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I want to pump (clap)
me up. I ordered a 110 pound weight set, finally. I ordered
it from MVP.com. There are many
elements of this site that I like. The aspects that stood out for
me were: 1) the ability to sort product information in a number of ways
(e.g., brand, price), 2) the ability to partially determine the presentation
manner of products (e.g., in a long column or in rows), 3) a clearly labeled
six step procedure for checkout that lets you know exactly where you are
in the process every step of the way (I loved this because, I never wondered
"is this the last screen I'll see and will this finalize the order" or
"can I still back out if I go ahead to the next stage of the process"),
4) the shipping charge ($24.99 -- it was a heavy item) was very reasonable
relative to all other sport sites that I investigated (for nearly all other
sport sites, the shipping charge exceeded the price of the weight set --
e.g., anywhere from $60-$90), 5) decent variety and selection across all
price points and skill levels (e.g., the weight set that I ordered was
priced at $49.99 -- a basic and absolutely serviceable set by Cap
Barbell -- and also available was an Olympic 300 pound set by York
Barbell for just under $300) and 6) the ability to rate each webpage
(look for the floating [+] in the upper right part of a webpage -- this
may be part of an experiment, however, so I'm not sure everyone will see
it).
I thought the product information needed to be improved a bit.
I suspect that some people will like the information available from sports
"experts." I didn't see enough depth and detail in this information
for me; the concept, however, is excellent.
There was some press coverage of local interest about the naming of
MVP.com when it came out. There is a sporting goods store chain in
the Greater Boston area named MVP Sports.
When MVP.com announced its existence, MVP Sports cried foul about the Web
address. For the record, MVP Sports registered the domain name "mvp-sports.com"
on May 12, 1997. (It was interesting to find, once I started to dig
a little, that another company, in New Jersey, named
MVP Sports reserved the Web address "mvpsports.com on February 10,
1997, i.e., before MVP Sports of Boston reserved its Web address.)
MVP.com reserved its Web address name on December 9, 1999. All of
this information was availabel through the "Who
Is" feature at Network Solutions
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Winter 2000 | Copyright Bruce Weinberg