Exercise : Evaluation of the e-commerce website LivingSocial

For our take home exercise in Interactive Marketing we’re required to choose a favorite e-commerce website, review it for 10-15 minutes and come prepared to discuss why the website, from a usability standpoint, represents a positive or negative experience.

One of my favorite e-commerce sites that I check on a daily basis from my desktop is LivingSocial.  My first opinion on visiting the website is how user-friendly it is.  If you’re new to the website, check it out for yourself.  Please visit Livingsocial.com to subscribe your email with today’s deals in your city and type in your email address.  Now, sit back and enjoy reviewing all the delicious discounts.

Is the usability of this website a positive experience? Yes.

• It passes the 10 second test
• It contains the type of information I am looking for
• The website design is up-to-date and reflects positively on the brand
• The website is easy to interact with
• It passes the principals of design: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity (C.R.A.P.)

How to navigate through the page:

• The top right of the webpage lists a shortcut to “my vouchers” – the shopping cart of the site
• The left hand menu located under the LivingSocial logo will list the local city you selected to generate your deals
• Deal categories are listed under the local city: Today’s Deals, Families, Escapes, Adventures and Instant Deals
• When ready to purchase a deal select the “Buy Now!” button or click the “Send as Gift”  hyperlink underneath to email the gift to a friend
• The Fine Print is listed underneath the deal summary, read this to know when the voucher will expire
• The Location(s), directions and phone number will be listed to the left of the Fine Print
• Two additional categories listed below deals are:  “How It Works” and “More Cities” – self explanatory
• At the bottom of the webpage you find a separate menu of hyperlinks listing: About, Jobs, Press, Businesses, Affiliates, Help, Terms, Privacy Policy, Gift Cards
• Social Media links to “Follow” on Twitter  or “Like” on Facebook are shown at the bottom of the page
• For site language translation, click on one of the three flag icons listed below: US English, Deutsh, or French

What I enjoy about the design of the website is its array of different, colorful and sharp background images on each page.  There is a great balance of text and graphics used to explain the deal being advertised and the photo content loads quickly with broadband or other high speed internet.  I also enjoy how each deal can be shared with Facebook and Twitter.  You can also email the deal to a friend if they do not use Twitter or Facebook.  LivingSocial has many great deals to be on the look out for.  I enjoy purchasing deals for myself and gifts for family and friends.

One deal that I had to snag today was the recently advertised Whole Foods $10 voucher for $20 worth of groceries.  myfoxdc.com posted an article this afternoon on how quickly the word of mouth sold this deal today.  Five percent of the voucher sale proceeds went to the new Whole Kids Foundation.  Below is a screen shot of its success.

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