Volume 01 - General User Behavior and Executive Summary for the Series 3rd Edition

8/10/2019 Volume 01 - General User Behavior and Executive Summary for the Series 3rd Edition

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E-Commerce User Experience

Vol. 1: User Behavior, Key Findingsand Executive Summary for the Series

Research findings based on eyetracking, user testing, and diary studies

3rd Edition

By: Amy Schade and Jakob Nielsen
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2 [email protected] Copyright Notice

Copyright Notice

Please do not post this document to the internet or to publiclyavailable file-sharing services.

This report required hundreds of hours of planning, recruiting, testing, analyzing,

writing and production. We sell these reports to fund independent, unbiased usability

research; we do not have investors, government funding or research grants that pay

for this work.

We kindly request that you not post this document to the Internet or to publicly

available file-sharing services. Even when people post documents with a private URL

to share only with a few colleagues or clients, search engines often index the copy

anyway. Indexing means that thousands of people will find the secret copy through

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If someone gave you a copy of this report, you can easily remedy the situation by

going to http://www.nngroup.com/reports and paying for a license.We charge lower fees for our research reports than most other analyst firms do,

because we want usability research to be widely available and used.

Thank you!

Report Authors: Amy Schade, Jakob Nielsen


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NIELSEN NORMAN GROUP WWW.NNGROUP.COM 3

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ....................................................................................... 6

Usability Metrics Show Nice Improvements .................................................................................... 6

Old Study Findings Stand ............................................................................................................ 7

Latest User Research .................................................................................................................. 7

Supporting Different Types of Shoppers ......................................................................................... 8

Bad Content Kills Sales ............................................................................................................... 8

Loyalty = Business ..................................................................................................................... 9

Summary of Research Studies and the E-Commerce Report Series ............. 10

E-Commerce Report Series ........................................................................................................ 10

Research Studies ...................................................................................................................... 10

Study One............................................................................................................................ 11

Study Two ............................................................................................................................ 11

About the Third Edition ............................................................................................................. 12

Whats Most Important ............................................................................... 13

Back to Basics .......................................................................................................................... 13

Whats Improved ...................................................................................................................... 13

In this Report ........................................................................................................................... 13

Pros and Cons of Online Shopping ............................................................... 14

Why Shop Online ...................................................................................................................... 14

Access and Selection ............................................................................................................. 14

Price ................................................................................................................................... 14

Convenience ......................................................................................................................... 15

Whats Missing Online ............................................................................................................... 17

Shopping Is Social ................................................................................................................ 17

Delayed Gratification and Additional Cost ................................................................................. 17

Willingness to Shop Online .......................................................................... 18

What People Will and Wont Buy Online ....................................................................................... 18

Tactile Products .................................................................................................................... 18

Expensive Items ................................................................................................................... 20

Perishable Items ................................................................................................................... 21

Designing for Different Types of Shoppers .................................................. 24

Reasons for E-commerce Visits ................................................................................................... 24

Supporting All Types of Shoppers ............................................................................................... 25

Product-focused .................................................................................................................... 26

Browsing.............................................................................................................................. 27

Researching ......................................................................................................................... 30


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4 [email protected] Executive Summary

Bargain-Hunting ................................................................................................................... 32

One-Time Shoppers ............................................................................................................... 35

How Users Shop .......................................................................................... 37

In-StoreAndOnline, Rather than In-Store Or Online..................................................................... 37

Shipping: Delayed Gratification and Additional Cost ...................................................................... 38

Local Differences: Patience and Priorities ..................................................................................... 38

Building Loyalty ........................................................................................................................ 40

Deciding Where to Purchase ...................................................................................................... 41

Key Findings ................................................................................................ 46

Homepages and Category Pages ................................................................................................. 46

A Welcoming Homepage ........................................................................................................ 46

A Clear Structure .................................................................................................................. 46

Cross-Referencing ................................................................................................................. 47

Featured or Full Inventory? .................................................................................................... 47

Providing Product Information ................................................................................................ 48

Product Comparisons ............................................................................................................. 48

Sorting through Options ......................................................................................................... 48

Product Pages .......................................................................................................................... 49

Full Product Details ............................................................................................................... 49

Consistency between Products ................................................................................................ 51

The Value of Reviews ............................................................................................................. 51

Adding Items to the Cart........................................................................................................ 53

Shopping Carts, Checkout and Registration .................................................................................. 55

Shopping Cart as Dressing Room ............................................................................................ 55

A Clear Path through Checkout ............................................................................................... 55

Optional Registration ............................................................................................................. 56

Money Matters ...................................................................................................................... 57

Shipping Options .................................................................................................................. 57

Search .................................................................................................................................... 58

Search Behavior ................................................................................................................... 58

Search as Feedback............................................................................................................... 59

Scoped Search...................................................................................................................... 59

Narrowing the Choices: Faceted Search ................................................................................... 59

Customer Service ..................................................................................................................... 61

Easy to Find ......................................................................................................................... 61

A Good Site Experience.......................................................................................................... 61

Getting in Touch ................................................................................................................... 61

Clear, and Customer Friendly, Policies ...................................................................................... 62

Selling Strategies ..................................................................................................................... 63

Clear Pricing ......................................................................................................................... 63


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When Will It Arrive ................................................................................................................ 63

Free Shipping ....................................................................................................................... 63

Welcome Back ...................................................................................................................... 63

You Might Also Like... ............................................................................................................ 63

Trust and Credibility .................................................................................................................. 64

Appearance is Everything ....................................................................................................... 64

Privacy and Security .............................................................................................................. 64

Performance and Errors ......................................................................................................... 64

Availability ........................................................................................................................... 65

International Purchasers ............................................................................................................ 66

Forms and Data .................................................................................................................... 66

No Local Support .................................................................................................................. 66

International Usability Testing ................................................................................................. 66

Success Rates, Task Failures and Task Times .............................................. 67

Success by Type of Task ............................................................................................................ 67

Specific Product .................................................................................................................... 68

Customer Service .................................................................................................................. 69

Criteria Tasks ....................................................................................................................... 69

Purchase Tasks ..................................................................................................................... 70

Known Sites ......................................................................................................................... 71

Open-ended Tasks ................................................................................................................. 72

What Went Wrong .................................................................................................................... 73

About the Authors ....................................................................................... 75

Acknowledgments ....................................................................................... 76


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Executive Summary

(Yes, this is a summary of the summary. Considering that the full E-Commerce UserExperiencereport series clocks in at more than 2000 pages with more than 1700screenshots, the more summaries the merrier :-)

To give away the bottom line, the number of usability guidelines for e-commercesites has increased from 207 in the first edition of this report to about 880 in thecurrent edition. Using this rough metric, we now know 4.2 times as much about e-

commerce user experience as we did during the dot-com bubble.

USABILITY METRICS SHOW NICE IMPROVEMENTS

In our first e-commerce studies, in 2000, we recorded a success rate of 56% across

496 task attempts on the e-commerce sites of the day. In our latest research, weobserved 507 e-commerce task attempts and measured a success rate of 72%.

In other words, during the dot-com bubble, user failed almost half the time when

they tried to shop on e-commerce sites. No wonder the bubble burst, with sites that

bad. Now, users fail slightly more than a quarter of the time. Sites are still leavingplenty of money on the table, but not as much.

Today, our main reason to recommend usability improvements for e-commerce sites

is the competitive pressure from other sites that keep getting better. Yes, theresalso an argument for improving design purely to reduce user failures, but this is notas critical as it was in the past. Todays consumers are not satisfied with sites that

simply make itpossibleto shop. The experience must also be pleasant, so we should

look beyond success rates, much as the ability to complete tasks remains the firstline of requirements.

Search remains a sore point, even though it has improved somewhat. In our first

study, users succeeded in their first search attempt on an e-commerce site 51% ofthe time. In the new study, usersfirst within-site query was successful 64% of the

time.

Usersexpectations for search quality are far beyond whats actually delivered by

todays websites. As with most other aspects of web usability, user expectations are

set by their aggregated user experience1from around the web. In the case of search,this mainly means Google and the other major search engines. While not perfect,

these sites do work pretty well. When users search an e-commerce site and dontfind what they want, they often assume that the site doesn t have the desired

product. Users have poor search skills and will leave more often than they will figureout how to reformulate their queries.

1As Jakobs Law of the Internet User Experience states: users spend the majority of their time onothersites than yours.


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OLD STUDY FINDINGS STAND

The first edition of this report series was based on lab-based usability testing of 20

websites across 7 product categories: clothing, department stores, entertainment,

flowers, food, furniture, and toys. Testing was conducted in 2 countries: the US andDenmark.

This was a relatively limited amount of research, though more than anybody else haddone in 2000. Of the 207 early design guidelines, 206 were confirmed in our recentmuch more elaborate research. All of these guidelines still applied in our latest

round of expert reviews of e-commerce sites as well; the old findings are stillrelevant.

One guideline has been retracted: to offer a special welcome page for new shoppers.

Today, its relatively safe to assume that by the time a user arrives at your site, thatperson has already shopped at several other sites. E-commerce is no longer new,

and users no longer need to be told what it is. As long as the site is easy to use,

people will use it.

The fact that 99.5% of these old guidelines were confirmed is an indication of the

longevity of usability findings. Our design recommendations are based on the

characteristics of the human mind which change much more slowly than thetechnology that seems to fascinate so many people in the field.

LATEST USER RESEARCH

Our latest research encompassed 3 usability methods: traditional user testing (aswas done in the original study), eyetracking, and field research in the form of a diarystudy. Studies were conducted in 3 countries: most sessions were in the United

States (in Georgia, Indiana, and New York) with a smaller number of users in China

and the UK.

In total, users tested 206 sites more than 10 times as many as were tested in our

original research. As noted above, we onlyidentified 4.2 times as many usability

guidelines, indicating some degree of diminishing returns from enlarging theresearch study.

The sites covered an incredibly wide range of industries: from high to low culture

(Paris Museum Pass and NASCAR), from cheap to expensive (Walmart and Tiffanys),from virtual to physical products (TicketMaster and The Container Store), and from

general-interest to highly specialized products (Zappos and Lightbulbs.com).

Except for the diary studies, all our studies were in the form of direct empirical

observation of usersactual behavior as they engaged in online shopping. We sat

next to users on a one-on-one basis and asked them to think out loud as theyperformed specific tasks. This research approach provides deep insights into why

users behave the way they do and results in findings that are not available from

other methods.

Some of the test tasks were highly directed and assessed the degree to which the

design supported users who arrive at a site with a pre-determined goal in mind. For

example: Buy an air conditioner to put in the window of a room that is 10 feet by 20feet (200 square feet). Get one that is energy-efficient and that has a remote. Buy itfrom www.homedepot.com.


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Other tasks were broader and assessed the degree to which the site could inspireusers who dont have a particular need in mind. For example: You just got apromotion and a bonus and you want to treat yourself. Buy yourself something.

Spend no more than 200 at Links of London.

We also tested web-wide tasks where we didnt specify what site the user shoulduse. For example: The light bulb in your desk lamp just burned out. Get a

replacement for it. (With this task, we gave users the burned out bulb.)

Finally, we tested a range of customer service tasks. For example: Can you get a

refund for tickets you buy from cinema.com.hk if there is a typhoon signal?

SUPPORTING DIFFERENT TYPES OF SHOPPERS

Our diary study looked at why and how people shop on their own, when we dontgive them test tasks to perform. In total, diary-writers recorded 263 visits to e-

commerce sites.

2/3 of the time, users visited a site with a pre-determined goal: 35% of visits wereto look for a particular type of product (without having a specific product in mind),

and 27% of visits were to look for a specific product.

1/3 of the time, users visited a site to see what the site had to offer. Many of these

visits were prompted by the receipt of an email newsletter or otherwise learning

about sales or special offers.

Sites must support all these forms of use:

Known-item purchase

Category research, leading users to identify and buy the best match withtheir needs

Bargain-hunting

Browsing for inspiration

Finally, some users are one-time shoppers. They dont know the site, and they dont

intend to return, but they may want to shop there once. (Maybe they received a giftcard, or maybe a relative wished for a gift carried by that site.)

BAD CONTENT KILLS SALES

The first rule of e-commerce design remains: if the customer cannot find the

product, the customer cannot buy the product.

But in our new studies, the main problem was not so much findingthe product as it

was finding outabout the product. 55% of the 143 user failures we observed werecaused by bad content: incomplete or unclear information, uninformative error

messages, or simply users stating that they would have to call or email the site. (The

latter clearly indicating that the company had neglected the opportunity to answerthe users questions on the site.)

Content can be verbal or visual in either case it needs to provide the information

users need to decide on products and to be convinced to trust the site with theirmoney.


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The key downside of e-commerce is that one cannot touch, feel, see, taste, or smellthe offerings. Nor do customers benefit from the essential credibility boost of havingthe purchase in hand before paying the price. No tactile experience. Online shopping

is purely an information experience. (Or user experience, as we like to say.) This

again places a huge premium on good content. One many sites fail.

LOYALTY = BUSINESS

One of our study participant said, If I have a good experience with something, Ill

stick with it forever.Not all users are that loyal, but our research does indicate thetremendous benefits from fostering customer loyalty in e-commerce.

In the web-wide tasks, we didnt specify what site users should visit for their

purchase. No surprise, half of the users went straight to a search engine. But it wasa bit of surprise that the other half of users went directly to some site they alreadyknew. Bypassing the search enginestollbooth on the information highway is the first

benefit of user loyalty. But the advantages reach much further.

Of users who started by searching the web, only 39% completed their task on the

first site they selected from the SERP (search engine results page). Almost 2/3 of

search users abandoned their first love and proceeded to do business elsewhere. Thisoutcome demonstrates that SEO and good search engine ranking are necessary butnot sufficient for Internet business success. Its actually more important to satisfy

users once they arrive at your site. Search users exhibit little loyalty to the sites theyhappen to click on.

In contrast, those users who bypassed search in order to go directly to a preferred

site overwhelmingly ended up giving their money to that site: 71% did so and only29% completed their task on another site. (Of course, this is a sufficiently big

amount of lost business to point out that you can t take e-commerce users for

granted, even when theyre loyal to your site.)

The benefits of loyalty might make you push aggressive registration requirements,

but that would be a mistake. You must convert first-time shoppers before they can

become long-time shoppers, and users strongly resent up-front registration. On theother hand, users frequently complained about the drudgingly large amount of dataentry they were forced to perform to complete their purchase. So by reminding

repeat users of the time savings, you can nudge them to register eventually.

In general, a longer-term perspective on the full sales cycle and total userexperience would benefit sites. A transmedia design strategy should reach beyond

the main website to encompass a mobile site, an email newsletter strategy, and

good customer service (including good confirmation messages). Yes, e-commerceuser experience has come far, but it has even further to go to truly meet customers

needs.


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10 [email protected] of Research Studies and the E-Commerce Report

Series

Summary of Research Studies and the E-CommerceReport Series

E-COMMERCE REPORT SERIES

This report is one of 13 reports about the E-Commerce user experience. Ten of thereports in the series were generated from the findings of two rounds of e-commerce

research studies. The first editions of these reports were published as a book, witheach chapter also available as a downloadable report. The second and third editions

include an additional report, based on the same series of studies, about customer

service.

This series also includes three additional volumes which are a result of additionalresearch studies, separate from the main e-commerce research. These reports are

included in the series due to their direct relationship to the e-commerce userexperience and cover the topics of wishlists and gift certificates, store locators, andconfirmation and transactional email messages. Each of these reports includes a

section about methodology, covering the details of each research project.

The entire E-Commerce User Experience series is available for download athttp://www.nngroup.com/reports/ecommerce-user-experience/and includes the

following titles:

1. General User Behavior & Executive Summary [this report]2. Homepages and Category Pages (including Product Listing Pages and

Product Comparisons)

3. Product Pages (including Reviews)4. Shopping Cart, Checkout & Registration

5. Search (including Faceted Search)6. Customer Service

7. Selling Strategies

8. Wishlists, Gift Certificates and Gift Giving9.

Trust and Credibility10. International Users

11.

Store Finders and Locators

12. Transactional Email and Confirmation Messages13. Methodology

RESEARCH STUDIES

The information in these reports is a result of two separate rounds of e-commerce

studies conducted by Nielsen Norman Group as well as a round of design reviews ofa set of e-commerce websites. The studies took place in the United States, United

Kingdom, Denmark and China (Hong Kong), and involved user testing, a diary-basedlongitudinal study and an eye tracking component.

The Methodology report in the E-Commerce Report Series includes the full details of

each study, the list of sites tested, and information about participants.

The Wishlists and Gift Certificates, Transactional Email and Confirmation Messagesand Locator Usability reports are based on additional research studies. Each of these

three reports includes its own methodology section.
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Study One

The first research study was conducted by a team of five usability experts. They

conducted usability tests of 20 business-to-consumer e-commerce websites. A total

of 64 people participated: 39 from the United States and 25 from Denmark. Nineteenof the twenty sites tested were American websites, which were tested by users in

both countries.Users ranged in age from twenty to sixty. All users had previously shopped online

and most had made purchases; however, we screened out people who had extensive

technical knowledge of the Web.

Usability testing sessions lasted two hours, and users typically tested three of the 20

selected sites in that time. Each site was tested by a minimum of nine users: six

from the U.S. and three from Denmark. Sites were selected in seven differentindustries, such as clothing and toys, so that within each industry we had two or

three sites for comparison.

Tasks were modeled on common goals of online shoppers. Most tasks asked users tofind a specific item or were open-ended, allowing freedom to shop according to their

own preferences. In most cases, we stopped users before they entered a credit cardnumber, so they did not complete the purchase. We also included tasks involving

customer service information.

For each test session, a facilitator sat next to the user, providing instructions to theuser and taking notes. Users were asked to think aloud as they worked, describing

their decision processes and any positive or negative reactions to the sites.

Study Two

The second study included a diary-based longitudinal study and user testing,

including an eyetracking component.

Research began with the diary-based study. Ten participants from around the UnitedStates were asked to record information in a notebook about their online shoppingexperiences for a period of six weeks during the winter holiday shopping season. The

goal was to understand how users shopped online.

Users answered questions including the goal of visiting the site, why they visited thatparticular site, and if they achieved their goal. Users were also asked about what

they liked and disliked about the site. Information from this round of research was

used in part to develop tasks for the user testing portions of the study.

The study also included user testing with participants in London, United Kingdom;

Hong Kong, China; Munster, Indiana; Kennesaw, Georgia; and New York, New York.

The New York City component, which was the largest, included eyetracking.Eyetracking allowed the facilitator to observe and record where the user was looking

on the screen.

Ninety-eight users participated in user testing. Participants included an almost even

split between men and women who ranged in age from 18 to 64. All participants had

purchased online previously, with varied amounts of online shopping experience. Theleast experienced user had purchased online once in the past year and 10

participants had made more than 30 online purchases in the past year. Users were

recruited across a range of household income levels and general online experience.


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12 [email protected] of Research Studies and the E-Commerce Report

Series

More than 100 sites were included in the user testing component of the study. Sitesselected for testing included sites big and small, from various industries with variedproduct offerings and different design approaches. In addition, users completed tasks

on sites they had previously visited. Participants provided a list of sites during the

recruiting process and were asked to visit one of them during the study. Thisexpanded the number as well as the types of sites tested.

Tasks were modeled after those in the first study, including directed tasks askingusers to find specific items, open-ended tasks allowing for site exploration, and

customer service related tasks. Users proceeded as far as possible through the

purchase process with fake user information.

Users completed three additional types of tasks in the second study. Users visited

sites they had visited before, which allowed us to observe users returning to a site as

a repeat visitor. Users also completed open-ended tasks where they were given agoal of something to purchase, but were not directed to any particular website tomake the purchase.

The New York component of the study also included a task where users completed apurchase. Users selected one of five sites on which to shop and were given a budget.

They could purchase any item or items they wanted from the site within theirbudget, send the purchase to themselves, and be reimbursed for the purchase price.

The same facilitator ran all sessions in the second study, except for the Georgia

tests. In all sessions, the facilitator sat next to the user, providing instructions,observing and taking notes. Users thought aloud as they worked.

ABOUT THE THIRD EDITION

The third edition includes guidelines derived from both research studies as well as

revisions, clarifications and further examples of guidelines from the previous editions

of this report. For the third edition of this report, we used the existing guidelinesfrom our research studies to complete heuristic reviews on additional e-commerce

sites and updated examples as appropriate.

Some screenshots remain from earlier rounds of research. Older screenshots areretained when necessary to reflect the appearance of the site at the time it was

tested. Some sitesdesigns may have changed since the sites were tested.

For instructional purposes, all examples are valuable. They reflect actual designs andreal user behaviors, which in turn create best practices that stand the test of time.

Lessons learned from these designs are valid, even when designs have changed.Including examples helps illustrate good and bad usability examples, which can help

designers learn from previous mistakes and successes.

Participantspersonal information has been blurred on screenshots.


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Whats Most Important

BACK TO BASICS

We ran our original ecommerce studies in 2000, when e-commerce was relatively

new. We ran our second set of studies years later, when users were moreaccustomed to online shopping, and when it was more difficult to find inexperienced

online shoppers than experienced online shoppers.

However, many of the problems our users ran into were the same problems usersfaced years ago. The basics of buying still confused users. Though e-commerce

designs have changed, the new designs dont always fix old problems. In our latest

update for the third edition, we found the same problems remained in many designs.

Users had difficulty finding products, getting adequate product information, adding

products to the shopping cart, and successfully navigating the checkout process.

Online shopping is filled with choices. The range of options available to online

shoppers is almost endless. If your site does not do its job well, there are plenty ofother sites that offer similar selection.

WHATS IMPROVED

We did see improvement in several areas. More sites offered user reviews of

products, which helped answer usersquestions and gave them confidence in their

purchases. This can help minimize the number of users who end up returning goodspurchased online. When expectations are adequately set, shoppers don t have muchchance to be disappointed.

Additional product images, with close-up images of features and characteristics, as

well as zooming and panning tools, also helped users on many sites, giving them a

much more complete sense of the product than could be given through one staticpicture taken from a distance.

Site recommendations of associated, related, or accessory products have also

improved, helping guide users to the products that meet their needs or accompanythose theyve already expressed interest in. Users were interested in thesesuggestions and often used them to navigate product inventory, but were more likely

to rely on them if they were highly and clearly related to the products they were

viewing.

IN THIS REPORT

This report starts with behavioral information about why shoppers go online in the

first place, and what users say they are willing to buy online. This is followed by adiscussion of supporting different types of shoppers, information which could be used

to develop personas for site development. We then discuss broader topics of howusers shop.

The KeyFindingssection summarizes the most important information from the entire

report series. The report ends with numbers success scores and task times from

our latest research, as well as a list of the most common problems usersencountered.


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14 [email protected] Pros and Cons of Online Shopping

Pros and Cons of Online Shopping

WHY SHOP ONLINE

Userskey reasons for shopping online were:

Access to products and selection of products

Price

Convenience

These may seem like obvious reasons, but it behooves websites to have theirdesign emphasize how they meet these basic consumer needs and wants.

Access and Selection

E-commerce sites allow users access to products they might not otherwise have.

One shopper living in Montana in the United States wanted to shop at The Children sPlace for her daughter, but the closest store was 5 hours away. The website allowed

her to shop without driving 10 hours round trip.

Another user explained, My husband buys flour online. Its for some whole grainbread he makes, freshly ground, a certain kind. I just got 10 pounds delivered the

other day.

Some shoppers looked for goods internationally. For instance, shoppers in HongKong mentioned buying quality goods from other countries. While many of our Hong

Kong participants did not shop online frequently due to the variety and ease of

shopping in Hong Kong, several mentioned using international websites to find itemsthey could not find in Hong Kong. One user said, I buy books there that I cant find

in Hong Kongs bookstores.

Several female shoppers in Hong Kong mentioned buying lingerie and underwear

from Victorias Secret because it was difficult to find attractive, fashionable itemslocally. A male shopper said he ordered shoes from London because he used to livethere and knew the shoes fit well and were well-made. He also bought golf

equipment from a US site because he preferred the brand and could save money

over buying locally, even factoring in international shipping charges.

Users appreciated the access to products and the selection of products availableonline, which widely broadened the product selection available in local stores,

regardless of their location. They enjoyed the selection, whether within one site oravailable across several sites.

Price

Users were often looking for a bargain online. Some users assumed online priceswould be lower than local prices. One said, Things are generally cheaper when youbuy them online.Another said, Most of the time, items are a lot cheaper than in

the stores.

Shoppers appreciated that they could look around for the best price online moreeasily than they could by going store to store. Traveling between stores is much

quicker online than it is in the physical world.


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Many usersfavorable comments about online stores were about pricing. One usersaid of oddballshoe.com: The prices are good and they have a clearance sectionwith even better deals.

Our diary study participants echoed these ideas when explaining why they were

visiting a particular site over another. Many responses mentioned prices, such as, Iwent to this site because of their great prices on brand name products.

A good price could even trump a previous bad experience, though that was rare. Oneuser visited a site with reluctancebecause of past problems with shipping. He

purchased a TV stand, cables, and a DVD player because of the huge discounts on

the product prices. He said, The prices were exceptional on these items. I didnthave any negative experiences this time, but well see how long it takes for these

items to actually be delivered and what shape they re in when they arrive.

Convenience

Convenience is a huge incentive to shop online. One convenience was delivery

users didnt have to go anywhere to get the items. One user said, The best thing is

its delivered to your door so you can stay there and do nothing.

Time savings was also a benefit. One user said, You dont have to spend timerunning around to a lot of stores.Another user said he shopped for movie tickets

online so, I dont have to queue up for movie tickets or waste time walking to thetheater if its sold out.

Another user liked shopping for limited edition prints online. He said, We couldnt go

around to the shops: wed have to spend a year looking. But you go online and findit.

Further, shoppers could shop as quickly or as slowly as they wanted online. In a

store, some shoppers said they felt rushed. One user said while shed never be

comfortable shopping in the same store for hours, she could spend as much time asshe liked online. She said, I shop quite slowly. I spend my time. I can spend hours

online at the end of the day, hours going through lingerie and clothes.

We saw this leisurely approach to shopping in our studies. Some users enjoyedbrowsing the full inventory on a website before making a purchase decision. In

purchase tasks in the study, when users had a set amount of money to spend on asite, some leisurely perused every possible option before making a decision.

Other users want to shop online to get through the shopping process as quickly aspossible, and we witnessed this behavior in our studies as well. They appreciatedsites that helped them locate products quickly, concisely presented productinformation, and led them through a fast and simple checkout process.

Another benefit of online shopping for some users was the lack of salespeople andother shoppers there was no one to bother you. One user said, You dont get

plagued by the people in the store, who invariably know nothing about the productanyway.Another said, I buy clothes online. I dont like crowded shops. And I hategoing in changing rooms.

Another explained his process for researching and buying electronics. He said, Ihave to spend time to compare. Its better to compare at home because I can spend

more time. A shop may be busy and I don t like to spend so much time.


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16 [email protected] Pros and Cons of Online Shopping

Many users preferred finding their own answers on websites, rather than having tocontact the company. One of the benefits of shopping online that users mentionedwas not having to deal with people whether it was cashiers, other customers, or

pushy or uninformed salespeople. These users wanted to be able to find and buy

products without having to interact with anyone.

For example, a user who was shopping for a custom fruit basket searched and ended

up on the Gift Baskets of Pleasanton site, where such baskets were offered.However, the site did not allow users to customize baskets online a phone call or

email was required. The user said, Ah, you have to email them. I just can t order it.

Lets go back.Having to contact the company was a hurdle in the users shoppingexperience.

Sites that required users to call to place an order sometimes made users choose toshop elsewhere. Many users preferred to place the full order online, as was possibleon Rodnick.com.


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WHATS MISSING ONLINE

Shopping Is Social

The solitary nature of most online shopping was a detriment for some shoppers.

Some wanted input from friends and family, and a handful even called friends or

family or asked the facilitator for input while shopping during our study. One usermade a phone call during a task, explaining, Shes been looking for a flannel

blanket, too. I needed to know what color she wanted.

Users can always pick up the phone and call someone for input. It s also a good ideato let shoppers email products to themselves or their friends, either to remind

themselves about a product or to solicit feedback from a friend. It is also importantto save usersshopping carts, as they may want to show the items they reconsidering to others and may use the shopping cart as a holding area.

Some users lamented that there was no one to help them when they were shopping

online. One user shopping for a microwave on the Comet site was frustrated becausehe didnt understand the terminology used on the site. He said, A situation like that

makes me want to go to the old school style of shopping. Just walking around the

shop.

Users missed the ability to view, hold, or try on items or to ask questions. Sites withrobust product information helped alleviate some of these concerns, and we did seea handful of shoppers interact with live chat offerings to get assistance at key points

in the shopping process.

Delayed Gratification and Additional Cost

Another concern about online shopping was the lack of instant gratification. For

some, part of the fun of shopping is coming home with a new item. Delivery times,

even short ones, frustrated some users. (Others thought the idea of delayedgratification eagerly awaiting their new purchase was a good thing.)

Users also frequently complained about shipping charges, and fees if they returneditems. Free shipping was a good incentive for users to make a purchase online.Eliminating the extra cost can make users more comfortable buying somethingonline. As one user said, The price was right, the shipping was free, so I made the

purchase.

Users were also worried about returns. Simple returns with prepaid labels or in-storereturns were also attractive to shoppers. One user said, If my wife doesnt end up

liking some of the merchandise or it doesnt fit, it can be returned to our local store.


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18 [email protected] Willingness to Shop Online

Willingness to Shop Online

WHAT PEOPLE WILL AND WONT BUY ONLINE

Users were most comfortable buying a known product, such as a book, DVD or CD

online. They were more comfortable buying known brands, or from stores whoseproducts they knew well. They were most comfortable when what they were buying

online was in no way going to be a surprise.

Of course, shopping preferences vary by shopper. Some of our participants werewilling to buy almost anything online for the convenience and price. Others stuck to

only what was known. One user said, A washing machine is a washing machine. You

dont need to go into a shop to see that it s a washing machine.

Some liked to get items that would be awkward or difficult to get home bythemselves delivered to them instead. One user said she would buy toilet roll

because its bulky. It would be handy having that delivered.

Users commonly listed three types of products as those theyd be less likely to buy

online:

tactile products

expensive products

perishable products

Tactile Products

The tactile nature of shopping in a store versus shopping online was a bigconsideration for many users. Users mentioned reluctance to buy clothing, bedding,

pillows, and upholstered furniture things they would like to see, touch, wear or

use before buying. For instance, while a shopper may have been comfortable buying

a sweater like one hed seen in a store, he was more hesitant to buy another onesight unseen and even more importantly, untouched. As one user said, Anything

like a bed, mattress, sofa: you need to lie on it and get the feeling of it before you

make a decision.

One main concern for shoppers was fit, for items that they would normally try on inthe store. A user said of buying pants from LandsEnd online, I just dont trust fitsuntil I try them on. I know Lee fits, so I buy it. But if I went into a store and tried it

on and knew it fit, then I would buy it online. Now that I know about these pants, I

would go and try them on and then get them online. I think Sears carries them.Another said, Clothes, I never buy online. I like to try them on before I make a

decision.

There is no tactile nature to the Web. Stores will always have that advantage. But

consider what can be done to assuage users concerns about buying items withouthaving touched or experienced them. Excellent product descriptions can answer

usersquestions. High quality images, from a variety of angles and showing variousfeatures, can emphasize and clarify product details.


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AnnTaylor.com allowed users to zoom in to see product details, showing fabric andcraftsmanship clearly. The top image shows the default product picture, and thesecond shows the highest level of zoom available on the site.


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For items such as clothing, bedding or rugs, a high zoom on product images, or closeup images of details, can help users assess the quality and craftsmanship of theproduct. A close zoom can allow the user to inspect a seam or a button. Fabric or

color samples free or low cost can help alleviate usersconcerns. Such samples

makes sense for more expensive items, such as upholstered furniture, where colorand feel may make the difference to a shopper. This is particularly helpful since it is

difficult to accurately judge color online.

SilestoneUSA.com offered low cost samples of countertop materials.

Expensive Items

Some users were hesitant to buy expensive items online. Users couldnt necessarilyassess the value of an item from an online description and picture. One user said,Its hard to tell the quality of jewelry online.Another said, I wouldnt buy a car

online I couldnt commit to buying it without a test drive.A third said, I wouldnever buy a big ticket item, like a car or quality jewelry.

In these cases, outside authentication of products was helpful, such as a gem report

for high-end jewelry or an accident and maintenance report for a used vehicle. In

addition, high-end sites require even better customer service, ready to answer ausers question at any point of the shopping or purchase process.


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The added red ovals above show Blue Nile offered a customer service phonenumber in the upper corner of the page as well as below product information,together with information about asking an expert.

Perishable Items

Some users hesitated to buy perishable items because delivery time was key. Oneuser said, Id worry about something susceptible to temperature in the

summertime.Another said, You cant order fresh items from a website!

Providing clear information about shipping and delivery is essential for perishable

items. Users wanted to know how items would be packaged, how to dispose of

packaging (such as dry ice) or how quickly they needed to open, water, orrefrigerate perishable items.


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Godivas website included information about climate control packaging andreassured users the items would arrive in perfect condition, no matter how warmthe climate.


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User Hesitations about Buying Online

Product Type Solutions

Tactile:

Clothing

Bedding

Upholstered furniture

Quality and variety of product images

Deep zoom

Fabric or color samples

Expensive:

Jewelry

Cars

Outside authentication

Good customer services with friendly and knowledgeable

customer support

Perishable:

Food

Plants

Detailed information about packaging and delivery


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24 [email protected] Designing for Different Types of Shoppers

Designing for Different Types of Shoppers

REASONS FOR E-COMMERCE VISITS

We started our research with a notebook study, where we asked users to write down

information about all of their e-commerce related activities over a six-week period.The goal was to get a sense of what activities users were completing on e-commerce

sites, their reasons for visiting, and their likes and dislikes about the experience.

Respondents, all located in the United States, participated between the Thanksgivingholiday in late November until New Years Eve on December 31. This is traditionally a

heavy shopping time in the United States. However, this also meant users might be

more focused on gift-purchases than at other times of the year.

We asked users to note, What was your main reason for visiting the site? What did

you hope to accomplish?Ten users participated in the research, and recorded 263

site visits.

We wanted to collect information about what shoppers were already doing online, inorder to create realistic tasks for user testing. We categorized the respondentsanswers to the open-ended question. The most commonly given reason for visiting a

site was to look for a particular type of product. By that, we mean users were looking

for a vacuum, a book or an HDTV, but without any one vacuum, book or HDTV inmind. Thirty-five percent of site visits were inspired by looking for a product type,but not a particular product.

Twenty-seven percent of visits were aimed at finding a specific product, such as anAdidas gold-foil shirt, SixFeetUnderDVD set, a taillight for a car, or a ClevelandBrowns football jersey.

Nine percent of visits were inspired by knowledge of a sale, or hopes that theremight be a sale, and six percent of the holiday-time visits were looking for gifts.

(Note that the product type and specific product categories likely included gift-buying

activities: we only counted shopping activities as gifts when participants explicitlystated they were looking for gifts without a particular item in mind.)

Additional reasons for e-commerce visits were: because they received an email(5%), to browse offerings (4%), for customer service or account-related reasons

such as checking order status (3%), to check prices (3%), to spend a gift card (2%),because they had seen a catalog or a print advertisement (2%), and looking for a

coupon (1%).

Other reasons accounted for 4% of visits. These reasons included gift card buy-back,

to see if an item was from a store, to find movie times or make dinner reservations,

to enter a contest, to check on product information for a product already owned, andto sign up for an email newsletter.


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The chart above shows the 10 diary study participantsstated reasons for visiting e-commerce sites during the 6-week study. They reported 263 site visits. Looking fora product type accounted for 35% of site visits (91). Looking for a specific itemadded another 27% (71 visits). 9% (23) of visits were inspired by a sale or lookingfor a sale, and 6% were looking for gifts (15). Users visited sites because of anemail message 5% of the time (14 visits), and for general browsing 4% of the time(11 visits). Customer service or account related activities caused 3% (9) of visits,and 3% of visits were to check prices (8 visits). Two percent of users were lookingto spend a gift card (4) or because theyd seen a catalog or print ad (4), and 1%were looking for coupons (2).

SUPPORTING ALL TYPES OF SHOPPERS

There are many different types of shoppers, and varied approaches to shopping.

However, there were five that arose repeatedly in our research:

Product-focused

Browsing

Researching

Bargain-hunting

One-time shoppers


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Although a good site experience is crucial to all types of shoppers, different elementsof the shopping experience take on more significance depending on the users goaland approach. Designing with these user types in mind will help the overall user

experience on the site.

Product-focused

Many shoppers go online knowing exactly what they want. They may need areplacement for something they already have. They may have already researched an

item and know exactly what they want. They may have been to a store and seen theproduct they want, but waited to buy it online. Regardless of the reason, theseshoppers are goal-oriented. They know what they need, and they want the site to

give it to them quickly.

In our study, our goal-oriented shoppers needed a James Bond DVD set, areplacement laptop battery, a Cleveland Browns jersey, a taillight for a car, and

printer ink, among other things. These users werent looking to spend time leisurely

browsing a site, to analyze product information, or to carefully consider a purchase.They wanted to find what they needed, get in and get out.

These shoppers may know where to get the item in question they may go to anonline store they know that carries it, or the online presence of a store where they

saw the product. They may have purchased the item in the past, or bought

something similar.

They may use search engines to find the product, typing in the exact product they

want and picking a search result. They may even use meta-shopping engines or

review sites, such as CNET, Google Shopping, or Kelkoo to determine who has theproduct for the best price.

Once at the site, all these users need to do is locate the right product, confirm that

its the right one, and buy it. Some wont look at product descriptions at all. A quicklook at the name and product picture confirms the product is correct, and they ll buy

it.

The goal here is speed. Get the user to the right product, let them know it s the rightproduct, and let them check out. The user may not be in a hurry, but he isn t in the

mindset to linger and spend quality time with the site. He may notice an upsellopportunity, but hes more likely to continue on with his intended purchase without

distraction.

One user in our study had a product in mind when she visited FYE.com to spend agift card. She immediately searched for the name of the movie Heartburnandwas thrilled to see results. Shed had trouble locating the product previously and was

excited to see it was offered and available. She even ended up buying two copies

one for herself and one for a friend.


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A user was happy when FYE.com carried an item she had trouble finding elsewhere.The site allowed her to quickly search for, locate, and buy the movie she wanted.

Keys to success for product-focused shoppers are:

Clearly identifying each product offering

Offering an effective search that makes it easy to locate items of

interest

Letting return users easily see items previously purchased for reorders

or accessory purchases

Streamlining the checkout process to get users in and out as quickly aspossible

Browsing

Browsers have a much more leisurely approach to shopping online. They may look totheir favorite sites or new sites, for inspiration or to kill time.

One user said, When I dont have time to go shopping, I go online to check out

whats new or on sale.Another said of a visit to iTunes, I didnt buy any music, butI enjoyed looking for potential songs to download.

Several users in Hong Kong said they looked at websites that they knew did not ship

to Hong Kong, but browsed the sites anyway. They checked the fashions on the sitesand then looked locally for items that were comparable.


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It may seem counter-intuitive, but having browsers on your site is a good thing.These are people who are choosing to spend time on your site, with your company,with your brand. They are using the site as entertainment and inspiration, and

theres a great opportunity there to turn these browsers into buyers. If users have a

consistently good experience on your site finding things they like and seeing thelatest products, theyll be more likely to think of your site or even your physical

stores when they are ready to buy.

Browsers are not necessarily looking to make a purchase, but if they see something

they really like, they may turn into buyers.

Browsers may also be looking at the site because they are planning a trip to a store.One user explained she looked at Banana Republics site: When I dont have time to

go shopping, I check out whats new or on sale. I check it before I go to the store.

Another said of Costcos site: I did not buy a gift. They had a bunch of good stuff,but I know Ill go in person in a few days and see the items up close.

Make it easy for your customers to see whats new, whats popular and whats on

sale. When shoppers come to the site on a regular basis, its not to see the sameinformation they saw the week before; its to see whats changed. Browsers are

interested in the latest items, the latest deals, what other people are buying. Relateditems and suggested products can help them navigate through the site, leading themto new areas and new products. Top-selling products, most popular products, andtop-ranked products can all do well for browsers.


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Sasa.com highlighted new products and bestsellers on the homepage.

Another opportunity here is word-of-mouth marketing. Let users share information

or findson the site with their friends, and gain more site visitors and customers.


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Keys for success for browsers are:

Highlighting new or popular products, or items on sale

Leading shoppers to new inventory through relevant related links andrecommended products

Letting users share information about products they like

Researching

Researchers are goal-driven browsers. They plan to purchase, but the purchase may

happen today, tomorrow, next week or in six months. Theyre looking online tocollect information about products and prices, and may be in any stage of research.

Researchers may be educating themselves about unknown product types, either for

a first time purchase or to purchase a gift. Or they may be well-educated about theproducts theyre looking for, and trying to find the best price for the bestcombination of features.

Shoppers may have a product category in mind and be looking for the best deal orbest product to meet their needs. Research may take place in several in-depth visitsor be a one-time quick decision between options on one site.

Researchers may visit multiple sites to gather information before committing to a

purchase. (And keep in mind that purchase may occur online or in a store.) Users

may also visit your site or others multiple times before making a purchase decision.They may use one site for researching and another for the eventual purchase.

The goal is to turn these researchers into buyers. Trust is important in online

transactions. If users have seen that your site offers detailed product information,excellent support, and clear navigation as theyve been researching, theyre morelikely to buy from your site. If your site offers limited or unclear product information,

they wont spend much time researching on it, nor will they think of it when it is time

to buy. The opportunity is to convert researchers to buyers, to become aknowledgeable and trustworthy source of information and products.

The biggest key to a successful experience for researchers is to allow easy productcomparison. This does not mean creating large, elaborate comparison engines(though some comparison engines work quite nicely). Facilitating comparisons can

be as simple as providing consistent information about products, so users can easily

determine what the differences are among them.

When sites do not offer comparison tools, users sometimes create their own. A user

on BuyDig.com opened two browser windows to compare product specifications sideby side. He said, When you get close, you want to compare side by side. Id also

open a new window to go to CNET.com to get reviews. That will tell me even more.

Researchers are looking for a high degree of detail in product descriptions andimages. This means these additional sources of information should be available, but

dont offer so much information up front that you scare your product-focused or

browsing shoppers away. Layer the information, but provide sufficient details toanswer the questions researchers have.


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Circuit Citys site provided well-structured layers of product information. The pagestarted with key features, then had a summary of highlights, followed by tabs forcustomer reviews, specifications and accessories.

Provide assistance for unfamiliar terms, or explanatory text to describe what

different features or characteristics are. User reviews are also incredibly helpful to

researchers, who can gather even more information by reading what others think ofthe product. Reviews can offer more practical details than any product description,as they are descriptions written by people who have used the product.

Researchers also needed a way to flag items they were considering, so they couldnarrow options and return to compare them. Many used the shopping cart for thispurpose, using it to collect items they were considering. Users were more

comfortable doing this when they saw it was easy to remove an item from theshopping cart. They also appreciated sites that remembered the items theyd put inthe cart on previous visits. Researchers may leave a site to visit another, or think

about a purchase for a few days, and like to be able to pick up where they left off.


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Keys for success for researchers are:

Providing clear and detailed product descriptions

Offering assistance around unfamiliar terminology or product features

Listing user reviews

Allowing easy comparison between products

Saving usersshopping carts to allow shopping to continue on a

subsequent visit

Bargain-Hunting

A key reason that users shop on the Web is that they think they can get a betterdeal online. Some shopping behavior is motivated by this intention to find the best

deal possible.

Bargain-hunters may or may not have a particular item in mind when they start

shopping. And bargain-hunting behavior may impact any type of online shopper the product-focused shopper, browser or researcher.

One user admitted she tended to buy things solely because they were a bargain.

When hunting for other items, if she came across a good deal, she found it hard topass up.

The most important thing for a bargain hunter is to be able to locate deals. Prices

must be clearly listed. Sale items must not be hidden on the site, but listed alongsidefull-price items, with savings highlighted. Available discounts must be easy to use,such as coupon codes for money off or free shipping.

Some users immediately looked for deals and discounts on sites, checking Salesections first. We saw much of this behavior in purchase tasks, where users werelooking to get the most for the amount of money we gave them to spend.

The opportunity with bargain hunters is to turn them into repeat customers. Several

users in our notebook study referred to returning to a site specifically because of

knowledge of a sale, information they learned through catalogs, advertising, or emailmessages. Sites should take advantage of bargain hunting behavior by sending

coupons, offering discounts for more expensive purchases, and offering free shippingwith minimum purchases.

Many shoppers may offer their email address if they know they will receive specialdiscounts or offers in return. One participant in our study who was spending a gift

card on a site signed up for the email newsletter2in order to receive a discount, and

used the discount for her purchase. A diary participant advised his nephew to sign upfor an email newsletter because, The site is usually expensive and they dont offer

good discounts unless one has a coupon.

One user said,They often offer $10 coupons that make the prices even better.

Another said, I just went back because they sent me a coupon.

2For much more about the design and usability of email newsletters, please see our separate reporton this topic, available athttp://www.nngroup.com/reports/email-newsletter-design
http://www.nngroup.com/reports/email-newsletter-designhttp://www.nngroup.com/reports/email-newsletter-designhttp://www.nngroup.com/reports/email-newsletter-designhttp://www.nngroup.com/reports/email-newsletter-design


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When discounts are available, make them easy to use. One user went through asaga on the BabyStyle.com site, trying to get free shipping. The site informed usersof free shipping with $50 purchase in the shopping cart, telling them how much more

they needed to spend to quality for free shipping. However, when users reached the

qualifying total, the message, including the coupon code necessary to takeadvantage of the offer, disappeared.

One user hunted for more than 10 minutes for an item that was just expensiveenough to push his total over the free shipping threshold. When the free shipping

information disappeared, he assumed it would be automatically applied to his order.

This was not the case. When he reached the order summary page in the checkoutprocess, he was so outraged at the shipping charge that he canceled the order.


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Shoppers were frustrated when information about discounts that was advertised

throughout the site suddenly disappeared on screens where users had to enterdiscount or promo codes, like on Gap.com. The discount code promoted on theshopping cart page (seen in the first screenshot above) and throughout the sitedisappeared on the page where users needed to enter the code.


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Many shoppers tried to take advantage of free shipping offers. One of userscomplaints about shopping online is paying an additional shipping charge. When sitesoffered free shipping, even when a minimum purchase was involved, users often

tried to take advantage of such deals.

A handful of users in our study looked for coupon codes when making purchases,leaving the site to do a quick search for any available discounts they could find on

the Web. Many others mentioned doing so when they were shopping on their own athome or at work.

Keys for success for bargain-hunters are:

Listing sale items alongside full priced inventory and providing anobvious section for discounted products

Clearly listing product prices and associated discounts and savings

Allowing easy coupon redemption or applying discounts automatically

when criteria are met

One-Time Shoppers

One-time shoppers may be product-focused, browsing, bargain-hunting orresearching. They are often gift card recipients, gift card buyers, or gift buyers. They

may come with a goal in mind, such as a list of products the gift recipient is

interested in. They may simply be browsing to find the best product. Or they may beresearching and comparing across the sites inventory to buy the best item. They

may be looking to spend a gift card or aiming for a certain budget, so may want to

get the most for their money.

These shoppers are not familiar with the site or, possibly, the products it carries.

They have no interest in engaging with the site or learning more about it. They needclear site navigation to get to products of interest and get a sense of site inventory

and selection. Clear product descriptions help them determine which items best fit

their needs. Company information can help them feel more confident giving anunknown site their personal and financial information.

A main complaint of one-time shoppers was site registration. When users were

doubtful they would ever return to a site, they did not want to create an account orhave the site remember their personal data. They appreciated sites that allowedthem to make a purchase without requiring them to create an account.


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One-time shoppers didnt want to have to register for sites in order to checkout.Office Depots site allowed users to checkout as guests.

Keys to success for one-time shoppers are:

Having clear site navigation

Offering complete product descriptions

Providing clear - and trustworthy - company information

Allowing checkout without requiring registration


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How Users Shop

IN-STORE ANDONLINE, RATHER THAN IN-STORE OR ONLINE

Shoppers didnt distinguish between online shopping and in-store shopping. To them,

it was all shopping. Their shopping experiences might be fully online, fully in-store,or a combination of the two. They expected consistency between online storefronts

and physical storefronts. Users are already combining the in-store and online

shopping experiences, so companies that are doing this well can reap the benefits.

Shoppers looked to websites to direct them to local stores. Users pre-shopped,

collecting information to make their in-store experience go more smoothly. One user

said, My water softener overflowed in the middle of the night and flooded mybasement. I wanted to look up dehumidifiers online so I d know where to purchase

locally.Another said, Im looking for a vacuum. We have a local Hoover retailer. I

just wanted to pre-shop without running all over. Another user looking for sawblades checked prices online to decide where to go to make the purchase. Anotherlooked at a website to browse their selection and said, They had a bunch of good

stuff, but I know I

ll go in person in a few days from now and see the items upclose.

Users were confused when inventory online and off differed. One user said of

Sears.com, It doesnt seem like they show everything [they have in stores] online.There was not a big selection of items to choose from.Another said, I only found

two results. There werent enough choices. I wanted to look at several. It was not a

very good range or selection or price.Limited online inventory made some usersreluctant to pursue the purchase at their local store.

Stores could act as a back-up to online shopping and vice versa. If users couldnt

find what they needed in one location, they tried the other. One shopper explained,I was looking for a specific item jeans my daughter likes from Arizona, a brandfound at Penneys. Ive purchased these items before in a store. I did not find what I

wanted online, but we did go to a store and find the jeans.

Others started in a store, but completed purchases online. Sometimes this was forconvenience or for better inventory selection. (This can be a good reason to have a

terminal in-store, to allow users to order right then and there, when they re ready tospend their money.)

The website can show users more options and combinations than any showroom or

shop. For instance, one user was shopping for furniture at a local store, and went to

the showroom to sit in the various chairs and decide which one she wanted.However, after making the decision, she returned home to look online at the various

color and style options available for the chair. The showroom only had one or twoexamples, and had color and fabric swatches, but she couldnt see what the chair

would look like. Online, there were images to show her what the different options

looked like. She said, I wanted to see different style and fabric options for thefurniture all in one place.Another looked to VictoriasSecret.com because they have

a lot more available online than in stores.


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38 [email protected] How Users Shop

Other users blurred the lines between online and in-store shopping with in-storepickup of items ordered online or shipping to a local store for free. These optionshelped address the online shopping problem of delayed gratification, as well as the

in-store problem of pushy salespeople or crowds. Buying online let the user avoid the

store experience, while picking up at a store avoided delivery concerns or delays.This also allowed users to save on delivery costs and to get the item at their

convenience.

Another intersection of online and offline commerce is through returns or exchanges.

Users are starting to expect that they will be able to return or exchange at a store if

they buy online. Allowing users to do so eliminates another concern some users haveabout online shopping: that they will have to pay return shipping if the item isn t to

their liking.

SHIPPING: DELAYED GRATIFICATION AND ADDITIONAL COST

Even standard shipping charges which were relatively low drew complaints fromusers, depending on what they were buying. For instance, one user said onLaneBryant.com, Their shipping would have been high [$4.95] for an inexpensive

item.

Another user said on Campmor.com, Shipping is OK at $6.95, but I wish they had itat a slightly better price. It is good that any order is that price for standard

shipping.His discomfort with the shipping charges caused him to reconsider hispurchase. Though he found the sunglasses he wanted for a third of the price of

retail,he said, I still want to look around.

Another user said she found great priceson EyesLipsFace.com, but I found what Iwanted, but did not buy. Shipping was very high, despite low prices on items. I

would have liked to know that before I filled my cart.

Users looked for other ways to get around shipping charges. One user onSymantec.com said, I could download the product directly instead of getting it

shipped.Another said of Buemo.com, They offer the option to ship or pick up. If

you choose pickup, you can select one of about 30 stores and they have it ready inone hour.Another said of BestBuy.com: You can order on the Internet and thenpick it up at the store closest to you.

Users were motivated by offers to get free shipping if they spent a certain total onthe site. If the total was close to the amount the user otherwise intended to spend,they often spent additional time on the site looking for items that would qualify them

for the offer. For instance, one user on PetSmart.com spent an additional 11 minutes

and 23 seconds looking for a product to add to his cart to qualify for free shipping.

High international shipping charges were a deterrent for some shoppers. A user in

Hong Kong explained, I introduced the Victorias Secret site to my friends and we allorder in one lot and share the delivery cost.

LOCAL DIFFERENCES: PATIENCE AND PRIORITIES

While our study was not large enough to declare regional or international differences

in e-commerce shopping behavior, we did note differences across our participants inNew York, Indiana and Georgia in the United States and in Hong Kong and London.


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Our user base was small in both London and Hong Kong, but we noted somedifferences between our participants. One key difference was in patience. Our usersin London were the most patient, waiting for what seemed to be interminable lengths

for pages or content to load, without complaint.

Our participants in the United States were somewhat less patient, waiting for pagesto load while complaining about the delay, or sometimes refreshing pages in an

attempt to speed up the process. Our users in Hong Kong were the least patient,immediately refreshing pages, opening new browser windows or tabs, or even

visiting other sites to fill the time while slow pages opened.

Users also had regional concerns about shopping, depending on their location. InHong Kong, shoppers were concerned that delivery had to be more convenient than

shopping locally. They were particularly concerned that packages would not be left at

their homes if they were not present, and they would have to retrieve the package ata local post office or from a local carrier. One said, Its quite idiotic: You pay fordelivery cost, but in the end you are the one going to the post office to pick up the

large parcel.Considering how convenient it was for many of our participants to shoplocally, with the wealth of shopping opportunities available in Hong Kong, they had tohave a good reason to want to buy online.

In London, our users voiced concern about convenience would waiting for adelivery be more convenient or less than driving to a local store. A user said, This isstill quicker than getting in your car and driving to the shop.Another compared

shipping costs to train fare or the cost of petrol.Another said, Things can be quite

traumatic with congestion charges. Better to sit at home and do it on your owntime.Another user complained, however, when she

Volume 01 - General User Behavior and Executive Summary for the Series 3rd Edition

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Transcript of Volume 01 - General User Behavior and Executive Summary for the Series 3rd Edition