Compare Web sites of clothing retailers

Assume that you want to buy a holiday present for a friend or relative. Look at the Web sites of three manufacturers that sell clothing through numerous retail outlets and also through a web site. Examples of such stores include the following, although you may choose to look at the site of other stores:

Gap: http://www.gap.com/
Eddie Bauer: http://www.eddiebauer.com
J. Crew: http://jcrew.com
L. L. Bean: http://www.llbean.com/

1. Compare three of these sites in terms of visual appeal, organization, or any other characteristics you believe are relevant to your use of the site.

2. Assume you basically know what you want to buy as a gift. For each of the three sites, go through the process of defining exactly which catalog item you want and proceed to the shopping cart page. (Back out of that page unless you actually want to purchase the item you have selected.). As you go through this process, take notes on how many screens you have to go through, how complicated the process seems, and any other factors that seem relevant. Briefly compare the shopping experience at the three sites.

3. Do the same things as in question #2, but start with a different assumption, namely, that you do not know what you want to give as a present and want to browse to figure out what you want. How is this experience different in the three sites from the experience of shopping when you know what you want?

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