Reduce confusion when replacing an old product with a new model

Let's start by saying I hate clothes shopping because I always have to try clothes on. Clothes don't just fit me like they do others. When I find something that works, I buy many of the same size in different colors.

One of my favorite Prana pants was being reworked and the old model would no longer be available. Ahh!

I tried to buy the old model before they were gone, but I must have missed my window. The page was no more and I was automatically sent to the new product.

To say I was confused and frustrated would be an understatement.

The reviews had a mix of old and new models, so I couldn't tell if the new model was going to work for me.

Nowhere on their site did they have the old measurements compared to the new.

You see, it wasn't just a simple new color, the whole pant was reworked. New fit, new zippers, new buttons, new fabric, new everything.

This led me to NOT buy the pants. Prana pants aren't cheap and although I could have returned them, I didn't want to go through the effort and obviously couldn't try them on shopping online.

If I could write to the folks at Prana, I would have asked them to keep the old product page so I could compare the original and new models.

So I'll ask you instead.

When you create a new model of your product, please keep the old page live.

It doesn't matter if you sell clothes or not. Technical products with specs and compatibility issues are another classic example of this problem.

You can communicate on the product page that there is a new model available and link to the new product.

If you're creating a new model of a product, I recommend creating a new page and linking the old and new together. That way you still get the traffic from your old product and can show customers there's a new option.