What Are Affecting Our Decisions When Doing Online Shopping?
Recently, I conducted an online survey for my master’s thesis. The aim of the survey is to find out — which factors are making us like or hate an online shop.
TL;DR:
To increase online sales, an online shop is recommended to:
1. Present the valuable deals to customers who don’t have a specific shopping plan;
2. Display the products in an easy-to-view layout, as in some circumstances the customers need to choose from a great number of products;
3. Implement and improve the search, sort, filter functions for customers to find their products more efficiently;
4. Use product photos to describe the details and materials of a product;
5. Ensure the visibility of customer’s shopping status, by making customers aware of the total price they need to pay, including shipping, and possible importing taxes.
1. Overview
The survey was made with Survey Monkey, it received 263 responses, however, only the first 100 responses were accessible for the basic plan user on Survey Monkey.
I decided not to pay the 35 euros/month to unlock the rest 163 responses, as I believed it will not alter the survey to a different result.
2. The Survey Questions and Results:
Q1 was asking for respondents’ contact information, therefore I didn’t include it here.
Q2: How often do you visit online shops?
Result: The survey was conducted among Facebook buy & sell groups, and 72% of them visited online shops almost everyday. 25% of them visit online shops not more than 5 times a week, only 3% of them are under 10 times a month (in other words, it takes more than 3 days for them to visit online shops a time). None of them shop less frequently than any of these options.
Analysis: The result of the survey is very likely to be capable of representing frequent online shoppers.
Q3: When you are shopping online, how often are you shopping without a plan, but just randomly browsing?
Result: 68% of the time, these frequent online shoppers will check the online shops without a specific shopping plan.
Analysis: Retailers should take this fact into account, considering to feature the latest, most valuable, recommended items on the landing page.
Q4: Will you try to view every single product in order to not miss a suitable item?
Result: 51% of the respondents tend to view all the available products in the shop, because they don’t want to miss a good deal.
Analysis: Considering half of the customers would like to see all the available products, while there might be over tens of thousand items, retailers should find a solution to display and categorize the products more scientifically, and provide useful filtering and sorting tools, for the customers who want to see all the products.
Q5: If you recommended an online shop to a friend, it may because:
The visual design of online shop
No: 6% | Not very possible: 31% | Possible: 44% | Very possible: 16% | Yes: 3%
Result: Negative 37%, Neutral 44%, Positive 19%
Analysis: The visual design is important for user experience, but not a primary reason for people to recommend it to their friends.
The collection of products is suitable to you
No: 1% | Not very possible: 0% | Possible: 8% | Very possible: 38% | Yes: 53%
Result: Negative 1%, Neutral 8%, Positive 91%
Analysis: The result is significantly leaning to positive, and it reminds online retailers to present their online shops more tailored to their target customers.
The price is cheaper
No: 1% | Not very possible: 4% | Possible: 19% | Very possible: 40% | Yes: 36%
Result: Negative 5%, Neutral 19%, Positive 76%
Analysis: Looking for cheaper price is almost a habit for people shopping online. If the shop has some products with competitive price, they should be given a highlight and let the visitors be aware of that.
The payment is easy to be done
No: 8% | Not very possible: 28% | Possible: 31% | Very possible: 21% | Yes: 12%
Result: Negative 36%, Neutral 31%, Positive 33%
Analysis: The result is rather average on the three alternatives, while Negative is slightly higher. Therefore, it is not such an important reason for people to recommend the shop to others.
The customer service is satisfying
No: 3% | Not very possible: 20% | Possible: 32% | Very possible: 25% | Yes: 20%
Result: Negative 23%, Neutral 32%, Positive 45%
Analysis: The online shops should keep a satisfying customer services, and it will increase the chance of getting recommended.
Other reasons:
Result of the other reasons:
Easy user experience;
What the shop got in stock etc;
Heat stuff, best price for the certain products I’m looking for.
Analysis: These other reasons can be concluded as, overall better experience, competitive inventory and price.
Q6: If you like the online shop, it may because:
High quality photos that show the details of products
No: 1% | Not very possible: 7% | Possible: 29% | Very possible: 31% | Yes: 32%
Result: Negative 8%, Neutral 29%, Positive 63%
Analysis: A majority of respondents will like an online shop because of its high quality photos. And there is an creasing number of online shops recruiting professional photographers and models to make the photos for their products.
The search function is easy to use
No: 1% | Not very possible: 7% | Possible: 21% | Very possible: 28% | Yes: 43%
Result: Negative 8%, Neutral 21%, Positive 71%
Analysis: Only 8% of the respondents find the search function not very important for them, while most of the respondents will have a good impression on the online shop if the search function is easy to use.
Users can sort the products according to their needs (price, latest, discount)
No: 0% | Not very possible: 4% | Possible: 14% | Very possible: 28% | Yes: 54%
Result: Negative 4%, Neutral 14%, Positive 82%
Analysis: Only 4%, very small proportion of the respondents don’t think the sorting function is affecting them to like the online shop or not, while the rest 96% of them think it’s possible, very possible or definitely to affect their opinions towards the online shop.
Users can filter the products according to their needs (size, color, price)
No: 0% | Not very possible: 2% | Possible: 17% | Very possible: 26% | Yes: 55%
Result: Negative 2%, Neutral 17%, Positive 81%
Analysis: Very similar to the result of sort function, most of people find the filter function an important factor for them.
Detailed text description of the product
No: 7% | Not very possible: 15% | Possible: 26% | Very possible: 28% | Yes: 24%
Result: Negative 22%, Neutral 26%, Positive 52%
Analysis: More than half of the respondents are positive about a detailed text description of product will make them like the online shop.
There is online chat service to provide help immediately
No: 13% | Not very possible: 23% | Possible: 25% | Very possible: 22% | Yes:17%
Result: Negative 36%, Neutral 25%, Positive 39%
Analysis: The responses of negative and positive had very close results, while online chat services helps them to have an easier shopping experience, it is not an critical reason for them to like or dislike the online shop.
Easy to complete the payment
No: 4% | Not very possible: 8% | Possible: 33% | Very possible: 26% | Yes: 29%
Result: Negative 12%, Neutral 33%, Positive 55%
Analysis: While the easiness of completing payment is not a main reason in terms of recommending an online shop to others, more than half of the respondents are positive about the easiness of completing payment will make them like the an online shop, 33% are neutral about it, while 12% are negative. Therefore, the online shop should provide efficient payment procedures, implementing third party payment method which are commonly used might be a good idea.
Other reasons:
Result of the other reasons: Be able to use a lot of different keywords (while searching); Size guides and models, such as this person is 183cm tall and wear size M.
Analysis: Supporting blur searching, and providing size guides that are easy for customers to understand, are beneficial for the online shops.
Q7: If you stop browsing, and decide to leave the online shop, it may because:
The photos of products are not visually pleasing enough
No: 14% | Not very possible: 28% | Possible: 21% | Very possible: 26% | Yes:11%
Result: Negative 42%, Neutral 21%, Positive 37%
Analysis: Among the frequent online shopping customers, the fact might be that they have seen various online shops, and some of them have cultivated a tolerance of the un pleasing visuals. However, online shops ought to minimize the chance of customers leaving the shop, under this question, there are 11% respondents stated that they will leave the shop if the visual is unpleasing, and 26% are very possible to leave.
The photo quality is not good enough to show details and materials of the product
No: 9% | Not very possible: 16% | Possible: 32% | Very possible: 26% | Yes: 17%
Result: Negative 25%, Neutral 32%, Positive 43%
Analysis: Only 25% of the responses feel they are not very likely influenced by the quality of photos when they are shopping online. While 75% think it is at least possible for them to leave the online shop, if they cannot understand materials of product from the photos.
The search function is not easy to use
No: 5% | Not very possible: 17% | Possible: 24% | Very possible: 33% | Yes: 21%
Result: Negative 22%, Neutral 24%, Positive 54%
Analysis: More than half of the respondents think the search function is an important tool for them, and may stop shopping on the shop in case the search function is not easy to use.
There are too many products to view
No: 17% | Not very possible: 39% | Possible: 20% | Very possible: 16% | Yes: 8%
Result: Negative 56%, Neutral 20%, Positive 24%
Analysis: While 24% of the respondents feel too much products to view will cause an unpleasant shopping experience, more than half of the total respondents suppose it not very possible to make them leave the shop for this reason.
There is no suitable sorting options
No: 3% | Not very possible: 14% | Possible: 34% | Very possible: 27% | Yes: 22%
Result: Negative 17%, Neutral 34%, Positive 49%
Analysis: Only 17% respondents are not very affected by this reason, while 49% respondents are very likely to leave the online shop due to the unhelpful sorting function. Online shops should pay some effort to optimizing this function, for users to find the products they need more easily.
Cannot filter the products according to needs (size, color, price)
No: 4% | Not very possible: 13% | Possible: 29% | Very possible: 32% | Yes: 22%
Result: Negative 17%, Neutral 29%, Positive 54%
Analysis: Very similar to the sorting function, most respondents showed their demands on an efficient filtering function. On top of that, an earlier result showed most customers would continue shopping even though there are too much to choose from, with suitable sorting and filtering functions, it is useful for them to find the items they are looking for more easily.
The text description of product is not detailed enough
No: 12% | Not very possible: 32% | Possible: 31% | Very possible: 16% | Yes: 9%
Result: Negative 44%, Neutral 31%, Positive 25%
Analysis: The text description are not very critical in losing the customers, but from the result of Q6, it makes more customers to like the shop. Besides it is feature that can be done with a comparatively low effort, thus it is very advised to include a good text description.
There is no online chat service
No: 41% | Not very possible: 36% | Possible: 13% | Very possible: 7% | Yes: 3%
Result: Negative 77%, Neutral 13%, Positive 10%
Analysis: Although online chat service is the most preferred way of contacting the customer service(Zhang 2016) , very few of the customers will leave the shop because of the lack of online chat service. Considering the online chat service costs both time and human resource, in is understandable that why a lot of online shops do not have online chat service.
Payment procedure is safe, but complicated
No: 10% | Not very possible: 36% | Possible: 27% | Very possible: 19% | Yes: 8%
Result: Negative 46%, Neutral 27%, Positive 27%
Analysis: Most people can bear with the complication during payment, however 27% respondents still find it annoying. There are a number of third party payment methods available for online shops to integrate with, and most of them are widely used because of their safety and efficiency, it is highly recommended that online shops utilize these payment methods along with the traditional credit card payment.
Other reasons:
Result: If they make you overpay by a lot, or they don’t tell you about how much extra the total will be immediately! Like StockX and similar.
Analysis: Transparency is important, the online shop should give it best to estimate a final price including shipping cost to the customer’s location. It can make a customer very frustrated when he is ready to pay, but notices an unexpected added up on the price.
4. Conclusion
A majority of customers will check in the online shops even though they do not have a specific shopping plan, and about half of the respondents will try to view all the available products in the online shop. Therefore, it is important to clearly present the valuable deals to customers, and the products should be displayed in an easy-to-view layout.
Word of mouth is seen as the most important way of increasing the number of customers. Suitable collection, competitive price, and satisfying customer service, are the three main contributions for people to recommend an online shop to their friends.
When being asked the reasons for liking an online shop, more than half of the respondents selected the following 6 reasons: 1. the high quality photos; 2. the easy to use search function; 3. sort function; 4. filter function; 5. detailed text description; 6. easy payment. Among them, 2, 3, 4 are the three most possible reasons. And it is worth mentioning that all 2, 3, and 4 are related to finding products.
In terms of a bad experience, which may lead to customers leaving the online shop, it is seen a very similar result with the previous part. The three most voted reasons are: 1. the search function is not easy to use; 2. users cannot filter the products according to their needs; there is no suitable sorting options. Nearly 50% respondents agree to these 3 reasons, and the next most voted reason is “The photo quality is not good enough to show details and materials of the product”. In addition, one respondent mentioned that the online shop should let customers be aware of the final price of their purchase, this aligns with the “visibility of system status” of the heuristic evaluation.
To sum up into points, to grasp the customers, an online shop is recommended to:
- Present the valuable deals and some competitive prices to customers who don’t have a specific shopping plan;
- Display the products in an easy-to-view layout, as in some circumstances the customers need to choose from a great number of products;
- Implement and improve the search, sort, filter functions for customers to find their products more efficiently;
- Use product photos to describe the details and materials of a product, it is more important than merely visually fancy photos;
- Ensure the visibility of customer’s shopping status, by making customers aware of the total price they need to pay, including shipping, and possible importing taxes.
