By Linda Macklin

The EquiShopper.com homepage

There's something wonderful about online shopping. At its best, you hop online, quickly locate the blanket or bridle you want, give your payment information and in a few days, or even the next day, you're in the barn suiting up your horse. The reality is it may take ages to find the right item, and if you do, it might be out of stock. You'd order something else but you're not sure what. The product information is sketchy and lacks sizing details, so when it arrives, it doesn't fit. Maybe you've tried a new online store and, well, you never see the item at all.

Enter EquiShopper.com
Over a year in development, EquiShopper.com is a new way to find, compare and buy products for you and your horse. Offering accurate, up-to-date product information, educational resources, a choice of retailers and customer reviews, it promises to be online shopping at its very best.

"EquiShopper truly is a new way to shop for riding apparel and horse products. We created the site to help customers make the best, most informed buying decisions and then to provide a choice of ways for them to make that purchase quickly and easily," says Susan Harding, vice president and group publishing director of Source Interlink Media's Equine Network. "It's also about personal preference. Visitors can shop by category, brand or store; they can compare and rate products and stores, consult shopping guides and videos, and then complete the transaction online at their choice of stores or at a local tack shop. In retrospect, it sounds very straightforward, but it was a challenge to get the right mix, the right look and keep it clean and easy to use. To make sure we got it right, we got lots of input from retailers and manufacturers and horse people."

EquiShopper is the sister website of Everything For Horse & Rider and is brought to you by Equine Network, publisher of leading horse magazines Horse & Rider, EQUUS, Practical Horseman and Dressage Today, as well as websites EquiSearch.com and Equine.com.

According to Chris Duggan, who provided input and feedback during the site's development, the time is right for this type of shopping experience. "As an industry, we couldn't have done it before. There were not enough customers with broadband, the technology wasn't there, the necessary hardware and software were not affordable, and we didn't have the data. The backend is very complicated and difficult to implement."

"EquiShopper is a one-stop shopping comparison portal bringing together all the trust, content and expertise of Equine Network," says Duggan, whose online store, EquestrianCollections.com, is represented on the site. "The magazines provide a context and bring value to shoppers and value to brands. It completes the cycle of print to portal to purchase."

EquiShopper was devised as a more direct way to connect customers looking for equine-related products to the sources of those products. "Equine.com is best for selling horses and used equipment and is king of traffic. EquiSearch.com is a great educational resource with great content from the magazines. EquiShopper fits in between," says Greg Medley, director of online sales for the Equine Network. "It has a consistent way to present products so customers will be able to find, compare and buy exactly what they want."

According to Medley, there was no model to follow. The site had to be user-friendly despite its complex blend of disparate information from retailers and manufacturers as well as the how-to articles from the magazines. One of the most difficult challenges was to create an interface that would allow the retailers and manufacturers, with varying inventory and technical systems, to add new products to keep their product lines up-to-date.

"We got it wrong three times before we got it right," says Steve LeClair, general manager of Equine Network Digital. "At first, search wasn't right. Then we wanted to make sure we created the right user experience. Attention to detail was important, and we added stars to the rating system and bronze, silver, gold and platinum trophies to the reviewer rankings. People have grown up with sites like Amazon and Buy.com and expect to find certain features on a shopping site. We'll continue to refine the site as we get feedback from users, manufacturers and retailers."

For LeClair, the best part is providing a useful conduit to enable site visitors to find the information they need. Once they find the product they want, it's easy to complete the purchase through the "buy now" buttons, which link directly to a retailer carrying the product.

"In the horse world, people don't have a lot of time. What I'm excited about is that EquiShopper gives the industry a one-stop shop for just about anything you can buy for horses and riders instead of shopping around. And, it's easy to find what you're looking for," says John Nunn, president of equestrian products manufacturer Nunn Finer and retailer Bit of Britain, as well as several websites, including horsefroogle.com and the new horseyclothes.com, all of which are represented on EquiShopper.com.