Website Review – Selfridges Online………………………….

So we're all sitting here with champagne glasses in hands and big smiles on our faces because at last Selfridges has launched its brand spanking new transactional website..........I for one am delighted because without a doubt it's my favourite UK department store. It's where I always park my car when I'm stupid enough to drive into London, eat sushi at Yo! when I'm in a hurry or with one of my kids, get my make-up done at Trish McEvoy and shop for pretty well everything when I'm in funds, and dream-shop when I'm not.

I have to confess that the Home Page confused me at first as do some of the navigational aspects of the site. I also found the 'Brand Rooms' concept difficult to grasp, as I wasn't always sure if I was looking for 'Designer' or 'Contemporary’, and couldn't a brand be both at the same time? I’d always rather select by Designer/Brand, or type of garment/product, and I suspect that most people are the same. Just a word of advice, if you do know the brand you’re looking for within a category, click to Brands Online in the drop down menu and go from there, it’s by far the simplest thing to do.

It’s always easy to find fault with a brand new website, particularly one as vast as this one is, but there are a huge number of things right here that will revolutionise our online department store shopping (in the UK at least) and make all the other contenders look carefully to their laurels. Launching at this time when online retail is so well established here originally looked tardy, but now looks quite clever, apart from the wheel re-invention issues.

Firstly the product range is superb, from fashion, to beauty, to homewares, and from a fashion point of view I have no doubt will, once the full offer is up, be very hard to beat (other than all time favourite Net-a-Porter, of course).

Although the choices are without a doubt confusing and I hope that they’ll be modified, once you’re in buying mode it couldn’t be easier. The pictures are very clear, the information and descriptions are excellent, and the channel through to placing an order couldn’t be simpler.

Don’t be surprised that there aren’t as many brands as you would expect – this is a brand new site, after all, and we are all, as customers, going to be testing it for a while. Don’t be surprised, either, if within a very short space of time Selfridges.com has taken over a high proportion of luxury shopping on the web. I’m fully expecting that.

I, inevitably, placed an order quite fast (is any one surprised), and it arrived within a day although I hadn’t specified express delivery. Such a shame, it was too big and is now winging its way back to them. I’ll definitely be ordering again.