RE: [uk-netmarketing] RE: Piece of string question

[Anna Perrin]

The Ikea metaphor of dumped "impulse" purchases is exactly the kind of

mistake Buystream looks to rectify in dotcoms.

Offline stores have spent years and huge amounts of money to identify their

target market and understand customer behaviour.  Similarly Buystream's

software analyses visitor behaviour and looks deep into the site for

potential roadblocks or threats that may prevent a visitor from completing a

sale. 


Some companies use technology to be cool, and have no idea about the

repercussions on its visitors.  Boo learned a lesson from this.  Users

interact with a site through a lens, which can be their browsers, plug-ins,

connection speeds.  All of these things affect the experience, the behaviour

and, in turn, purchasing.  If your site is built in Flash, automatically

around 20% of your visitors will never make a purchase.  That's like putting

a height restriction on a store door.   


Anna Perrin

Flapjack Communications

Tel:  	020 7224 4554

Fax: 	020 7486 4959

E-mail:

annaflapjack [dot] com

www.flapjack.com



-----Original Message-----

From: Ian Collingwood [

Ian [dot] CollingwoodUK [dot] Circle [dot] com (mailto:Ian [dot] CollingwoodUK [dot] Circle [dot] com)

]

Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 3:48 PM

To: uk-netmarketing from chinwag

Subject: [uk-netmarketing] RE: Piece of string question



Anna wrote:

> 53% and 66% of shoppers who actually begin the checkout 

> process actually

> complete a purchase. These people wanted to buy something but 

> were prevented

> by a poorly-designed checkout process.


Hmmm.... I've heard people throwing these kind of figures around, and I'm

not sure I'm entirely convinced. Sure, 66% of shoppers may fail to complete

their purchases, but it's quite a leap from making this observation to

claiming that poor usability is the only or even the main reason. What is

the basis for Buystream's claim? 


Whilst I have no doubt that usability is a factor in at least *some* failed

purchases, making this leap is like saying that the piles of dumped

"impulse" purchases that always seem to litter the aisles around IKEA's

checkouts on a Saturday are a result of people being unable to work out how

to load their purchases onto the conveyor belt. Surely they just changed

their minds?


I'd be interested to see some more work on this if there is any. Any people

from Buystream on the list who could enlighten me?


Cheers


Ian


PS:

After thinking about that IKEA metaphor again, I wondered what the real

reason for all the failed impulse buys might be. It occurred to me that a

large part of it is probably down to the long wait that you have to endure

before reaching the checkouts - it gives people time to realise that they

really don't need that second set of plastic storage bowls, nor that strange

blue swedish toilet roll holder after all. 


If you translate this to the web, maybe it does all come down to usability

after all - speeding people through the checkout before they realise that

(yet again) they've been suckered into buying something they don't need. In

which case, you can see why Amazon were so keen on patenting One-Click.