I use the internet a lot. I’m browsing daily, reading articles & blogs, shopping, socializing, researching, paying bills, etc. etc. So, I come across usability issues pretty often. I’m even more prone to noticing these annoyances because it’s my job, which makes it that much more painful. However, I make it a point to learn from these instances. I see an issue and I immediately commit it to the “Don’t ever do that” portion of my memory. So, I’ve decided to start sharing. What’s the point in keeping it all to myself, right? I figure this could be a way to get these usability faux pas out in the open so that history will stop repeating itself. At the very least it’ll make me feel better and we all may learn something along the way. So, here I go….
A story about abandoned towels.
I’ve been thinking of getting new towels for a while now, but the frugal side of me has me waiting for a good deal. So, the other day, as I was browsing my money saving blogs, I noticed a post regarding a great deal on Ralph Lauren towels at Horchow.com. For those of you that don’t know, Horchow is a mail order only division of Neiman Marcus (with the exception of their Horchow Finale Stores—only 3 to be found).
Now, I don’t recall the exact sale price of the towels, but I know it had to be cheap to grab my attention. They were probably $6-7 a towel, and being Ralph Lauren, I knew (or assumed) that they’d be good quality. My mind was made up. I was getting new towels and I was super excited.
So, I went to their site to get my new towels. Everything was smooth sailing at first. I was able to efficiently navigate their “Pottery Barnesque” site to find the towels section and locate the product I was looking for. No problems there. There they were. My inexpensive Ralph Lauren towels.
With all good deals there must be sacrifices.
Now, you have to understand that when you’re shopping frugally, especially on a deal as good as this one, you may need to make sacrifices. In this case the sacrifice would be on the color. I knew I couldn’t be picky, but I wasn’t going to pay any money for something that wasn’t going to match my home. However, white, tan, brown, cream or even a nice shade of green would have been fine.
Here’s a “representative screenshot” of the Ralph Lauren towel product page. The actual page no longer exists because they have sold out, but I assure you this page will do.
It looks like any normal product page. Nice, big product photo, product name, description, price per product type, etc. There are things I would improve about this page, but overall it’s fine. However, the main issue with this page is the product color representation. There is none. The only list of available colors is located within the drop-down menu next to each product type (i.e. Bath towel, hand towel, wash cloth). In some cases, such as offering a product that only comes in red, green & blue, this works fine. However, when you have colors like papyrus, khaki, and crystal, it get’s a little more difficult for users to find what they’re looking for by process of elimination. They shouldn’t have to work that hard anyway.
Roadblock: which color is Larkspur?!
So, this was my problem. The listed color names were too vague and confusing. They were, white, bay leaf green, khaki, papyrus, meadow, primrose, crystal, sachet, petal, coral, larkspur and chili pepper. To add to the complexity, only 2 of the colors were still in stock and I had no idea which one belonged to which color in the photo. All I knew is that there was one color (a bright blue color) that I definitely did not want to get, even at this price. So, I was stuck. I tried to find answers via their online chat, but after about 20 minutes of my time, they were unable to help me.
In the end, I ended up leaving the site without purchasing anything. I abandoned my towels. That one blue color was too bright for me to take the risk and I wasn’t confident enough to make my purchase. I was pretty upset. I really wanted those towels. They would have looked great hanging in my guest bathroom. Just not in that color.
So, what could have made my shopping experience more successful?
It’s easy. One simple addition to the product detail page. All I needed were some text labels on the product photo to represent which color was which. It may not be the prettiest of all product photos, but it would have gained them a sale. Even in the less complex example above, labels would have been nice. The color options for that product are: truffle, fern, celeste and blush. Again, I eventually figured it out after thinking it through, but I don’t want to think. I want to buy. And I’m in the emotional state to buy. In my mind, I already owned those towels. I’m the best type of customer and, as a retailer, you need to take advantage of that. Don’t distract me with silly things such as thinking or guessing.
To take it a step further, they may even want to think about changing the color names to be more user friendly. Such as, brown, green, blue and pink. That may not be so simple for all products, but in this instance it would make things easier.
How many people are “walking away”?
Now, I’m sure they’re not crying about losing my $28 or so dollars, especially since they apparently sold all of the towels anyway, but I can guarantee you that there’s an even smaller possibility that I would have paid full price to play their guessing game.
So, we have to ask, how many sales are they losing because of this issue? How many people just give up like I did and “walk away”? I can guarantee it’s a lot. If a web saavy customer like myself gives up, then it’s easy to presume that there are others. So, make sure to keep the customer in mind when designing and refining your website. Make things easy and quick and intuitive. If you keep those few things in mind then you’ll be a step ahead of your competition, these instances will be avoided and you’re sales wont be impeded. Guaranteed.
Small Update.
After browsing through a few more of their towel selections, I did find another group of Ralph Lauren towels with a color chart. It’s a nice added feature but way too far down on the page. I have my resolution set to 1440×900 and I still missed it. The most common resolution these days is 1024×768, which means those users will have to scroll even further down than I did in order to find it. So, keep the important information above the fold. Don’t force your users to search for what they need because they may not do that. If I had seen this on my original visit then I would probably be the proud owner of some new towels, but it wasn’t on the product page I was viewing. However, it would have been nice if their customer service could have pointed me here.
Your turn.
Sachet. Primrose. Larkspur. What colors do you think of when you read those? A Terralever color expert will be reviewing your answers later this week.
(Not really. We don’t have one of those.)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great points here Jen… Maybe they did have a color chart somewhere, if you looked hard enough…. but like you said, as buyers we don’t want to have to work for our purchases especially with color names like Larkspur and Papyrus…. I don’t know what the heck that means and if there isn’t a labeled picture right next to where I add the product to my cart, I can guarantee that I will bail out. No doubt I will find another similar sale somewhere else that provides me with more confidence in my purchase.
I would have guessed primrose = pinkish, larkspur = greenish, and sachet = no [insert colorful word] idea. Clearly, I would have been wrong on all counts. Also clearly, I am not Terralever’s color expert.