WH Smith www.whsmith.co.uk Review

Overall Rating

Name you can recognise for unadventurous internet shoppers, often good prices (better than their offline shops).

Delivery charges, slow site which sometimes has pop-ups(ugh!), not hugely reliable.

I usually find the online version of offline shops are pretty expensive comparitively and not worth looking at. Book shops have a particularly hard time when you consider the likes of Amazon and BOL are so well ensconsed in peoples' subconscious now. Think books online, think amazon right? I went to look at the Ottakars site earlier and found it no longer sells books online, then at Waterstones and found it now redirects to Amazon!! Two of the biggest high street names no longer even try to compete! Surprisingly then, W. H. Smith is still going strong...

Of course, they don't only sell books here, but also DVDs, videos and everything else you'll find in their shops. It is the books that attracted me though as the site frequently came tops for prices at a price comparison site I was using. The prices are then, often very competitive which is my main reason for shopping anywhere online! They are also often much cheaper than the ones found in the shops themselves so worth looking online first!

There are gripes however which keep this site down.

Firstly, the site is really slow to browse, being as it is, rather graphic heavy which is a nightmare on my dial-up connection. They've had pop-ups in the past as well which are a particular bug-bear of mine so I'm not too impressed by that.

Secondly, delivery is not cheap and rather raises the price. When you consider the likes of blackstones.co.uk offer free delivery this really isn't good enough.

Thirdly, they aren't enormously fast with their delivery, often quoting misleading time-scales and if you find you've got a problem with your delivery then apparently they aren't brilliant at sorting it out. I like reliability online and this site, although I've not had a problem myself aside from slooooow delivery, hasn't offered it to a few friends of mine. I often need books quickly for courses so I tend to steer clear of here in such instances whether it's a little cheaper or otherwise!

Overall then, three strikes and you're out! Not my favourite site online because of slow delivery times and more than a few comments about unreliability I've had from friends and read elsewhere online. In such a competitive area it's not a first choice.