Why sites should try and know their Users?

When we buy a shiny sports shoe for running / jogging / walking / drinking beer or whatever, if you bought it from an E-Commerce store, chances are, they will recommend you other shoes that you can buy! Very few take the route of Often Bought Together and actually show you a Show Cleaning Kit, Socks. After all its logical, I am already done with my Shoe Purchase, what are the chances that I will but another one. Men will say Aye! while women will completely disagree.

The same for women does not work. Data says, they buy cheaper and more affordable shoes in multiple colours and styles and then pair it. Which means, its perfectly logical to show them the Same Shoe in another colour or a Similar Shoe in Another ColorThe another colour part is important for about 50% of the user group while the other 50 can very well swing the other way. Best is not to take a chance and display both.

And don’t show socks, most of them wear peds these days!

A whole lot of Red Shoes!

A whole lot of Red Shoes!

What are you selling?

Are you selling what people are searching?

Or are you just pushing things. Most common thing in today’s e-commerce is that when a product is not available, we put a Big Large Block with a JS Scroller and fancy jQuery saying “People who saw this product also saw this”. But is it really what I want or it’s just some makeshift arrangement. This is not as random as it seems to be.

When women look for Shoes, they are based on a Type, Style and Colour. The colour part is very important here. As opposed to when men look for Shoes its mostly based on Purpose and Brand. This is a general observation of Shopping Behaviour around me.

Then why is it that we do not take in into account? Attached is an image from a Popular E Commerce website and a very nicely done but it works only when my search matches a category. If I had searched for Yellow Headphones the same logic does not apply!

It is probably time for products to be listed by Tags rather than Categories and then organising the tags in a more user friendly manner.

Flipkart's product suggestion widget for items that are out of stock

Flipkart’s product suggestion widget for items that are out of stock

Groceries are not exactly E Commerce

Post ZopNow many people have asked me why the website does not really adhere to the many basics of e commerce that we have come to expect over the last few years. The answer is simple, Groceries are not exactly E Commerce, in other words Retail. 

Let me put this in much more simpler words. Groceries are not really Benetton or Adidas. They are a repetitive purchase process, very boring and done in large quantities, often in numbers greater than 50 for one session. And this process is repeated more than once in a month, sometimes more than once in a week

This brings us to the next part of this kind of e-commerce, Speed. A customer should be able to add all these items at lightning speed so that this online experience results in lesser time consumption overall over the conventional method. And to bring in speed one has to get rid of some of the steps in regular retail.

A clip from a recent advertising campaign

A clip from a recent advertising campaign

Mirror360

An Antisocial Network – Founder, Mirror360

The designs were created to encompass all possible features that could be included. More cannot be disclosed unfortunately. The project is not online as yet.

Large Icons and Large Size text is used to create the interaction and feature points for the website / portal

Attractive Graphs and Charts are used to liven up the otherwise boring sections

Forms and Rating tables are custom designed to give a better interaction experiece

Experience Design

The project started with us receiving an already existing prototype for the site prepared to guide the UI designs. Halfway into the project we did realize that the initial prototype was insufficient to handle the complexities of the project. A fresh approach was taken thereafter to create a complete experience. See attached screenshots.

Cellbazaar

Cellbazaar is an inhouse project that got stalled after initial efforts.

Homepage, a place where the user can purchase a cellphone

Research a phone

Page to select and sell a phone through open bidding

The website is for buying and selling cellphones online. A prototype was initially made to understand the whole idea and present it to prospective investors. We are still open to the idea to setup the engine and backend for the same. Interested investors may contact us. View gallery to see larger screen shots.