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Subject:Re: OTish: website usability From:Gregory P Sweet <gps03 -at- health -dot- state -dot- ny -dot- us> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:36:31 -0500
Make it easy to get just a quote. In B2G anyway, the people researching
products, looking for a real price (including shipping, taxes, etc,), are
often not the people with the authority to push the buy button.
The catalog had better be rock solid. If something has a name or part
number I better be able to find it by that name and/or the part number on
the site. Better yet if I already have an item, I should be able to put in
that item's name/number and get all associated parts, accessories, whatever
that go with it or can be used to repair it.
I deal with many B2G vendors and the online catalogs the vendors claim
they would like us to use are a joke. For example I recently needed to get
quotes for some Adobe Products. On two out of three sites I could find
media, and software assurance plans but could not find the actual product.
I could find neither on the third site. All three claimed to sell the
product I was looking for.
I agree with what others have said about general retail shopping carts, but
go even a step further: I prefer sites that let me shop and purchase
without registering at all. After all, I do not have to register at Target
or the grocery store every time I need some essentials, so why do online
retailers feel entitled to all my personal details just to sell me a
widget? It should be an option whether I want to trust you to store my
credit card, address and other billing info. I've got too much to keep
track of already without having to worry about all the user
IDs/passwords/credit card numbers I've sprinkled around the Internet on
one-time purchases. I just avoid buying from sites that require
registration to make a purchase, typically I go see if I can get the same
item from Amazon.
Cheers!
Greg
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