grande portal

I came across a new shopping site this week called Grande Portal. The site bills themselves as “your portal to great values” - that’s a big promise…can they deliver? The following is my paid review.

Upon first glance, the site appears to be just like any other catalog and gift site on the internet. Clean design, nice layout, not too cluttered looking. I’m intrigued by the shop by price feature - I’ll need to come back to that. There’s a nice selection of featured items on the site’s main page, including Easter decor for the upcoming holiday. Seeing as how I’m currently on a home decor quest, I visited that category first. You only see 9 items on a page at a time, and I’d like to see more, but I don’t see a way to change that. (Other sites usually have an option - view 10, 20, etc)

The items in home decor range from the truly tacky (a dog figurine to hold your remote control) to the useful (First Alert nightlights and safety products). I didn’t see much decor in the home decor category, which was disappointing. What was there was a little tacky and reminded me of the ABC Catalog. Where are the sconces? Plaques? Wall decor? The First Alert products probably would do better in a kids or baby category, because I’m sure most people don’t think of that item as “home decor”.

In short, while there are good prices at Grande Portal, there’s not anything there I want in my home. They don’t have any products that appear to be unique to their site, and nothing that stands out. Can they improve? Definitely so. They have a great foundation, and with the addition of new products that will make them different from the other sites on the web, this site can really go places.

One Response to “grande portal”

1. Cristian Nelson Says:
   March 16th, 2007 at 2:51 pm

   Hi!

   This is Cristian and I work for Grande Portal. We would really like to thank you for your constructive criticism, since we are a brand new company we do like to hear what our customers would like to see on our website. We would just like to tell you that we will work hard on improving our home décor section as well as all the other categories of products. We just completed a trade show and are expecting a lot of exciting items.

   So you didn’t like our Wall Quotes? They are doing very well for us.

   Thanks again,
   Cristian Nelson

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