[Trust]

Kevin, this is probably off topic and I guess can be moved into a new thread. If you're the AM, there are a couple of things I would do with the site to "Americanize" it for the U.S. audience. Some spelling here and there and then something that is going to confuse a lot of people with the regions. The U.S. is Region 1, there are DVD's on sale throughout the site and featured on the home page for Region 2 and 4 which says - UK & Europe/Japan & Australia/Latin America. I would go thru and just have stuff that the U.S. market can actually buy and remove yRegion stuff as that just confuses people. Thanks.

[Kevin OLoughlin]

Hi Trust!
Thanks for checking out CD WOW! and thanks for getting back to me with your suggestions. I'm delighted to get some feedback.

The different DVD regions do create problems (thank you movie studios!) but it is something we’ve been trying to work on. We’ve just added a fantastic new US / Region 1 catalog and we’ll be improving this over the next month or so. Once this is fully integrated we can look at pushing the other regions into their own section, so visitors to the US domain will only see US / R1 titles.

Slightly off topic but we’ll be following this up by adding a very large new music catalog, with an emphasis on American titles and categories.

There is a significant market in the US for Region 2 and Region 3 DVDs. It’s probably limited to movie buffs and expats, but they are an active bunch and have no problem spending money to build their collections.

A lot of special editions and collections are produced for regions other than Region 1… for example the Masters of Cinema, the Shaw Brothers Collection and Asian and European movies. Many of these foreign movies / TV shows are never released in the US or are released years later in different versions, so the demand for these titles is always increasing. Multi region DVD players are as inexpensive as regular machines and are becoming very common, so that’s also driving demand.

But you’re right. The average consumer has little idea what the different regions are for, or has no interest in buying foreign films or special editions. We try to only feature Region 1 titles in our US promotions or in any of the special categories we set up. The only time I ever really include a different region is when it’s a very popular title and the US region isn’t available.

There is a warning that pops up when a customer adds a DVD to the shopping cart… this just explains quickly what region the title is for and makes sure they are making the correct purchase.

As for the speeling error. I have no idea what you're talking aboot! :winking:

Thanks again for your comments Trust. Sorry my response turned into such a thesis. If there's anything else you spot feel free to get back to me.

Hopefully we can get everything (including the spelling!) sorted out very soon.

Cheers,
Kevin

[JCSupSvc]

I have to agree on the confusion part. Maybe something in the sidebar for every page that reminds people that the US is region 1 with possibly a link to an explanation of the different region. Educate the consumer and avoid problems in one step.

[Kevin OLoughlin]

I have to agree on the confusion part. Maybe something in the sidebar for every page that reminds people that the US is region 1 with possibly a link to an explanation of the different region. Educate the consumer and avoid problems in one step.


That sounds like something we could do; Regions Explained... or something to that effect. Should ease the confusion. Thanks for your advice JCSupSvc!

Feel free to keep the suggestions coming!

[John Powell]

When I signed up at buy.at somehow it automatically signed me up for the CD-Wow program. Is that an accident or the way it's supposed to be?

[buy at]

Hi

Yes that is the way it is set up at the moment and its the same in the UK sign up to a program and the network at the same time.

As we only have one program to choose from it may be better to alter this for the US launch - ill discuss it internally and see how it goes.

Thanks

Mal