usability | Internet Marketing Blog

Checkout best practice revisited

It’s been over two years since I published an article on the Econsultancy blog entitled: Are retailers following best practice to improve conversion rates?

In that article I was specifically looking at the checkout processes of a variety of retailers, and in particular whether or not they have enclosed (or in other words removed site wide elements and distractions to focus the user) the process.

In this article I have revisited the retailers who featured in this article to see which of the retailers who didn’t enclose their checkouts then are now using this approach .

Enclosing the checkout is an approach I almost always recommend my retail clients adopt as a primary way of improving their checkout funnel conversion rate.

by Paul Rouke 07 June 2011 10:50am 1 comment

Who needs an iPad?

In my Econsultancy blog in January 2010, I said that the newly announced iPad would succeed because of its usability. At that time, the technology press was undecided about whether the iPad would succeed and I was accused of being a ‘dribbling Mac fanboy’.

by Tom Stewart 06 June 2011 09:49am 2 comments

Comparing online retail to the high street

In the world of online retail, competition is growing and now you can often find the item you are looking for on multiple websites with similar price points.

For this reason, it is important for retailers to improve aspects of their website in order to generate more sales.

by Chris Rowett 27 May 2011 10:36am 6 comments

Understanding and tackling consumers’ high expectations of mobile

UK consumers are incredibly web savvy these days. After 15 years of e-commerce, there is zero tolerance for sites that don’t deliver a near perfect experience and, with competitors a click away, ebusinesses have never had to work so hard to keep our custom.

But this intolerance has built up over a number of years; it wasn’t like this in the early years of the internet.

by Geoff Galat 17 May 2011 10:24am 4 comments

WTF does usability best practice actually mean?

What constitutes usability best practice for e-commerce? In fact, what makes something/anything 'best practice'?

I’m the first one to say that I regularly refer to ‘usability best practice’ and best practice is certainly a phrase used often enough by Econsultancy. I thought it would be worth starting a discussion on what you think when they hear this term, and what you feel justifies having the label ‘best practice’.

Or perhaps you feel it should just be banished from our industry!

by Paul Rouke 27 April 2011 13:32pm 22 comments

20 ways for etailers to optimise site search and navigation

Improving your site search and navigation can have a dramatic impact on sales. Not being able to find the product you want is one of the top - and sometimes overlooked - barriers to conversion.

In this article I've attempted to summarise what I see as the most important steps to improving the customer experience. While some require specific technology, many of these ideas can be implemented on any website.

by Chris Moffatt 31 March 2011 09:49am 3 comments

What do users do on travel websites?

A few weeks ago, Econsultancy posted a survey on what customers say they want from travel websites.

As the survey outlined, 85% of respondents use the web to research or book holidays, which underlines the importance of the web to the travel sector.

However, there are a few areas where the online user experience on travel sites could be improve, so we decided to take a closer look at what users actually do when booking holidays.

by Kathryn McDonnell 15 March 2011 10:13am 8 comments

Nine women x nine hours = nine usability insights

No matter how many times I am involved in user testing sessions, I never stop learning about people's browsing habits and the different aspects of a company’s proposition that affect how people respond to a given website.

Recently we have carried out two days of user testing for a high street retailer, and although these aren’t groundbreaking, what follows are nine key online shopping insights that all nine women (there should have been 10 but we had a late no-show) who took part provided during the test sessions.

by Paul Rouke 23 February 2011 11:37am 20 comments

Take the LiveNation security check challenge!

This morning I tried in vain to buy some tickets to see the marvellous Fleet Foxes at the Hammersmith Apollo.

Tickets went on sale today and I knew I had to act fast, so promptly headed over to LiveNation, credit card in hand, and was happy to see that the gig hadn’t yet sold out.

by Chris Lake 04 February 2011 11:39am 7 comments

Shopping basket best practice from ASOS

Shopping baskets (or shopping carts) are a key part of the customer journey when shopping online. They are a gateway for visitors into your checkout process.

Retailers can choose to provide visitors with a wide range of information, links and other potential distractions, or alternatively they can keep their shopping basket minimal to focus purely on checking out.

Based upon my experience of working with a range of blue chip retailers over the last 10 years, there are a variety of best practice techniques and types of information to display in order to encourage visitors to proceed from the shopping basket to the checkout process.

In addition, retailers should look at answering as many customer questions as possible before they enter the checkout process, paving the way for a simple checkout that is a formality for most visitors.

by Paul Rouke 01 February 2011 12:47pm 18 comments