Website of the Week: Nuance-Watson (HK) – 09/08/07

Website of the Week Nuance-Watson (HK) www.nuancewatson.com.hk
	Content (0-4): 2
	Pricing (0-2): 0.5
	Navigation (0-4): 4
	Style/Design (0-4): 3
	Supplementary information (0-2): 1
	Overall incentive to shop (0-4): 2.5 2
	Total (0-20): 12.5
Scoring system explained – click here

Website of the Week: Nuance-Watson (HK)

Nuance-Watson (HK) is the leading retail operator at Hong Kong International Airport in terms of number of stores. It operates 47 outlets in two terminals under 19 licences, encompassing general merchandise, perfumes and cosmetics, audio-visual/electronics, brand boutiques, speciality stores and pharmaceutical products.

The 2006 Frontier award-winning retailer recently launched its new website www.nuancewatson.com.hk as part of a full customer relationship management (CRM) programme.

Style

A welcoming yet professional site, Nuance-Watson’s new-look online platform uses fresh tones of purple and blue on white, plus contemporary fonts and framing. Imagery plays a starring role – which is certainly refreshing. Style dominates substance though and it would be good to see more specific product and pricing information.

Content and usability

Nuance-Watson’s all-new website greets users with a visual-led home page featuring four large, striking, animated images of the retailer’s four major airport stores. Each store includes a tell-tale sign label which hints at its contents, such as The Atrium (A world of luxury), The Plaza (Whatever you want), Sound & Vision (Lifestyle Technology) and Temptation (Beauty world).

Beneath the home page main attraction sits the retailer’s special offer or promotion. At the time of reviewing, Nuance-Watson was offering a summer-themed DIY panda photo frame.

Click on any one of the four options and you’re whisked you away to the product showcase. The category menu rests on the left-hand side: Brand Boutiques, Beauty, Electronics, Watches, Jewellery & Sunglasses, Fashion & Accessories, Handbags, Travel bags & Luggage, Food & Souvenirs and Pharmaceutical & Personal Care.

Nuance-Watson’s new-look online platform is a welcoming yet professional site with good signposting and a hassle-free layout.

Each category displays a handful of products, where generously sized images once again take centre stage in a sequence of animations.

Although individually labelled goods are not displayed, the showcase includes three special offer/discounted items (per category) beneath the slide-show, plus the locations of each special offer – for instance, under Beauty, “Estée Lauder Free Gift for purchase up to HK$1200 (must include an Advanced Night Repair item). Buy it at Temptation Duty Free and Scent & Beauty”. Product pricing, which would be a useful addition, is not included.

Similarly Electronics includes among others a “Free Hyundai 2GB Mini SD and Mega Pack valued HK$250 for any TREO PDA purchase. Buy it at Sound & Vision”.

And if you want to know more about a store, such as Sound & Vision, the site fills you in with a brief description – “See and hear the latest breakthrough audio-visual products and accessories from the world’s leading hi-tech brands in this rapidly evolving field.” Contact details and addresses are also given.

The same set-up is extended to Brand Boutiques which encompasses a host of designer labels such as Bally, Bvlgari, Calvin Klein Jeans, Ermenegildo Zegna, Hugo Boss, Longchamp, Master of Time and Omega.

Navigation is a breeze thanks to good signposting and a hassle-free layout.

The site has much to recommend it but we think the old adage of ‘less is more’ doesn’t quite apply here. The site needs more – more pricing, more products, more oomph. The virtual platform is there. Now it needs to be built on.

What we like: