ao.com enters TV market with an incredibly slick website

Dixons Carphone, Amazon and Argos gain a major competitor ahead of the World Cup

by hodg100
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ao.com enters TV market with an incredibly slick website
Yesterday’s announced merger of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse was heralded, by both, as a landmark moment for British retail.
The idea being that the connected home – or ‘internet of things’ – would be best served to the consumer by a retailer that sells all the necessary components to achieve it. So, the fact that the soon-to-be Dixons Carphone organisation will be the only retailers able to sell just about every item of white goods, TV, smartphone and tablet available in the UK, would seem to give them an advantage. Provide the idea is a sound one, that is.

But, it seems they aren’t going to have it all their own way as online electrical retailer ao.com has branched out of its traditional market of domestic appliances to launch a TV and AV accessories proposition.

Starting yesterday, (Thursday 15th May 2014), ao.com expanded its range to include televisions and related accessories. The move comes at a predicted bumper period for TV retailing, with many consumers expected to bring TV upgrades forward to purchase sets that offer bigger screens and higher resolutions for viewing this year’s World Cup.
Room for a big one?
Considering this is already a highly competitive market, this new is going to put a squeeze on Dixons Carphone, not to mention all the other players but you would have to assume ao.com think they can be competitive.

ao.com is hoping that their newly designed online store will be a major draw to consumers and, having just been browsing it for the last 20 minutes, we have to say it is very slick and easy to navigate, with simple information and logical categorisations for search criterion.

ao.com enters TV market with an incredibly slick website

John Roberts, CEO and founder of ao.com, comments: “Having studied how TVs are retailed online we found a market that was tired, static and really not meeting the needs of the consumer. Current online offers are overcomplicated, too jargon heavy and populated with huge ranges that are hard to distinguish.

“Our TV proposition is not only refreshing for the consumer but it’s also revolutionary in the market. It is set to shake up the category by delivering a simplified shopping experience that gives the consumer all the information they require to make an informed TV purchasing decision, all in one place.”

The retailer will be offering products from the top four television manufacturers (Samsung, LG, Sony and Panasonic) who made up 74% of the total volume market in 2012. Other brands being retailed on the site will include Philips, Toshiba and interestingly Hisense which is a Chinese brand we saw at CES 2014 who had budget 4K and OLED TVs to exhibit. The website doesn’t currently carry any of their TVs however, so we’ve contacted them regarding the likelihood of them ever doing so.
"Current online offers are overcomplicated, too jargon heavy and populated with huge ranges that are hard to distinguish." - it's difficult to argue that!
ao.com’s USP will be its proprietary media content. Shoppers will be able to get all of the information they need about a product through, as they put it, ‘rich media.’

The TV video reviews by ao.com’s own team are definitely on the salesy side but they are informative and the whole site is incredibly inviting to navigate, which you would think will lead to better sales conversion than certain other, more confusing, sites.

Roberts, adds: “Our TV proposition is second to none. We’ve demystified the jargon, provided greater explanation of the technologies, curated a reasonable sized range of quality brands with no own branded products, focused on benefits rather than features in our merchandising and are offering the opportunity to have products installed at point of delivery.

The brand will be supporting the launch of TVs with a dedicated football themed ad, which sees character Barry Catchpole testing out ao.com’s range ahead of a summer of football.

What do you guys think of the website – pop over to http://ao.com/home-entertainment/tvs and let us know whether the site would encourage you to buy from them, or is there no room for another big fish in the TV retail market?
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