We all have good sites - sites that look nice, have cool features and lots of information but what makes a website great?
I really started thinking about this today after a call from my parents, they had tried to place an order on Sears.ca but couldn't remember their password, they tried multiple times to go through the reset password process but in the end they needed to call to get someone to reset the password for them.
What scares me, with this, is had they not been my parents would they have made the call or would they have given up and went somewhere else?
Sears.ca is a great website having won multiple awards over the past few years and the team we have is one of the best in the business yet we didn't have a site that helped a customer achieve their goal - to complete a purchase. The hard part is that on any given day there can be thousands of different paths that lead to a purchase. What are we doing to ensure that as many as possible are optimized for the user's expereince.
So here is the thought - a great site is one that makes it simple to transact, not only for the power users but for the majority of the population that transacts on your site a few times a year. It doesn't need to be pretty, win awards or be considered on the leading edge but it needs to be an easy process for the consumer to get done what they want to get done as fast and easy (in their eyes) as possible.
We often stray off this path in the quest for something we think is important (awards, a new cool functionailty, etc.) but it is the great websites that understand this and make it the mantra of their business.
3 comments:
Hi Simon,
Aren’t there two opposing forces at work here – data privacy vs ease of use? This is not just true of online shopping but many different channels. While in general it’s good to have simplicity while browsing a website, I’m not certain where to draw the line when there is data privacy issue.
One of my banks in India has been allowing me to manage everything from savings to credit cards to shares through a single log-in. For years I’ve been globe hopping and found it very convenient to use their online services where I could “virtually” do every banking transaction conceivable. Couple of years ago they introduced a grid system on their debit cards. There are letters followed by numbers. Some of the letters are displayed randomly online and prompted for the corresponding numbers that are printed on the back of the debit card. Last year they went a step further and introduced a “virtual keyboard” on the login page. So instead of typing your login and password you actually click the letters and numbers on the virtual key board. All this apart from two sets of passwords which were already present (one for read access and another for transact access).
You have the “Verified by Visa” where you’ll have to remember a pin for all online transactions. At the store POS Pay pass was a step towards making things more convenient but now you’ll have chip and pin.
Biometrics might solve some of these. Toshiba is already shipping laptops with not just finger print authentication but also embedded cameras for facial recognition. However till it becomes a common place occurrence you may not be able to get away with the data privacy vs ease of use dilemma.
I never auto-save passwords or logins on my computer simply because it forces me to remember them. Every painful experience of recovering the login/passwords takes me a step closer to remembering them forever :).
Regards,
Chethan
I noticed that one of your interests was homeopathy. I am new to blogger but intend on postings some more interesting entries there that you might enjoy. I’m trying to enlighten people about homeopathy. Your blog is great.
What makes Sears.ca great is it's simplicity and it's attention to detail. I've done a lot of transactions on their site and have had no problems.
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