Online store trump card: online shopping usability study
No need to do research and complex calculations - just look around - more and more time people spend with gadgets and electronic devices. So, only owners of smartphones in Russia, there are about 30 million. At the same time, the structure of use becomes more interesting and diverse: users have several accounts, synchronize devices, continue interrupted sessions on another gadget. This trend is having a major impact on the entire e-commerce industry - more and more, people not only choose products on the Internet and read reviews about them, but also make purchases online. All the seriousness of the growth of Internet commerce is confirmed by the efforts that major corporations are making to service such transactions: Yandex.Market, Google Play and the active development of online advertising services can serve as a vivid example.
What can be more beautiful than shopping anytime and anywhere, when you have a favorite device and a bank card with a positive balance on hand? Everything is selected and bought online: electronics, consumer goods, drugs, food, sports equipment, tickets, music, software and much more. It seems to be fast, safe and convenient enough - you need to choose a purchase, order, pay and wait for the courier to ring the door or, at most, reach the delivery service. However, 68% of orders in Russian online stores do not end with a purchase.
MasterCard and UsabilityLab became interested in the existing problem and conducted a professional study , the results and conclusions of which will allow hundreds of online store owners, acquirers and processing companies to optimize the entire purchase process and get more customers who eventually reached the “Thank you!” Page.
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A little about the course of the study. Respondents went to the pages of various websites from different platforms (smartphones, tablets, desktop computers) and carried out the proposed cases. The cases were not tricky tasks, but the most usual life situations that millions of Russians get into every day: order a bouquet to the office for the anniversary of the chief or choose a couple of tickets for the concert. Respondents had to place an order on the website or in an application and pay for it with a bank card, sharing their impressions along the way. In total, 51 people in the solvent age of 21-60 years, 28 women and 23 men took part in the study. Professional moderators recorded all the information in order to summarize it and get useful results that can significantly affect the state of e-commerce in Russia.
The experiment involved popular online stores, which are used daily by a huge number of Russians. So, purchases were made on the websites and in the applications of Svyaznoy, Citylink, Yulmart, Sportmaster, Enter, ivi, Holodilnik, Kassir, M.Video, RivGosh, Aeroexpress, Vedomosti, Poster and others. This distribution across the areas of online shopping has allowed a comprehensive approach to the various needs that are daily met on the Web. The full list of participating sites, as well as processing operators and used platforms can be seen in the table below: the services marked in green on the main site are marked in green, the mobile site is shown in blue, and the service application in orange. The cells indicate the number of respondents who tested the service on a particular platform.
Remember how discoveries are made? First, a hypothesis arises, then an experiment is made, during which the hypothesis positions are checked and a posteriori theory is formed. It is this theory that has practical significance and is applied in real conditions. In the case of usability testing, there was an initial hypothesis about the reasons for refusal to purchase on the Internet, the main of which are listed below:
Often the reasons are not related to the convenience of the store and the purchase page, for example, the buyer simply finds a better offer or changes his mind to buy the product. And yet, most of the reasons why customers drop an order, having already added it to the cart, are related to the inconvenient process of ordering and payment.
Experts MasterCard and UsabilityLab analyzed the problems faced by users while working with sites and collected examples of successful solutions at each stage of the order. Often the reasons are not related to the convenience of the store and the purchase page, for example, the buyer simply finds a better offer or changes his mind to buy the product. And yet, most of the reasons why customers drop an order, having already added it to the cart, are related to the inconvenient process of ordering and payment. But in general, the hypotheses were true.
According to the results of the study, 123 recommendations were formulated to help make payment on the store’s website more convenient.
As a result of the most detailed analysis, it was revealed that the purchase process is influenced by a huge variety of factors related to the design, the construction of input forms and even the visual arrangement of the elements. An error or confusion at any of the stages can lead to a negative from the user and refusal to purchase. Remember the modern icons of design and software interface - it is obvious that users have become demanding of simplicity and transparency and do not want to understand the settings when buying. They give money and want to get not only a product, but also saving their time and nerves. All the experience gained (negative, neutral and positive) was divided into main groups, each of which corresponds to a stage of the buying process.
These elements are part of the complex ecosystem of the purchase process, which should be as simple as possible for the user. Working with such a system, you need to understand that there are familiar and unusual actions for the client, there are certain established mechanisms for perceiving a purchase through the Internet. In the process of buying you need to have time to notify the buyer of discounts, promo codes, bonuses, to tell again about the selected product. At the same time, unlike a store with a trained sales assistant, you have only one tool - dialog boxes, the usability of which is important to take into account and provide for everything. Each button click and the behavior of the input field should be clear and obvious - only then the purchase will become comfortable.
Each stage was tested in as much detail as possible, all complaints and positive moments were recorded. The respondents did a great job, and the experts from MasterCard and UsabilityLab analyzed the results, divided the main points requiring attention to usability, according to the levels of criticality, and we hasten to share the main conclusions.
After reading this list, it seems that the conclusions are quite simple and obvious. However, each of them was broken on the pages of the largest online stores more than once. If you turn to a number of other sites that are left outside the experiment, you can see even more violations that prevent a comfortable and fast purchase. Meanwhile, e-commerce continues to evolve at high rates, and in such conditions it is easy to be left out, without providing the buyer with the most convenient tools. Try to create a checklist and go through your buying process - you will probably have ideas for optimization.
One post is impossible to tell about all the valuable knowledge that gave us testing. As part of the blog, we will share with readers the most interesting and practically valuable findings. Detailed results of the study will be of interest to owners and employees of small and medium-sized online stores, site owners with purchase pages and all who care about usability, including developers and designers of shopping pages. With the help of recommendations developed during testing, you can understand how to make the process of placing an order on the website of your store more understandable and simple for each customer.
Employees of processing companies and banks will be useful sections on the payment page and the code entry page from the SMS.
It happens that the store has a steady stream of customers and its owners are satisfied until such time as a competitor with a fresh solution, an intuitive design and a slightly more attractive offer. Improving the process of buying, you facilitate the cares of the client, go to meet him, show respect. Believe me, the client will always reciprocate and will not give up his favorite site, which is so familiar, convenient and just pleasant to shop.
View Study (PDF, 15MB, 203 pages)
Thank you for your attention, to be continued
What can be more beautiful than shopping anytime and anywhere, when you have a favorite device and a bank card with a positive balance on hand? Everything is selected and bought online: electronics, consumer goods, drugs, food, sports equipment, tickets, music, software and much more. It seems to be fast, safe and convenient enough - you need to choose a purchase, order, pay and wait for the courier to ring the door or, at most, reach the delivery service. However, 68% of orders in Russian online stores do not end with a purchase.
Study of special importance
MasterCard and UsabilityLab became interested in the existing problem and conducted a professional study , the results and conclusions of which will allow hundreds of online store owners, acquirers and processing companies to optimize the entire purchase process and get more customers who eventually reached the “Thank you!” Page.
')
A little about the course of the study. Respondents went to the pages of various websites from different platforms (smartphones, tablets, desktop computers) and carried out the proposed cases. The cases were not tricky tasks, but the most usual life situations that millions of Russians get into every day: order a bouquet to the office for the anniversary of the chief or choose a couple of tickets for the concert. Respondents had to place an order on the website or in an application and pay for it with a bank card, sharing their impressions along the way. In total, 51 people in the solvent age of 21-60 years, 28 women and 23 men took part in the study. Professional moderators recorded all the information in order to summarize it and get useful results that can significantly affect the state of e-commerce in Russia.
The experiment involved popular online stores, which are used daily by a huge number of Russians. So, purchases were made on the websites and in the applications of Svyaznoy, Citylink, Yulmart, Sportmaster, Enter, ivi, Holodilnik, Kassir, M.Video, RivGosh, Aeroexpress, Vedomosti, Poster and others. This distribution across the areas of online shopping has allowed a comprehensive approach to the various needs that are daily met on the Web. The full list of participating sites, as well as processing operators and used platforms can be seen in the table below: the services marked in green on the main site are marked in green, the mobile site is shown in blue, and the service application in orange. The cells indicate the number of respondents who tested the service on a particular platform.
Build a hypothesis
Remember how discoveries are made? First, a hypothesis arises, then an experiment is made, during which the hypothesis positions are checked and a posteriori theory is formed. It is this theory that has practical significance and is applied in real conditions. In the case of usability testing, there was an initial hypothesis about the reasons for refusal to purchase on the Internet, the main of which are listed below:
- To make a purchase requires registration.
- On the data entry page of a bank card there are incomprehensible fields, and the payment form itself seems to be unsafe.
- Too complicated and confusing order process.
- It is required to fill a large number of fields, and the process itself takes too much time.
- The amount of the order increases due to a paid delivery, which was not previously mentioned.
- Store site is not adapted for mobile devices.
Often the reasons are not related to the convenience of the store and the purchase page, for example, the buyer simply finds a better offer or changes his mind to buy the product. And yet, most of the reasons why customers drop an order, having already added it to the cart, are related to the inconvenient process of ordering and payment.
Experts MasterCard and UsabilityLab analyzed the problems faced by users while working with sites and collected examples of successful solutions at each stage of the order. Often the reasons are not related to the convenience of the store and the purchase page, for example, the buyer simply finds a better offer or changes his mind to buy the product. And yet, most of the reasons why customers drop an order, having already added it to the cart, are related to the inconvenient process of ordering and payment. But in general, the hypotheses were true.
According to the results of the study, 123 recommendations were formulated to help make payment on the store’s website more convenient.
Stages of purchase as objects of testing
As a result of the most detailed analysis, it was revealed that the purchase process is influenced by a huge variety of factors related to the design, the construction of input forms and even the visual arrangement of the elements. An error or confusion at any of the stages can lead to a negative from the user and refusal to purchase. Remember the modern icons of design and software interface - it is obvious that users have become demanding of simplicity and transparency and do not want to understand the settings when buying. They give money and want to get not only a product, but also saving their time and nerves. All the experience gained (negative, neutral and positive) was divided into main groups, each of which corresponds to a stage of the buying process.
- Basket. The process of adding goods to the shopping cart was analyzed, the adequacy of using additional pages was considered, the problem of random, redundant, and duplicate orders was studied. Already at this stage some reasons for the refusal to purchase became clear.
- Authorization is an important stage of purchase, at which the user ceases to be impersonal to the store and enters his personal data. It is important to correctly determine the moment of entering the user registration data.
- The choice of payment method. At this stage, it should be as clear as possible to list payment methods, indicate them in the form of easily recognizable icons or forms.
- The choice of delivery method. The client must know exactly about the cost and convenience of each of the stages and existing commissions.
- Confirmation of an order. After sending the order to the server of the online store should not occur the usual redirect to the payment page - it is necessary to provide confirmation of the order with the maximum information about the selected products, delivery and payment parameters.
- Enter card details and payment. For many users it is quite difficult to understand exactly what data and how to enter. For example, the default capitalized letters for entering a first and last name or well-marked four-digit fields for entering a card number may affect the conversion in a positive direction.
- Gateway bank acquiring page. Here, researchers have collected interesting data that will be useful to acquiring banks and will help make the form easy to verify the payment made.
- Page "Thank you for your purchase." It should not look like a mean “Thank you!” In the usual cash voucher. The page should include the composition of the order, regulate further actions of users, if necessary, have a link to download / download the product.
These elements are part of the complex ecosystem of the purchase process, which should be as simple as possible for the user. Working with such a system, you need to understand that there are familiar and unusual actions for the client, there are certain established mechanisms for perceiving a purchase through the Internet. In the process of buying you need to have time to notify the buyer of discounts, promo codes, bonuses, to tell again about the selected product. At the same time, unlike a store with a trained sales assistant, you have only one tool - dialog boxes, the usability of which is important to take into account and provide for everything. Each button click and the behavior of the input field should be clear and obvious - only then the purchase will become comfortable.
Share the result
Each stage was tested in as much detail as possible, all complaints and positive moments were recorded. The respondents did a great job, and the experts from MasterCard and UsabilityLab analyzed the results, divided the main points requiring attention to usability, according to the levels of criticality, and we hasten to share the main conclusions.
- The ordering process should be linear and predictable. Any deviation can confuse the user and stop the progress of the purchase.
- In the process of placing an order should not be built extra and empty screens. Such information distracts the buyer from the main task, and he may not return to the main action.
- The user should be provided with information on possible changes in the amount of the order. And you should pay attention to the markup for delivery, and the discount on the promotional code or stock - the buyer must know exactly how much money from his budget he will spend on the purchase.
- The sequence of steps should be obvious to the user.
- Elements of the individual order steps should not be mixed. The user must go through a logical sequence that will not cause him to be perplexed and will not force him to return to the beginning of the process.
- The names of the buttons must be unambiguous and convey the essence of the action they perform. The inscription on the button may vary, but this is definitely not the best place for a creative text that can confuse the most advanced buyer.
- The main action button should be visually highlighted on the page. At the same time, the color, the shape, the text, and the position on the page should work for a single goal - to make the button visible.
- The service should not request information that is optional for placing an order before completing the purchase. For example, a phone number for SMS mailings or a date of birth for a personal discount can be requested optionally, after the order has been completed.
- On pages with auto-transition should not be presented important information - it can just get lost.
- Error messages should be clear and contain recommendations for fixing the problem. Moreover, it is desirable that the error notification is timely and as accurate as possible - after all, the field highlighted in red can cause an inexperienced user to panic and want to close the page.
After reading this list, it seems that the conclusions are quite simple and obvious. However, each of them was broken on the pages of the largest online stores more than once. If you turn to a number of other sites that are left outside the experiment, you can see even more violations that prevent a comfortable and fast purchase. Meanwhile, e-commerce continues to evolve at high rates, and in such conditions it is easy to be left out, without providing the buyer with the most convenient tools. Try to create a checklist and go through your buying process - you will probably have ideas for optimization.
Ready to change the buying process for the better?
One post is impossible to tell about all the valuable knowledge that gave us testing. As part of the blog, we will share with readers the most interesting and practically valuable findings. Detailed results of the study will be of interest to owners and employees of small and medium-sized online stores, site owners with purchase pages and all who care about usability, including developers and designers of shopping pages. With the help of recommendations developed during testing, you can understand how to make the process of placing an order on the website of your store more understandable and simple for each customer.
Employees of processing companies and banks will be useful sections on the payment page and the code entry page from the SMS.
It happens that the store has a steady stream of customers and its owners are satisfied until such time as a competitor with a fresh solution, an intuitive design and a slightly more attractive offer. Improving the process of buying, you facilitate the cares of the client, go to meet him, show respect. Believe me, the client will always reciprocate and will not give up his favorite site, which is so familiar, convenient and just pleasant to shop.
View Study (PDF, 15MB, 203 pages)Thank you for your attention, to be continued
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/259663/
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