- 13 Oct 2010
- 3 Comments
When savings are unbelievable…
During a recent usability study, using real price-points with actual savings, one participant remarked ‘its too good to be true’. Another said ‘I’m not doubting the whole site more the specific offer’. The participants all wanted to verify the original price on which the savings were based: ‘I’d keep this page open and do some research on Google’.
Trust is built
When your visitors are new or when savings are exceptional, shoppers will go and check the original price on other websites. Checking happens whether you want it to or not. There are real risks for website owners when they ignore this behaviour. Customers can get lost looking for the original price. They may see an alternative product or simply get distracted.
Facilitating the user’s additional research makes sense. Using a new window, you should link out to the specific product page, menu or price list where the original price is quoted. This saves the shopper a lot of time and effort. They are much less likely to get lost or distracted, you build some trust and you keep the experience as simple as possible.
I want to start out by saying that I love you guys work, and love reading your blog posts. But I feel this one deserves some critiscism. Hope you’ll take it in the right way.
So your conclusion/advice on this article is: If you have a good offer and link to other sites on the product page, make sure they open in a new window!
I was seriously hoping for more details in this article on how to build trust by good UI/IA/Design than “open external links in a new window”. The title “Create a smoother experience and improve trust” leads up to a LOT more than that.
On top of that, there is no details available on the author. Not in the “About the author”, nor on the “About us” page. Which isn’t exactly “building trust”. Is this maybe a guest post?
Sorry again for the harsh comment.
Hi Soeren
Thanks for taking time to respond and it’s good to hear that you (usually) like our posts. As you’ll see we’ve now added a bio and photo. I got ahead of myself with my post.
The post was supposed to be just a quick item aimed at those sites who happily quote savings without linking to the exact page that shows the original price or even without linking at all.. We are surprised at how many ecommerce sites continue with a ‘walled garden’ approach like this, despite users actual behaviour.
Cheers
Jay
I think that it is really important to increase trust with visitors to your site. Improving trust will have a significant effect on conversion rates.
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