Incredible Sitemap

[Mike Hughes]

However, in the real world there is a lot of interaction and communication, but this is never really considered online. In my view, this is the future. In 10 years we will look back and think todays ecommerce is very basic and singular.

And this bit I almost completely disagree with Ling. I think we can all appreciate the uniqueness in the wacky design and delight in it's oddness but when most people are shopping we just want an easy, hassle free experience. It drives me nuts when my local supermarket moves stuff around. If they ever tried to entertain me or change it into some kind of experience I'd be out of there faster than you can say 'Jack Robinson' (apparently this is the correct usage).

Mike

[TraceyHand]

personally, the attraction of online shopping, for me, is that fact that I can get on and do it without interruption and/or interaction with anyone or anything other than me, the product and my credit card!
Maybe I'm in the minority

[Duncan Rounding]

I think that Ling does well because of her individual approach.

The issue is and IIRC was mentioned on the Dragon's Den is that although she can, and I'm sure does, make a good income for herself she may be limited in getting a much wider sales audience because many (some would say most) people feel more comfortable buying from a more professional/traditional site when embarking on that kind of purchase.

I think it's like the diffedence between having an ebay shop and a large department store - quite different markets requiring quite different approaches.

[LINGsCARS.com]

This is an interesting set of replies.

I would say that some are knee-jerk defending the status-quo, as that is the most comfortable position.

Facebook, twitter etc are not really customer-communication tools, I have real difficulty in seeing great benefit from them. I do have a Facebook and a Twitter account. Forums are a very flat method of communication, and are relatively old fashioned in their effect, mainly for single-interest people who are "signed up" to them.

I am talking about finding customers who have a need (and my products often have a 3-year buying cycle) and interacting with them on many levels. Imagine if Amazon showed how many people were actively looking at their books and how many were reading them (presuming that a "read" is 7 days after purchase/download). It would be great to be able to see genuinely what others were looking at/flicking through. Maybe have live discussions in the form of tweet sized comments being posted around the books. An author could monitor that and "be there" to chat with people looking to drive up sales.

There is so much that can be done, but no one seems to break the status quo of not providing this interactivity.

A community of shopping centre retailers in (say) and online version of the Metro Center near me, would allow bored people at work to log on and wander around, in a half-life kind of way, with stores pumping out offers having "promo tables" outside their virtual stores and other users looking around and tweeting in speech bubbles. People would "meet up" in the virtual shopping centre and chat, especially if they worked at various different places. If I owned a shopping centre this is what I would do, along with offering info on car park queues, spaces available, stuff like that. I would have a webcam facility for every shop.

Instead, visit http://www.metrocentre.uk.com/ and you get a flat and quite boring page where the best you can do is click for listed info on a shop like Birthdays (example) http://www.metrocentre.uk.com/store_profile-5232.htm which is pretty depressing. Visit the websites of these real shops and you get a totally separate world from real-life, devoid of emotion and the ambience of their shops. Even bookshops have a nice smell in them. You are suddenly all alone and have to make decisions without reference to human contact. We all like human contact. Peer pressure of a busy shop is a very attractive idea.

To say that you "like" a no-frills online experience may be true if you have made a buying decision (and my hubby does this at the Metro Centre in real life, he walks in, goes straight to a shop, buys the thing and walks out). Maybe you should look and ask if this is a man thing? In which case you are missing a lot of woman interactive stuff? These questions are very valid. But difficult.

There is a whole new world available for these businesses that is just not explored. There is a recession and yet people are just not trying very hard.

So, in my own little way, I am doing what no other car website is doing and experimenting with this stuff. Of course I will have drop off, but then everyone does. See what 95% of other car leasing companies (or car dealers for that matter) do, and you will get very depressed. Flat, boring, out of date, often non-database driven, if they are db sites they do nothing with it.

It's not really about products, it's about people.

[gabrielcrowe]

OMG WTF BBQ, you're absolutely right Ling.

I'm pleased to say then, then I'm in the minority.

I find your sites lack of cohesion repulsive, and the fact that you think you're re-inventing an already invented mechanism even more frustrating.

I'm going to agree to disagree and get on with my life. Thanks for the interesting comments, you bloody fruitcake.

[LINGsCARS.com]

You sound like Earl.

[gabrielcrowe]

Its A Trap!

There Is No Way To Repel Memes Of This Magnitude

i'm not your seo-pro earl/alvin Ling.

As explained previously, a few times here on the forum, i'm actually a piece of sentient software, running over the internet. My job is to argue with everyone to provoke different ideas, and invent new memes.

The truth is, i basically read every forum, all at the same time and i'm stalking you.

MARRY ME LINGY!!!

<3 <3 <3

[party_pete]

My free first aid kit arrived this morning, thanks to car leasing from LINGsCARS.com

Slightly disappointed with the quality of the morphine but i'm sure the sterile plasters will come in very handy

[george]

Mrs Valentine.

I like your style you ain't afraid to work on your own beliefs, something that may not suit every visitor, or should I say, potential customer.

I also like to see your views on creating the warmth that real shops can create although, in my humble, its hard to find good people on the shop floor nowadays. I mean, knowledgable people, who know their stuff, their products, and its use. My two pastimes in life are football and music. And both (in real shops) are sadly going downhill fast as far as staffing goes. Yeah, you get the pierced lip guy in HMV who can tell you anything you want about the emo releases but I'd much rather talk to (a cliche I know) the scruffy haired, unshaven bloke from the independant record shop who, although quiet, can answer almost every track or disc request you ask him. How many of sports d***t or jay jay bees staff actually play football and if they do, how many brands (and their variants) have they actually worn to advise on? I remember a comment to myself a month ago... `Ashley Cole wears 'em`. Err, what kind of sales pitch was that? The retail world needs to get decent wages back so that the good people can make a decent living rather than have 456 student types working for the basic wage to pay for their grossly overpriced music festival tickets, trainers and various wrist sweatbands.

Did I digress from the topic? Nope, just adding a little to the debate that real life shopping is in decline and that maybe a wee bit of (old school) warmth (and knowledge) on websites is no bad thing.

Maybe a twitter style box (duh, we already have that G, its called live chat) on website pages increases the interaction if the potential customer finds this an added `perk`.

Just my opinion of course.

PS I have lots of ideas on how to make (retail) websites a better place to be, but sadly lack the talent to make them happen! One is to make a visit to your site a daily event. Think about it. How many people come on here daily as a habit just to pick up tips, see if anything new is being discussed, and so on. Get that incorporated into (certain, not all by any means) retail websites and I reckon thats a huge step to take in interweby ecommerce life.

Good thread folks, about time we had more `discussion` threads again!

[bcomp]

I think the sitemap is excellent albeit not really a sitemap and the prison camp theme is way out there in a wierd and wonderfull place only Ling fully understands.

The concept gets a 10/10 but the execution 1/10 for me, if this was blended with further forms of interactivity such as a way for the users to chat, post comments on products etc it could be a fun addition and ceratinly attract people to a site even if only because of posts in forums like what has happened here which if for nothing else would have it's own search engine ranking advantages.

[LINGsCARS.com]

bcomp, george, I agree with most! If that is not the kiss of death.

I think it is just genuine interest that needs to be created. Often, many sites never change until the next £50k re-program.

I can put chat on that sitemap, little speech bubbles are being tested, like tweets. Of course, the background could be anything.

It's fun to have a go, and the fact that people want to make some comment - good or bad - makes me happy. I will invite all my customer database to visit tomorrow for a big stress test, serving all those requests.

Wait for the crash hahahaha. Should get 200 concurrent looking at it. My server will be screaming.

[Sean Williams]

........ but well, how can i put it?
its a little wierd?

Gabe - you've met your match

[Sean Williams]

Hi Ling
at first glance I thought your site was frightful, but then I looked again and spent some time looking about and I've changed my mind!
I think it's great. Barking mad, of course, but a real breath of fresh air
IMHO you deserve to do well - it takes cojones to run against the tide like that.
Best of luck and if I'm ever in need of a leaser, I'll choose Ling

[Sean Williams]

... real life shopping is in decline and that maybe a wee bit of (old school) warmth (and knowledge) on websites is no bad thing.

I'm with you on this George - we're building a new site at the moment and one of the things we want to do is give quality information on everything, not least to pre-empt the phone calls.
Our big problem is I have in-depth knowledge on all our products and so I spend a lot of time fielding calls from customers looking for info.
And I hate taking customer phone-calls - been doing it for 11 years now and I'm just worn out I think

I have a sneaking feeling though that providing full info is not going to reduce the calls - a lot of customers just want a chinwag!

[LINGsCARS.com]

I'm with you on this George - we're building a new site at the moment and one of the things we want to do is give quality information on everything, not least to pre-empt the phone calls.
Our big problem is I have in-depth knowledge on all our products and so I spend a lot of time fielding calls from customers looking for info.
And I hate taking customer phone-calls - been doing it for 11 years now and I'm just worn out I think

I have a sneaking feeling though that providing full info is not going to reduce the calls - a lot of customers just want a chinwag!

The same here - I really don't want phone calls, I actively discourage them. My phones are blissfully silent. I push everything through website comms where possible.