuild it. They
wanted to make sure that for the 2000 holiday season their site would be
a winner. I decided to check it out and see how they did.
At first glance, it looks like they succeeded. The new site is attractive and easy to navigate. The new look owes a lot to Amazon's, with a set of department tabs running across the top of the page. I was initially impressed by the site.
Then I started browsing. I looked through the video area and immediately came upon this:
Mr. Magoo: Don Quixote De La Mancha
Gina Gershon, Barry Kivel, Joe Pantoliano, Jennifer Tilly, Christopher Meloni, Larry Wachowski
VHS, - 50 minutes, - PARAMOUNT
More Info
The director and cast listed are not those of a Mr Magoo movie. They are for a movie called "Bound", a racy "R"-rated movie about killer lesbians and the gangsters. This struck me as very weird.
I looked a little deeper and realized that Wal-Mart has jacked-up listings all over the place:
Mr. Magoo Show, Vol. 5
Oliver Stone
VHS, - 25 minutes, - PARAMOUNT
More Info
Did Oliver Stone do Mr. Magoo, Vol 5, after Natural Born Killers or after JFK?
NASCAR: Families In the Fast Lane
Steven Spielberg
VHS, - 118 minutes, - NASCAR
More Info
Spielberg must have been in a creative slump!
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