Discouture: Need Supply

I’ve been a massive fan of Need Supply for a couple of years now. I bought my Red Pop Quiz backpack from them before Hershel hit the UK and the customer service was excellent.

Their home and category pages are so simple and slick, with really effective photography. The site is easy to navigate and I really think they’ve nailed it with their product photography. The composition and poses are consistent and I like how the white balance on the backgrounds differs slightly from shot to shot giving various shades of grey. The whole look is clean and fresh, and makes your eyes dance easily from product to product.

On closer inspection, they’ve taken the time to list 6 images per product whilst cleverly only shooting 3 and cropping in at varying distances to give a full overview of detail and styling. They also have a decent pop up zoom feature for enlarging images.

Product descriptions are brief but concise, giving all the information you would need to know about each item. Most importantly providing the size of the model and what size they’re wearing so you get a good idea of how garments fit.

They used to have an extensive brand link dump at the bottom, supposedly for SEO purposes. Personally, I think they look messy so I’m glad they’ve removed it.

Adding extra value and a stickiness factor to their site are the look books and blog.

Each blog posting gives an insight into what they’re interested in and talking about in the office, whilst also promoting new products and brands. They’re short and snappy giving just the right amount of information without being too time consuming. Mainly image based, it’s an interesting and easy extra read.

The look books are my favourite though. I love the “shop this look” feature. Yes it’s a tried and tested thing to do, but they do it really well and I think the navigation is the clincher here. They’re not just giving you a link to individual items and dragging you further and further away from the look book. They’re putting it all on a plate for you there and then, with images, colours, prices and an ‘add to cart’ option.