How to launch your website in one easy step

Right, so you have a department store that is over 30 years old and you are making your first tentative steps online. How do you go about launching your site? With a bang, of course!

HEMA is a Dutch department store. This is what their site looks like.

The first store opened on November 4, 1966, in Amsterdam. Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands.Take a look at HEMA’s launch campaign.

You can’t order anything and it’s in Dutch, but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens. What a clever way of introducing your catalogue of over a thousand products in nearly 30 categories.

Check it out http://producten.hema.nl/

Notice where it ends – on the play again button, coz you’ll want to, and send to a friend, again coz you’ll want to! Sometimes it really is the simple things that are most effective.

The problem is it gets VERY annoying the 2nd and 3rd and 4th time you visit the site. The 1st time it's awesome but after that it's just annoying. They should have made the flash play only once and if a user wants to see it again, click to play.

I want to say thanks to Justine Paul from Linc in Melbourne who emailed me this. It's awesome! :)

Until next time, stay tuned. Stay hot.
Chris Bjorklund