The Expat Shopping web site was an on-line store full of those British goods that British expats have a difficult time locating in their new environments. British expats are individuals who have had to move away from their homeland because of such life changing events as job relocation, school, and marriage.
The site offers over 1,500 regular products including items by Heinz, Nestle, Marmite, Colemans and more. The site also periodically offers seasonal items and special offers. Shopping on the Expat Shopping web site is available to anyone who wants to bring into their homes those British goodies that they have experienced and enjoyed in the past, but they now miss because those items simply are not available in their local markets.
The web site is nicely organized and easy to navigate. The visitor has several options. They can simply view the many aisles of merchandise to see what items the on-line store has to offer. If they wish to actually make a purchase, they must register and receive an account number. From there, they can shop for themselves and have the items shipped to them or the person they designate if they are living in any one of the over 200 countries to which the on-line store can ship. They can purchase a gift voucher in a variety of denominations which can be sent to the person they designate on the order form. And, they can easily track their shipments using the tracking module.
Shopping is easy and works as one would expect a shopping cart to operate. First time shoppers should take a moment to read through the terms and conditions as this area contains payment, delivery, duty and other important information that the shopper should be aware of. When ready to begin shopping, the customer first designates the country to which the items will be shipped. By doing so, delivery charges are able to calculate as the shopper adds items to the shopping cart. Another nice feature is that sometimes there are items which are not allowed to enter a particular country because of governmental regulations. Any items not allowed into the country designated as the ship to country will not be visible in the product listing area.
Once the ship to country has been designated, the shopper continues by selecting a department, then an item from the selected department, then the quantity desired, and the selected item is added to the shopping cart. The shopper continues this process until all desired items are located and added to the shopping cart. There is a search button to help shoppers locate items. At any time during the shopping process, the customer can view and edit the contents of the shopping cart. When satisfied with the items selected, the shopper proceeds to the Checkout screen, where shipping and payment details are entered.
That really is all there is to the Expat Shopping web site. The web site does include contact information and operating hours. There are physical Expat Shopping locations that are full of many of these items and that are open to the public. The web site includes links to these physical store locations. There is also a link for those interested in Expat Shopping franchise opportunities.
The shopping module does not have a way to cancel an order at any step along the way. The only options available throughout the shopping experience were options to View Cart, Continue Shopping or to Checkout. This is odd, and makes it difficult to exit from the shopping module.