This week we take a look at the Beatport website. As ever, winners of this prestigious award will receive something from the HP CRO Drawer. All winners will be notified by High Position Head of CRO, James Root via twitter: @RootToMarket. Nominations can also be tweeted so please share and get involved!

WHAT DOES THE SITE DO?

Beatport is an online store focussed on electro music.

WHAT DOES THE SITE SAY THEY DO?

“Founded in 2004, Beatport is the largest music store for DJs in the world. Beatport offers music in premium digital formats and provides unique music discovery tools created for and by DJs. Each week, Beatport’s music collection is refreshed with hundreds of exclusive tracks by the world’s top dance music artists. Beatport is privately held and headquartered in Denver, USA and Berlin, Germany.”

WHAT DOES THE SITE DO WELL?

• Bright green on black and grey is an eye-catching colour scheme and helps CTAs stand out
• The “New On Beatport” image draws the eye immediately, and the animation is effective in showcasing multiple artists
• Other images in “New Releases” sit neatly above the fold and invite the user to click through using arrows in the images themselves
• The “Top Ten” features on the right hand side and gives the user the ability to listen to tracks without an account

WHAT ELSE DOES THE SITE DO WELL?

• Smooth animation makes for an enjoyable browsing and interacting experience. Clicking the Top Ten’s “Play All” button reveals the track and artists’ information at the top of the page along with the wave form and CTAs

• The Calls To Action themselves are presented in such a way that the user isn’t just invited to click, it’s almost irresistible!

• When listening to tracks, the site helps the user explore other artists by presenting what other users have bought and the site’s own recommendations

• DJ Profiles are succinct, informative and aesthetically pleasing, using bold headers and white space to group information effectively

• The purchase path is clean and simple – you can login using Facebook, Twitter, Google and/or Paypal, or you can create an account, add your billing information and then download

WHAT DOES THE SITE NOT DO WELL?

• I’m not a fan of the overuse of animation, especially on a homepage, but it can often help draw the eye and highlight important information. Why not give users the option to interact and offering clickable carousel tabs? – TEST IT!
• On the homepage, the Social Media follow buttons are teeny tiny and located riiiight at the bottom of the page in the footer. Would they get more followers if their buttons were moved to the top of the page? – TEST IT!
• For such an aesthetically pleasing site, the filter for browsing DJs is disappointing. The long scrolling menu (organised by volume rather than alphabetically!?!) and lack of Über-clickable buttons make it clumsy and unattractive  – TEST IT!