Website design and usability evaluation

E-Commerce

The game known as football in some parts of the world and soccer in other countries, Bernard Frei created the WorldSoccerShop.com in 2001 despite to his eponymous years as an unsuccessful player. Regardless of Frei's inadequate talents as a soccer athlete, he is victoriously collecting limited edition jerseys from around the world. The founder is an active member of the aforementioned sport by traveling and attending related events, and forming business affiliations with eminent teams. Frei's international correspondence goes beyond associations with teams such as Manchester United and AC Milan, but also with his staff. Although his employees are situated in a variety of places like England, Australia, and Cuba, the site's headquarters is in Birmingham, Alabama. Frei operates with the mission to bring his passion for soccer and share it with a worldwide network. The site's revenues come from the selling of various equipments and apparel. The former in the form of soccer balls, nets and goals, and watches while the latter is represented by jerseys, footwear, and shorts. The site allows consumers to shop by different avenues, for example, by team, country, league or player.

In this age of modern technology, competition online is quite fierce, especially with major sport companies like Adidas, Modells, and Nike. The aforementioned corporations are able to offer a lower price range but unlike WorldSoccerShop.com, their range in jerseys are limited. Rei's brainchild is the second most popular website to come up when one googles soccer jerseys.

Equally as important as merchandise is customer service, which the founder offers and is explained thoroughly. In addition, Rei provides customization on jerseys and boots with league badges, names and numbers, and flags. Media outreach is significant to create awareness, which the founder and his staff has done by managing a Facebook account, blog, and twitter page. In particular, the site's blog creates a more in-depth description about products and on-going games. The posts are complemented with stunning visual pictures, videos, details about teams and their players. However, media broadcasting goes further by being connected to YouTube, Foursquare, and Flickr. The workings and maintenance of a business online can be improved by acknowledging the experience of consumers. As a result, Rei permits product reviews, testimonials and an email to contact the company. Patrons and companies live in an age of advocacy, where a positive experience can create more business for a company like Rei's, while an opposite account may result in abysmal failure. Thus, the connections made on Digg and Stumbleupon can foster the former or latter relationships.