[thelist] how design affects ecommerce

[mia at miaridge.com]

On Fri, 11 Jan 2002, Nicole Parrot wrote:

> Is it just me or is there a blatant contradiction in what Mia posted?
> She's willing to give her shipping information on a website before she is
> ready to "check out", but giving her phone number on the phone is giving
> away valuable demographics information?

I think you've misunderstood what I meant by 'shipping information'.
I'll give a generic postcode (e.g. the Central Business District of my
city), my state or country in order to get shipping priced.

If the site provides a chart of approximate prices for shipping to
different locations for various items and delivery times, I'll use that
instead, but it's amazing how many sites don't provide a simple list of
additional charges.

I won't give my mailing address, real name or any other information until
I've decided to buy at that site.  If I'm asked for unnecessary specific
information while I'm still browsing or pricing products on a site, I'm
also going to leave and go somewhere else.

I don't live in the US so there's no point continuing to shop on a site if
the shipping costs are too high, or if they don't ship outside the US;
for me, shipping costs are a deal breaker.

cheers, Mia
(I'm sure I owe a tip now).