eb.uk.com (Electronics Boutique) > Reviews (5)

Many of you will probably be familiar with Electronics Boutique as a name on the High Street or Shopping Mall at least. If you don’t I will give a brief description of what they sell, here it comes… Electronics Boutique is in the highly lucrative computer games retail market and they sell games for all the major consoles and formats on the market. This is not going to be a review about them, but this is going to be a review about their website. Let’s go then…

… oh by the way the website is www.eb.uk.com, phew nearly forgot that then, that would have been a mistake!

** Home Page **
The home page of a website has to be good otherwise potential customers will either think “What a load of Rubbish” and leave or customers will find it hard to get at the information that they require. The Electronics Boutique home page strikes you are a friendly place to be and the first things that you see are links to the major consoles and formats. Here is an overview of that all-important home page…

As with most websites in the top left corner is the logo for the company, which also doubles as a link to the home page throughout the website. Beside the logo formatted to the right hand side of the webpage are the links to the major consoles/formats. These are all presented very neatly with the logo of the console/format displayed. These links are to PS One (this logo changes between the old a new one, quite cool!), PS2, Nintendo 64, PC CDRom, Sega Dreamcast, Gameboy Color & Gameboy Advance (this logo also changes between the two versions of the console, also cool!) and the final link is to other stuff (this is represented by a well placed Picachu, please inform me if this is incorrectly spelt!).

Just below the mains links from the home page you have the ability to search for the game or DVD that you are looking for, also you can link to a place on the site where you can track your order.

The home page also has a table of the top ten selling games (this is combined with the top ten of all formats). There is also a table of games, which are due to be released now (these can be pre-ordered). There is also a link to the feature for the month, which at the moment is a guide to the Gameboy Advance. The rest of the page is left for advertising and advertising games that you can buy from the Electronics Boutique website.

** The Sections **
When I refer to “The Sections” I mean the parts of the website dedicated to the individual consoles/formats. What I will provide here is a brief description of what information is available to you in these individual sections.

These pages look a lot like the home page and the main bulk is advertising the games that can be purchased for the console etc… They have the top ten selling games for that particular format and the latest releases. There is also a link to a featured game for that particular format, which is a review of the game in detail.

Each section also has its own menu, which has the following option available to it. Home (a link to the formats home page), In Stock (a link to hardware and software that is in stock), Coming Soon (Guess!

), Features (this is the EB Suggests, EB Guides… basically reviews), Latest (news and tables) and finally Info (basically information about the wesite etc…).

** Searching & Game Info **
This is very easy to use and is accessible throughout the website on the top bar. When you perform a search, as you might expect you get a list of results. You get the following information, the name of the game, the format, the price and you can either buy it or read the review.

The review of a game generally consists of a review of the game (although not all do), the type of game that it is, the developer, the certificate it has, the system requirements and not forgetting the price. Along with this is usually a nice picture of the games box.

** Content **
The website content is very good and there is usually a lot of information about the games that they sell. The formats that they sell are PS One, PS2, Gameboy, Nintendo 64, PC CDRom, Dreamcast and DVDs. This is all updated at regular intervals and you even have the opportunity to pre-order games. Useful I suppose if you want that feeling that you have bought the game, you just have to wait about a month or so for it!

** Ordering & Delivery **
Ordering a game is very easy all you have to do once you have found the game that you want is to click the order button. This will add the game to your shopping cart, which has how come into view on the left hand side of the screen, very cool. You can now find more games or go to the checkout. At the checkout you select the type of delivery you are going to have there is Standard (Royal Mail – 2 Day) that is free, there is Express (1 Day in the UK) that is 4.95 and an Express Delivery for the EU that is 8.50. I used the free delivery and the game that I purchased appeared within two days, which was really good.

Before the order is complete you have to fill in your details about your address, payment details. If you have already used the service this gets filled in automatically, apart from the payment details. The tracking service is currently in development.

** Loyalty Scheme **
You can also join the loyalty scheme online, all you have to do is pay 2 and you can start to enjoy the saving, or so they say. I don’t actually belong to this, as I don’t buy enough games for it be worth doing.

** My Thoughts **
This is a very well put together website with some very good value games on it. The delivery is free, which is always a bonus and the stock is always kept up to date. If you are looking to buy a game this is a good place to do so, as it is a lot cheaper than any high street shop.