Matchesfashion.com vs Liberty.co.uk

Richard Anderson Vice-president of Client Services, International, Bazaarvoice

Matchesfashion.com

Matches has an excellent site, complete with sophisticated user navigation and a well-edited product assortment and style guide for both men and women.

It is clean, clear, and easy to navigate. Browsing is like perusing a well-edited fashion magazine, and by displaying products on mannequins and incorporating them into full outfits, shoppers get a good feel for the personal, in-store experience.

The site offers a personal, department store-style service and guides customers step-by-step to the point of purchase by providing tailored search options, enabling shoppers to narrow down their selections.

Liberty.co.uk

Liberty’s site could work harder to transfer its luxury fashion reputation online.

For one, the website is quite dark. Text is often small and hard to read, and product details are extremely limited. In the online context, where customers are unable to touch product, they rely instead on either great editorial or customer-created content.

The photography does not quite convey all of detail of the products being sold, nor does it help recreate the imaginative in-store experience. This results in an impersonal online destination, which could be improved by leveraging customer reviews or tailored fashion tips from editors.