Chamberlain Coffee: Is Their Website As Easy To Use As Their Coffee?
We live in a time when consumers — we — are more impatient than ever. As technology advances, our lives become more fast-paced, and we are just trying to catch up. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our daily lives and ways to improve convenience. I mean, it makes sense! Life can get tough enough as it is, so why not make it easier in areas that you can?
This is one of the driving factors for Emma Chamberlain, an internet sensation with 11.9 million YouTube subscribers, to start her own coffee brand, Chamberlain Coffee, which she launched 3 years ago on a Youtube video. Emma is a known coffee lover and her coffee brand was inspired by her videos on making cold brew coffee. Her first product was coffee bags which made the process of making cold brew easier and more accessible.
As I’ve mentioned, consumers are growing impatient and a convenient product like this is definitely spot on. However, having a great product is not enough. The next question is: how easy is it to purchase? Chamberlain Coffee makes its sales through its website and in this week’s blog post, I want to assess and see what the overall user experience is like with the brand.
Head-to-Toe Assessment
The Chamberlain Coffee website opens with a pop-up for a chance to win a discount by spinning a wheel and entering your email. The homepage has a light blue bar with rotating clickable headlines and a dark blue bar with a new product announcement. The hero image showcases the new product, and there are menus for navigation. The homepage features their bestselling products, testimonials, product features, information on Emma and the brand’s origin, sustainability efforts, and a sign-up section for a discount. The bottom of the page has the main menu and links to their social media.
The Good
Now that you have an idea of how the website more or less goes, let’s talk about some good points that I, as a consumer, noticed. One of the really good things about the website of Chamberlain Coffee is that it’s very much user-centered. For both new and returning customers, it’s fairly easy to find what you need because everything is already laid out in front of you. They’ve categorized their products well allowing you to go straight to what you are looking for. The menu above the hero image is also very helpful because when you hover over a category, it gives you a preview of what the products are under it making it easier to navigate through them.
The website is also very accommodating to new users because they have a “Flavor Quiz” feature that lets the user take a quiz about their current behavior on coffee consumption and it then matches them to the best-suited product. The process of adding to cart down to completing your purchase was very smooth making conversion more encouraging. Another good note to point out is that the website's mobile experience is just as it is on desktop, thus employing a responsive design.
The Not So Good
Let’s now talk about some points that I noticed that I think might be hindering users from having a totally seamless experience. One of the first things I noticed when I was scrolling through the website is that it scrolls too low, which is due to the fact that they put so many sections on one page. There’s too much going on for each page and this can be resolved if they just designate a page for each specific section. The section on their sustainability efforts and the section on the email sign-up also appears on each and every page which I think is completely unnecessary.
I also noticed that they have a total of three menus per page, all directing you to the same categories. I understand that the intention is to make it easier to navigate through the website but having three repetitive menus is again another unnecessary feature.
A smaller detail on the main menu bar, when you click on a different section, the bold stays on “Subscribe” making it confusing to pinpoint which page you are currently on. Lastly, I think the website's aesthetic is good and somewhat captures the brand identity. Still, there’s a lot of room for improvement, especially considering how beautiful the aesthetic of their Instagram account is.
The Verdict
All in all, the user experience on the Chamberlain Coffee website is good, but could definitely be better. The main area for improvement is that it’s not all that simple to use. There’s too much going on on each page, making it feel cluttered with many unnecessary items. It is good though because it serves its purpose well. It’s user-centered, it has good content, it’s reflective of the brand identity, and most importantly, it’s easy to make purchases.
Since her launch in 2019, Emma has rebranded and expanded Chamberlain Coffee. I personally enjoyed the flavor of Social Dog and am a fan of their merchandise specifically their tumblers.
How did you enjoy your visit to Chamberlain Coffee’s website? Let me know below!
Thank you as always for tuning in this week and I’ll see you at the next one!
