Website of the Week: Duty Free Stores New Zealand – 26/07/07

Website of the Week Duty Free Stores New Zealand
	Content (0-4): 3
	Pricing (0-2): 2
	Navigation (0-4): 4
	Style/Design (0-4): 2.5
	Supplementary information (0-2): 2
	Overall incentive to shop (0-4): 3
	Total (0-20): 16.5
Scoring system explained – click here

Website of the week: Duty Free Stores New Zealand

Founded in 1986, Duty Free Stores New Zealand currently operates duty free stores at six airports across Australia and New Zealand: Auckland, Christchurch, Palmerston North, Wellington, Hamilton, Dunedin and Queenstown.

Style

The site’s navy blue surround gives it a brasher look that many other sites reviewed on Website of the Week. But the retailer has every right to be bold about what it this week revealed is the fastest-growing part of its business.

With eye-catching product category icons and boxes outlining discounts and competitions, the colourful home page effectively beckons the shopper in to what is an impressive selection of products. Disappointingly, though, many are not accompanied by photos, and the rest of the site isn’t quite as spectacular as the welcoming page.

Content and usability

If dutyfreestores.co.nz drops marks for its lack of product images – and descriptions – there are enough plusses to keep it towards the upper end of the travel retail website scale.

Not only are all items priced, in New Zealand Dollars, but a handy Currency Converter changes the given cost into any one of 13 other denominations.

Ordering online couldn’t be simpler. Click the Add to cart icon and when done hit Go to checkout. There you can change the quantity of, or remove, items, before entering personal details. Passengers can pick up their order at the airport on departure or arrival at the country’s three main international gateways, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch Airports.

A bold home page ensures that first impressions are good

There’s also a nice, inventive, touch when ordering online, in the shape of a Last Minute Recommendation which appears at the top of the screen on the shopping cart page. It’s unclear whether this is calculated depending on the products already in the cart, or is purely random, but the following three items were the most common on The Moodie Report’s several virtual shopping trips: Yellowtail wine twin pack (contains Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon; NZ$17.95), Isle of Jura Legacy single malt whisky (NZ$57.90) and Discovery Malts Triple Pack (3 x 330ml; NZ$70).

The site also scores highly for its ease of use. Category headings – Alcohol, Cameras, Electronics, Fragrance, Make-up, Skincare, Tobacco – stay fixed throughout the site, so there’s never any chance of getting lost. And these are divided by dropdown menus into sub-categories to make navigation even simpler.

For instance, point the mouse at Tobacco and you’re given these choices: Cigarettes, Cigars and Loose Tobacco. Click on, say, Cigarettes, and all results are listed alphabetically, 30 to a page. Even for a big category like this, there are only three pages to browse, so little time is wasted.

For those who know what they want, a Search facility – which accepts both generic and brand keywords – makes life even simpler.

Drop-down menus make navigation around the site simple

Throw in clear, well-signposted information on allowances, a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section and a Frequent Buyer Club scheme which enables shoppers to save up to 20% on the regular duty free price, and it’s not difficult to see why Duty Free Stores New Zealand’s online offering has flourished since being launched four years ago. Like the country’s famous rugby team, the All Blacks, this is a class act.

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