An interview about Usability in e-commerce
*This post was originally posted on my personal blog thedigitalrookie.com on 10/07/2014.
I recently started reading Chris Goward’s book titled “You should test that!”. It’s a great book, talking about techniques and steps to realize a successful Conversion Optimization Action Plan. A slight change in a site’s usability can skyrocket sales, but also make them “sink.” I can’t forget, for example, the change Expedia did in a single button in its payment steps, which raised its sales by 12 million euro(!).
So, Katerina Karagianni, the Business Unit Director in UXlab, the only Greek agency that deals exclusively in issues of Usability and User Experience, took the time to answer my questions on this new part, which “came” to Greece very recently.
1. What’s Usability’s role in e-commerce, what is its value for an e-shop?
Usability, meaning a site’s usability (especially for a transactional site like an e-shop) is tightly connected with the Conversion Rate, that is the percentage of visitors who finally buy from the site. Minimizing the various problematic points of a website, small or large, and eliminating usability problems, we can have a significant impact on Conversion Rate, and by extension, to sales.
If we combine the principles and the optimized practices of Usability, using Persuasive Design techniques, we can see even more impressive results. Applying sales techniques and taking advantage of the art of persuasion and the principles of influence, we can raise the sales of an e-shop without needing to raise its actual traffic.
The importance of Usability and even User Experience is huge, then, and it can mean the difference between success or failure for an e-shop.
2. Is this industry blooming in our country, or is it still too early for Usability?
The Greek digital market has seen a huge growth in recent years, and it seems to be in a “hurry” to catch up with Europe and the USA. In our hurry, we try to reach the point the other, more advanced, markets are in right now, without first going through the stages of maturation, evaluation, optimization, etc.
Usability belongs in these “first” stages that were overlooked, to a degree. It is the base on which every site, application, intranet, mobile app, etc., is built, and it can’t be seen with the “naked eye,” it ensures that our undertaking will have the basic prerequisites for success.
I believe that in the last couple of years, we’re going through a “return” to the foundations, and a somewhat delayed maturation of our country’s market. After the rapid growth of e-commerce and the creation of literally thousands of e-shops, the time has come for evaluation and reflection, during which e-shop owners and executives look for ways to optimize their pages’ efficiency. They are now turning to Usability and UX, and start to know it in action for the first time.
3. Are there any successful examples in Greece? What are the examples to follow, from abroad?
In order to judge whether an e-shop has made a successful investment in Usability, we need to know two things: 1st, the procedures and techniques that they followed (it’s not enough to see a site in order to know if it’s usable or not), and 2nd, the effect those procedures and techniques had on their results.
As UXlab, we’re currently cooperating with some of the largest e-shops in Greece, in Conversion Rate Optimization projects that deal with Usability audits, User Testing with real users, AB testing, and more. Since those projects are in progress right now, I can’t announce them. But older cases, where we have applied various usability techniques with success, are, for example, the integrated basket study for Aegean, the optimization of the online security form for European Reliance, the launch of new Skroutz.gr where we used many techniques like card sorting, user testing, and more. Other than the above-mentioned projects, there are now many sites in Greece that give special attention to UX issues, and give a very user-friendly result. One of that is Travelplanet24.com.
Abroad, some of the most famous sites for their investing in continuous improvement, mainly, but not only, through AB testing, is of course Booking.com, Asos.com, HouseofFraser.co.uk, JohnLewis.com and more. If you visit those sites often, you can see the little changes they test, and how they continuously change.
4. Which are the basic steps one has to follow to audit their site, in order to spot any issues?
The basic steps to audit a site regarding Usability and UX are:
- Analytics review: A good way to start is from existing data, searching for problematic spots, numbers, bottlenecks, and in general, for places where you need to search deeper. But even when analytics show a “healthy” site, we can always improve its image through Usability.
- Usability Expert Review: Here (ideally with an expert — as you can see on this method’s title) we do a pass through the site, searching for problematic spots in its various procedures and its flow. An expert knows how to navigate it, which are the heuristics used to spot issues in the following areas: Technical issues, Navigation, Design, Content, e-Commerce elements, Checkout process, and more.
- User Testing: After the review, actual testing with real users is always helpful. We create usage scenarios and test with 5 or 6 real users, observing their movements. Here are some basick steps for Lean User Testing in small groups or companies from my recent presentation in the Panorama of Entrepreneurship > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7y-VHl0JZI (29:59–47:08).
- Corrections — AB testing — Monitoring and so on: Based on the insight gained from steps 1, 2 and 3, we begin with making the corrections we think will solve the problems we found. If we have enough traffic, we can test our corrections through AB testing. We are always monitoring the KPIs we have set (besides Conversion Rate, we never forget the average basket, number of items on each purchase, etc.) to ensure that each change is to the right direction.
The process mentioned above never really ends! Conversion Rate Optimization and UX have to be on-going processes in a site, especially in an e-shop.
Contact info:
Email: katerina@uxlab.gr
Telephone: 210 2419592
Twitter: https://twitter.com/iKatDigital
