Wildly Appropriate

Tale Of Two Manufactu-retailers

My friend Timothy just landed a gig that's going to entail a LOT of travel, and he's serious about finding some luggage that won't let him down. There are a ton of options/form-factors/bag-types for what he needs to get done, but the one piece that will have to be in the mix is a carry-on sized bag.

Coincidentally, Burton Snowboards just relaunched their sites in the past day or two, and because I've got several Burton and Gravis bags, I wanted to pass along a recommendation from the current product lines(s) to my friend who needs a bag.

Imagine my disappointment when comparing the product page for the Red Oxx carry-on bag that my friend is getting serious about with the product pages for similar products from Burton and Gravis. Vastly different page-level information architecture and merchandising strategies here... why is Oxx so much better than Burton/Gravis?

• Uh... don't you need to see photos of the inside of a bag before you can decide if it's a good choice for what you intend to put inside of it?? Oxx has multiple views of their carry-on bag, both inside and out.
  
  
• This gets to merchandising strategy, and some will say that a zillion dollers worth of Crate & Barrel purchases from an antiseptic merchandising approach speaks for itself but geez... showing a travel bag without *any* sign of the items a typical user will be jamming up inside of there... Both Burton and Gravis sell apparel, you think there'd be a nice opportunity to show the apparel folded up in one of these bags but apparently not! Oxx shows its bag jammed full of clothes and accessories and I think that we're gonna sell more bags as a result of it.
  
  
• Talk about how sweet the bag is. Say more, sell more. Especially in a world where being easily found in search engines is tantamount to having a bricks-and-mortar property in the new mall by the main doors vs. selling out of a secret lab in an industrial park... Oxx has a beautifully long copy approach on its product page. And not only do they have more and better copy...



• Cross Sells! There are no cross-sells on the Burton and Gravis product pages. Which is an especially heinous crime when there are matching items that want to be purchased as an ensemble.

How do we account for the difference in pagelevel IA and merchandising strategy between these brands? They're both manufacturers. Both allow you to "add to cart" from the product page. Maybe it's because Burton and Gravis have a gazillion other retailers to tell their story and do their merchandising for them? If my blog weren't broken, I'd ask you to chime in with a comment. Email me (dan dot klyn at gmail dot com) if you have any thoughts about this tale of two manufactu-retailers...