[Sigia-l] Shopping Basket

Tue Jan 18 08:16:19 EST 2011

On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 10:56 PM, Nancy Tomaro <ntomaro at fry.com> wrote:

> Frequent lurker, first time poster.
>
> I've enjoyed reading all the feedback. My job is ecommerce sites so,
> selfishly, getting other's insight is very useful to me as well.
>
> Without knowing the details of the client, the products, the customer base,
> it's hard to give feedback on why persistent cart (layer in header as you're
> describing) would or would not work in lieu of a shopping cart page.
>
> What I can share with you is some general reasoning as to why there is a
> shopping cart pages.
> 1. Large % of shoppers tend to use the shopping cart as their "wish list".
> They'll add items to cart, leave and come back later and make purchases.
> Having said that, no reason a persistent cart couldn't work, just note you'd
> want to ensure it's cookied for some length of time (30, 60, 90 days
> depending again on product type, turn-over, internal biz rules)
>
Agree - the site has separate wishlist and login requirements for using it -
cookie only based per session. :(

> 2. Shipping charges are one of the top reasons customer's abandon
> cart/purchase. Smart sites clearly call out ALL charges involved in the
> order (even if at the cart state it's estimated) so there are no "surprises"
> as a customer works their way through checkout. Again, if a site can't
> accurately estimate shipping b/c costs are based on zip code (info collected
> once they're in checkout), good sites will use a zip code lookup in the cart
> to allow a customer to "estimate your shipping costs" (i.e. they know what
> they're getting into before they get into the checkout funnel)
>

> 3. Not sure this will ever change but customer's are still hesitant about
> online shopping. They want to know their purchase is safe and secure, what
> happens if they need to return a product? Who can they call if they have
> questions. Shopping cart is a great place to call out return policy, links
> to privacy policy, links to customer service phone number (or even link to
> chat), safety and security logos, etc.
>

> 4. Will this client offer gift message/gift wrap? Even if it's available to
> add to the product on the PDP (product details page), traditionally shopping
> cart is a place a customer can choose those options (although, again, can be
> handled in checkout as well)
> 5. Ability to edit product/remove product. A lot of our sites do use a
> persistent cart that has this functionality so if your persistent cart would
> allow them to do that, you would be addressing this concern.
> 6. What about the upsells? (sorry, I work ecomm). Many sites will use the
> shopping cart to sell that final upsell. Need a warranty to go with that
> watch? Or the belt to go with those shoes? A lot of ecomm platforms offer
> upsell products in the shopping cart for additional sales before starting
> checkout.
>
RE Jonathon - this is the kind of messaging I worry will be lost
(particularly the 'comfort' stuff like charges and policies) in a slimline
overlay approach. In losing the dedicated space, those who would like to
have that sort of stuff won't get to see it.

> I'd be curious to see/hear what your checkout flow is going to look like.
> Multi-step? Single page? UI presentation? Etc. There's alllll sorts of
> debates and  back and forth on "the best checkout" that continues to rage on
> (in a good way, of course :) ) but I understand client confidentiality.
>
Checkout flow is separated (behind secure layer) and accordion-based. It's
pretty nice, but it's position outside the browse/add to cart flows means
that (although a lot of the messaging discussed above will be repeated in
checkout) it applies to committed purchasers and I'm concerned we'll lose
people before that point if we don't also include a cart page.

BTW - I'm not anti the basket overlay, I just feel that an additional area
where users can go to see their basket in a more traditional way + all of
the messaging above will be more safe.

Thanks all - this is great :)

Lou.

>
> Having shared this, again, these responses have me thinking a bit about how
> to make the type of interaction you're describing work well, in the right
> circumstances, for the right customer, product and customer base.
>
> A few folks already mentioned this but testing, testing,
> testing....couldn't agree more. Testing pre-launch, A/B testing
> post-launch...test and see.
>
> Just a couple of the sites I peruse to stay on top of research around
> ecomm:
> Forrester
> http://econsultancy.com/us/blog
> http://www.getelastic.com/
> http://www.practicalecommerce.com/
>
> Good luck!
>
> n
>
>
>
> Nancy Tomaro, CUA  |   Senior User Experience Designer    |   Tel
> 415.865.8510   |   Fax 415.896.1030
>
> ________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Fry, Inc.  301 Howard St. Suite 1300,  San Francisco, , CA 94105   |    a
> MICROS-Retail company
> Follow us on Twitter:  @microsretail and @fryinc  |  Read our blog:
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>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On Behalf
> Of Louise Hewitt
> Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 3:03 AM
> To: SIGIA-L
> Subject: [Sigia-l] Shopping Basket
>
> Hi List,
>
> I need help thinking.
>
> I have inherited a high-profile ecom project, and the solution has been
> designed so that there is no dedicated page for the shopping basket content
> (the basket can only be viewed in an auxillary 'flap' that layers over the
> page content anchored and triggered from an icon in the header.
>
> The abscence of a dedicated page to 'view your basket' is making me edgy.
> I'm not super-experience with e-com design, so I'm hoping there are some
> experts out there who have been through this before and can help:
>
> 1 - is there an obvious bear trap in not including a dedicated cart-view
> page?
> 2 - has anyone got anecdotal or concrete evidence of user acceptance of
> overlay cart views?
> 3 - anything else that you think might come and bite my behind.
>
> Cheers all, hoping that you all say - 'Wowser, what a great way to do
> ecom', but fearing you won't.
>
> Lou
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> UX / IA / content strategy
>
> louise.hewitt at gmail.com
>
> + 44 (0) 7595 829647
>
> louisehewitt.co.uk
>
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> Pre Conference Seminars: March 30-31
> IA Summit: April 1-3
> Hyatt Regency Convention Center
> Denver, CO
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