Prompt, Efficient, Free Delivery, Large Stock - Couldn't be happier! (Blackwell's Online)

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Blackwell's Online
Date:	02/11/02 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good stock, free delivery, Efficient (at least, I've had no problems so far)

Disadvantages: Browsing limited, Prices may not be the best around(of course, free delivery often seems to counter this)

I'm not very adventurous when it comes to ordering things online. I tend to have my favourite places for certain items and stick with them even if somewhere else happens to have the same thing for slightly cheaper, it's only when it's a lot cheaper do I stray. For books I use amazon.co.uk, not very original I know, but it was the first place I used and I've always had great service from them. They let me down recently though so I strayed to a competitor. No, nothing to do with misplaced orders, double-billing or anything like that from amazon, but simply the book I wanted had a month long delivery date - not good when you need it for a taught course which has already started. So I strayed and using the price comparison feature at kelkoo.com I strayed all the way over to blackwells.co.uk which not only had the book in stock but also had the cheapest prices of all around...not bad considering the book ("Mobile Robotics: A Practical Introduction") is hardly a title which will ever be flying off the shelves!

• About The Company

Blackwell's are a company first formed in the UK in 1879 but which now has 80 shops across the UK and 100 years of experience in delivering books through their international mail order wing. blackwells.co.uk is their place on the net and a very nice place it is indeed. Blackwell's are geared more towards supplying academic and professional books and proudly claim to be the UK's largest retailer of such texts. I can't argue, they were one of only a few places which not only stocked the somewhat specialised book I was looking for, but also had it in stock and ready to ship. Their stock isn't solely aimed at academic texts though as they also stock general works of popular fiction and children's books but this obviously isn't what they pride themselves on. With an alleged 2.5 million titles to browse through you're likely to find all but the most obscure works here anyw
ay.

Anyhoo...

• General Impressions

I'm not going to talk about every feature of this site because you can bally well let your fingers take you there by cutting and pasting this address http://www.blackwells.co.uk into a browser window and taking a look for yourself! You'll see it looks like an online bookshop, cluttered pages but easily navigable via the links and search options provided on the left and right sides of the clutter. There are discounts and Christmas gift ideas and links to book reviews and recent media reviews and reassurances that the site is safe by a proud display of the "Which? Webtrader" seal of approval and all that kind of thing. Go on, go look. It's nothing special though, nothing you haven't seen before but it's nice to see there's lots of options to explore if you like to explore lots of options. I have to say I'm a minimalist when it comes to websites. I like to browse bookshops, not online shops, so I won't be taking advantage of all the wonderful bits and pieces blackwells.co.uk have to offer. All I want is to visit and buy a book, but let's browse around a bit anyway for those who are interested in nosing around.

• Browsing Around

There are numerous browsing options to explore as usual. Searching for a book can either be done through the search box which appears on the front page and on each subsequent page if you have some specific idea of what you are looking for. You can search by author, title, ISBN number or keyword, nothing new there and the searches are fast and reliable. A search for the keyword "robotics" returns 398 results in 12 seconds on my 56k sluggish connection so it's fast as is general browsing around the site. Alternatively, you can click through to specialised section homepages given titles like "Business, Finance & Law" which is really a gateway through to the homepage for Business, Finance and
Law so probably not worth bothering with and instead just head for the "quicklinks" dropdown menu which will take you directly through to these sections. In all honesty, these homepages look nice, offer a few interesting titles but ultimately you'll end up back at the search box to browse because the browsing options are quite limited otherwise.

At the moment there is a further set of browsing options because it's nearing Christmas and not wanting to miss out on that particular money spinning bandwagon there are links to Christmas gift ideas which is worth a look as always. You'll also find a competition page which asks you to do something rather laborious to win £200...might be worth a look as most compers I know see this kind of effort inducing competition and move on to the next one sharpish. ;o)

Anyway, like I said, if you're browsing the site you'll end up back at the search box because it's the only real way to find what you're after. Titles are listed with links through to further information and ordering details, alongside price, publisher, publishing date, author, ISBN number and whether it is available, out of print or needs to be ordered. Clicking through on one of these titles takes you to a longer description of the book and it's contents. There's a short description and a long description along with a table of contents, which when you are browsing for academic books is at worst highly useful at best, absolutely invaluable in determining which book is going to best suit your needs - especially when with this kind of text it's not the kind of thing you can go browse through in a typical local bookstore - they won't be stocking it. There is a section to write your own review of the text(although invariably no one has) and full bibliographical details should you require them.

• Buying

You'll need to be registered so...

• Registering With The Site


You needn't be registered to browse around of course, nor even to fill up your shopping basket but if you actually want to buy the items you're filling it with then you will need to provide your details to the site. You've shopped online I'm sure so you know the pack drill by now. You'll need to provide Blackwell's with you name, address details and credit card number amongst other things and they'll check your card etc. is valid and email you a confirmation. Make sure you give them a valid email address because they do send you quite a number of confirmations and order tracking emails during the ordering process to let you know what's going on. They're rather good if you're one of those people who worries about how things are progressing with your online order in that respect. Anyway, it's the usual story of form filling and confirmation emails and you're all set to shop. you only need to jump through these hoops once(it's not all that painful) because Blackwell's will store all that information (yes safely, no they won't pass the info. on and they haven't sent me any unsolicited mailings since I registered either which is nice too) and use it next time you order to save you time and effort.

So, back to buying...

• Buying again

Now you're registered you can buy your items. Clicking on the "buy" link which appears underneath the title of all items adds that item to your shopping basket, shows you the price and overall price of your basket and allows you to change options such as the quantity or to change your mind and remove it again. You can continue browsing or checkout, same drill, you've seen it all before, it's simple and it works. Let's say we mooched over to the checkout and assume we've already registered(if not, you'll be prompted to do so). Having registered already and logged in, you'll be prompted to confirm the de
livery address to send the items to. The address you registered with will be displayed along with an option to send to a different one should you so wish.

Clicking 'next' to accept the delivery address will take you to the delivery charges screen and let you either choose from FREE delivery(something so many other sites fail to provide) or priority delivery which adds £3.00 per item to the price whilst only taking a day or two off of the time to arrive. It's your choice of course. You can also enter a gift message of upto 160 words here as well free of charge which is a nice touch. Clicking 'next' again lets you enter your choice of payment from various credit card options(Blackwell's doesn't seem to store your credit card details like some sites) or from a personal Blackwell's account card which you can sign up for through the site. I haven't explored that option(sorry!) but you might like to. Seems you gain little other than 60 days interest free credit if you spend £200 or more each year on books with them...but you can look into it, I'm not good on financial stuff. :oP

Once you've ordered your books you'll be sent an email confirmation and an assurance that your account will not be billed until after the items have been shipped. During this time there is a cooling off period so should you change your mind you can simply visit your account page and cancel the order, no questions asked and no penalties. You can keep track of your order status from your account from then onwards or simply wait for the email confirmations to arrive as they let you know the current state of play throughout the whole process in my experience.

• My Experience

I can't say ordering online is ever a particularly enjoyable experience but it's made much more pleasurable when you deal with sites which are this easy to navigate, this intuitive with their ordering process and keep you informed at
all times about the state of play with your order. I would imagine if I ever had a problem with an order then my query would be dealt with quickly and efficiently as well, it just gives you that kind of feeling. I can't fault them at all. Their prices aren't exactly world beating but they were the cheapest for the book I was looking for EVEN though the price quoted was the cover price! The free postage really helps keep the cost down. My order arrived on time, in pefect condition and they haven't bugged me since for any unsolicited reason. What more can you ask for? Maybe Blackwell's isn't going to be your first port of call for general reading material, although it's always worth a look, but if you're looking for something a little more specialised then it's definitely worth checking out as they probably have it in stock rather than waiting a couple of weeks for it to be ordered from more widely advertised sites. A site which I find very easy to recommend but can't give 5 stars to because it's not likely to be the cheapest source of books you'll find and the browsing options are quite limited.

Summary: