Ecommerce User Experience Vol. 1: User Behavior, Key Findings and Executive Summary for the Series

116 Pages·4·4.246 MB·English

by  Kim Flaherty, Nielsen Norman Group

Ecommerce User Experience
Vol. 1: User Behavior, Key Findings and
Executive Summary for the Series
Based on eyetracking, user testing, and diary studies
4th Edition
Kim Flaherty
48105 Warm Springs Blvd., Fremont, CA 94539-7498 USA
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Please do not post this document to the internet or to publicly
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This report required hundreds of hours of planning, recruiting, testing,
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Report Author: Kim Flaherty

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Contents
Summary of the Ecommerce Report Series .................................................. 6
Executive Summary ...................................................................................... 7
Overall Good Usability ................................................................................................. 7
Many Old Findings Stand ............................................................................................. 8
Research Studies and Editions ..................................................................................... 8
Supporting Different Types of Shopping Behaviors........................................................ 11
Great Content Makes Sales ......................................................................................... 12
Ecommerce Then and Now ......................................................................... 13
Old Problems Still found ............................................................................................. 13
What’s Improved ....................................................................................................... 13
What Has Gone Away ................................................................................................ 21
Opportunities in Ecommerce ....................................................................................... 22
Pros and Cons of Online Shopping .............................................................. 26
Why Shop Online ....................................................................................................... 26
What’s Missing Online ................................................................................................ 29
Willingness to Shop Online ......................................................................... 33
What People Are Less Likely to Buy Online and How to Resolve Apprehension ................ 33
New Standards and Expectations ............................................................... 41
Higher Standards and User Expectations ...................................................................... 41
The Need for Speed: Designing for Immediacy ............................................................. 47
Single-Page Checkout: A Speedy, Better Solution? ........................................................ 51
Shipping: Additional Cost and Delayed Gratification ...................................................... 52
Many Channels and Shifting Behaviors ...................................................... 54

4 Contents

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The Omnichannel Revolution ...................................................................................... 54
The Rise of Ecommerce and Decline of Brick-and-Mortar Storefronts .............................. 54
In-Store and Online, Rather than In-Store or Online ..................................................... 55
Proliferation of Mobile ................................................................................................ 57
Discoverability and Inspiration Across Channels ............................................................ 58
Designing for Different Types of Shoppers ................................................. 63
Reasons for Ecommerce Visits .................................................................................... 63
Supporting All Types of Shopping Behaviors ................................................................. 64
Personalization Trends and Takeaways ........................................................................ 73
Key Findings By Report ............................................................................... 77
Homepages and Category Pages ................................................................................. 77
Product Pages ........................................................................................................... 82
Shopping Carts, Checkout, and Registration ................................................................. 86
Search ...................................................................................................................... 93
Customer Service ...................................................................................................... 96
Selling Strategies ....................................................................................................... 98
Wishlists, Gift Cards, and Gift Giving in Ecommerce .................................................... 100
Trust and Credibility ................................................................................................. 102
International Purchasers .......................................................................................... 103
Store Finders and Locators ....................................................................................... 104
Transactional Emails and Confirmation Messages ....................................................... 106
About the Author ...................................................................................... 109
Acknowledgments .................................................................................... 110

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Summary of the Ecommerce Report Series
This report is one of 13 reports about the ecommerce user experience. The
entire series on ecommerce user experience is available for download at
https://www.nngroup.com/reports/ecommerce-user-experience and includes
the following titles:
1. General User Behavior & Executive Summary [this report]
2. Homepages, Category Pages, Product Listing Pages, and Product
Comparisons
3. Product Pages
4. Shopping Cart, Checkout, & Registration
5. Search
6. Customer Service
7. Selling Strategies
8. Wishlists, Gift Cards, and Gift Giving
9. Trust and Credibility
10.International Purchasers
11.Store Finders and Locators
12.Transactional Email and Confirmation Messages
13.User Research Methodology

6 Summary of the Ecommerce Report Series

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Executive Summary

Yes, this is a summary of the summary. Considering that the full Ecommerce
User Experience report series clocks in at more than 2000 pages with more
than 1700 screenshots, the more summaries the merrier.
OVERALL GOOD USABILITY
In our first ecommerce studies, during the dot-com bubble, users failed
almost half the time when they tried to shop on ecommerce sites. No wonder
the bubble burst with sites that bad. Now, users fail much less often. In our
most recent study, the majority of tasks were successful. Of course, not
every activity was seamlessly completed as we observed plenty of usability
issues along the way. Sites are still leaving money on the table.
Today, our main reason to recommend usability improvements for
ecommerce sites is the competitive pressure from other sites that keep
getting better. Plus, in recent years, ecommerce powerhouses like Amazon
are pushing boundaries and drastically influence user’s expectations for
service. Yes, there’s also an argument for improving design purely to reduce
user failures, but this reason is not as critical as it was in the past. Today’s
consumers are not satisfied with sites that simply make it possible to shop.
The experience must also be pleasant, fast, and convenient, so we should
look beyond success rates, as the ability to complete tasks remains the first
priority in the line of requirements.
Some of the most notable improvements we observed in our research for the
fourth edition of this report are in areas that will help ecommerce retailers
compete in the area of customer experience. We saw improvements in the
quality of product information offered to shoppers. More sites are meeting
user’s information needs with helpful and detailed product descriptions.
They’ve supplemented rich descriptions with other helpful informational
features like robust review functionality, product question and answer
forums, and more advanced image capabilities to help users inspect the
finest details of the items they’re considering. In addition to improvements in
the information provided to customers were improvements outside of the
interface itself with the capabilities and services stores provided to
customers. Sites are offering more choices and flexibility to customers in
terms of payment options, shipping and delivery options, options for setting
up recurring orders, and even to select how they prefer to receive customer
support. This level of flexibility allows customers to interact on their terms
and design a shopping experience that suits their needs. We also saw

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marked improvement in the mobile user experience provided by websites.
Mobile site optimization has been widely adopted, and the quality of these
experiences has improved to fit the context of customers shopping on their
smartphones, while still providing rich functionality like powerful site search
tools with advanced filtering capabilities.
Site search could still be better, even though it has steadily improved over
the course of our research. In our first study, the first search attempt on an
ecommerce site was successful 51% of the time. In the second study, this
number was 64%, and, in our most recent study, it increased to 83%.
MANY OLD FINDINGS STAND
The first and second editions of this report series were based on lab-based
usability testing, diary studies, and eyetracking studies. The research for
these editions was conducted in 3 countries: the US, Denmark, and China
and more than 200 sites were studied. The third edition of this report was
based on expert reviews of new site designs based on existing guidelines.
With this, the fourth edition, many of the guidelines from the previous
editions still stand today. With the creation of this most recent edition, we
have decided to retire a collection of guidelines that the industry has
“outgrown”. These guidelines were no longer necessary because we did not
observe the issues that led to them in our most recent research or because
the web has changed enough that we deemed them unhelpful (more about
what has changed on page 13).
The fact that a large percentage of the old guidelines were still confirmed is
an indication of the longevity of usability findings. Our design
recommendations are based on the characteristics of the human mind which
change much more slowly than the technology that fascinates so many
people in the field.
RESEARCH STUDIES AND EDITIONS
The information in these reports is a result of three separate rounds of
ecommerce studies conducted by Nielsen Norman Group as well as a round
of design reviews of a set of ecommerce websites. The studies took place in
the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark and China (Hong Kong), and
involved user testing, a diary-based longitudinal study and an eye tracking
component.
The User Research Methodology report in the Ecommerce Report Series
includes the full details of each study, the list of sites tested, and information
about participants.

8 Executive Summary

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The Wishlists, Gift Cards, and Gift Giving, Transactional Email and
Confirmation Messages and Store Finders and Locators reports are based on
additional research studies. Each of these three reports includes its own
methodology section.
First Edition: Usability Testing
The first research study was conducted by a team of five usability experts.
They conducted usability tests of 20 business-to-consumer ecommerce
websites. A total of 64 people participated: 39 from the United States and 25
from Denmark. Nineteen of the twenty sites tested were American websites,
which were tested by users in both countries.
Users ranged in age from twenty to sixty. All users had previously shopped
online and most had made purchases; however, we screened out people who
had extensive technical knowledge of the Web.
Usability testing sessions lasted two hours, and users typically tested three of
the 20 selected sites in that time. Each site was tested by a minimum of nine
users: six from the U.S. and three from Denmark. Sites were selected in
seven different industries, such as clothing and toys, so that within each
industry we had two or three sites for comparison.
Tasks were modeled on common goals of online shoppers. Most tasks asked
users to find a specific item or were open-ended, allowing freedom to shop
according to their own preferences. In most cases, we stopped users before
they entered a credit card number, so they did not complete the purchase.
We also included tasks involving customer service information.
For each test session, a facilitator sat next to the user, providing instructions
to the user and taking notes. Users were asked to think aloud as they
worked, describing their decision processes and any positive or negative
reactions to the sites.
Second Edition: Diary and Usability Testing
The second study included a diary-based longitudinal study and user testing,
including an eyetracking component.
Research began with the diary-based study. Ten participants from around the
United States were asked to record information in a notebook about their
online shopping experiences for a period of six weeks during the winter
holiday shopping season. The goal was to understand how users shopped
online.
Users answered questions including the goal of visiting the site, why they
visited that particular site, and if they achieved their goal. Users were also
asked about what they liked and disliked about the site. Information from

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this round of research was used in part to develop tasks for the user testing
portions of the study.
The study also included user testing with participants in London, United
Kingdom; Hong Kong, China; Munster, Indiana; Kennesaw, Georgia; and
New York, New York. The New York City component, which was the largest,
included eyetracking. Eyetracking allowed the facilitator to observe and
record where the user was looking on the screen.
Ninety-eight users participated in user testing. Participants included an
almost even split between men and women who ranged in age from 18 to
64. All participants had purchased online previously, with varied amounts of
online shopping experience. The least experienced user had purchased online
once in the past year and 10 participants had made more than 30 online
purchases in the past year. Users were recruited across a range of household
income levels and general online experience.
More than 100 sites were included in the user testing component of the
study. Sites selected for testing included sites big and small, from various
industries with varied product offerings and different design approaches. In
addition, users completed tasks on sites they had previously visited.
Participants provided a list of sites during the recruiting process and were
asked to visit one of them during the study. This expanded the number as
well as the types of sites tested.
Tasks were modeled after those in the first study, including directed tasks
asking users to find specific items, open-ended tasks allowing for site
exploration, and customer service-related tasks. Users proceeded as far as
possible through the purchase process with fake user information.
Users completed three additional types of tasks in the second study. Users
visited sites they had visited before, which allowed us to observe users
returning to a site as a repeat visitor. Users also completed open-ended
tasks where they were given a goal of something to purchase but were not
directed to any particular website to make the purchase.
The New York component of the study also included a task where users
completed a purchase. Users selected one of five sites on which to shop and
were given a budget. They could purchase any item or items they wanted
from the site within their budget, send the purchase to themselves, and be
reimbursed for the purchase price.
The same facilitator ran all sessions in the second study, except for the
Georgia tests. In all sessions, the facilitator sat next to the user, providing
instructions, observing and taking notes. Users thought aloud as they
worked.

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