Fender's new website sucks - can't find anything or explore

[Mark Schmieder]

What were they thinking?

 

The new Fender website appears to make it impossible to explore new products, or even find products you already know exist.

 

I have drilled many ways through their website, and all I hit each time is marketing speak. I have yet to find a product page for ANYTHING on their new site.

[Mark Schmieder]

It takes a lot of effort, but I finally found a real product page at the new site. You have to know what you're looking for, where it's made, what series it's in, etc. Lotsa luck if you want to explore to see what models are new, because for instance you already know their full catalogue otherwise.

 

It's hard to notice when you finally find a product page, because it's mostly pictures vs. words, so it looks like you're still on a marketing hype page.

 

Now I understand why my new boss left Fender to come work for us. :-)

[Mark Schmieder]

There are some back door ways to find quicker search paths to instruments, but you have to type in specific URL's to get to them. I am still finding their new website extremely frustrating. It's aggravating because I am trying to compare to see what alternatives exist to a model I am considering for purchase as soon as tomorrow.

[kenfxj]

I dunno Mark, I found it rather intuitive. Sorry, not trying to be a jerk.

 

I went to look for an American Standard Jazz and a Tony Franklin fretless Precision and had no problem finding either.

[Mark Schmieder]

How did you find them? And are you able to EXPLORE to see what's available; especially what's new? I typically went to their website regularly to see what's NEW so I'd know if there's anything worth considering that I hadn't thought of.

 

How many clicks did it take to get where you were going?

 

I used to be able to search by "new products" (general), by category (e.g. basses) and then more refined searches. It was also easy to see a list of all basses, amps, etc., with filtration when needed. I still haven't found a way to do this on the new site; I've simply succeeded finally in finding known products (with more clicks than before, for sure).

 

What happens now is I get to a marketing-oriented page at each step of the way.

 

If I take time to scroll down beyond the first page of info, I may see stuff of interest. I'm not used to important info, and info that changes per view, all being off the main visible page.

 

[Mark Schmieder]

Looks like the website is still in transition.

 

It is now possible to select a category from the main page. This takes me to the pages that I "guessed" at earlier.

 

Once on those pages, you still no longer seem to be able to get an overview (as before) of all that is available, but at least now there are working links (vs. self-referencing links) that will take you to sub-categories based on different filters.

 

Somewhat confusingly, the Squier stuff seems to once more have been kicked off the Fender site, and the new categories per instrument type are "standard", "limited", and "artist".

 

The context of my frustration is my attempt to see what all is currently available for Jaguar Basses. Just so you know, the "Modern Player" is under "Limited" and there's a new artist edition I didn't know about.

 

I was also hoping to see over the next few weeks what Fender is doping for the Select Series for 2015. I still haven't found a way to catch that series on the site (or Custom Shop stuff).

[Mark Schmieder]

How funny; the "Limited" page for the Jaguar Bass shows a picture of the Reverse Jaguar Bass, but it isn't actually listed! Maybe it's been discontinued and they forgot to switch the photo?

 

Hopefully they just aren't done yet with the new site, and it'll all be sane before NAMM. :-)

[Mark Schmieder]

Deluxe and Vintage show up for Jazz Bass, and those subpages now show multiple models (it didn't a day or two ago), so you can sort of compare like before. The Select jazz Bass doesn't show up. I suspect it was canceled as Hello Music had it on blowout last week.

 

There doesn't seem to be a way to see an unfiltered list of all Basses or all Jazz Basses (e.g.), unfortunately, but it is sort of nice to be able to search by fingerboard wood within one of the (apparently up to five) categories (Artist, Standard, Limited, etc.).

[Nicklab]

Marketing and web groups within a company need to justify their existence every so often. So they go ahead and re-design their websites every once in a while.

 

The new site is a departure from what they had. I personally haven't found navigation to be all that difficult. And I'm actually glad to see some separation between the Fender brand from Squier and the Fender Custom Shop. All three brands merit their own distinct websites.

 

As for these "platform" categories? I think they were devised in an effort to make navigation a little easier. A lot of these sub lines like American Vintage, American Standard, Standard, Classic, Classic Player and Modern Player are still there. And maybe some of that needs to be streamlined a little bit.

 

I also suspect that there's more to come. Some of the new artist models haven't been added to the site yet. And there will probably be something new that we haven't seen that's likely to get revealed at the NAMM show.

 

As for comparing a range of models? I think you can probably do that easily enough on an etailer site like Musicians Friend.

[SteveC]

I haven't looked lately, but I think Fender has just too many models and variations.

 

One reason like Roscoe. 3 models, 3 levels, enough electronic variations to please but not confuse.

[Mark Schmieder]

Well, it was confirmed at GC today that the site is under development, so that's why we're each seeing different results each time we visit it. They simply haven't had time to get everything up yet and to remove obsolete models as well as debug every link.

 

My own company redid its website this past year and it also took awhile to get all the self-references to be actual forward-links and to re-enable the ability to find things through various approaches. I hated the new site at first, but once it was actually complete and trustworthy and didn't have bugs/etc., I began to see why they changed it. Stylistically, it is similar to the new Fender site in many ways.

 

When a company goes through this massive an overhaul of a site, it's bound to take awhile, but I'm surprised there isn't a way to do that off-line until it's truly ready. I suppose they felt this time of year is when people are least likely to be doing deep searches at their site, as they've already spent their money on holiday gifts.

 

I do agree though, that now that the site has fewer bugs (i.e. links that take you back to the page you're already on), there are some aspects that are superior, such as the layout of models in a range being less space-hogging and using two columns so you can see more of them at once. Also it's nice to be able to search by fingerboard wood.