Web Review: Christian Resources Project
Phil Groom reports on an ambitious site
making full use of social media opportunities,
but with room for improvement
www.christianresources.org.uk
3 stars
Plymouth's Christian Resources Project
(CRP) is a well established Christian
bookshop which first opened its doors back
in the days when George Orwell's 1984 was
still a date in the future, and social media
and websites were so futuristic that even
science fiction writers had hardly dreamed
of the kind of communications technology
that we take for granted today. But we're
not really talking of many years ago: only 30,
in fact, as 2010 sees the shop celebrating its
pearl anniversary.
1980 was evidently a good year for Christian
bookshops, as those who follow Eddie Olliffe's
blog (eddieolliffe.wordpress.com) will have
noticed - and 2010 seems to be proving a
good year for Christian bookshops venturing
into cyberspace, with more and more of us
making use of Facebook to connect with our
customers and one another
You'll find CRP online at
www.christianresources.org.uk where you'll find
a link to their Facebook page and
a scrolling feed from their
(rather unfortunately
named) twitter account,
@CRPBooks.
The
website was re-launched
in December last year complete with
blog and presents a lively introduction to the shop
with a clear welcome message and comprehensive
navigation: a series of tabs in the page header link
to the main information sections; a categorised
sidebar menu leads into the online shop; and
a standard set of links in the footer offers more
mundane (but nonetheless essential) details such
as delivery information, privacy policy and terms
& conditions. It's still early days for the site as
yet, however, and some of the navigation wasn't
working (the Contact tab) and some content was
missing (the About page) at the time of this review.
The online shop boasts a choice “from over
100,000 products” and can be searched from
any page via the search box built into the header,
but whilst search results were speedily delivered
their presentation seemed somewhat haphazard,
sorted either alphabetically or by bestselling
but with the sort headings transposed. Product
listings flagged as sorted by bestselling were
sorted alphabetically and vice-versa, a situation
made worse by a lack of options for further sorts
(by author or price, for instance), no advanced
search facility and in most cases, only partial
bibliographic information.
Overall, then, this is an ambitious site which
makes excellent use of a good selection of social
media services to keep things feeling fresh and
energetic, leaving visitors with no room for doubt
that CRP is, as claimed on the home page, “not
just an ordinary Christian book shop” - yet as I
read those words I wonder what, exactly, an
'ordinary' Christian bookshop is? Do we not all
strive to offer extraordinary service and facilities
to our customers? In today's marketplace, is there
such a thing as an 'ordinary' Christian bookshop?
Unfortunately, however, I was left feeling that
more beta-testing of the site was called for: golive
even as a work-in-progress was perhaps
a little premature; but once the bugs have
been ironed out this site promises to deliver an
exemplary online experience fit, I'm sure, to carry
the Project forward into its next thirty years.
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