There has been loads of buzz over the launch of the new Apple iPhone 4, hey its an Apple product there is going to be lots of hype whatever the product is.

Now that you can get the iPhone 4 on various networks in the UK, I decided to compare the process of buying one from the leading retailers to see who’s website performed best.   As you will see, the results are quite interesting!

Just to give you a bit of a background on the conditions of the test, I asked myself what I’d be looking for if I was buying the iPhone 4.  These are what I came up with -

• Colour – black or white
• Memory – 16GB or 32GB
• Monthly Tariff
• Delivery conditions

I think these are pretty standard and cover what factors would play a part in the sales process for the user.  If any of these factors are hard for me to choose, then it could prevent me from buying the phone.

I’m using Google Chrome and a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 for this test.

First up – Vodafone

I hit a bit of a problem with Vodafone which I’ll come to shortly, but I wanted to start off with the good points.  I landed on their homepage and saw a nice visual advert for the iPhone 4 which caught my eye straight away:

I want a phone for personal use so I clicked on the “See more” link, for info the image was also clickable.

Conversion Rate Thumbs Up: Making such a key product obvious and accessible visually from the homepage is a good move.

Next step was for me to choose my tariff, colour and menory size.  Before I could do this though, I was given a message saying that the iPhone 4 was currently out of stock, however I could still order online and be sent one as soon as they were back in stock

This in itself can make most buyers go elsewhere, however to be fair to Vodafone, they can’t help this but they are still trying to get the sale by letting me proceed and order.  So I’ll proceed anyway and order my phone.

This is an important step as these are 3 of the 4 factors I highlighted earlier that were important in my process.  Let’s see how Vodafone present this information to me:

This is actually quite good in that it answers 3 out of 4 of my main buying factors on one interface.  My only slight niggle here is that I’m not given the option to buy a white one.  I think these aren’t available in the UK yet but still, if I’m dead set on getting a white iPhone then this could force me to go elsewhere looking for one.

Conversion Rate Improvement Tip: Add a small pop up here to let users know that the white iPhone isn’t available in the UK anywhere.  This will prevent users from going somewhere else in the hope of finding one.

I’ve also highlighted in red, a subtle reassuring line from Vodafone which re-enforces that Vodafone are a good network to choose.

Also note that the call to action button is red, which stands out at the bottom of each option.  Despite some opinion that red is a danger colour, I think it works well here as its very easy to see and click on.

Conversion Rate Thumbs Up:  Adding the subtle reassuring that Vodafone are a reliable network as well as making the call to action buttons stand out.

Now this is where is gets a little strange, the next screen asked me if I wanted any extras.  Which is fine, but no thanks I just want my nice new shiny iPhone 4.  So I tried to carry on, the checkout button on the right hand side (highlighted yellow below) wasn’t clickable.  The actual checkout button that was clickable was below the fold.

Well as I said, I didn’t want any of these extras so I just found my way down the page to the checkout button and clicked it.  I was then confused when presented with this screen:

Erm… what happened there?!

My first reaction (apart from surprise!) was to click the back button in my browser and try again.  The same thing happened again though.  So I went back two clicks to the tariff page and clicked on my chosen tariff again, from which I got something that looked a bit more promising:

Conversion Rate Optimisation Tip: Erm… make sure your site works!  I’m sure this was just a bug on the Vodafone site, we made them aware of it and have fixed the issue.

As you can see from the screenshot above, if it is working correctly, the page actually looks fine and has two checkout buttons which I’ve highlighted.

The next step is for me to review my basket:

Conversion Rate Optimisation Tip: Move the Delivery details further up the page.  My screen resolution very nearly cut this off, this was one of my important factors.  The text actually says “Our goal is to provide next day delivery”.  Ok thats fine by me, next day is good – so tell me about it somewhere a bit more obvious.

Conversion Rate Thumbs Up: The proceed to checkout button is nice and clear and they do a good job of showing the difference in the one-off costs and the monthly costs.  The useful information box is also a nice feature to have integrated onto the page, this is highlighted in red above.

The final step before entering personal details is a small pop up which tells you which details you will need to checkout depending on being a pay as you go customer or pay monthly.

Second up – O2

I expected a lot from O2, they have been the exclusive provider of the iPhone for a long time.  There are other networks supplying the iPhone now, however you’d expect them to have the process nailed really.  Unfortunately, it looks like they may have got a bit complacent.

The first step is great, I go to their homepage and there is a nice big advert for the new iPhone.  Exactly what I was looking for:

 

Naturally, I click on this banner and proceed to the following page:

Woah!  Did the O2 web design team for on vacation when this page was put up?!  Don’t get me wrong, I love simplicity in designing ecommerce sites, but I think this could be improved a lot.

Anyway, what this page tells me is that the iPhone 4 isn’t available to buy online – what?!  Why?!  I can understand if its out of stock, but surely there is a way for me to pre-order it online as I could with Vodafone?

Doesn’t look like it, instead I’m given two choices – sign up for updates to find out when it is back in stock online, or find my nearest O2 shop with stock.   Ok I’ll give them a chance, I checked O2 shops for availability of the 16GB or 32GB in the whole of London.  Not a single shop had them in stock.  Again I can understand, but I want to pre-order one and get one as soon as they are back in – which the website will not let me do.

They do get a thumbs up on one point though.

Conversion Rate Optimisation Thumbs Up: They have told me that the white iPhone isn’t available in the UK, so at least I’m aware of this and won’t go off to another retailer in search of one in the UK.

Conversion Rate Optimisation Tip: Let me order a phone in advance!  Vodafone solved the issue of not having the phones in stock immediately, yes I could have still gone looking elsewhere but at least I was given the option of buying it.

Unfortunately, due to this rather big flaw, I can’t show the rest of the ordering process for buying the iPhone 4 on O2.

Next up – Orange

I was a bit surprised when I arrived at the Orange homepage, I haven’t been to their website in quite a while but they seem to have turned more info a news and information portal than a mobile phone retailer.

Well there are some references to the iPhone 4 on the page which are highlighted in red below, not as obvious as O2 or Vodafone but they have included them:

Interestingly enough, you are take to different pages depending on which of these links you click.  If you click on the text link on the left hand side, you are taken to this page:

This page actually does a good job in that it is quite simple and shows off the product beautifully.

Conversion Rate Optimisation Thumbs Up: The list of reasons why you should choose Orange over other retailers.  Nice call to action as well with the orange Buy iPhone button.

Interestingly though, when you click on the Buy iPhone button you go to the page which you’d have gone to if you’d clicked the link in the top right corner of the homepage.  This begs the question, is the page above really necessary?  Although it looks good and works well, could Orange afford to leave it out?

Lets take a look at the page you’d land on by clicking the Buy iPhone button above or clicking the link in the top right corner of the homepage:

I really like this page, it covers off some of the important factors in the buying process such as colour, memory and tariff within a few clicks and on one interface.

Conversion Rate Optimisation Thumbs Up: Nice clear interface allowing me to choose important options on one page.

Conversion Rate Optimisation Thumbs Down: Let me pre-order online, the same reasons I highlighted above with O2.  Surely this can be done?!

In order to check the sales process, I’m going to choose the iPhone 3GS instead.  The product I’m buying isn’t as important as learning from the process itself.

After I’ve selected the iPhone 3GS, I get a pop up with confirms my options.  There isn’t really anything wrong with this but I feel it could be integrated into the following page, either in the sidebar or at the top.  Also, the most common place to check your order is on the checkout page where you review your basket.

Conversion Rate Optimisation Thumbs Up: The checkout button is at the top which I can click on rather than scrolling past all the options that I don’t want and taking up more time.

Conversion Rate Optimisation Thumbs Down: Remove the pop up telling me what I’ve just selected and integrate it into another page somewhere.  It is just another click in the process that isn’t totally necessary.

Following this page I can see what I’ve selected so far in my basket and I can choose delivery options.  Unfortunately the delivery options are below the fold so I can’t include this in this screenshot:

Conversion Rate Optimisation Thumbs Up: Letting me know that the website is secure and including the various security logos on this page is excellent.  I’m about to reach for my credit card, so having this security pointed out to me is a timely reminder that the website is safe to use.

Further down this page is the delivery options section which looks like this:

Conversion Rate Optimisation Thumbs Up: Nice and easy to use delivery options table and the re-enforcing of the security of the site by the inclusion of the logos at the bottom of the page as well.

Conversion Rate Thumbs Down: I’m sure this page could be tightened up by a re-design so that I don’t have to scroll as far down the screen for the delivery options and the “Next” Button is a little small.

Tweet This Post