Guess what? People like to shop online (or by cellphone) and pick up in-store. We all love research to back up our theories, so here goes:

“Jupiter Research states that 51% of consumers are researching on the Internet and then completing their purchases offline; online research influences more than $400 billion of in-store sales and projections call for that sum to surpass $1.1 trillion by 2012.

A Gartner Group study reveals 68% of consumers are comparing prices online before shopping in a physical store and 58% locate items online before going to a store to purchase; only 13% say the Internet has not improved their in-store shopping experience.”

Source: http://view.exacttarget.com

The e-Tailing Group is offering a report of the Buy Online/Pick-Up In-Store Experience. The study sent mystery shoppers to 23 retail stores who offer in-store pickup to report on their customer experience. I won’t rehash the findings of the study here, I’ll leave you to getting those goodies yourself. Today I want to zoom in on what you might think is a minor detail: the Store Locator page. I hit up a few of the top 100-some etailers of 2006 and I offer you the following tips:

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In-Store Pickup and Store Locator Usability »

Ecommerce can be a crazy messed up world indeed. The Elastic Path team recently produced a series of e-commerce shorts including my personal favorite: “Zero Results Found.” Because art imitates life, and search box failures are all too common on even the most sophisticated ecommerce sites, I decided to start my own series on ecommerce search, beginning with how easy (or difficult) is it to find non-product information.

When comparison shopping, you can compare prices and find a store selling an item for a dollar less than everyone else (for example). But it’s possible that another store sells the exact item for a bit more yet is significantly cheaper to ship, even free. So a savvy consumer would be interested in comparing shipping policies between etailers, as would an international shopper. If the searcher is “search dominant” (as opposed to a menu-browser), he or she is going to head straight for that little white rectangle to find the desired information.

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Shipping Policy Usability - Results Not Found! »

Add to Cart buttons – they may be small, but no online retail store can do without them. These little, rectangular, sometimes colorful clickables connect the product to the shopping cart and are an extension of your branding. It’s important to put some thought into what your “Add to Cart” icon looks like in your shopping cart.

We’ve collected over 100 Add to Cart buttons from the top online retailers of 2006 to give you some design inspiration. And we’ve summarized some usability guidelines that you can apply to your own Add to Cart button. Ok, there are actually 111 shopping cart icons, but 107 just looked cooler.

And now for some stats, because percentages make it cooler.

How the Add To Cart Button Can Reinforce Your Branding

At first the “Add to Cart” button may seem like a minor detail, but it has the potential to create an emotional connection with your brand. Your choice of shape, color, font and button text all affect that connection.

Urban Outfitters’ felt pen lettering echoes the brand’s edgy, street persona (it may however be at the expense of findability as it does nothing to stand out on the screen). Northerntool’s plus sign icon resembles a screwdriver head. Petsmart’s little red doggie ball is fun, playful and instantly recognizable. Bloomingdale’s signature “big brown bag” icon captures its cachet. And Polo’s timeless, deep navy blue button brings harmony between its online and offline identity.

Button text is also of great importance. “Add to Shopping Bag” sounds more appropriate for high end department stores than “Add to Cart,” which is more believable for a WalMart or Target. “Order Now” may work for long time catalog brands now accommodating online orders. In the UK, “Add to Basket” is more prevalent terminology.

Button Design and Usability

Button Text

Web copywriting emphasizes scannabliity — perhaps the golden rule of web copywriting is don’t use 5 words when three will do. How much more should this rule apply to a small button? Nevertheless, we found 15% of the top etailers going long. Harry and David’s “Add To My Shopping Cart” — though personal — is a mouthful.

“Buy Now” may be a stronger call to action than “Add to Cart”, but may subtly suggest the user is finished shopping or is making a commitment to purchase without time to review the order. The beauty of “Add to Cart” is that it is non-committal and assumes the user is still looking around. And if you’re a good e-salesperson, you’re showing suggested products and a “continue shopping” link from view cart page (or you are using an in-line cart with Ajax’y goodness).

Text Formatting

General web usability guidelines recommend sans-serif fonts with high contrast color selection (high-contrast white on black or dark blue rather than low-contrast like Chadwick’s blue-on-blue).

All-caps are generally discouraged in web copywriting. Mixed case is the easiest to read, although all lower case is also easy. We found 45% of “Add to Cart” buttons using all-capitals. Walgreen’s slaps white all-caps text on a light colored, tiny button with a gradient and an icon, forcing some users to squint.

Button Placement

If you offer helpful features on your product pages like wishlists, enlarged photos, color switching, alternate product views, email to friend, size chart, view cart or check out buttons, make sure the “Add to Cart” button is obvious, bright and prominent in comparison. Less important functions can be lighter colored buttons or simple text links.

Stacking Text

Stacking text is not a good idea for links or navigation buttons, and the same goes for “Add to Cart” buttons. Users have come to expect some form of rectangular shape, and when quickly scanning a page, it may take longer to distinguish button from decoration, and even become frustrating. No need to reinvent the wheel, stick to the convention.

What if You Use A Button From a Template?

Even if you don’t use a custom designed “Add to Cart” button for your shopping cart, choose a button that complements your site’s theme (complements does not infer it must be the the exact same color). And make sure you pick one design and stick with it. Ecommerce thrives on trust, and random buttons erodes customer confidence.

What do you think is the best button in the collection? What about elsewhere on the web?

This morning, we circulated a press release about the Ecommerce Checkout Report and the forthcoming companion Webinar to the report. PRWeb does a great job of making the press releases more social with insta-links to share, save, and publicize via many social bookmarking and aggregater tools. Plus Jason’s mug shot is attached - great for desktop wallpaper!

But really, … Check out the ready made pdf of the Ecommerce Checkout Report as well and/or subscribe to the Elastic Path Press Release RSS feed or just read the spiel here and ’socialize it’ if desired.

New Ecommerce Research Sheds Light on Checkout Myths

The study looks at ecommerce checkout strategies at the Top 100 Online Retailers to determine which tactics are used most and work best. The report is free to download and requires no registration. A companion webinar, hosted by report researcher Jason Billingsley of Elastic Path Software and web marketing expert Stephan Spencer of Netconcepts, will be held May 17th, 12pm ET to discuss the findings in depth with full attendee interaction.

Vancouver, BC (PRWEB) May 9, 2007 — We assume a prominent return policy, site security badge, and shorter checkout process will lead to an increased conversion rate, but is this truly the case? Many online retailers are both time crunched and resource strained. They are unable to legitimately test which tactics do and do not work. Unfortunately, when determining which best practices to adopt, decisions are often based on hunches and not fact.

A new report evaluates the checkout strategies of the Top 100 Internet Retailers and seeks the correlations between the checkout tactics and success rates. The Ecommerce Checkout Report observed top performing online stores for 23 specific checkout characteristics affecting the customer experience in three categories 1) speed and ease of use; 2) security and confidence; and, 3) profit enhancement.

The report attempts to answer questions like: Does a shorter checkout process really decrease shopping cart abandonment? Should you use an order confirmation screen? Does live chat improve conversions? Study samples included a variety of vertical market groups including apparel and accessories, computers and electronics, and both high and low ticket value product retailers.

Interesting findings within the report:

• Conversion rates were nearly double at retailers selling high ticket priced items when coupon code entry was not available.
• Conversion rates were a full 40% higher where Top 100 retailers did not request a CVV (Card Verification Value), yet over 55% of them do.
• 36% of Top 100 retailers offer alternative payment options such as PayPal, Bill Me Later, or Google Checkout, but conversion rates were convincingly higher at retailers who did not offer alternative payment types - more than double at retailers selling high ticket value items.

Principal report researcher, Jason Billingsley of Elastic Path Software — an ecommerce software vendor, explains, “Our goal with this report is to give online retailers a yardstick for comparing the effectiveness of their own checkout strategies. Hopefully, it will give them incentive to start testing tactics that seem to be most effective for increasing conversions.”Beyond the complimentary report, readers can hear anecdotal commentary at an upcoming Webinar on May 17 at 12 p.m. ET with panelists Jason Billingsley and noted industry expert Stephan Spencer of Netconcepts. Webinar registration is free and the format will allow for questions to the experts. The collected conversations will form the basis of a follow up prescriptive report including objective recommendations for improving conversion rates in specific industries.

Read The Ecommerce Checkout Report and companion blog series (no registration is required):
Ecommerce Checkout Report and companion blog series

Sign up for the interactive webinar:
Ecommerce Checkout Report Webinar

ecommerce online+retail etail elastic+path conversions conversion+rates white+paper retail+tips net+concepts webinar netconcepts

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I am currently in San Francisco at the Web 2.0 Expo. The first session I attended was on the New Hybrid Designer. Some well known panelists were on stage including Kelly Goto. They essentially chatted about how the typical ‘web designer’ is no longer just a designer, but must also have a command of development as well - okay maybe not command, but they should be versed and know what a variable, loop and array is. The one nugget I grabbed from this session is particularly relevant to Elastic Path…

We have recently been on the hunt for a User Experience Designer (the job is now filled). We had a high bar as we desired a workflow and experience/front end coding/visual experience person. Quite a lofty expectation. Like in any project, you can usually only have 2 out of the 3. The panel discussed not pigeon holing employees into vertical roles, but educating and enabling cross functionality.

The most successful hybrid designers/developers are often the knowledge seeking ones. They subscribe to both design and programming feeds. Often send emails to other staff about new things they have found or have developed. They are rare, and we need to start molding more of them within our organizations in order to become more agile. Agility seemed to be a key factor in the shift to a hybrid designer.

The last thing that was quite relevant was regarding workflow. The old way was to start with a sitemap. A very “book” centric approach. The new way is to start with user intent. This is a huge shift in thinking for a user experience designer on the web. Users enter a workflow from so many different ways nowadays. The system should be more open and less linear.

DM News published an article about the crew over at Power Reviews concerning the announcement of a multi-language platform being used by none other than our Vancouver neighbours Mountain Equipment Co-Op whose flagship store is just around the corner.

Anyhow, in the March 8, 2007 article “Voila! PowerReviews lets users review in French, Spanish, Italian and German” by Dianna Dilworth, we are grouped in with PR other partners who are a heavy hitting list of ecommerce vendors.

As regular readers likely know, Elastic Path customers are spread around the globe and many more sell goods internationally - as such, we enthusiastically support cool tools which combine global mindedness and the openness user customer generated content.

Already ready to go along with the French and English used by MEC are Italian and German (apologies to our Icelandic friends) with Chinese, Japanese and Korean coming later this year.

Article snippet after the break to get you started:

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Multi-language Customer Reviews in DM News »

To announce the new iteration of Elastic Path ecommerce software, we fired off a press release via PRWeb last week. It occurs to me some of you might be interested in the information as well, so, here it is.

The release below tells about the baked-in Power Reviews (hear Andy Chen in a Get Elastic podcast #13 “The Power of Consumer Reviews“) and features quotes from Ted Miller, Retail Analyst at Weyco whom we met at the recent Etail West show in Palm Desert, California as well as CEO Harry Chemko chiming in with some thoughts.

Summary: Pioneering ecommerce software vendor Elastic Path releases version 5.1 of their flexible and innovative retail platform. Elastic Path 5.1 uses customer written product reviews, smarter search and filtered navigation to help online retailers increase conversions. Customer Weyco Group (makers of Florsheim and Stacy Adams shoes) express their enthusiasm about the new features and announce the re-development of several sites.

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New Ecommerce Software Leverages Community Generated Content - PRWeb »

Observing users is one of the most under-rated means of improving site usability. Today’s eCommerce managers often rely too heavily on technology to help them make decisions. Faceless A/B and multi-variant testing is used to incrementally increase performance of key areas of the ecommerce store such as product pages and checkout procedures. Though valuable tools, they are only as useful as the deployed functionality.

A very simplified scenario.

Curtis, an online retailer marketing manager, decides that the product pages do not have a high enough conversion rate. In keeping with the mantra “test ’til best”, he wants to see if the ‘Add to Cart’ button is the culprit. Perhaps the color of the button has an effect? A simple A/B split test on two colors is done: green vs blue. In this instance they convert at approximately the same rate. Next, he plays-off blue vs yellow, then orange, then purple, etc. Conversion rates remain somewhat consistent across the board. What could be causing the poor conversion rate?

Mel, a competing online retailer, has the same concern, but she takes a different approach. A simple 30 minute observation of 8 different users given $200 dollars of virtual cash to buy anything they want from the store. 4 out of the 8 users found the product they wanted to buy but were distracted by other things on the page - too much merchandising (up-sells, cross-sells, others bought these items, bundle discounts, warranty), in-store inventory lookup, add to wishlist, add to registry, etc. These users simply wanted to add an item to the cart and they verbally expressed frustration because the page had so many choices. Testing the color of the button would never have reveled this.

Why is this on my mind today?

I am in the process of planning a wedding and honeymoon, so my fiance Amy and I are doing a LOT of online research and shopping. I love observing how she tackles tasks and what she likes and dislikes about the online shopping experience.

While looking for flights, cruises, etc. we have been using a number of sites: Airlines, online comparison engines, and even Google (yes, you can look up flights directly in Google - type Vancouver to New York, the result page gives you input fields to enter dates - cool).

Amy has settled on Kayak.com as her travel website of choice. While seeking out airfares, she was thrilled by the auto-complete on the airport input fields. She started to type v-a-n-c and automatically Vancouver (YVR) was show as an option for the input field (by setting YVR as our home aiport, it is defaulted for future visits as well).

Compare this to other sites where it is often a game of hide-and-seek when looking up airport codes - enter the ‘From’ city, new screen with airport code options, select option, click ok, go back to previous screen where all date information has been magically erased and wash-rinse-repeat on the ‘To’ airport - frustrating and time wasting.

This simple bit of Ajax functionality has made Amy loyal to Kayak for all her travel lookups - a case of usability being the primary cause of loyalty. People want ease of use and intuitive behavior.

The next time you want to improve your online store (which should be always), watch people, listen to what they say, observe their facial expressions. By seeing what makes them smile or grin could save you tons of time on faceless testing.

Waiting in line for a popular ride at Disneyland is inevitable. In order to keep patrons content (after all, it is supposed to be the happiest place on Earth) Disney uses expectation management techniques to make the time pass in a digestible manner (or people can buy the Disney Queue Line Survival Guidebook). Estimated wait times are posted at strategic points in the line queue, but the actual wait time is shorter than indicated; characters interact with people in line and it has the same effect as watching a movie on a plane, time just seems to go faster – expectation management. What does this have to do with ecommerce? LOTS.

While attempting to purchase over $1,500 worth of software today from Adobe, I experienced a tragic case of expectation mismanagement. I was about to launch into a project with an immediate timeframe and needed current versions of a few applications. I fire up Adobe.com and quite easily located and added the products I needed to my cart. I started the checkout process and was very pleased to be using a one page checkout system (though done using Flash, it has similar functionality to the AJAX shopping cart checkout, Elastic Path One Page, that we offer). I updated my account info right in the checkout process (beautiful feature), entered my credit card info, and went to confirm the purchase.

We are a Canadian company and as such can claim GST (Good and Services Tax) paid against GST charged. Because the tax line in the shopping cart did not indicate the type of tax being charged, I hesitated to confirm my purchase. I called someone internally to double check if it was worth the hassle to save the almost $100 if it was in fact a US tax. Because tax exempt purchases can only be done via the Adobe call center, I abandoned the checkout and called.

I was on hold for 10-15 minutes (it was probably 5 but it always seems longer when you are frustrated with something). I gave the agent my personal info so my account could be located. We went ahead and queued up the two pieces of software I wanted, and then found out the tax being charged was in fact GST, fantastic, just what I wanted to know. So I figured we’d just complete the purchase via the phone while we were on the line.

I told the agent I wanted the downloadable version because I had a project I had to work on immediately and I couldn’t wait for the shippable software version with printed manuals. He understood and told me I would have to go back online to complete a new order because he could not fulfill a downloadable software purchase. GRRRR.

Back to the web where I re-entered my credit card info and confirmed my order, happy to finally be downloading the software I needed immediately. But wait…the order receipt page indicates that my order is pending approval and may take a full business day. I could have walked to the local Best Buy, plopped down my credit card, and been back in my desk chair in half the time as this purchase took.

5 hours later my order got approved. Okay, not as bad as waiting the full day, but I was not happy. In fact, I wrote this post while waiting for the order pending to flip to order approved. If it weren’t for the nice RIA checkout, it may have been a lot longer post.

What do you you think they could have done to make this a more pleasant experience?

Two things:

1. Post the type of tax being charged and the tax rate, not just ‘tax’.
2. Indicated in the cart that I have chosen downloadable software and that it may take the full business day for approval before I can access my purchase (maybe even tell me why).

Managing online shopper’s expectations is somewhat an art, as I have come to learn. I may be a fickle purchaser, but see how such a small usability and communication hiccup can disrupt the user experience and overall satisfaction with a purchase. Adobe is fortunate their products are better than their processes.