E-Commerce User Experience Research Findings

E-Commerce User Experience

Vol. 1: General User Behavior and
Executive Summary for the Series
Research findings based on eyetracking, user testing, and diary studies

2nd Edition
By: Amy Schade and Jakob Nielsen

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Table of Contents

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

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 Second Edition .......................................................................................................... 12

What's Most Important ............................................................................... 13
Back to Basics .......................................................................................................................... 13
What's 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
What's Missing Online ............................................................................................................... 16
Shopping Is Social ................................................................................................................ 16
Delayed Gratification and Additional Cost ................................................................................. 17

Willingness to Shop Online .......................................................................... 18
What People Will and Won't 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
Bargain-Hunting ................................................................................................................... 32
One-Time Shoppers ............................................................................................................... 34

How Users Shop .......................................................................................... 36
In-Store And Online, Rather than In-Store Or Online..................................................................... 36
Shipping: Delayed Gratification and Additional Cost ...................................................................... 37
Local Differences: Patience and Priorities ..................................................................................... 38

© NIELSEN NORMAN GROUP WWW.NNGROUP.COM 3

Building Loyalty ........................................................................................................................ 39
Deciding Where to Purchase ...................................................................................................... 40

Key Findings ................................................................................................ 45
Homepages and Category Pages ................................................................................................. 45
A Welcoming Homepage ........................................................................................................ 45
A Clear Structure .................................................................................................................. 45
Cross-Referencing ................................................................................................................. 46
Featured or Full Inventory? .................................................................................................... 46
Providing Product Information ................................................................................................ 47
Product Comparisons ............................................................................................................. 47
Sorting through Options......................................................................................................... 47
Product Pages .......................................................................................................................... 48
Full Product Details ............................................................................................................... 48
Consistency between Products ................................................................................................ 51
The Value of Reviews ............................................................................................................. 51
Adding Items to the Cart........................................................................................................ 53
Shopping Cart, Checkout and Registration ................................................................................... 54
Shopping Cart as Dressing Room ............................................................................................ 54
A Clear Path through Checkout ............................................................................................... 54
Optional Registration ............................................................................................................. 55
Money Matters ...................................................................................................................... 56
Shipping Options .................................................................................................................. 56
Search (including Faceted Search) .............................................................................................. 57
Search Behavior ................................................................................................................... 57
Search as Feedback............................................................................................................... 58
Scoped Search...................................................................................................................... 58
Narrowing the Choices: Faceted Search ................................................................................... 58
Customer Service ..................................................................................................................... 60
Easy to Find ......................................................................................................................... 60
A Good Site Experience.......................................................................................................... 60
Getting in Touch ................................................................................................................... 60
Clear, and Customer Friendly, Policies ...................................................................................... 60
Selling Strategies ..................................................................................................................... 61
Clear Pricing ......................................................................................................................... 61
When Will It Arrive ................................................................................................................ 62
Free Shipping ....................................................................................................................... 62
Welcome Back ...................................................................................................................... 62
You Might Also Like... ............................................................................................................ 62
Trust and Credibility .................................................................................................................. 63
Appearance is Everything ....................................................................................................... 63
Privacy and Security .............................................................................................................. 63


Performance and Errors ......................................................................................................... 63
Availability ........................................................................................................................... 65
International Users ................................................................................................................... 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


Executive Summary
(Yes, this is a summary of the summary. Considering that the full E-Commerce User
Experience report series clocks in at 2,140 pages with 1,715 screenshots, the more
summaries the merrier :-)
To give away the bottom line, the number of usability guidelines for e-commerce
sites has increased from 207 in the first edition of this report to 874 in the current
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 new research, we
observed 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 leaving
plenty of money on the table, but not as much.
Today, our main reason to recommend usability improvements for e-commerce sites
is really the competitive pressure from other sites that keep getting better. Yes,
there’s also an argument for improving design purely to reduce user failures, but this
is not as critical as it was in the past. Today’s consumers are not satisfied with sites
that simply make it possible to shop. The experience must also be pleasant, so we
should look beyond success rates, much as the ability to complete tasks remains the
first line 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% of
the time. In the new study, users’ first within-site query was successful 64% of the
time.
Users’ expectations for search quality are far beyond what’s actually delivered by
today’s websites. As with most other aspects of web usability, user expectations are
set by their aggregated user experience 1 from 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
don’t find 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 figure
out how to reformulate their queries.

1
As Jakob’s Law of the Internet User Experience states: users spend the majority of their time on
other sites than yours.


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 and
Denmark.
This was a relatively limited amount of research, though more than anybody else had
done in 2000. Of the 207 early design guidelines, 206 were confirmed in our recent
— much more elaborate — research.
One guideline has been retracted: to offer a special welcome page for new shoppers.
Today, it’s relatively safe to assume that by the time a user arrives at your site, that
person 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 very years 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 the technology that seems to fascinate so many people in the field.

NEW USER RESEARCH
Our new research encompassed 3 usability methods: traditional user testing (as was
done in the original study), eyetracking, and field research in the form of a diary
study. 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 “only” identified 4.2 times as many usability
guidelines, indicating some degree of diminishing returns from enlarging the
research 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 Tiffany’s),
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 users’ actual 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 they
performed 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 20
feet (200 square feet). Get one that is energy-efficient and that has a remote. Buy it
from www.homedepot.com.”


Other tasks were broader and assessed the degree to which the site could inspire
users who don’t have a particular need in mind. For example: “You just got a
promotion 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 didn’t specify what site the user should
use. For example: “The lightbulb 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 don’t
give 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 were
to 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 with
their needs.
• Bargain-hunting.
• Browsing for inspiration.
Finally, some users are one-time shoppers. They don’t know the site, and they don’t
intend to return, but they may want to shop there once. (Maybe they received a gift
card, or maybe a relative wished for a gift carried by that site.)

BAD CONTENT KILL 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 finding the product as it
was finding out about the product. 55% of the 143 user failures we observed were
caused 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 answer
the user’s 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 their
money.


The key downside of e-commerce is that one cannot touch, feel, see, taste, or smell
the offerings. Nor do customers benefit from the essential credibility boost of having
the 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, I'll
stick with it forever.” Not all users are that loyal, but our research does indicate the
tremendous benefits from fostering customer loyalty in e-commerce.
In the web-wide tasks, we didn’t specify what site users should visit for their
purchase. No surprise, half of the users went straight to a search engine. But it was
a bit of surprise that the other half of users went directly to some site they already
knew. Bypassing the search engines’ tollbooth 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. This
outcome demonstrates that SEO and good search engine ranking are necessary but
not sufficient for Internet business success. It’s actually more important to satisfy
users once they arrive at your site. Search users exhibit little loyalty to the sites they
happen 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 only
29% 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 they’re 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 the
other hand, users frequently complained about the drudgingly large amount of data
entry 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 user
experience 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-commerce
user experience has come far, but it has even further to go to truly meet customers’
needs.


Summary of Research Studies and the E-Commerce
Report Series
E-COMMERCE REPORT SERIES
This report is one of 13 reports about the E-Commerce user experience. Ten of the
reports 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, with
each of nine chapters also available as a downloadable report. The second edition
includes 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 additional
research studies, separate from the main e-commerce research. These reports are
included in the series due to their direct relationship to the e-commerce user
experience and cover the topics of wishlists and gift certificates, store locators, and
confirmation 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 at
www.nngroup.com/reports/ecommerce 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 Giving
9. Trust and Credibility
10. International Users
11. Store Finders and Locators
12. Transactional Email and Confirmation Messages
13. Methodology

RESEARCH STUDIES
The information in these reports is a result of two separate rounds of e-commerce
studies conducted by Nielsen Norman Group. The studies took place in the United
States, United Kingdom, Denmark, and China (Hong Kong), and involved user
testing, a diary-based longitudinal 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 Messages
and Locator Usability reports are based on additional research studies. Each of these
three reports includes its own methodology section.

Summary of Research Studies and the E-Commerce Report
10 INFO@NNGROUP.COM
Series

Study One
The first research study was conducted in 2000. 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. Nineteen of 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 different
industries, 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 to
find 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 card
number, 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 the
user 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 United
States were asked to record information in a notebook about their online shopping
experiences 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 that
particular 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. The
least 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.


More than 100 sites were included in the user testing component of the study. Sites
selected for testing included sites big and small, from various industries with varied
product 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. This
expanded the number as well as the types of sites tested.
Tasks were modeled after those in the first study, including directed tasks asking
users 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 a
goal of something to purchase, but were not directed to any particular website to
make the purchase.
The New York component of the study also included a task where users completed a
purchase. 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 their
budget, 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 SECOND EDITION
The second edition includes new guidelines derived from our second study, as well as
revisions, clarifications and further examples of guidelines from the previous edition
of this report.
All screenshots in the reports show how each site appeared at the time it was tested.
This includes screenshots from Study One, which are included without updates.
Although any of the site designs in the report may have changed since the sites were
tested, we use the screenshots as the sites appeared when our test users tried to
use the sites.
For instructional purposes, all examples are valuable. They reflect actual designs and
real user behaviors, which in turn create best practices that stand the test of time.
Lessons learned from these designs are valid, even when the specific sites where
those screens were found have updated their designs. Including examples helps
illustrate good and bad usability examples, which can help designers learn from
previous mistakes and successes.
Participants’ personal information has been blurred on screenshots.

Summary of Research Studies and the E-Commerce Report
12 INFO@NNGROUP.COM
Series

What's 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 more
accustomed 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 sorts of problems
users faced years ago. The basics of buying still confused users. Though e-commerce
designs have changed, the new designs don’t always fix old problems.
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 of
other sites that offer similar selection.

WHAT'S IMPROVED
We did see improvement in several areas, though. More sites offered user reviews of
products, which helped answer user’s questions and gave them confidence in their
purchases. This can help minimize the number of users who end up returning goods
purchased online. When expectations are adequately set, shoppers don’t have much
chance 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 static
picture 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 accompany
those they’ve already expressed interest in. Users were interested in these
suggestions 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 a
discussion of supporting different types of shoppers, information which could be used
to develop personas for site development. We then discuss broader topics of how
users shop.
The Key Findings section 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 users
encountered.


Pros and Cons of Online Shopping
WHY SHOP ONLINE
Users’ key 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 their
design 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’s
Store 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. It’s for some whole grain
bread 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 Hong
Kong 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 items
they could not find in Hong Kong. One user said, “I buy books there that I can’t find
in Hong Kong’s bookstores.”
Several female shoppers in Hong Kong mentioned buying lingerie and underwear
from Victoria’s Secret because it was difficult to find attractive, fashionable items
locally. A male shopper said he ordered shoes from London because he used to live
there 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 available
online, which widely broadened the product selection available in local stores,
regardless of their location. They enjoyed the selection, whether within one site or
available across several sites.

Price
Users were often looking for a bargain online. Some users assumed online prices
would be lower than local prices. One said, “Things are generally cheaper when you
buy 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 more
easily than they could by going store to store. Traveling between stores is much
quicker online than it is in the physical world.

14 INFO@NNGROUP.COM Pros and Cons of Online Shopping

Many users’ favorable comments about online stores were about pricing. One user
said of oddballshoe.com: “The prices are good and they have a clearance section
with 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, “I
went to this site because of their great prices on brand name products.”
A good price could even trump a positive bad experience, though that was rare. One
user visited a site “with reluctance” because 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 didn’t
have any negative experiences this time, but we’ll 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 didn't have to go anywhere to get the items. One user said, “The best thing is
it's delivered to your door so you can stay there and do nothing.”
Time savings was also a benefit. One user said, “You don't have to spend time
running around to a lot of stores.” Another user said he shopped for movie tickets
online so, “I don't have to queue up for movie tickets or waste time walking to the
theater if it's sold out.”
Another user liked shopping for limited edition prints online. He said, “We couldn't go
around to the shops: we'd have to spend a year looking. But you go online and find
it.”
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 she'd never be
comfortable shopping in the same store for hours, she could spend as much time as
she 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 enjoyed
browsing 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 a
site, some leisurely perused every possible option before making a decision.
Other users want to shop online to get through the shopping process as quickly as
possible, and we witnessed this behavior in our studies as well. They appreciated
sites that helped them locate products quickly, concisely presented product
information, and led them through a fast and simple checkout process.
Another benefit of online shopping for some users was the lack of salespeople and
other shoppers — there was no one to bother you. One user said, “You don’t get
plagued by the people in the store, who invariably know nothing about the product
anyway.” Another said, “I buy clothes online. I don’t like crowded shops. And I hate
going in changing rooms.”
Another explained his process for researching and buying electronics. He said, “I
have to spend time to compare. It's 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.”


Many users preferred finding their own answers on websites, rather than having to
contact the company. One of the benefits users mentioned of shopping online was
not having to deal with people — whether it was pushy or uninformed salespeople,
cashiers, or other customers. 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.
Let’s go back.” Having to contact the company was a hurdle in the user’s shopping
experience.

One user stopped shopping on the Gift Baskets of Pleasanton site when she realized
she would have to contact the company to customize a basket. She wanted to
complete her order without having to contact anyone.

WHAT'S MISSING ONLINE

Shopping Is Social
The solitary nature of most online shopping was also 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 user
made a phone call during a task, explaining, “She's been looking for a flannel
blanket, too. I needed to know what color she wanted.”

16 INFO@NNGROUP.COM Pros and Cons of Online Shopping

Users can always pick up the phone and call someone for input. It's also a good idea
to 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 important
to save users' shopping carts, as they may want to show the items they're
considering 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 because
he didn't 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 with
robust product information helped alleviate some of these concerns, and we did see
a 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 delayed
gratification — eagerly awaiting their new purchase — was a good thing.)
Users also frequently complained about shipping charges, and fees if they returned
items. Free shipping was a good incentive for users to make a purchase online.
Eliminating the extra cost can make users more comfortable buying something
online. 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-store
returns were also attractive to shoppers. One user said, “If my wife doesn’t end up
liking some of the merchandise or it doesn’t fit, it can be returned to our local store.”


Willingness to Shop Online

WHAT PEOPLE WILL AND WON’T 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 whose
products 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 were
willing 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
don't 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 by
themselves delivered to them instead. One user said she would buy “toilet roll
because it's bulky. It would be handy having that delivered.”
Users commonly listed three types of products as those they'd 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 big
consideration 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 he’d seen in a store, he was more hesitant to buy another one
sight 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 in
the store. A user said of buying pants from Lands' End online, “I just don't trust fits
until 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 without
having touched or experienced them. Excellent product descriptions can answer
users’ questions. High quality images, from a variety of angles and showing various
features, can emphasize and clarify product details.

18 INFO@NNGROUP.COM Willingness to Shop Online

The level of zoom available on Bluefly.com let users see product details, zooming in
to the level of being able to see the fabric and craftsmanship clearly.

For items such as clothing, bedding or rugs, a high zoom on product images, or close
up images of details, can help users assess the quality and craftsmanship of the
product. 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 users’ concerns. Such samples
makes sense for more expensive items, such as upholstered furniture, where color
and feel may make the difference to a shopper. This is particularly helpful since it is
difficult to accurately judge color online.


E-Counters offered low cost samples of countertop materials.

Expensive Items
Some users were hesitant to buy expensive items online. Users couldn't necessarily
assess the value of an item from an online description and picture. One user said,
“It's hard to tell the quality of jewelry online.” Another said, “I wouldn't buy a car
online — I couldn't commit to buying it without a test drive.” A third said, “I would
never 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 a
user's question at any point of the shopping or purchase process.


Blue Nile offered a customer service phone number in the upper right 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. One
user said, “I'd worry about something susceptible to temperature in the
summertime.” Another said, “You can't 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, or
refrigerate perishable items.


Godiva's website included information about climate control packaging and
reassured users the items would “arrive in perfect condition, no matter how warm
the climate.”


User Hesitations about Buying Online

Product Type Solutions

Tactile:
Quality and variety of product images
Clothing
Deep zoom
Bedding
Fabric or color samples
Upholstered furniture

Expensive:

Jewelry Outside authentication
Cars Good customer services with friendly and knowledgeable
customer support

Perishable:
Food Detailed information about packaging and delivery

Plants


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 Thanksgiving
holiday in late November until New Year's 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, in
order to create realistic tasks for user testing. We categorized the respondents'
answers 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 in
mind. 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 an
Adidas gold-foil shirt, Six Feet Under DVD set, a taillight for a car, or a Cleveland
Browns football jersey.
Nine percent of visits were inspired by knowledge of a sale, or hopes that there
might 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 explicitly
stated they were looking for gifts without a particular item in mind.)
Other 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, and
to sign up for an email newsletter.

24 INFO@NNGROUP.COM Designing for Different Types of Shoppers

The chart above shows the 10 diary study participants' stated reasons for visiting e-
commerce sites during the 6-week study. They reported 263 site visits. Looking for
a product type accounted for 35% of site visits (91). Looking for a specific item
added another 27% (71 visits). 9% (23) of visits were inspired by a sale or looking
for a sale, and 6% were looking for gifts (15). Users visited sites because of an
email 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 looking
to spend a gift card (4) or because they'd 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


While a good site experience is crucial to all types of shoppers, different elements of
the shopping experience take on more significance depending on the users’ goal and
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 a
replacement 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 the
product they want, but waited to buy it online. Regardless of the reason, these
shoppers 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, a
replacement laptop battery, a Cleveland Browns jersey, a taillight for a car, and
printer ink, among other things. These users weren’t 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 an
online 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, Froogle, or Kelkoo to determine who has the product for
the best price.
Once at the site, all these users need to do is locate the right product, confirm that
it’s the right one, and buy it. Some won’t look at product descriptions at all. A quick
look 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 right
product, and let them checkout. 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 upsell
opportunity, but he’s 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 a
gift card. She immediately searched for the name of the movie — Heartburn — and
was thrilled to see results. She’d 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.


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 for 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 as
possible

Browsing
Browsers have a much more leisurely approach to shopping online. They may look to
their favorite sites or new sites, for inspiration or to kill time.
One user said, “When I don’t have time to go shopping, I go online to check out
what’s new or on sale.” Another said of a visit to iTunes, “I didn’t buy any music, but
I 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 sites
and then looked locally for items that were comparable.


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
there’s 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 the
latest products, they’ll 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 Republic's site: “When I don't have time to
go shopping, I check out what's new or on sale. I check it before I go to the store.”
Another said of CostCo's site: “I did not buy a gift. They had a bunch of good stuff,
but I know I'll go in person in a few days and see the items up close.”
Make it easy for your customers to see what’s new, what’s popular and what’s on
sale. When shoppers come to the site on a regular basis, it’s not to see the same
information they saw the week before, it’s to see what’s changed. Browsers are
interested in the latest items, the latest deals, what other people are buying. Related
items and suggested products can help them navigate through the site, leading them
to new areas and new products. Top-selling products, most popular products, and
top-ranked products can all do well for browsers.


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

Another opportunity here is word-of-mouth marketing. Let users share information
or “finds” on the site with their friends, and gain more site visitors and customers.


Keys for success for browsers are:
• Highlighting new or popular products, or items on sale
• Leading shoppers to new inventory through relevant related links and
recommended 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. They’re looking online to
collect 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 the
products they’re looking for, and trying to find the best price for the best
combination of features.
Shoppers may have a product category in mind and be looking for the best deal or
best product to meet their needs. Research may take place in several in-depth visits
or 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 they’ve been researching, they’re more
likely to buy from your site. If your site offers limited or unclear product information,
they won’t 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 a
knowledgeable and trustworthy source of information and products.
The biggest key to a successful experience for researchers is to allow easy product
comparison. 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 side
by side. He said, “When you get close, you want to compare side by side. I'd 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 and
images. This means these additional sources of information should be available, but
don’t offer so much information up front that you scare your product-focused or
browsing shoppers away. Layer the information, but provide sufficient details to
answer the questions researchers have.


Circuit City's site provided well-structured layers of product information. The page
started with key features, then had a summary of highlights, followed by tabs for
customer 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 of
the 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 could
narrow options and return to compare them. Many used the shopping cart for this
purpose, 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 the
shopping cart. They also appreciated sites that remembered the items they'd put in
the 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.


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 users' shopping 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 better
deal 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 to
pass 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 alongside
full-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 Sale
sections first. We saw much of this behavior in purchase tasks, where users were
looking 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 email
messages. Sites should take advantage of bargain hunting behavior by sending
coupons, offering discounts for more expensive purchases, and offering free shipping
with minimum purchases.
Many shoppers may offer their email address if they know they will receive special
discounts or offers in return. One participant in our study who was spending a gift
card on a site signed up for the email newsletter 2 in order to receive a discount, and
used the discount for her purchase. A diary participant advised his nephew to sign up
for an email newsletter because, “The site is usually expensive and they don't offer
good discounts unless one has a coupon.”

2
For much more about the design and usability of email newsletters, please see our separate report
on this topic, available at http://www.nngroup.com/reports/newsletters


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.”
When discounts are available, make them easy to use. One user went through a
saga on the BabyStyle.com site, trying to get free shipping. The site informed users
of 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 take
advantage of the offer, disappeared.
One user hunted for more than 10 minutes for an item that was just expensive
enough 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 checkout
process, he was so outraged at the shipping charge that he canceled the order.

Users wanted discounts that required no coupon code. While BabyStyle.com nicely
showed users an available discount and associated code in the shopping cart, that
information disappeared once users reached the $50 minimum order.


Many shoppers tried to take advantage of free shipping offers. One of users'
complaints about shopping online is paying an additional shipping charge. When sites
offered 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 at
home or at work.
Keys for success for bargain-hunters are:
• Listing sale items alongside full priced inventory and providing an
obvious 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 or
researching. 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 be
researching and comparing across the site's 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 need
clear 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 an
unknown 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 a site
registration or have the site remember their personal data. They appreciated sites
that allowed them to make a purchase without requiring them to create an account.


One-time shoppers didn't want to have to register for sites in order to checkout.
Office Depot's 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


How Users Shop

IN-STORE AND ONLINE, RATHER THAN IN-STORE OR ONLINE
Shoppers didn't 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 my
basement. I wanted to look up dehumidifiers online so I'd know where to purchase
locally.” Another said, “I'm looking for a vacuum. We have a local Hoover retailer. I
just wanted to pre-shop without running all over.” Another user looking for saw
blades checked prices online to decide where to go to make the purchase. Another
looked 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 up
close.”
Users were confused when inventory online and off differed. One user said of
Sears.com, “It doesn't 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 weren't enough choices. I wanted to look at several. It was not a
very good range or selection or price.” Limited online inventory made some users
reluctant to pursue the purchase at their local store.
Stores could act as a back-up to online shopping and vice versa. If users couldn't
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 brand
found at Penney's. I've 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 for
convenience 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 to
spend 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 two
examples, and had color and fabric swatches, but she couldn’t 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 the
furniture all in one place.” Another looked to VictoriasSecret.com because “they have
a lot more available online than in stores.”

36 INFO@NNGROUP.COM How Users Shop

Other users blurred the lines between online and in-store shopping with in-store
pickup of items ordered online or shipping to a local store for free. These options
helped 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 have
about 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 from
users, depending on what they were buying. For instance, one user said on
LaneBryant.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 it
at 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 his
purchase. 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 prices” on EyesLipsFace.com, but “I found what I
wanted, 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 on
Symantec.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 in
one hour.” Another said of BestBuy.com: “You can order on the Internet and then
pick it up at the store closest to you.”
Users were motivated by offers to get free shipping if they spent a certain total on
the 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 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 Victoria's Secret site to my friends and we all
order 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 in
New York, Indiana and Georgia in the United States and in Hong Kong and London.
Our user base was small in both London and Hong Kong, but we noted some
differences between our participants. One key difference was in patience. Our users
in 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 pages
to 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. In
Hong 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 at
a local post office or from a local carrier. One said, “It's quite idiotic: You pay for
delivery 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 shop
locally, with the wealth of shopping opportunities available in Hong Kong, they had to
have a good reason to want to buy online.
In London, our users voiced concern about convenience — would waiting for a
delivery be more convenient or less than driving to a local store. A user said, "This is
still 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 site at home and do it on your own
time.” Another user complained, however, when she was on a site for an extended
period of time, “I could have driven down to the store quicker.”
Similarly, users in Georgia and Indiana in the United States sometimes contemplated
the cost, in terms of gas and time, to drive to a mall or a store versus buying an
item online and paying shipping charges. One said, “With gas prices high, I don't
mind paying for shipping.”
Users in New York, though surrounded with shopping opportunities like shoppers in
Hong Kong, were still likely to want to shop online for the convenience of not having
to carry items home. Many had methods for receiving packages, even when not at
home, through doormen, neighbors, or local stores who would accept deliveries for
them. However, we found our New Yorkers to be much more concerned with who
would be delivering the item — which carrier or delivery service. Several of our New
York participants had preferred carriers and would select specific delivery options to
ensure those carriers were used. Many wanted to know which carrier would deliver a
package, and not just when the package would arrive. A handful went so far as to
refuse to shop at sites that didn't use particular carriers or that only offered a
despised carrier.
The only other local difference we noted was specific to New York. We found many of
our New York participants entered NY or NYC as their city name, rather than typing,
“New York.” Very few sites accepted this as a valid entry.


These differences led to some guidelines in the report series, as well as some
detailed examples within the guidelines. While we didn't see huge regional or
international differences in behavior, we did note these smaller differences. This
emphasizes the importance of testing with users in your own key markets, allowing
you to identify smaller issues as well as larger ones.

BUILDING LOYALTY
A big part of your business should be building loyalty with customers. A great user
experience is the best way to keep people coming back. When we asked users in our
studies about sites they had good experiences with, they often remembered times
when sites exceeded their expectations. As one user said, “I went to Beumo because
their prices are unbeatable, selection tremendously vast, and they often offer $10
coupons that make prices even better. When I lived in California, I shopped there in
person, which has helped to build me into a loyal customer.”
Another user said, “If I have a good experience with something, I'll stick with it
forever. My in-laws probably get sick of 1800Flowers, Sheryl and Company, Caribou
Coffee. But I stick to the known. I like 1800FLowers because I get points. I joined
their club, so I get points added and get discounts.”
Some users even noted instances where the resolution of a problem was so good
that they remembered the good response rather than the initial problem. One user
complained of difficultly using a coupon code on Kohls.com. She had to ask a
customer service representative how to use it, but in the end said, “Great store! I
still shop the site!”
Many of our diary study participants reported going to sites because of past
purchases or past experiences with the site. Many of these repeat interactions
revolved around discounts, coupons, deals or promotions.
Users visited sites because of email messages about specials, or because they had
loyalty points or discounts due to a credit card associated with the site. For instance,
a user said she went to LLBean because, “I received an email that they had new sale
items and I wanted to check it out. I went because of the sale and I have coupons
and free shipping for the site because I have a rewards credit card.”
A user on DisneyStore.com said, “They send me sale updates and special discount
codes. I usually buy something when I get the discount and then I save what I
bought to give as gifts later.”
Good prices and promotions drove users to sites. One user mentioned visiting
BassPro.com because “a friend sent me a link for 5 fishing lures for $5 from the site.
I got a great deal on the lures — 5 for $5 and free shipping!” A user on Ulta.com
said, “They sent me a coupon code for $5 off any $10 order, so I went to check out
what they had. I received $5 off my order and also had free shipping, so I really got
a bargain!”


DECIDING WHERE TO PURCHASE
Our study focused mainly on tasks where we asked users to visit specified e-
commerce sites. We also included 52 tasks where we gave users a goal, but did not
specify what site to visit to make the purchase. We wanted to see what users did to
pick a site, how or if they shopped around on several sites, how they evaluated
unknown sites, and how they made a purchase decision.
Though we encouraged users to act as though they were truly making a purchase,
we saw several users who said they would make purchases on sites that they also
expressed skepticism about, whether about the trustworthiness or the company,
quality of the product, pricing, or security of the site. Others seemed happy to
purchase on the first site they found, trying to complete our task quickly.
On average, users visited 4.8 sites per task to accomplish their goals. This number
includes repeat visits to the same site and visits to search engines. For instance, if a
user visited AcmeProducts.com, checked another site, did a Web search, and
returned to AcmeProducts.com, that was counted as visiting 4 sites.
The median number of visits per task was 2. In the 52 tasks attempted, users visited
only one site 29% of the time (15), and 2 sites 27% of the time (14). The highest
number of sites viewed during a task was 27.

The chart above shows the number of sites users visited during open-ended tasks.
In 52 tasks, users visited only one site 29% of the time, and visited two sites 27%
of the time. The maximum number of sites visited in one task was 27.


Users visted an average of 3.2 unique sites while completing open-ended tasks. The
lowest number of sites was 1 and the highest was 12, with a median of 2 sites
visited. Twenty nine percent of users visited only one site (15), and an additional
29% of users visited just 2 sites (14) to complete their tasks, accounting for 58% of
users.

Fifty-eight percent of users visited only 1 or 2 sites to complete an open-ended task
where a site was not specified (52 tasks total). Fifteen users visited one site, and 14
visited two. Four users visited three unique sites, and 7 visited 4 unique sites. 4
users visited 5, and 2 visited 6. Two more visited seven unique sites, and one user
visited 8, 9, 10 and 12 unique sites.

Users were approximately evenly split between those who went directly to a known
site to begin the task and those who started the task with a Web search. Users
started with search 24 times, or 48% of the time, and started by typing in the URL of
a known site 28 times, or 52% of the time.


Users started open ended tasks by typing the URL of a known site 54% of the time
(28), and with a search engine 46% of the time (24).

Of those users who went directly to a known site by typing in a URL (28 users), 15
bought from the first site without visiting any other sites. Five additional users
bought from the first site after visiting other sites as well — in other words, they
returned to the first site they visited to complete the task. Eight users, or 29% of
users who went to a site first, ended up completing the task at a site other than their
first choice.
Seventy-one percent of users who started at a known site ended up completing the
task on that site.


Of the 28 users who went directly to a site when completing open-ended tasks
(rather than to a search engine first), 53% (15) of users completed the task on that
site, without ever leaving it. Another 18% (5) returned to the first site to complete
the task, and 8 users (29%) completed the task on another site.

This is interesting to contrast with users who started with a Web search. Twenty-
four users started with search, with 15 of them going directly to Google, 3 going to
Yahoo, 1 going to MSN, three typing inquiries into the browser address bar (resulting
in Live Search results), and 2 using the browser’s Search option, which was set to
AOL Search.
Of the 24, eight users bought from the first search result followed without visiting
any other sites. Only one user bought from the first site after visiting another site.
Fourteen ended up completing the task at a site other than the first result visited.
One user did not complete a purchase.


Of the 24 users who started the open-ended task by going to a search engine, 35%
(8) completed the task on the first search result they visited. Another 4% (1 user)
returned to the first result visited to make a purchase. All other users, 61%,
completed the task on a site other than the first search result visited.

When they started with a search, rather than a known site, it indicated less
familiarity with the product in many cases, so it is not surprising that it took more
research to make a decision.
71% of users who navigated directly to a site stuck with that site, ultimately
purchasing from it. But when users started with a search, they bought from the first
search result visited only 39% of the time.
Of those users who searched first, half clicked on a natural search result first, and
half clicked on a paid search result first.


Key Findings
The full E-Commerce Report Series includes more than 500 guidelines about making
your e-commerce site easier to use. Here, we summarize the most important key
findings, guidelines and concepts from the report series.

HOMEPAGES AND CATEGORY PAGES
Further information about each of the following topics and additional topics can be
found in the Homepage and Category Pages report in the E-Commerce Report Series.

A Welcoming Homepage
The homepage is a crucial page on the site, as it acts as a user's introduction to the
company, its products, and the site itself. The page needs to look trustworthy, make
clear what type of products are sold on the site, and invite users to make a
purchase.

A Clear Structure
A clear site structure is important for the obvious reason of letting users navigate to
products of interest. But it is also essential for shoppers who arrive at your site via a
link to an interior page, such as through a search engine, blog, email from a friend,
or other source. Remember that many shoppers will enter the site without seeing the
homepage. For these users, the site structure and navigational options become the
way they are introduced to the site and all it has to offer.
When users don't know what navigational categories mean, or the differences
between them, they are unable to navigate to the right products on the site. Users
can't buy what they can't find.


A user wasn't sure where to go to find blenders on Cooking.com. She wanted to see
a category called Blenders, but only saw Bar Blenders. She never clicked the
category, and thought her only choices were the featured items, "a $500 bar
blender or a hand blender. I just want a $50 regular blender."

Cross-Referencing
Products should be cross-referenced as appropriate, so shoppers can find items in
multiple related categories. When users don't find what they want in one category,
they don't necessarily look to another related category. They assume if no item is
shown, no item exists.

Featured or Full Inventory?
We saw users erroneously think site inventory was limited because of the
presentation of category pages and product listing pages. When such pages showed
featured items rather than full inventory, users sometimes misinterpreted the pages.
They thought the items shown represented the site's full collection, rather than a
limited view of featured items.

46 INFO@NNGROUP.COM Key Findings

Providing Product Information
Product listing pages should offer enough information that shoppers can get a sense
of the product before clicking through to a full product page. Such pages are often
users' first interaction with product information on a site. If shoppers don't see what
they want on a product listing page, they won't look to product detail pages for more
information. Clear images, cropped and scaled so as to give a sense of the product,
are essential as well as price information and product name. When users recognized
a product on the product listing page, they sometimes added the item to the cart
without even viewing the full product detail page.
An unexpected problem we witnessed was users failing to understand they could
click on an item on a listing page to see more product information. Only a small
number of users had this problem, but we expected shoppers would know they could
click an item to see more information. An explicit link to see details or get more
information was helpful to these users. This seemed to happen more commonly if a
Buy button was presented on the page. A small number of users seemed to assume
if they could buy from that page, there was nothing more to be seen about the
product.

Product Comparisons
Users had their own ways of comparing products. Some took notes on paper. Others
opened multiple windows or tabs. And some used the comparison tools provided by
sites.
The most important thing sites can do to allow product comparison is to provide
comparable product information and equivalent levels of detail about similar items on
the site. If offering a full comparison tool, users must be able to quickly identify the
tool, easily select items to compare, make comparisons of helpful information across
products, and quickly remove items, add items to the cart, or view product detail
pages. Comparison tables should highlight differences. Unclear or incomplete
comparison tables leave users wondering if features exist in a product or not.

Sorting through Options
Getting users to the products that best fit their needs includes a combination of
navigation, search, and filtering. Faceted search, or narrowing options according to
attributes, is discussed on page 58 of this report and in the Search report. Sorting is
also crucial to move users to the right set of products. Users in the study expected to
be able to sort products by price, at a minimum, and by popularity, brand, customer
rating or length of time on the site when appropriate.
Sorting by price was particularly popular with users. We saw this featured used
frequently when shoppers were trying to find an item on the site that would add just
enough to their purchase total to qualify them for a discount or free shipping.
Looking for a low-cost item to add was simpler when sites allowed sorting by price.


E-Commerce User Experience Research Findings

E-Commerce User Experience Research Findings

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