[thelist] how design affects ecommerce

[Jon Hall]

I'd have to entirely disagree. That doesn't follow normal sales practices.
People have been selling things for thousands of years. It's a pretty
refined science. It doesn't matter if the sale is online or not.
After a potential customer has expressed any kind of interest in purchasing,
do NOT just answer their question. In this case, the question is, "What is
tax and shipping?". You answer their question, but you ask another one back.
That's the hook. Hopefully they bite.

If the customer is on the phone and you have to put them on hold, at the
very least get their phone number, THEN you put them on hold. This get's the
customer in the mindset that they are in the process of purchasing
something. Kind of like the line at the grocery store. Once you are in the
line and you look down and you think that you might not want that gallon of
milk, because you really only need the half gallon, most people are not
going to get out of line, run back to to the dairy department and get the
smaller one instead. They will buy the larger one anyway.

During an online transaction, since there is never any contact with the
potential customer, so it's very hard to "sell" the customer. The best way
is to get them in the mindset that they are now buying something, is to
collect their information, before presenting shipping and tax information.
The grocery store analogy works here too. Tax is not applied until the
entire order has been sent down the little ramp to the bagger. That is the
grocery store's way of locking you into a purchase. It works very well. We
all know what happens if someone decides to take an item off of the bill
after it's been rung up. The cashier calls the manager, while everyone in
the line behind you stares at the back of your head, thinking really nasty
thoughts.

You say in the buyers eye's it's dishonesty? I dont know what world you are
living in, but most people are stupid or don't have time to care. They just
want to get their stuff and go. The small percentage of people who actually
will cancel their order because the order process is not to their liking are
the "nit-pickers". You don't want them as customers anyway. They are not
going to be satisfied no matter how much you try. There is nothing dishonest
about asking a customer for their information showing them shipping and tax
prices. They can close their browser window at any time.

Sorry for the diatribe, but having sold video games for a living on the
internet, on the phone, and in person, for 4 years, 6 days a week ( two of
which were at a flea market), I know how consumers act, and I could sell an
ice cube to an Eskimo if necessary. My shopping cart follows the principles
I learned all those years ago, and it works.

jon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith" <cache at dowebs.com>
To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:42 PM
Subject: RE: [thelist] how design affects ecommerce
> I've designed and sold dozens of different shopping carts over the
> years. And every one of them requires the buyer to select "Where
> your purchase will be shipped to" before it will add their first item.
> From then on I can display the actual shipping and, if applicable, tax
> in an acurrate grand total every time they add, adjust, or remove an
> item. That destination has to be collected at some point, why not up
> front? And the shipping/tax/total has to be calculated at some point,
> why not every time the cart changes. I consider it just plain laziness
> to not give that info to the buyer. But more important, as you point
> out, it's a sale killer to try to hide the grand total until after you've
> extracted a buyer's life story from them. In the buyer's eye it's
> dishonesty no matter how you try to justify it.
>
> keith
>
> --
> For unsubscribe and other options, including
> the Tip Harvester and archive of TheList go to:
> http://lists.evolt.org Workers of the Web, evolt !