Sandra McDill, managing partner of direct clients at iProspect compares the simplicity of Selfridges and Debenhams respective websites.

Selfridges puts a strong emphasis on relevant and inspiring written, video and photographic content, as well as social media engagement.

Selfridges.com

The simplicity of the homepage is what first catches your eye. It has a clean and sophisticated feel with responsive design for tablet and mobile users.

The search functionality allows you to quickly locate the item you are looking for, with products presented in a style reflective of the Selfridges brand values.

Without an app, the retailer does a good job of keeping the menu navigation down to a minimum on its mobile site too. Selfridges also puts a strong emphasis on relevant and inspiring written, video and photographic content, as well as social media engagement.

Debenhams.com

The website is overcomplicated with far too many words on the homepage. The overall design is clunky and archaic and does nothing for the brand image.

Although it has a useful browsing function, the arrangement of categories in the top navigation is confusing. While I appreciate men may not necessarily be Debenhams’ primary target audience, with the focus more likely to be on women, beauty and home, it still seems unusual to put ‘men’ to the right of ‘furniture’, and give ‘shoes’ their own category.

Interestingly, its German site is structured differently and is cleaner and easier to navigate as a result.