After being entertained watching Cal Crutchlow today in the MotoGP race I thought i’d show my support and buy one of his polo shirts from the official seller Clinton Enterprises.
I very quickly hit a snag.
The problem
On the one hand, the folks at Clinton sell clothing in more than one size (yeeeah) but then on the other they FAIL to reference what those sizes are other than the usual “small through large”. This makes buying near impossible for the buyer and a likely large pile of clothing rotting in a warehouse under the end of season sale.
The clothes item page. Missing the point by failing to let the buyer know what size is small etc. Clothing purchases revolve around the buyer who a) chooses the clothes I want for a price I am willing to pay and b) chooses the correct size. Generally I am a “Medium” sized kind of guy. But not always. At this point you just lost another customer.
The small solution to a large problem
I would hazard a guess that adding a simple and clear “sizing guide” would reduce lost sales from folks like me, which would see an increase in (lost) sales and reduce support emails or telephone calls. I emailed them yesterday but with a long weekend due to two bank holidays I expect I’ll be lucky to hear back within 5 days…
Go and see that Howies has a great sizing guide table that also rather cleverly shows you exactly where the measurement should be taken.
Which leads to:
The result of which is that I am now a regular howies online customer as the sizing guide allows me to buy with confidence.
Oh and please don’t make it a PDF, mainly because it is annoying but also you’ll be able to measure traffic to the “sizing guide”. If you want to go even further than Howies, put a link to the sizing guide right up near the sizing list – it may be lost in the footer.
** UPDATE 12th June 2012 **
#1 In the second graphic I questioned why it was labelled a 2011 polo shirt… turns out that this week (racing at his home circuit Silverstone) they have released the 2012 shirt just after my 2011 arrived at home…. why the 2012 shirt has only become available 1/4 through a season I have no clue – not happy to have missed this newer shirt!
#2 They emailed me back and it turns out that I am a ‘small’ size. Great quality shirt.. even if it is a year old!
What is “Me the user VS?”
Whenever I come a cropper using a service I will document the experience. I hope this will be useful to those concerned but also to keep a record of my user experience, as sometimes it will be “it’s me not you”.
