Thought you’d get a kick out of some of the early versions of the most successful ecommerce sites (circa 1999-2000):
Overstock
Target
Walmart
Gap
Macy’s
Best Buy
1-800-Flowers
Amazon
Honorable mention – Radio Shack
Before Radio Shack added ecommerce functionality, the home page looked like this.
Internet, you’ve come a long way, baby.
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Sadly, there still are a lot of ecommerce websites that look like these sites used to.
I think that Amazon one is older than 99-00. It looks like their very first design – nothing but links! How far they’ve come, though.
Very interesting. Thanks for the trip back in time…
Wow, the Amazon.com one is pretty amazing. Things have obviously changed a lot (for the better) in 10 years!
Nice trip back down memory lane.
From a e-commerce usability perspective I’d say that Target and Wallmart did very well back then compared to the rest of the lot.
Yes, better than some of today’s e-stores!
That was an awesome ride down memory lane!
I actually really like Target’s old design: Clean and simple.
Great post, awesome to see how far theses sites have come from. I agree the Amazon design looks more like 1990 than 1999-2000. The Overstock and Target were probably the best ones by then.
Its crazy how the walmat layout has a different look, but exactly the same vibe to it.
Some of them are quite plausible and in my view suitable for 2009 after adding some web 2.0 features.
Is your own bias showing through here? ,
It’s horrible design:) But It’s our history:)
Yes, with such designs is little that can be sold, usability – force!