Report

October 2000

• User experience is a key predictor of online retail success.
• Design flaws keep online shoppers from buying.

• Forrester graded 30 well-known retail sites: None provided a consistently good end-to-end user experience.
• Despite overall failure, best practices for finding, evaluating, and buying products were scattered throughout.

• Follow the leaders on design basics.
• Bring in specialists to define and test scenarios.

• Dot Coms will redesign as a short-term survival strategy.
• Customer service vendors will ride bad design to the bank.

• Figure 1.  Barriers To Success Interrupt The Shopping Process
• Figure 2.  The Online Retail Design Scorecard
• Figure 3.  Well-known Online Retailers Failed User Experience Tests
• Figure 4.  Best Practices For Finding A Product
• Figure 5.  Best Practices For Making A Purchase Decision
• Figure 6.  Best Practices For Placing An Order

 

• Usability Lab Data Presented In This Report
• Companies Interviewed For This Report
• Related Research

• As the holidays heat up, Wal-Mart.com closes for remodeling.
• Beware redesigns that throw the baby out with the bath water.
• Mysterious error messages ground online support staff.
• Fulfillment via magic wand.