TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: Website of the Week: Lufthansa WorldShop

Founded in 1926, Lufthansa is now Germany's largest airline and Europe's second-biggest. The airline is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's leading airline alliance.

Style

Lufthansa WorldShop features a sharp blue and white image interspersed with a variety of compatible colours and images. Welcoming in appearance, it is versatile, eye-catching and pleasing.

Products are well illustrated with good quality images. The layout, font and colouring are rich and contemporary and are complementary to the solid content of the site.

Content and usability

The home page indicates the ambition of the website with its smorgasbord of options competing for attention. If you already know what you want, the chances are that you will find it, thanks to good signposting and easy navigation. The wide range of options also helps. If you’re merely browsing, something is bound to catch your eye.

Kicking off with its dual menu – one product-related, the other miscellaneous – the home page offers a selection of promotions, special offers and a host of other attractive choices. Shops and outlets, catalogue request, extended search, My WorldShop, newsletter, view cart, contact and help make up the miscellaneous menu at the top of the page.

Shops and outlets gives an overview of WorldShop outlets in Neu-Isenburg and Bielefeld and at Berlin-Tegel, Hamburg, Munich airports and includes useful links, tips and information about each store.

Extended search is a more exhaustive version of the quick-search facility which is also found on the home page. It works on a keyword basis. Extended search enables you to be more precise with your quest, and even allows you to enter the amount you are willing to spend on an item (in Euros).

My WorldShop allows you to log in or register as a WorldShop customer. You may want to do a spot of online ‘window shopping’, but pre-order is available to registered users only.

The product menu is a comprehensive one with nine categories. Each consists of several sub-categories in a drop-down menu: Travel & luggage, lifestyle & accessories, Lufthansa & aviation, home & living, sports & wellness, kids & fun, entertainment & media, special sales and inflight shopping. The last category of online items dispels any confusion as to what is available in-store and and what is sold onboard.

Inflight shopping comprises Accessories and Exclusively by Lufthansa. The former includes watches, sunglasses, jewellery, leather, writing utensils, travel, for kids and electronic, neatly listed with thumbnail pictures and introduction. Items are displayed with an enlargeable thumbnail picture, description, ‘add to cart’ option and price in Euros. Items are also given their value in air miles, which is a useful system because a shopper can buy goods with either Euros, air miles or a combination of the two (details about this are found on the home page). For instance, a Festina Toronto Chronograph watch may be purchased for €169 or 40,000 air miles. Other watches brands include the likes of the Lacoste Damenuhr (€155 or 30,000 air miles) and the Adidas Professional Chrono (€139, 39,000 air miles).

Jewellery offers top brand names such as Hot Diamonds earrings for €69, 16,000 air miles, Thomas Sabo bracelet (€179, 40,000 air miles) and Montblanc Star Y-kette (53,000 air miles only).

Travel encompasses portable items and useful gadgets like the Swiss USB Deluxe Mouse (€28, 10,000 miles), World Travel Adapter (€39, 12,000 miles) and Steiner Skyhawk binoculars (€189, 45,000 miles).

Blood pressure meters (Bosomedilife PC – €99, 26,000miles), headphones (Sennheiser PXC 250 – €149, 39,000 miles), digital cameras (Minox Leica M3 – €210, 52,000 miles and EXILIM ZOOM EX-Z1000 – €429, 99,000miles) and mini USB business card scanner (Tarqus – €149, 34,000 miles) are all found under Electronics.

All menus stay rooted throughout so navigation is simple despite the comprehensive nature of the site.

Exclusively by Lufthansa offers a souvenir model aeroplane Herpa 'football nose' plane (€24, 9,000 miles).

Offer of the Month (September: Kenwood soft drink mixer) and WorldShop Top Sellers (6 items) are also found on the home page as well as a variety of competitions with a range of prizes to be won. A shopper can also browse the latest catalogue online and order products directly by submitting an order form. This is useful for shoppers who are familiar with the available items.

What we like:
Good product showcase and pre-order facility
Effective navigation
Pleasant overall image
Incentives to shop such as competitions, special offers and the ability to purchase items using air miles

What we think needs improving/adding:
A Sense of Place – maybe some destination merchandise needs to be introduced?

Visit Lufthansa WorldShop.

COMING SOON: The Moodie Report Travel Retail Worldwide Web Awards.

Sponsored by P&G Prestige Products

Which websites offer the best service to consumers? Which are most user-friendly? Which are the most stylish? And which, crucially, offer the greatest incentive to shop?

Every year we will judge, through a combination of industry polling, consumer opinion and specialist judges, who is doing most to wow travellers on the web. International and regional awards.

The main award – Travel Retail Website of the Year – will be unveiled at this year's 'Oscars' of the industry: the Frontier Awards in Cannes. More details coming soon.