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Gone Bananas
| 11.13.2005
I don't know if any of you noticed but a couple of weeks ago, the BR site was down for several days. I tried in various browswers but the page never loaded and eventually resolved to an error. Now I know why...they've decided to "enhance" their site but in doing so, have alienated all MAC users as it doesn't work in Safari. I build lots of sites everyday and it's not a big deal to make a site Safari compliant. As a protest, I'm not going to open up FireFox to give them my money. Would you?
A nice article from Stop Design.
I had almost forgotten about the "browser wars" of years past, when publishers aligned themselves with rendering engines, and forbade their audience from entering without a "modern" browser. That all seems so quaint in hindsight - as if ESPN would do a deal with Sony so that SportsCenter was only viewable on a Wega monitor. Or something.
Yet I was whisked back to those annoyingly naive times today when I visited Banana Republic's newly redesigned site with Safari. I was ready to drop some cash on a few shirts (they've got a great line of tall sizes for freaks like me) when I was barred from entering -- as if they'd hired a bouncer with a velvet rope. Apparently, they've gone all Ajaxy with shopping carts that slide into the page. All quite nice, I'm sure, but I'm not going to switch browsers just to be their customer. Would you?
I would have thought that a savvy retailer like the Gap (who owns BR) would understand the business value of web standards. After all, Safari may only be a couple of percentage points, but can you really afford to take even that out of your profit margin?
The biggest irony: I couldn't complain. Even the Customer Service link is off limits to my browser of choice. Oh well...
Update: The redirect page on their site now reports, "We're working on supporting Safari. Please check back soon." And this humble post now ranks #5 for the query "Banana Republic" on Google.
posted at 11:31 AM
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2 Comments:
It's also interesting that Gap decided to make these site changes as they roll into what has to be their busiest time of the year. It's an unwritten rule for online businesses that you *never* revamp your sites (multiple - BR, Gap, Old Navy) after Halloween for fear that you'll hurt holiday revenues. Earlier this fall, the sites were all down for days at a time. So much for the "death" of brick and mortar...
That's a good point. Also, what happened to the "friendly" email announcing the new site and how it better serves all the existing customer base? Something like "You've probably noticed our new "look" and we blah blah..." So much for hitting the site while in Safari and getting a "This site won't work for you anymore" message...
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