1. A Plus Sized Womans Nightmare: Shopping for Jeans Online By: Maria Ferance, Tawanda Jenkins, Beth Theve Vs.

2. Battle One: Site Design

Looking for attractive, fun, interestingsomething nice to look at while shopping.

Important because it makes the consumer feel good while shopping.Consumers who are relaxed and enjoying themselves are more likely to stay and spend money.

3. Torrid Told us immediately about specials Introduced us to special services Bright, colorful, fun to look at Highlights signature fashions 4. Lane Bryant Lots of unused white space Sleek, yes, butthe site is grey.It is unwelcoming, unfriendly. Also told us immediately about specials Also featuring highlighted fashions, already suggestive selling. 5. Battle One Winner: 6. Battle Two: Easy Navigation

Easy navigation is important if a consumer cant find what theyre looking for, they will go elsewhere.

Both Torrid and Lane Bryant made navigating to the jeans section incredibly easy one click and were there.

7. Torrid 8. Lane Bryant 9. Battle Two Winner Its a Draw. 10. Battle Three: Sizing Help

Since the consumer doesnt have a dressing room to try the jeans on, its very important that the company offers assistance with making sure the jeans will fit.

As with everything else on the web, this help should be easy to get to.

11. Torrid Once were inside the product detail, the link for sizing help is right here Sizing help pops up in a new window so as not to disturb the browsing experience Very detailed sizing support information 12. Lane Bryant Were in the product detailsbut wheres the sizing information?!?!?!? 13. Lane Bryant Had to leave the shopping experience and go back out to a customer service link to find sizing information. Verydisruptive to the shopping experience Once we were in customer service section, information was not easy to find quickly. 14. Battle Three Winner 15. Battle Four: Selection

Jeans are a very individual item.Everyone has their own style and fit preferences.These preferences are very specific and mission critical to consumers.

16. Torrid Had 48 different styles and colors that were very easy to preview. Descriptions were clear, to the point, making it easy to identify items of interest. Appropriate sized models were used so shopper has some idea how product will really look. 17. Lane Bryant Lane Bryant offered onlySEVENstyles!! One of these styles is not weather appropriate. While there are several color choices, thats not easily discovered on the selection page. Upon further investigation, we discovered several styles were only available in one or two sizes. Descriptions are unclear and confusing: Brooklyn Wash, Nantucket Regal Models give no accurate concept of how the jeans will look on a real plus sized woman. 18. Battle Four Winner: 19. Battle Five: Price

No matter how much better one website is than another, a major consideration when making any purchase is price the customer wants the best value for the money.

While Lane Bryant is a very well known brand name because of their store fronts, Torrid is very well known among online plus size shoppers.They are known for quality and a youthful style.

20. Torrid 21. Lane Bryant 22. Battle Five Winner: 23. Other Factors

Both companies offered relationship marketing, showing an interest in maintaining their customers.

Both companies offer sorting ability by price, or length needed (petite, tall, etc)

Both companies have secured and verified billing products.

24. So who did we choose?

Lane Bryant!

Although throughout our research, Torrid offered a better website and equal product value, Lane Bryants jeans were50% cheaper .Since we are paying shipping on top of our purchase, that savings is very important.

We would much preferred to have bought at Torrid, where the online shopping experience was more fun - but the prices were simply too high.

Caveat : We wouldnothave purchased any additional items from Lane Bryant.There was nothing enticing us to stay and browse.