Two national wireless carriers launched redesigned Web pages last week, as operators increasingly try to drive traffic and sales to the low-cost Internet channel.
Cingular Wireless L.L.C. introduced a streamlined new Web site, trimming out some of the previous page’s many links and going for a cleaner, less busy look.
“It’s more visually aesthetic,” said Cingular spokesman Ritch Blasi. “It’s just making it easier for customers to access the products and services.”
The new page offers a number of simple graphics in lieu of tiny text. Instead of navigational buttons, the main section of the page has a navigational slider that moves among five topics-network, plans, phones, services and “Why Cingular.”
Sprint Nextel Corp. introduced a newly retooled homepage as well, and the carrier plans to make other major changes to the site in the near future.
“What we’re really trying to do is make sure that we are putting the customer first,” said Sprint Nextel spokeswoman Roni Singleton. She added that Sprint Nextel wants to “bring forth things that customers want the most, things that they want to see right up front, so customers don’t have to search for information: it’s right there.”
She said that Sprint Nextel will be able to frequently change information such as the answers to frequently asked questions.
Although only about 6 percent of overall sales happen through the Internet, about 80 percent of wireless subscribers will use the Web to research their purchases prior to buying, according to Karen Parker, director of wireless practice for Compete Inc.
Bob Steelhammer, vice president of e-commerce for Cingular, said that the customer segment that buys through the Internet is “one of the highest long-term value customer segments that are with Cingular, so the investment in that is big for us.”
Cingular’s extensive overhaul revamped the site’s design and features, as well as the unseen systems that allow the site to run. New features include a revamped shopping experience with purchase suggestions based on a customer’s selections, and an option that allows customers to search handsets and display only those with a desired form factor (such as “flip” or “bar” phones) or feature (such as Bluetooth, camera or push to talk).
He added that the learning section of the site was “truly in its infancy,” but that Cingular planned to start adding new content daily within about a week-and-a-half to help consumers become educated about mobile service.
“We want to be the site where people come and learn about wireless, understand about wireless and understand what they’re buying and why they should be buying things,” Steelhammer said.
Content connections
Steelhammer added that future possibilities for the site might include customers being able to shop the site based on responding to external advertising; additional ways to view or compare the functions of phones; and personal interest areas such as a “music store” which would offer customers the option to package together Cingular music-playing devices and services that provide “an opportunity to engage in that music experience.” The latter, Steelhammer hinted, might be coming before the holidays.
The sites of Cingular, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel all have very similar home page designs: a large, main horizontal box, with additional boxes and graphics below and/or to the right of the main real estate. Cingular and Verizon Wireless have sites which are essentially the length of one viewable page. Sprint’s page requires scrolling to access all the information on the page. T-Mobile USA Inc. favors an approach of two nearly equal columns. All four of the national carriers have launched redesigned elements of their Web pages within the past year.
The new sites tend to include new “widgets” and Flash-based features such as sliders or revolving ads that carriers can play with now that U.S. broadband penetration is high. Carriers also are increasingly segmenting their Web site users, so that a current customer and a prospective customer would have “different experiences relative to what they want to do on the site,” Parker said.
Carriers, she added, “can make these sites slicker and more friendly,” instead of going by past constraints of having to put many links on a page so that customers could find everything easily with fewer clicks. With Cingular’s redesign, she noted, “they’re really trying to address questions and insecurities that people have about transacting online.”
In general, Parker said, all of the carriers are “looking at their Web sites and out-of-industry Web sites to figure out what works, so they’re all understanding what it is that a customer needs, how they shop,” Parker said.
