

(ideas for startups) 6 Ideas to improve Online Shopping - ChrisNorstrom
http://www.chrisnorstrom.com/2011/07/6-ideas-to-improve-online-shopping/

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orky56
Not trying to sound pretentious but...

Have you tried thinking these ideas all the way through? When I'm coming up
with a new idea/design/product I first try and imagine why the current
iteration is the standard way of doing things. Also, I rack my brain trying to
understand the marginal value added and if that's enough to overcome the
inertia of the current iteration. This typically involves thinking of all
possible scenarios, including corner cases and then evaluating how often each
happens. E.g.

#1 a) What if people had multiple packages coming on the same day or from
different shipping companies? Their phones would be beeping non-stop. b) What
if people don't have SMS plans? Each SMS would cost them. c) If it requires an
opt-in system, each store that offers shipping needs to require this field
from each customer.

#3-#6 are just recommendations about best practices that don't necessarily
take into account why things are the way they are. Stores want all this info
because if you've invested this much time the first time, it makes future
purchases easier and now you'll have a reason to come back. The question then
becomes, how many initial purchases are lost and then what is the net effect
in terms of Lifetime Value of the Customer.

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ChrisNorstrom
Good questions: #1 a) most people don't have multiple packages coming in. If
they do, just remind them both are due today, simple. Only send SMS alerts
between 9am-9pm so you don't wake them up. You can get their time zone info
from their address.

#1 b) just use email alerts if they don't want SMS alerts.

#1 c) when customers checkout they have to enter their email and phone anyway
just a checkbox next to both with the option of (alert me the day before my
package is going to arrive). They can choose 1 or both.

The rest are just preferences, I added an edit on my blog to better explain
the whole guest checkout is important thing.

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mitcheme
Re #5, when I was looking online for laptops it was really annoying how some
retailers just _would not_ have pictures of the keyboards. Given how terrible
some laptop keyboards are, this is kind of important. I hate when the
important keys are squished up to fit in keys that just start up their
bloatware. I want a decent-sized tab key, not a key that launches Outlook or
Spammy Games Center every time I accidentally whack it trying to indent a
line.

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Stwerner
For #1 - I've always been pretty disappointed with the shipping companies
tracking systems. Maybe I just don't understand what problems they are having,
but if you have to scan items each step of the way, regardless of scale,
shouldn't it be fairly straightforward to get the newest data for each package
to the website pretty quickly?

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creativeone
All online coupon codes in one place. And no, retailmenot doesn't cut the
mustard.

