Measuring the User Experience of Fashion Web Stores on Tablet Devices

Transcription

1 MOBILE BENCHMARK STUDY Measuring the User Experience of Fashion Web Stores on Tablet Devices

2 MOBILE BENCHMARK STUDY Table of contents Content Introduction A brief overview of mobile commerce landscape in the U.S. Mobile study details Participant profile 200 women. Use tablets and smartphones in their daily life. Regularly purchase apparel and accessories on their tablet or smartphone. Study design This was a task-based remote usability testing study. All users were required to perform 3 purchase related tasks on their tablet. All users were randomly assigned tasks on 1 out of 4 fashion websites. Results of the mobile commerce study Brands tested 2

3 MOBILE BENCHMARK STUDY Mobile commerce landscape in the U.S. Mobile commerce Mobile Internet usage in the U.S. is expected to approach 100% penetration this year. 48% of total Internet usage is through the mobile device. 100% Smart Phone Desktop 34% 14% 52% Tablets 32% of mobile Internet activities are purchase related. 69% 73% 32% 32% 28% Used an App Browse the Internet Product Search Product/Service Used Online/Mobile Shopping Coupons &wave=wave2&age=all&gender=all&active=stat 3

4 MOBILE BENCHMARK STUDY Mobile commerce landscape in the U.S. Mobile commerce 37% Less than monthly Frequency of Purchase on Mobile Devices 20% Daily People are getting progressively more comfortable with making purchases on mobile devices. 29% Monthly 13% Weekly 4

5 MOBILE BENCHMARK STUDY Mobile commerce landscape in the U.S. Mobile commerce Apparel & Accessories was the highest grossing mobile product category with 2013 Q-1 sales reaching $ 1 Billion. Apparel & Accessories SPRING 2013 Health & Beauty Consumer Electronics Subscriptions Sport & Fitness HOME PRODUCT Consumer Packaged Goods Digital Content & Consumer Electronics

6 MOBILE BENCHMARK STUDY Mobile commerce landscape in the U.S. Mobile devices are competing with desktop computers for share of the e-commerce profit margin. Mobile usage perceptions are constantly changing. Mobile devices were once perceived to be for researching the web and for watching videos and playing games. Now they are perceived to aid productivity. With more people being okay with using their payment details, mobile devices are competing with desktop computers for share of the e-commerce profit margin. As the mobile industry watchdogs have noted, increased mobile Internet penetration coupled with increased comfort with mobile purchases is contributing to larger portions of the total retail profits each year. It is more important than ever for users to have a positive mobile user experience. 100% 48% 32% $1 b Expected mobile Internet usage penetration this year. Of all Internet activity is through a mobile device. Of mobile Internet activities are purchase related. Sales of apparel & accessories through mobile devices reached $1 billion in Q1 this year

7 How do users expect mobile websites to perform? Users expect mobile sites to perform as well as the desktop ones. 61% of users said that poor performance will make them less likely to visit a mobile site again. Sadly, increased customer comfort with mobile purchases has not affected how mobile websites perform. Most sites do not support users in completing their transactions, with most sites having a success rate of just 61%. 40% failure rate implies lost user base that is unlikely to re-visit your mobile site! 7

8 MOBILE BENCHMARK STUDY Mobile commerce landscape in the U.S. The state of mobile user experience today 38-75% Task completion rate using mobile web ranges from 38% to 75% 58% Mobile device users expect sites to perform as quickly as a desktop website. 59% Mobile task success rates are 59%, lower than regular desktop websites that have an approx. 80% success rate. 61% 61% said that poor performance would make them less likely to visit a mobile website again! It is more important to have a good user experience than merely a mobile optimized site or a mobile App

9 Tablets are the next device to take off 9

10 MOBILE BENCHMARK STUDY Mobile commerce landscape in the U.S. Tablets A study by Cisco (Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, ) on the evolution of mobile devices predicts that in 2017 there will be more mobile devices in use than people on the planet. Tablets and smartphones will generate the majority of online traffic. Although tablets rank second in terms of Internet connections, they will become the fastest way to surf the net in the future. 10

11 MOBILE BENCHMARK STUDY Mobile commerce landscape in the U.S. The key to success Most retailers are still not taking advantage of the shopping potential offered by mobile devices and tablets... Most retailers are still not taking advantage of the shopping potential offered by mobile devices and tablets. Either they are unfamiliar with the role of mobile devices in the shopping process, or they have not optimized their e-commerce sites to create the best and the most efficient shopping experience. This often translates into a frustrating experience for their customers. There is a great deal of opportunity for improvement. Mobile devices are part of an overall user experience. It is not a matter of creating a different experience for each device. The ideal solution would be to create a single experience - a brand experience - that adapts to the device in use. The key to success lies in optimizing all the functionalities of these devices and integrating them into multi-channel shopping experiences in order to increase sales. 11

12 MOBILE BENCHMARK STUDY Mobile commerce landscape in the U.S. A long way to go It is surprising to see that so far, very few brands have invested in optimizing their online business for all mobile devices such as tablets, whether this is because of how fast these devices have burst on the scene or because of a lack of resources. Mobile websites are often difficult to use because of small font, disorganized content and tiny links that are impossible to click on with a finger. Few brands have a web store designed to create a positive shopping experience on mobile devices. Generally, their content, forms and payment methods are not mobile ready and are therefore not adapted to the specific requirements of tablet use. It is also common to find shopping websites that offer mobile applications, but do not inform their users about them or do not make it easy to download them. As such, users end up browsing a website that has not been optimized for tablets. Few brands have web stores designed to offer positive shopping experiences on mobile devices. 12

13 How can we improve mobile user experience? We need to ensure that mobile websites meet users expectations by conducting user research on a regular basis. UserZoom s researchers selected the most profitable purchase category, Apparel & Accessories, for a competitive benchmark study. The motivation behind this study was to evaluate the state of mobile usability and to highlight the lessons and takeaways. 13

14 Mobile benchmark study (tablets) Fashion Web Stores 14

15 Study Design *This report is based on the evaluation made at the time of analysis. 15

16 Study design About unmoderated remote usability testing Unmoderated mobile usability testing is a method where data is gathered remotely and without the presence of a moderator. With remote unmoderated usability testing, the data collection time is reduced to a fraction of what it takes with traditional research methods. It also allows participants to use their mobile devices in their natural environment. With an unmoderated mobile study, researchers can take advantage of geographically dispersed users that fit the user profile. Another benefit of this method is that researchers can get statistically significant results with low confidence intervals and margins of error. This is because unmoderated remote usability testing allows researchers to scale sample sizes to be commensurate with the representative population. 16

17 MOBILE BENCHMARK STUDY Study design About remote unmoderated task-based usability testing In a task based study, users are asked to follow through on task scenarios, such as search for and add an item to cart, that resemble actual actions that a user might perform on the website. A task s success is usually validated in two ways: Validation by question: The task is considered successful if users answer a task related question correctly. Validation by URL: The task is considered successful if users are able to reach the correct page or URL. In the research study presented here, we have tasks that are validated by question and by URL. 17

18 Study design Participants yrs. Tasks 1 2 Frequent mobile shoppers 3 Brands Buy a black dress for a party, the one you like the most. Buy a necklace and find out what it is made of. (necklace details provided). Find Information about return policy in order to return a product purchased online. 18

19 Study design How does UserZoom s mobile solution work? 19

20 Study design Executive summary Lengthy payment forms affected users positive experience of purchasing apparels & accessories on 3 out of 4 mobile sites that were tested. Most users prefer a fast payment method such as PayPal while making purchases on their tablets. Users found the product descriptions to be wordy and vague while researching product information on their mobile devices. They were unable to find vital information such as materials of accessories, that might affect users decision to check-out. Users want bigger and sharper product images from all angles. Users expressed that it was especially tedious to find return policy information on the mobile device. They could not find the needed information even though they reached the correct page. Users complained that they would ve abandoned the search had they not been required to do so for the study. 70% of the users said they prefer mobile optimized sites over Apps. Mobile optimized sites performed better on the three purchase related tasks and had better Net Promoter Scores (NPS). Users rated White House Black Market as having the best mobile usage experience of all the four brands tested. 20

21 Study Results 21

22 Task 1 results Task 1 Task 1. Buy a black dress for a party, the one you like the most* *Users were asked to continue till the point where they had to enter their credit card information. No real purchases were required. 22

23 Task 1 results Findings Users struggled to find product information related to purchasing a black dress. The best performing brands were White House Black Market and Kenneth Cole. Users care about finishing the process quickly and putting in as little information as possible. 23

24 Task 1 results Success rate Choose a black dress and go through the purchase process as if to buy it. Success Rate % 42% 42% 53% 0 Kenneth Cole Guess Bebe WHBM All brands had only about 50% success rate. Frequent complaints included having to input too much personal information on a touch screen, page load delays and lengthy check-out process. 24

25 Task 1 results What do users care about? Users appreciate the ability to narrow search by color, size & price. Not easy to sort by color. Users could only sort by price. 42% Success Clear sort by size and color options. 52% Success 25

26 Task 1 results What do users care about? (cont ) Tapping in too much information on tablets was a put off for users. Clear payment methods mentioned. 52% Success Too much to type on a touch pad. 42% Success 26

27 Task 1 results What did users say? I was being forced to enter a lot of personal information before I got to the payment details page. Wish they had more pictures of the clothing from different angles. It takes a very long time to enter payment information on a tablet without a full keyboard. It was also difficult to find a black dress I liked in a size 10/m. It s probably easier on a computer, but on a mobile device it was very slow, I had to hit the buttons several times, and my keyboard would pop in and out. 27

28 Task 1 results Lessons learned. Users prefer to browse and checkout quickly SORT SIZE Users struggled to find product information related to purchasing a black dress. The best performing brands were White House Black Market and Kenneth Cole. Users care about finishing the process quickly and putting in as little information as possible. COLOR $ Price, size, color, images and zoom are the most important aspects of browsing and selecting products The most important up-front pieces of information that users care about are price, size, colors, product images and the ability to zoom in and out. 28

29 Task 2 results Task 2 Task 2. Look for this* necklace and find out what it is made of. *Users were provided with specific details of the necklace that they had to look for. 29

30 Task 2 results Findings Though users found the product page, they were unable to find the product information. White House Black Market performed the best with 93% of users finding the right product page and 82% of those users finding the right product information.??? 30

31 Task 2 results Success rate Look for this necklace* that goes with your dress and continue to checkout % 69% Kenneth Cole Success Rate 90% 51% 84% 92% Guess Bebe 82% 93% WHBM 90% of users on the Guess website reached the correct product page while only 51% could find the product information. Found the necklace Found what the necklace was made of For this task users were asked to note information about what the necklace was made of. The dark bars in the graph show the percentage of users who found the correct page. The light bars show the percentage of users who found the correct information on that page. The percentage difference indicates that users couldn t find the information even though they were on the correct page. *Users were provided with specific details of the necklace that they had to look for. 31

32 Task 2 results Ease of use rating Look for this necklace* that goes with your dress and continue to checkout Kenneth Cole Ease of use rating Guess Bebe 6.2 WHBM White House Black Market had 93% success and 6.2 ease of use ratings. Guess had 51% success and 5.4 ease of use ratings. Websites with clear product description had higher ease of use ratings. *Users were provided with specific details of the necklace that they had to look for. 32

33 Task 2 results What do users care about? Users appreciate short descriptions that include length, color and product material. Product materials clearly listed. 6.2/7 Ease of Use Rating Vague product description. 5.4/7 Ease of Use Rating 33

34 Task 2 results What did users say? It says that the necklace is available in "one size" but didn t state the actual length. There was a lack of information on the materials and I would like a picture of the item on a neck to estimate size. Not enough information about what the products were made out of. Wax?? I scrolled through the 8 pages but couldn t find it. I had to search for it. 34

35 Task 2 results Lessons learned. Clear product description Clear product description had higher success rates which led to higher ease of use ratings. Description Length 10 x 10 x 12 Size Desired product information: size, length, pictures Sharp product images and actual length & size of the necklace were cited as important information required on product pages. 35

36 Task 3 results Task 3 Task 3. Find information about return policy in order to return a product purchased online. 36

37 Task 3 results Findings White House Black Market presented the return policy information with clear headings that made it easier to scan through. 37

38 Task 3 results Success rate Look for information on returning an item purchased ONLINE and whether there s an associated cost % 67% Kenneth Cole Success Rate 76% 40% 86% 69% Guess Bebe 94% 82% WHBM 76% of users on the Guess website reached the correct product page while only 40% of them could find info on return policy. Found the return policy page Found the correct return policy information For this task users were asked to note information about what the return policy for an online purchase was. The dark bars in the graph show the percentage of users who found the correct page. The light bars show the percentage of users who found the correct information on that page. The percentage difference indicates that users couldn t find the information even though they were on the correct page. 38

39 Task 3 results Ease of use rating Look for information on returning an item purchased ONLINE and whether there s an associated cost Kenneth Cole Ease of use ratings Guess Bebe 6.4 WHBM White House Black Market had 82% success and 6.4 ease of use ratings. Guess had 40% success and 4.5 ease of use ratings. Websites with clear return policy information had higher ease of use ratings. 39

40 Task 3 results What do users care about? Users appreciate clearly formatted return policy information. Clear online purchase return information. 82% Success Too much information to parse through. 40% Success 40

41 Task 3 results What did users say? Too much information! I had to go to the full site to find the info. Not very easy to find and probably wouldn t have even tried that hard had it not been for this survey. I couldn't FIND any information about online returns, only in store and by mail. 41

42 Task 3 results Lessons learned. NO HUSSLE RETURN Make it easy to scan and locate information on text heavy pages Trim the fat and present information in clear bite size bits to make it easier to digest on a tablet. 42

43 Other interesting results and observations What users LIKED about the product pages Large pic and font. Easier to read. Less cluttered. I preferred the layout. The variety of colors. Sharper image makes the product look like a higher quality necklace. I like the additional product information and customer reviews. 43

44 Other interesting results and observations What do users value about a product page? Detailed product information A structured, not overloaded site High quality pictures Ease of selecting sizes and products If the product is displayed on a model Easy and fast payment method e.g. PayPal Zooming in on products Lack of pictures or product not being displayed Small font Missing information Product not being worn by a model Unstructured site and a complicated payment process 44

45 Other interesting results and observations Preferred payment methods Is it important to have a fast payment method? Overwhelmingly, users feel a need to have a quick payment method! I don t mind No 1% 15% Yes 84% 0% 50% 100% I like to save my details on the ecommerce website so I don t need to enter them each visit I prefer to enter my payment details each time I visit and make a new purchase Which payment method do users prefer? Users prefer to enter their payment information each time they are on a payment form. 45

46 Other interesting results and observations Lessons learned. PAYMENT SORT SIZE $ COLOR Bigger, Sharper, Clearer Users want bigger, sharper product images, clear product description, bright product pages that pop. Quick yet Repetitive Users need a balance between quick payments and secure payments. While users want websites to remember some of their personal information to reduce redundancy, they would prefer to put in payment information after every purchase. 46

47 Other interesting results and observations Is the search function important for tablets? Users do use the search function on their tablets % 80 73% % 20 0 Buy a black dress Buy a specific necklace Find information about returns 47

48 Other interesting results and observations Do users download an app? When asked if they would download the web store app, the users responded: 1. If they use it a lot, YES 2. If they like the mobile web, NO 3. If they shop a lot on this shopping site and trust the site YES Some users believe that an app doesn't work as well as a website and uses up more battery power. Others commented that they do not like it when their tablet screen is full of icons. 43% 30% 27% Yes No It depends 48

49 Other interesting results and observations App or mobile optimized? When you shop online from your tablet or mobile device do you prefer to use a mobile optimized website or an APP? App Mobile Web 31% 69% App Mobile Optimized 70% of users prefer to use a mobile optimized site over using an App. Since 14% (and growing) of all mobile purchases come from tablets, retail brands now have an incentive to create tablet optimized websites. App Tablet Mobile site iphone Android ipad Android 49

50 What happens if a website is mobile optimized? White House Black Market has a mobile optimized website for ipad but not for Android devices, which may explain its drastic variation in NPS ratings. Android users gave White House Black Market lower NPS rating than ipad users. Users' NPS rating of White House Black Market seems to be contingent upon whether they were using a mobile optimized site. Unoptimized Website global NPS 26% NPS Android 16% Website optimized for ipad NPS 46% 50

51 Other interesting results and observations NPS Scores - ipad Brand NPS Score Tablet Optimized? 10.71% 32.14% 57.14% 46 30% 40% 30% % 24.32% 45.95% 16 30% 40% 30% 0 Detractors Passives Promoters White House Black Market had the highest Net Promoter Score with ipad users in this study. There seems to be a direct relation between tablet optimization and users brand satisfaction. 51

52 Other interesting results and observations NPS Scores - Android Brand NPS Score Tablet Optimized? 21.43% 21.43% 57.14% % 60% 33.33% 27 40% 10% 50% % 36.36% 31.82% 0 Detractors Passives Promoters White House Black Market was the least popular with Android users. Kenneth Cole performed better with Android users because it had a tablet optimized website. 52

53 Other interesting results and observations Overall NPS 10.71% 32.14% 57.14% 26 30% 40% 30% % 24.32% 45.95% 22 30% 40% 30% 2 Detractors Passives Promoters While all brands have a positive NPS, White House Black Market has the highest with

54 Other interesting results and observations Lessons learned. Your Logo Your Text Your Text Your Text Your Text Your Text Your Text Your Text Mobile Optimized Site Affects Brand Desirability The results indicate that users of the White House Black Market website had the best success and ease of use ratings. It had the highest NPS of 46 with the ipad users and the lowest NPS of 0 with Android users. This may be because they have an optimized website for ios and not for Android. 54

55 International study International mobile benchmark study The same study was replicated and conducted internationally. In addition to the U.S., the study was conducted in UK, Spain and Germany. A total of 15 fashion brands were tested. To see the results of the international study, please click here. 55

56 Other interesting results and observations References Alert Box Comscore 1_2013_Desktop_Based_US_Retail_ECommerce_Spending econsultancy emarketer Ecommerce-Sales/ Gomez.com Internet Retailer NPS Net Promoter Score, Net Promoter and NPS are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Satmetrix Systems and Fred Reichheld Bain & Company 56

57 About UserZoom UserZoom is the #1 platform for cost-effective and agile usability testing and user experience analytics. We offer a worry-free, all-in-one solution: software + services + recruitment. 1 Software Platform UX Research Services Unmoderated Remote Usability Testing Live Web & Mobile Task-based Surveys UX Benchmarking Competitive Research International Research Information Architecture & Design Validation Card Sorting Tree Testing Click Testing Prototype Testing CX Measurement / VOC Live Web & Mobile True Intent Studies (Intercepts) Online Surveys Web Analytics Integration Software Platform 1 Recruiting Solutions UX Research Services Invitation links Private list Social media The best way to understand the power of UserZoom is to see it for yourself Request a Free Demo 2 Our UX Research Team ensures your success: 1. Strategizing 2. Initial training & support 3. Setting up studies 4. Managing all recruiting tasks 5. Launching, monitoring 6. Analyzing results, reporting 3 Recruiting Solutions We recruit in 3 ways: 1. Using a Panel Strict quality controls National and international reach 2. Customized invitation layer Intercept studies