BEST OF THE WEB
In 2002, bell.ca, desjardins.com and gazmetro.com were the three top-ranking Web sites dedicated to consumers. Commerce magazine published the inaugural B2C Web site rankings, established with Secor Conseil, Multiple-Media.com and Concept S2i.
Surfing bell.ca, BCE's main site, is a breeze. Navigating cogeco.ca isn't so much fun. Why are some corporate Web sites more popular with surfers than others? Secor Conseil and its partners Multiple-Media.com, a Web communications company, and Concept S2i, an e-business solution designer and integrator, examined this question and, as a result, a new method for evaluating transactional and promotional B2C (Business to Consumer) Web sites was created: the Secor-Commerce index.
The index is based on a scale of one to three and on two sub-indices: the value provided to the consumer (quality of information, adapted offers, etc.) and site "usability", i.e. everything that facilitates navigation, such as ergonomics, security features (see the sidebar on page 68: "Secor-Commerce index explained").
The Web sites that were evaluated all have their head offices in Québec and are featured in the "Commerce 500" ranking (July 2001). In the case of conglomerates, the Web site of their biggest subsidiary was evaluated. For example, because the BCE site is a corporate site, it was bell.ca that was evaluated.
The winners? With a score of over 2.5, the champion in all categories was bell.ca, a superb and efficient site in many respects. Close on its heels was desjardins.com, proof that Desjardins' significant investment in its virtual storefront has produced results (another member of the family, desjardinssecuritefinanciere.com, also very appealing, ranked seventh). Third place went to gazmetro.com, the leading gas company site with high-quality, dynamic content. The star of this site is a virtual assistant called Yves. In fourth place was rona.ca, a refreshing site that takes the potential of the Web to new heights. bombardier.com (Recreational Products division) came in fifth. This site has interesting features including the ability to configure your own snowmobile. Another member of this exclusive club, archambault.ca, has to deal with the high expectations of those among its clientele who surf amazon.com, and they're doing very well. Even Air Canada has made a good showing on the Web, placing 8th with its site, aircanada.com, followed by fido.ca. Rounding out the ten top sites was banquelaurentienne.com.
Surfing at its best
Visit rona.ca and you can match wall colours with your home furniture using the SICO virtual decorator. Gone are the days of trundling all the way to the store showroom with a crumpled paint chip in your hand. Gone too are the days of having to read the technical data on the box containing your new phone or other communications device. On www.bell.ca, there's a special help tool that allows you to compare the technical features, product benefits and the prices of the various models. The Bell and Rona sites offer the consumer a great deal of value and, in return, the sites are profitable to the companies. "We give consumers a good reason to shop online, because in many respects, the experience is even better than going to the store," says Kathy Megyery, Advisor at Secor.
Left to right:
Renato Cudicio, President of multiple-media.com, Kathy Megyery, Partner - Secor, Michel Couture, Vice-President - CONCEPT S2i, Louis J. Duhamel, Senior Director - Secor, René Vézina, Commerce Editor, and Raymond Bachand, President of Secor
As for desjardins.com, the site offers a lot of scope in terms of personalization: the content and display can be modified according to the surfer's needs and preferences. Like the Bell and Rona sites, the Desjardins sites pay particular attention to customer segmentation. For example, desjardinssecuritefinanciere.com offers segmentation by lifestyle (single, single-parent) and by the needs associated with various events in life (marriage, purchase of a home, divorce).
On the other hand, some sites are literally carbon copies of their printed brochures, providing static content with no functionality, personalization or attempt at segmentation. videotron.com, which belongs to Quebecor, is an example, and it pales in comparison to one of the other sites in the group: archambault.ca. Both sites belong to Quebecor, which nevertheless could count on Nurun, a leading integrator-designer. It's all a matter of comparison. In this regard, the cogeco.ca, investorsgroup.com and natrel.ca sites use the "brochure" formula and create little value for the Web surfer.
Easy navigating
It's great to be able to compare products, match paint colours or locate relevant information, but you need to be able to do so easily. Sometimes too much information is worse than not enough, and a disproportionate emphasis on design can be just as detrimental as having the site created entirely by a technological team. It's all a matter of balance. This is what the usability criterion measures. "It demarcates the surfer's path on the site, brings him quickly to where he wants to go and helps him situate himself in this virtual space," says Renato Cudicio, President of multiple-media.com, a Web communications agency.
The bell.ca and banquelaurentienne.ca sites are exemplary in this regard. Navigating these sites is easy despite the impressive amount of information they contain. At the other end of the spectrum are financierebn.com (Financiere Banque Nationale), inalco.com (Industrielle Alliance), cogeco.ca and molson.com, which are intricate labyrinths that make Web surfers work hard to find the information they're looking for.
"Evaluating a site's usability also involves considering the best practices in terms of technology, communication, and transactions," says Jocelyn Couture, President of Concept S2i, an e-business solution designer and integrator. Does the site have a search engine? Is it efficient? In this respect, the gazmetro.com site stands out from the others through its exemplary technological practices. The site's highly "intuitive" search engine provides users with various criteria with which to do their searches, and displays the results according to their needs. The aircanada.ca site is also good in terms of its transactional tools and its totally secure environment.
The effort that these companies make to offer their customers a useful and pleasant Web experience shows that sites dedicated to consumers have a future. Not so long ago, it was believed that only business-to-business, or B2B, sites had any potential for profitability. This was because any failed B2B sites went unnoticed, and were kept discreet. When the Web first started to be used for commercial ends, the tremendous failure experienced by a number of public sites rattled many a company's confidence regarding the Internet. But some of them are coming back in full force. This inaugural ranking of B2C sites is certainly proof!
A site dedicated to promoting and selling products is one thing. A site whose source of revenue is online advertising is something else. Quebecor Media (infinit.com), Transcontinental Médias ( lesaffaires.com), Bell Globe Media and Gesca ( cyberpresse.ca) are the key players in the cyber-publication and general-portal market. The main issues facing these subsidiaries of Quebecor, Groupe Transcontinental, BCE and Power Corp involve the viability of the advertising revenue model and the credibility of these one-stop online shops in terms of advertisers and communications agencies.
The lack of differentiating factors between infinit.com and sympatico.ca, general utility portals, as well as the growing interest of Web surfers in vertical or specialized portals are additional concerns for these major portals. As for cyber-newspaper sites such as lesaffaires.com and cyberpresse.ca, their main difficulty is to distinguish themselves from their printed version and provide added value other than regular content updates. In this regard, lesaffaires.com has it a little easier because of its more targeted clientele: businesspeople. Its personalization features and other aspects such as the "vox pop" polling feature, discussion forums and investment tools definitely add value in comparison to the printed version. The "Portefeuille" (portfolio) section offers a variety of calculator functions and a personalized configuration for each type of investor. Registering is easy and the tools are intuitive. However, the registration form on MesAffaires.com boasts protection policies for confidential data, but the registration process isn't governed by a security certificate. Taking a position regarding privacy protection is not enough. Active commitment is what's required. The cyber-press already had the bar placed very high. An institution like the La Presse newspaper poses a challenge to its online version. And for now, that's basically what it is: an online version of La Presse. The Gesca site is far from exploiting the full potential of the Internet. The site doesn't offer any personalization capabilities - a real sin! - except for the section aimed at teenagers, the quality of which does deserve recognition. The "jobs and careers" section is also very good.
As for the trench war being waged by Québec's two public mega-portals, infinit.com and sympatico.ca, you have to look pretty closely to see the subtle differences between their respective information arsenals. But sympatico.ca stands out in terms of technology. The Bell Globe Media portal offers a fully secure environment and transaction procedures are straightforward. The advanced search engine Sympatico.ca features in its advertising offers up to six search criteria and filters.
Doing a transaction online is not always an easy process. InfiniTest is definitely a reference in this area, because it guides the Web surfer, segments the transaction steps and provides tips. Its MonInfinit.com registration form is a great model. However, this site has a few pitfalls in terms of security. The personal data transmission process is not protected by a confidentiality certificate.
Our cyber-publications have a lot going for them, but we still have quite a bit of work to do in terms of improvement.
Original version published in French in Revue Commerce - May 2002
Read the article in French (pdf 153 k). |
