A friend of mine recently recommended that I check out BiggestBook.com. I was unfamiliar with the site, but quickly realized that no, they don’t sell books! At first I thought what the heck were they thinking when they chose that name for their company. How misleading. But, after I understood what they sold and how they were literally a virtual catalog “book,” I thought the name was fine, as long as the one who enters the site realizes that they did land in the correct place, an office supplies site, and not a book site. But as I entered the site, I saw no clear value proposition recognizable right away, which could add the already apparent confusion from the name of the company.

The homepage has a unique design, but in order to keep me hooked and less confused of who and what they do, the value proposition needs to be clearly stated early on.

The other major issue I noticed with the homepage was the flash image with different offers. There were also offers all along the bottom, and on right column. These competing offers can confuse site visitors.

One of the flashing offers is a subway restaurant giftcard, and if I were browsing as site for office supplies, a subway card offer would throw me off entirely.

I began to ask myself, if they are offering subway, Godiva, and blockbuster rebates, who are they targeting with this website? The answer has to be individuals, because no large company would be drawn to an incentive such as a $5 Godiva card, a free paper cutter, or a free wireless headset. But even as an individual, it throws me off to see these offers right as I enter.

So biggestbook.com has caused me a lot of FUD’s so far (fears, uncertainties, and doubts). I was afraid I landed on the wrong site, I was uncertain what the offers were all about and I was doubtful whether the site was credible for offering such things. I did not want to continue at this point.

But I thought, you know what, let me give them the benefit of the doubt. On the right column there are options:

I was interested in finding out more about their Big Solutions for organization. I clicked on the link and this is the page I came to:

I guess I misunderstood what they meant by Big Solutions! The first item on their list of getting organized for the New Year is:

Introducing the New BiggestBook.com!

Umm….I’m confused! Is this about me getting organized or you? I was ready to click away, but I also noticed the Bigideasnewsletter sign up, so I decide to check that out since I’m unhappy with the results on the Big Solutions page.

Okay I don’t see why they asked for my name and last name, and I’m not going to choose job title and education level, those are absolutely ridiculous to ask for! What depending on my job title and ed level they will customize a newsletter to accommodate me?

I submitted just the information above and it worked. Yaaay! But I still wanted to see their latest issue…

It’s great to offer customers something that they can benefit from. Content really draws people to websites, especially interesting and relevant content. I would have loved to see more articles than ads though!

Biggestbook.com seems like an awesome portal with over 40,000 office supply items. But they’ve just released this new site that has navigational, FUD’s, and trust issues. It’s always important to design and create a site with your clients in mind.

But I did not attempt to order anything yet. I need a high-tech paper shredder for my office. So I decided I would search for that item.

I want to stop now, it seems that there are a lot of “wrong” things with this site, but I don’t want to dismiss the fact that there are a lot of things done “right” too. For my next blog I will show you what happens when I search for the paper shredder. I will also share some suggestions that I thought could really benefit Biggestbook.com. Until next time, happy searching!