Website of the week: KrisShop – 12/07/07

Website of the Week KrisShop
	Content (0-4): 3
	Pricing (0-2): 2
	Navigation (0-4): 3.5
	Style/Design (0-4): 3.5
	Supplementary information (0-2): 1
	Overall incentive to shop (0-4): 3
	Total (0-20): 16
Scoring system explained – click here

Website of the week: KrisShop

Singapore Airlines has grown from a regional airline founded in 1947 into one of the world’s leading carriers. Spanning five continents, the airline has a gained an enviable reputation as a highly respected travel brand. The carrier’s KrisShop site is an upscale, dedicated pre-order shopping site, one that underlines the ambitions and influence of newly appointed retail concessionaire DFASS.

Style

KrisShop Online is a visually striking site with calm grey and white as the dominant colours. Splashes of colour help to emphasise the main menu categories, while images are big, bright and of high quality. The layout of the site – in particular the product showcase – is simple, smart and elegant.

Content and usability

Six major options are listed on the left hand side of the homepage (Inflight Items, Mail Order Items, Exclusive Online Items, What’s New, Mail Order Form and Shipping Fees) while the rest of the page is filled with eye-catching new products.

Beneath the KrisShop logo lies the universal sign for online shopping, the shopping cart. And so it comes as little surprise that inflight items are available online as well as onboard. Buy these goods online and have them delivered straight to your doorstep.

Inflight Items is divided into six categories – Cosmetics and Skincare, Fashion, Timepieces, Living, Travel Essentials and Exclusively SIA (we’re not sure why fragrances and liquor are not listed – and have asked DFASS). Goods are priced in Singapore Dollars, and are listed with enlargeable thumbnail images and descriptions, as well as the add to cart option. The exact number of products available is listed, with the option to view them all on one page.

The newly-designed KrisShop site scores highly for product showcasing, including a useful “click to enlarge” feature

Each good is also given one or more labels. For instance, under Cosmetics & Skincare (which contains 40 products), YSL Lip Twins Duo Set (S$62) has an orange Inflight Sales tag and a red New tag. Another neat feature is the Amazon.com-like ‘You might also want to consider the following products’, which offers six similar or complementary items directly beneath the selected item.

The 35-strong Fashion section includes jewellery, sunglasses and other accessories (such as pens, wallets) – for instance Folli Follie Daisy necklace (S$139) and Escada designer sunglasses (S$302).

Timepieces comprises a range of 17 watches from designer labels for adults (for example, Aigner Torino gents chronograph watch, at US$1066) to pop culture merchandise for children (such as the Harry Potter ‘Order of the phoenix’ watch, at S$46).

Living‘s five items are a combination of sweet treats and local products, such as Godiva truffles (S$53) and Tiger Balm (S$15).

The 11 Travel Essentials include a number of nifty gadgets, like Braun Pocket G0 575 Battery Shaver (S$46) and Power Traveller emergency phone charger (S$119).

Exclusively SIA offers 12 products, including airline-themed items such as SIA B747 model aircraft (S$35).

Mail Order contains four product categories – Timepieces, Living, Travel Essentials and Exclusively SIA. Product lists are not identical to those found under the same headings in Inflight Items: Living offers a longer list including Riedel decanter duck (S$381), whereas Timepieces only offers one item, Aigner ‘Olbia’ ladies watch (S$2500).

Exclusive Online items are available on the KrisShop website only and is a good attempt to incentivise online shopping. This category includes goods like Biosource foaming cleansing gel (S$34).

What’s New lists all the latest products, such as Screwpull wine bottle opener (S$458).

The bottom of each page of the website also consists of a secondary menu: Voucher Redemption, Shipping, Order FAQ, Private Policy, Terms and Conditions, Online Sales Conditions and Contact Us.

A search facility is available too, which works with brand names as well as generic terms.

What we like: