Creating usable e-commerce sites

Abstract

■ Are you a busy person, with little time to go to stores? If you need a present for your brother-in-law, want to go to a spa, want the best deal on travel, want to comparison shop for a car, it’s all there on the Internet. lectronic commerce, or e-commerce, is changing the way the world shops. Electronic commerce is defined here as browser-based sites created for the purpose of selling goods and services over the Internet, regardless of whether the actual sale takes place on the Internet or via fax, phone, or another means provided by the website. The electronic commerce market is exploding at a remarkable rate. In May 1997, global e-commerce generated $750 million in sales; in May 1998 that figure had grown to $2.3 billion, a 205% increase [IDC 1998]. IDC, ActiveMedia, and Forrester Research all estimate that global commerce revenues will exceed one trillion dollars by 2003. A key to achieving these numbers is usability. In order to leverage this new marketing strategy, companies must understand how to create usable e-commerce sites based on their target markets. In a recent survey, 8% of those surveyed said they don’t shop online simply because the sites are too hard to use [Herschlag 1998]. Electronic shopping has some key differences from physical shopping. First, it is easy to go from one site to another for purposes of price comparison, product selection, and ease of finding the product. There is minimal overhead for changing sites, unlike getting back in the car and driving a distance to a similar store, so sites that offer a range of products that are easy to find on the site and priced competitively will do well. Companies spend substantial amounts of money on physical store design and on creating a positive environment and experience for the shopper. Since ecommerce sites are more limited (the shopper’s general environment doesn’t change), companies must try harder to create a pleasant experience. The factors that are known to affect customer behavior—product perception, shopping experience, and customer service—must be given consideration when designing the site. (For more information on this see Jarvenpaa and Todd [1997].) E-commerce sites are not just web sites—they should reflect the same value-to-price trade-offs that the company has built its business on. A company also has to give serious thought to how much they will support international sales. Will such sales be in US dollars only, or in multiple currencies?