Website of the Week: Blue Water Bridge Duty Free
Situated at one of the busiest Canadian-US border crossings, Blue Water Bridge Duty Free Shop claims to be “one of North America’s largest and most modern duty free facilities catering to the needs of Canadian, US and international travellers”.
Carrying liquor, beer, tobacco, fragrances, cosmetics, crystal, jewellery, giftware, confectionery “and much more”, it is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Blue Water Bridge website doesn’t offer an online shopping facility.
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The home page’s spotlight on monthly special offers is impossible to miss |
Style
The understated white background and two neat side links boxes guarantee that the home page spotlight is firmly on an animated central section featuring the month’s Best Buys – a selection of special offers, gwps and new products, which can also be accessed across the site via a prominent Current Specials button.
Below this effective product focus is a Frontier Award Winner graphic, which clicks through to articles on the outlet’s 2003 Airport/Land-based Retailer of the Year success, while an eye-catching tab at the top of the site handily highlights the current US$-C$ exchange rate for cash purchases.
Elsewhere, images provide welcome bursts of colour on pages devoted to The Store, Local Links, Industry Links and Locate Us, and while the site isn’t the most stylish – witness the plain search results page – it is far from an ugly ducking either.
Content and usability
What is arguably www.bridgedutyfree.com‘s most useful consumer tool – a downloadable pdf of the month’s special deals – also highlights its shortcomings.
Click through to the flyer from the Best Buys page and you get a listing of over 40 liquors on special offer, plus a further half dozen which feature gwps (a free decanter with each two-pack of Chivas Regal Scotch whisky one-litre bottles, for instance) with prices in both currencies.
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Product information and photos are confined to the Best Buys page |
There are around 30 fragrance gwps, too, from a black backpack with each 100ml bottle of Azzarro Homme edt to a silver purse with True Star Gold 75ml edt, and, in the candy section, free gifts with selected Nestlé, Anthon Berg and M&M’s purchases.
From a customer viewpoint, it’s invaluable. A pity, then, that the same information cannot be found on the website proper, where it could be accompanied by illustrative photos and product details.
Indeed, aside from the monthly Best Buys, attention to products is sparse. Even this page – which includes a few extra offers not included on the pdf, such as a free gold bottle cover with each Absolut one-litre three-pack, as well as a Now Available spotlighting of Freeze 24-7 skincare and Vera Wang fragrances – contains the bare minimum of item descriptions.
This lack of a product and price list is surely a missed opportunity to publicise the “fantastic savings to visitors” the store promises, while arming customers with the necessary resources to make their shopping trip more efficient.
Where the site is particularly consumer-friendly, however, is in its wealth of supplementary information. This includes specific guidelines for US and Canadian customers on allowances and tax rebates (for visitors from the US), a comprehensive, but mercifully comprehensible, run through of the shop’s returns policy, directions (complete with approximate journey times from nearby major cities) and maps.
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Well-chosen external links are a valuable resource for visitors to the area |
On top of that, a Border Crossing Status link takes users to the Blue Water Bridge Authority’s updates on traffic and delays, while a series of further external links covering local sources of interest – such as the city of Sarnia’s famous Christmas light display, Celebration of Lights, the Stratford Festival and Niagara on the Lake – will be of interest to visitors thinking about combining a shopping expedition with a stay in the area.
What we like:
Downloadable special offers pdf
Eye-catching monthly Best Buys animation on the home page
External links to nearby places of interest
What we think needs improving/adding:
An extensive online product/price list
Online shopping, or at least a pre-order facility
A touch more style in places – for example, on the search results page
MORE WEBSITES OF THE WEEK
Website of the Week: Air France La Boutique – 14/12/06
Website of the Week: Young Promotion – 06/12/06
Website of the Week: Air Europa Duty Free – 29/11/06
Website of the Week: Frankfurt Airport Duty Free & Travel Value – 22/11/06
