What really makes a difference when deciding to buy from one shop vs the next? Pricing is the obvious go-to answer; and then things like reliability, stock level and shipping-speed are all worthy criteria to take into account.
But what about the website itself? What can an online shop do to it's website to truly give value to it's customers?
We really believe that Locoskates is best skate shop for rollerblades, rollerskates and all things associated when it comes to website features and online-experience (as well as the usual criteria of customer service, pricing, shipping-speed, good reviews and having the UK's largest selection of skates).
Here's 10 functions of the Locoskates website, built in the last year, that we think makes Loco the best e-commerce website for skates:
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Backdated price match
How annoying is it when you buy something online and then a couple of weeks later the thing you bought is reduced? It doesn’t feel fair does it? If you buy something that ends up being lower in price at Loco within 30 days of you buying it then send us an email and we’ll refund you the difference.
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Video images
Video is pretty much replacing still image on social media these days isn’t it? So why should a retail website be any different? We’re now integrating more video content onto our product pages. You know those top-down product videos we’ve been making for our instagram? Well, every time a new product of significance is released we make one of those 30 second to 1 minute videos for our instagram page, but we also feature it on the product page on the Loco website alongside the normal photographs of the product, videos are just way better for seeing what the skate REALLY looks like.
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Size Hover-over
When you're browsing a collection page on the website, we have this feature where you can hover the mouse over the thumbnail to reveal what sizes are currently available. On mobile just hit the toggle in the corner of the thumbnail to reveal the sizes. This allows you to browse skates and see what sizes are available on the fly without endlessly clicking into each one. Adding to that, we have a feature where you can choose to view the size in either UK sizes, US sizes or EU sizes... just toggle to the one you're used to using
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Size charts
Not all skate brands have detailed size charts; so we made our own! Find them on most product-pages featuring skates. Best bit about making in-house size charts is that we can do it better than the brands. Most of the size charts we make will show you the shell sizing breakdown, a piece of information which we are asked on a daily basis. If you need to know which shell sizes are shared and which are unique, refer to the size chart on the product-page of the skate you are interested in.
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Cashback on every purchase [UK customers only]
Some people love stuff like this and some people dont… but if you’re one of the people who love to keep on top of your Tesco clubcard points then pay attention to our checkout! You get a small amount of cash back with each purchase you make. Follow a couple of simple steps when prompted, after you've completed your payment and you can collect 'Loco-cash' ready for next time you visit the site. If you’re not the points collecting type then no worries, you can just make your purchase and ignore this feature.
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Fit Guides
When a new skate comes into stock we all sit around in the office and try it on for size and decide, real-world, whether it fits large or small. We think that sizing based on cm measurements is not always accurate and the best way, is to put it on a real skater’s foot. We have an info-graphic on each skate's product-page which shows, at a glance, how we experienced that skate model to fit.
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Product Specs
Jump onto any product page and you’ll see a list of product specs, pretty normal for most websites of course… but we’ve inserted some really specific metafields into this list to appeal to all the skating super-geeks. For example:
- Skate weight (complete)
- Skate Weight (Boot Only)
- Frame Length
- Middle wheel split size (for aggressive skates)
- Wheel profile shape
etc
ALL REALLY UNIQUE nuggets of information that you’re unlikely to find on any other rollerblading / roller skating website.
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Really detailed filters
Speaking of going the extra mile, have a look at the filters on our category pages. When you land on a page showing a large collection of skates you can browse using all the usual filters you'd expect on any website worth it's salt; like size, price and colour. But we added way more filters! Maybe you need to filter the skates based on what style of frame mounting they have? We can do that! Maybe you want to only see skates with 90mm wheels? We’ve also got that too. Wheel hardness, check. Skate discipline, check. Hardboot, soft boot, narrow fitting, wide fitting. Check, check, check! These filters make it easy to find what you need amongst the UK largest selection of skates.
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International friendly
The same company that runs Marks & Spencers international checkout runs ours, so we have loads of advanced features. When you land on the website for the first time, we’ll geo-locate you and automatically set the website to your local currency. We support all currencies. Are you based in the USA? You'll automatically be browsing Locoskates in US Dollars. If you're based the UAE you'll be browsing Loco in Dirham. We have local payment options too, so you can pay by Wechat in China and cash-on-delivery in the Middle East etc.
Payable import taxes are shown clearly at checkout where you have the option to pay them in advance (or choose to pay them on delivery). By the way, the cost of import taxes to many countries, including all countries in the EU, is covered by us.
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Articles
You're reading one now! We have a tonne of extra curricular literature on the site. Scroll down near the bottom of the homepage to find our articles. Here you can find advice articles on the best skates to buy and general knowledge articles relating to a wide variety of skating disciplines.