Website review: Crocus

When a website does everything right, you find yourself wanting to tell others about it. That’s just what I’ve been doing recently with the online garden store Crocus.co.uk.

Great websites are the ones where you hardly notice the user experience because everything’s so easy. Crocus really has this cracked.

I’m a gardening novice, so the vast product list ought to be bewildering. Crocus steps up to the mark with some user-friendly filters. Just select the type of soil, or orientation of the bed, or season of flowering, or height of plant… you name it, you can filter by it.

Once you’ve put items into your basket – or rather, wheelbarrow – checkout is easy, too. For me, this is always the crucial test of a well-thought-out website. I’m giving you my money – make it easy for me!

So far, so good, but it’s when Crocus goes the extra mile that you really know you’re in good hands. I mentioned I was a novice gardener, so I’m really looking forward to the promised follow-up emails that are going to tell me when I need to tend to the plants I bought. It’s a very clever way of both keeping the brand name uppermost in my mind, and allowing me access to the vast amounts of knowledge Crocus have – with no inconvenience to myself.

Add to all this some excellent design, and I’m hooked (my first batch of plants is safely in the ground, and I’m itching to make another order). Large images make the site really appealing, and the photo galleries, showing close-ups as well as the plants in context, come into their own when you are trying to make decisions about whether or not to buy.

Hard to believe that at the bottom, this is just a nursery, like scores of others. With careful application of best online practice, they’ve become market leaders on the web, and are presumably enjoying the dividends.

Whatever your business, you’ll find something to learn from Crocus. After all, wouldn’t you like people to be talking about your website the way I am telling friends, family, and now you, about this one?