Tell Us What You Think of Our New Website--beta.bordersstores.com

Really great site.

I like it!
If you could possibly add pics to the recipe files that would be even better.
Great idea with the selfves though. Nice!

i like it, very good site

Very nice. I especially like the colors you used. Gives the site a homey feel to it.

Borders is bringing a new meaning to creative bookselling through the Magic Shelf. I really enjoy the opportunity to browse through the titles as if I was actually in a Borders store. Similarly, the front book cover presentation of the search results makes online book buying that much more real for me.

Most significant though is the navigational capabilities through the subject/genre classifications as part of the left hand column. It is very helpful to me to be prompted to further refine the search results thus providing a clear path to a deeper and more relevant selection. I feel like I am being guided through the process by a personal shopper.

I also encourage everyone to click on the Borders Media tab. I was fortunate enough to watch the filming of Mel Robbins during one of her recent shows at the Borders store in downtown Boston.

Overall, Borders is clearly bringing to the online bookselling experience that very special magic you find in the stores. As an avid book buyer, I am thrilled to have both options.

I have been a Borders customer for most of my adult life and am so glad that Borders is moving into selling online. Congratulations and I love the site. It's simple and easy to find what I'm looking for.

As a firm believer in criticism of the constructive kind, I'm looking pretty hard to find something I'd change. Give me a bit of time -- meanwhile, let me praise Magic Shelf and the navigational capabilities. Bravo!

The site looks really great. Functional, easy to use and appealing to the eye :)


Please read and rate my entry:
A Scandalous Overture

Good Design. Easy to use. Good Job!

Michelle, I'll add the recipe photos comment to our list, thanks.

Carl, great choice of features to highlight: we're especially proud of the cover view, the new category navigation abilities and our Borders Media features.

Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments, we really appreciate it, we've worked hard and it's really nice to hear from customers that we've done some good things. Keep 'em coming!

Mark- Thanks for sharing this (and for caring enough to ask our opinion)! I am really interested in how we encourage discovery online. When I used to pick-up a newspaper, I would flip through the pages of the paper and see articles that I would have never thought to go looking for. Similarly, when I wander through a bookstore today, I see titles or listen to music I might otherwise never have heard.

Online, with search, I find i wander less and go more quickly to the things I want. What I really like about the Borders site is that you have two great ways (the ShortList and the bookshelf) that cause that same kind of discovery I get in the offline world. I am really interested to see how the "picks for me" evolve over time. I'll stop back in a few days and share my emerging thoughts there, too.

As a long time fan of Borders, it is nice to see an upgraded version of their site. It seems to have a lot of what I've always liked (ability to reserve a book in the store, pretty good search results, etc.) with some new things that just made sense (bringing in the media pages, ability to read/write reviews, check my Borders Rewards balance, etc.).

I think the site flows nicely and holds together for a 'beta.' I have noticed a few quirks - mainly around setting preferences and having the Magic Shelf update the 'picked for you' - but all in all, I'm pleased with this version.

I am looking forward to being able to search and buy books from the same site - are there any other cool features that are being planned?

Ok this may be rather specific feedback, but I really liked what the site did during my registration process.

I hadn't remembered registering for the site before (though must have either as a Borders Rewards member or during a private screening we did with the Borders team out in Ann Arbor). In either case, my information was in your database.

Rather than my filling out an entire registration form only to discover my record exists, you guys caught that as soon as I filled-out my password and prompted me to use my original account. I love this because (1) it prevents duplicate account creation (annoying for both Borders and me) and (2) because it saves me work.

It's the little things...

I like the design of the site and the ease of checking to see if my local store has a certain book in stock. The one thing that I didnt see is a way to check for booksignings and events in the stores.

Like many other posters, I'm a long time fan of Borders. Unlike others, I'm not impressed with your Beta site. Here's why: I expect even a Beta web site to have a complete underlying infrastructure. When I did a search on 'Archaeology', I got 3,546 hits. Narrowing to an admittedly more obscure topic ('Cathar'), I got only 9 hits. I then did the same thing on Amazon. There, I got 89,444 and 4,706 hits respectively. Let me know when your book database is complete and I'll try it again...

Works quickly, looks great. One problem, when clicking on a selection the cover is far too small. May I suggest that you increase cover size so that just the cover, price and catalog number fills the page from left to right with the product description below the cover. As it is I can barely tell whats on the cover let alone read it.

I love the look and feel of the new site!

Hi all--thanks for the kind comments. Just to answer a few points here,in reverse order:

Dennis, we do have the cover size as an item on our list to address, that's a good catch, thanks.

Lee, we do list events on the individual store pages you can find by clicking on Store Locator at the top and searching for a store. However, searching for particular events is a feature on our future list, as well as some other cool things like being able to add events to your Google or Outlook calendars, share events with your friends, sign up for alerts, etc.

Steve, we are not listing used and out of print titles on the beta site yet. We will be adding them next year, though. I'm guessing that a large number of the 4700 titles you brought back on Amazon are in that category.

Tom, thanks a lot for the detailed feedback on the registration process. We worked hard on that, and hope our millions of registered Borders Rewards members are having similar speedy experiences signing up!

Alan G, yes when we launch the new Borders.com early next year we'll have some cool new features in addition to adding the ability to buy stuff. We're adding a lot of personalization/recommendation features, for example. We'll also bring the new site into our stores, so you'll be able to log in at the store and check your wishlist, check your recommendations, order titles to be shipped to your home or the store and lots more. Stay tuned!

From what I have seen so far, the site is wonderful. My only suggestion is that navigation is difficult if a person wishes to apply at a Borders store: It's a multi-click process, and not nearly as intuitive as it should be. I know someone who inadverently followed the directions they found on the site and ended up sending a resume to corporate, instead of applying locally. Given the turnover in retail these days, I should think it would behoove you to make the application process simpler.

Here's another suggestion. The book rating system has five levels: poor, fair, average, good, and excellent. Three of those ratings are not likely to sell any books! I would recommend switching the scale to lean in favor of purchases: poor, fair, good, excellent, and must read. As I was submitting reviews, it was difficult to distinguish for folks the difference between "good" and "excellent" when I really wanted to--on occasion--say "Go out right this second and buy this book!"

As the scale stands now, the majority of the five ratings are not really going to sell books, as they focus on the "just average" or worse.

Love the site - and the way you've asked for our opinions. I'd consider adding video clips of authors - there is a great site called meettheauthor.com and they may allow you access to their video files.

I like it- it has a great feel with the layout and color choices.

Thanks, Scott, we'll look at the job listing flow, and do some thinking about the ratings, that's an interesting thought.

Simon, thanks. We do have quite a few videos featuring authors on the Borders Media tab--click Borders Media at the top. We're especially proud of our book clubs, where authors join a book club to discuss their books.

Thanks Heather, and everyone else, for the comments. Keep checking back, we'll be making changes and improvements and fixes through the end of the year and into early next year as we gear up to replace Borders.com. Stop back and leave comments any time.

Specifically checking out the music features. I like how you have one featured artist spotlight at the top of the music page. Calls it out very nicely. The album covers at the bottom of the page look very nice, but maybe sort them by genre instead of mixing everything together? Also, giving the option to change the view to list is nice too.

Being able to sample the music is a great feature and a must.

Showing people how much they save simply by scrolling over the album cover is great. However the "$18.99" looks like "$10.99" when is has the slash through it. It's kind of confusing looking.

The share with a friend feature is cool. Can you share a snippet of the song with a friend? That would be really cool.

I noticed some of the CD's did not have album info for them. I would like to see every album have some sort of info or review written about it so customers know what they are getting.

Overall, I really like the site. Now, when are you guys gonna offer downloads from this site?

Thanks for the feedback, Ryan. We have the issue of the 8 looking like a zero on our list to fix. It's an issue with this particular font and the strikethrough. Glad you like Share with a Friend. No, we don't enable share a snippet, but that's a great idea, I'll add that to the future wishlist for consideration. We're working on filling in the missing album info. We won't be selling anything til early next year, but we'll move quickly to add downloads, I expect, stay tuned!

Mark, why make it mandatory for people to enter a phone number, in order to join? Some people do not have a phone (the Internet can provide superior services), while other people may want to keep their phone details private. It seems like this is just an extra and unnecessary burden that will stop some people from joining, while it will make many people anxious as to what you plan to do with those phone numbers.

beautiful site! especially the textures of type and handwriting, and the red/golden/brown palette.

Thanks, Adam.

Thanks for the feedback, Sam. Phone number is the way Borders Rewards members can get credit for purchases at the store when they don't have their card. But we're re-examining the registration/login processes of the beta site and will take that feedback into consideration.

Since you do not take area codes, I don't think the phone number request is intrusive. Folks who don't wish to participate fully do not have to take part in the program.

could you add a mouseover/hover to the magic shelf. ideally, it would have the title, author and a 2 or 3 sentence description. some of the covers are hard to read and it would save an extra mouse click to see a book i really am not interested in.

love the palette colors.

Thanks Robyn. We've actually added the hover back to the Magic Shelf in the latest release. It's a little slower than it should be, I think, so you have to wait a moment, but you'll see the details you mentioned inside the hover. We're now working on a bigger remake of the Magic Shelf for unveiling early next year, with better navigation and expanded scope. Thanks for the comment!

Mark

Site looks really nice I can hardly wait until it's fully launched. I did notice one large thing that seemed to be missing and that was a marketplace where people can sell their own items. Will this be available on borders and if so when?

Excellent job re-working the in-store inventory search. On your old site, the wording is confusing and there are too many clicks to see it a local store has a product. Even then, many people are confused with the results: the fact that there are results often makes them think the item is available in the store. The new version is very clear and intuitive. Excellent!

Not sure if this is the place for this kind of thing, but I noticed some guest shortLists do not work...such as Andre Benjamin and Hannah Montana.

OK website. Still checking it out. What I'd like to know is how this will affect store personnel
and their job functions. Will there be less book clerks and less people on the floor? It's already hard to find anyone to help you and they seem to be chronically overworked. Plus the checkout lines are ridiculously long. Nothing is in order and the stores always seem a mess because nobody seems to have time to do anything. Piles of books everywhere. If this is supposed to make the stores busier with more traffic, then I can't imagine what that would be like with not more people. It's sad. You have GOT to do better than that. Computers instead of people, and even fewer people? Tell me how this is supposed to improve anything. I'm skeptical, frankly.