Sample usability analysis: altex.ro checkout process

Hi, below I analyze altex.ro from a usability (UX) perspective.

altex-logo

First, some theory

1. “Show total costs before checkout, round up, estimate shipping and tax or find a way to show it to the user as soon as possible.” (9 Insights from ecommerce Usability Studies: MeasuringU)

  • You do present total costs, including shipping.
  • On the other, hand, I would suggest all the costs to be presented right-aligned, and written in a monospaced font (so, this way, it would be easy to check by the end user).
  • costs

2. “Minimize registration or avoid it altogether if you can.” (9 Insights from ecommerce Usability Studies: MeasuringU)

  • It is possible to order without registration. Liviu Taloi made a video about you: Probleme de usability pe checkout la ALTEX.ro on Vimeo
  • Unfortunately, the registration is highly indicated by you. You suggest it a lot. You don’t force it, but “Continue without an account” is not especially encouraged.

3. “Save form information!” (9 Insights from ecommerce Usability Studies: MeasuringU)

  • I entered my account, added 3 products in the shopping cart, then logged out. You just cleared my shopping cart.
  • I then added 3 products, filled in some data, refreshed the page. All the data was lost.
  • I made a fake order, added another product, went to the shopping cart. I had to enter all, but all of my data again. Nothing was saved.

4. “Left Rail Filter Auto Updates” (the filters should updated very quickly after selecting them) (9 Insights from ecommerce Usability Studies: MeasuringU)

  • You do this.

5. “Don’t Make Users Guess on the input format” (date format) (9 Insights from ecommerce Usability Studies: MeasuringU)

  • You don’t have a date. But you have a phone number, which, if I put this: “021-555.444.3”  or this: “(021)55.54.44.3”, is considered invalid. You should allow me to add the phone the way I please. The maximum checkup you should have is the total number of digits, not how they are inserted.

6. “Search is bad and frustrating” (9 Insights from ecommerce Usability Studies: MeasuringU)

  • You have no results for “telefon apple“, altough you do sell iPhones. If I search for iPhone, the first three results are accessories, the fourth is a cheap China phone, then some Apple phones are presented, in no logical order.

7. “Top Navigation Dominates” (you should put your navigation at the very top) (9 Insights from ecommerce Usability Studies: MeasuringU)

  • You do this, keep it.

8. “User Reviews Matter” (you should have reviews) (9 Insights from ecommerce Usability Studies: MeasuringU)

  • One of the most important products of your web site, a iPhone 6 phone, has two question comments, with no reply from you. That’s bad management. Either don’t approve the question, or answer it. It’s bad business to approve a question addressed to you and to ignore it completely. These are potential customers, taking their time to talk to you. And you ignore them.

9. “Don’t make it hard for people to pay their bill” (very simple paying form) (9 Insights from ecommerce Usability Studies: MeasuringU)

  • I visit your web site, add two products in the basket, select credit card as payment method. I am unable to pay. I return to the web site, you give me this contradictory information:

error
See the video with details:

10. “Save As Much Order Information As Possible” (5 UX Hacks That Can Immediately Increase Revenue)

  • After an order as a logged-out user, you don’t save anything.

11. “Graceful Error Handling” (do not empty the form, after error) (5 UX Hacks That Can Immediately Increase Revenue)

  • In the shopping cart, if I don’t select either County or Delivery town, you tell me I must select a delivery town. Shouldn’t I first select the county? You don’t help me with this.
  • The red label “please select an option” is very small written.
  • If I add some products, visit the checkout page, try to order, receive an error, remember I have a product which I still need to buy, go out of the checkout, add the product, you save me no information.

12. “81% Think Their Newsletter Is A “Must Have” (And Don’t Value Customer Privacy)” (The State Of E-Commerce Checkout Design 2012 – Smashing Magazine)

  • You do this – forced opt-out for the visitor. The newsletter is checked by default. Bad practice.

13. “41% Use Address Validators” (The State Of E-Commerce Checkout Design 2012 – Smashing Magazine)

  • You don’t. It’s fine.

14. “50% Ask For The Same Information Twice” (The State Of E-Commerce Checkout Design 2012 – Smashing Magazine)

  • You do this fine.

15. “Your Checkout Process Should Be Completely Linear” (Fundamental Guidelines Of E-Commerce Checkout Design – Smashing Magazine)

  • You do this.

16. “Add Descriptions To Form Field Labels” (Fundamental Guidelines Of E-Commerce Checkout Design – Smashing Magazine)

  • You should add the description to the email as label, not as a disappearing text. If someone fills in First Name, [tab], Last Name [tab], that person will not see the label for email.

17. “Use Only One Column For Form Fields” (Fundamental Guidelines Of E-Commerce Checkout Design – Smashing Magazine)

  • You don’t do this, you have multiple columns form fields.

18. “Use Clear Error Indications” (Fundamental Guidelines Of E-Commerce Checkout Design – Smashing Magazine)

  • You give me a popup “Please select payment method”, but for other errors you show the error message inline, with red. I would try & keep the consistency.

19. Mobile? “Include Only Vital Fields” (Designing A Better Mobile Checkout Process – Smashing Magazine)

  • You seem to have the same version of the web site on mobile. First, I tried http://www.mobilephoneemulator.com/, and, in there, I had some errors with viewing the card. I then used Google Chrome on Samsung Galaxy S4, Android 4.4.2. I viewed the web site OK, it was OK to add, but the site was not responsive, and it didn’t have mobile functionality. Very poor solution, for a big ecommerce site, not to have a mobile version.

20. Mobile? “Leverage Mobile UI Elements” (Designing A Better Mobile Checkout Process – Smashing Magazine)

  • No mobile.

21. Mobile? “Remove Distractions, Not Content” (Designing A Better Mobile Checkout Process – Smashing Magazine)

  • No mobile.

22. “Only use drop-down lists when there are less than 20 options” (3 Often Overlooked Checkout Usability Guidelines)

  • You have generally more than 20 options for city, you could consider a search function to add city/town. But my personal preference would be to leave things as they currently are.

23. “Provide extra reassurance when capturing non-standard information on checkout. ” (10 Customer-Delighting Checkout Usability Techniques | Rejoiner Conversion Rate Optimization Blog)

  • You don’t ask for non-standard information, other than the newsletter, which I’d remove or explain why it is mandatory.

24. “Contextual words like “continue, “proceed,” or “next” need clarification.” (10 Customer-Delighting Checkout Usability Techniques | Rejoiner Conversion Rate Optimization Blog)

  • I’d explain what happens when I click “finish the order”.

25. “The primary call to action should be the most dominant visual element of each page.” (10 Customer-Delighting Checkout Usability Techniques | Rejoiner Conversion Rate Optimization Blog)

  • In the checkout, you have a big yellow button for cupons. Not good.
  • Also, the current buttons are not as big as they should be.

26. “The Guest checkout option should be the most prominent. Preferably placed in the top area of the page.” (10 Customer-Delighting Checkout Usability Techniques | Rejoiner Conversion Rate Optimization Blog)

  • It’s not.

27. “Customers should be allowed to force-proceed through incorrect validation errors (such as an address validator).” (10 Customer-Delighting Checkout Usability Techniques | Rejoiner Conversion Rate Optimization Blog)

  • There isn’t such an option.

28. “The checkout-process must be completely linear (e.g. there are no sub-steps going back to a previously shown page).” (10 Customer-Delighting Checkout Usability Techniques | Rejoiner Conversion Rate Optimization Blog)

  • This is OK.

29. “It should be clearly shown when extra cost is being added to the order. (tax and shipping)” (10 Customer-Delighting Checkout Usability Techniques | Rejoiner Conversion Rate Optimization Blog)

  • The delivery tax is written with a not-so-big font. I’d fix this.
  • delivery

30. “Attractive shopping carts” (Shopping Carts Gallery: Examples and Good Practices – Smashing Magazine)

  • Not so much, the bold is applied to too many things.

31. “Links to shopping cart should be visible” (The 2015 Ecommerce Site Checklist | We Make Websites)

  • To me, the shopping cart button is not so proeminent as it could be.

32. “The shopping cart should be detailed” (Shopping Carts Gallery: Examples and Good Practices – Smashing Magazine)

  • I think you do this just fine.

33. “Go back to previous steps in shopping cart” (The 2015 Ecommerce Site Checklist | We Make Websites)

  • You only have one step.

34. “Fields in shopping cart should have the appropriate length, no limits on text input” (The 2015 Ecommerce Site Checklist | We Make Websites)

  • You do this.

35. “Print information in the order” (Shopping Carts Gallery: Examples and Good Practices – Smashing Magazine)

  • You could consider adding a “print this” button.

36. “Group items in cart” (Shopping Carts Gallery: Examples and Good Practices – Smashing Magazine)

  • I think it would be nice if you would group phones & accessories together, for example.

37. “Continue shopping link” (Shopping Carts Gallery: Examples and Good Practices – Smashing Magazine)

  • You have this.

38. “Return policy and warranty” (Shopping Carts Gallery: Examples and Good Practices – Smashing Magazine)

  • You have this in the shopping cart, on the right. But it’s written with small font.

39. “Privacy policy should exist” (Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization – 91 Point Checklist and Infographic – Moz)

  • No such thing.

40. “Use email addresses for usernames.” (Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization – 91 Point Checklist and Infographic – Moz)

  • You do this.

41. “Tell the buyer about the delivery company you’ll use” (Shopping Carts Gallery: Examples and Good Practices – Smashing Magazine)

  • You don’t do this.

42. “Delivery instructions” (Shopping Carts Gallery: Examples and Good Practices – Smashing Magazine)

  • You don’t provide information on how the product will be delivered.

43. “Availability in the physical store” (Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization – 91 Point Checklist and Infographic – Moz)

  • It’s a bit complicated, because you have many stores, but I think you do this OK.

44. “Validate fields inline” (Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization – 91 Point Checklist and Infographic – Moz)

  • You should validate the field right after filling it in.

45. “Eliminate distractions, tempting as they may be” (Shopping Cart Usability : Why a simple, honest checkout sequence (usually) wins | UX Magazine)

  • Apply coupon should be much smaller.
  • I’d consider removing the up & bottom menus when in the shopping cart.

46. “Offer Persistent Shopping Cart” (Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization – 91 Point Checklist and Infographic – Moz)

  • You do this.

47. “Don’t complicate Password Selection” (Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization – 91 Point Checklist and Infographic – Moz)

  • You ask for a minimum of 6 characters.

48. “DO: Display Site Seals” (5 Smart Ways to Optimize Customer Checkout and Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment)

  • You do this.

49. “Unexpected costs” (Checkout Page Optimization: Just Follow the F.A.C.T.S. – Moz)

  • You don’t do this.

50. “Problem 5: Shipping Times Are Too Long Or Unclear” (How To Use Conversion Optimization To Battle Shopping Cart Abandonment [Infographic] | Unbounce)

  • I made an order Friday, it was delivered Monday. I didn’t know, until receiving an SMS, Monday, when will my product be delivered.

Personal feedback:

  • You have much too little product information, even for products which should be important to you (iPhone 6, best-selling laptops).
  • The “31 days” warranty, as opposed to eMAG’s “30 days” is a silly contest. Nobody cares about that.
  • 10x the difference is fine for a physical store. In online it is very clear that there are stores which have a cheaper product than you have. Also, people know that the 10x difference is paid not by you, Altex, but by the product distributor, thus it’s a bit unfair.
  • If I were you, I’d focus on improving the relationship with present-day customers (replying to comments, for one), and on delivering what you currently offer (if you say you deliver, deliver).
  • The affiliate thing you did on November 21st, for Black Friday, was bad. You allowed affiliates to promote the store, and, on November 21st, you closed the online shop. You should have, in my opinion, accept your mistake and pay the affiliates some fictional commission, based on expected results. So, if affiliate X sent you 100 visitors, on Black Friday give that affiliate a commission of 5%, let’s say, based on average conversion rate. Emag handled similar situations much better. Or, don’t close the online store for Black Friday, which is even more natural thing to do.
  • You asked for my feed-back for delivery. That’s, in my opinion, irrelevant. I think that around 3-10% of people who are unhappy with the way the delivery was made will write about the problem online. You just need to listen to online conversations. On the other hand, you do need some feed-back on the online store, since the people who are unsatisfied in there tend to be much more quiet.
  • I would have loved to know when was the package taken by the courier from you.
  • In the product page, you use tabs for product specifications. Read this article to better understand why people prefer to scroll, rather than to click.
  • For product descriptions and specifications, I’d use a bigger font, and a bigger contrasting color. Small text with dark gray on light gray is not good for reading important information.
  • It’s not nice for the client to use product codes which only appear on your web site. Not good business.
  • You should add your own product photos.
  • “1 comentarii”?
  • You should not allow spam comments (see the comments area).

spam

2018.04.05: Also see How to Optimize Your Checkout Cart By Understand Natural Human Behavior – CustomLogoCases Blog.

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2 comentarii la „Sample usability analysis: altex.ro checkout process”

  1. Salut,

    mi-a placut analiza ta, atenta si pertinenta. Te rog sa-mi spui daca ai intreprins cumva vreun exercitiu similar si asupra altor site-uri de e-commerce din domeniu sau asta este singurul?

    M-ar fi interesat opinia ta despre mediagalaxy.ro si emag.ro ;-))

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