Online Shopping Through Consumers Eyes Book

Foreword     xvii
Acknowledgements     1
Preface     3
Introduction     5
What We Didn't Ask Them     7
Research Basis & Methodology     9
Pre-Purchase Marketing     11
Introductory Remarks     13
General Online Advertising & B2C Marketing Questions
Which search engine do you primarily use to find products/services?     15
When searching for a product/service on the Internet, do you realize that some of the search results you see are sponsored?     16
If you knew/know exactly which ones are sponsored, would/do you treat them with more caution, having more confidence in the organic search results?     17
How often do you engage in pre-purchase research prior to making your decision on where to buy?     18
As you shop online, how would you characterize yourself?     19
When shopping for a product, how many stores do you look at?     20
Once you have found an online retailer that you are interested in, how will you make sure you can easily return to their website?     21
When shopping for products requiring ongoing replenishing and receiving satisfactory service, would you still compare your retailer's offer to other offers next time you need their product?     22
How long does the full process from product research to a purchase normally takeyou?     23
Do you clean web cookies? If so, how often?     24
How important is it to have online retail websites offering customers personalized shopping?     26
When do you do your online Christmas shopping?     27
Once you have done your product research in offline stores and catalogues, how often do you choose to shop for the product online?     28
Which of the following would summarize your online product research purpose?     29
As a consumer, rank the following online advertising media on a scale of 1 to 10: banners, interstitial ads, floating ads, pop-ups/pop-unders, video ads     31
Rank the appeal/attractiveness of the following three types of banners on the scale of 1 to 5: static, animated, JavaScript-based     35
If you see a banner advertising a product without a call to action, would you attempt to click it?     36
Which of the following banner sizes do you find most attractive?     38
If on an advertising banner you saw a merchant advertising a price of {dollar}X with smaller font, explaining that this special price came only with longer contracts or larger order amounts, would you feel like they were hoping to mislead you?     39
If an online retailer's ad were presented to you by a trusted source, would the likelihood of you clicking on it increase?     41
When you find an unknown shop on a well-known shopping network, how likely are you to purchase the smaller merchants' merchandise: through larger network, directly, directly if prices are lower?     42
Do you turn on banner blocking features of your browsers and/or firewall software?     43
If you were exposed to a TV/radio commercial, newspaper/magazine ad, or a direct mail piece advertising a product/service of interest and mentioning an order-accepting website address, would you visit the website?     44
Do you participate in online contests/prize drawings?     45
Website Architecture, Usability & Decisive Factors
How many clicks do you want individual product pages to be away from the websites homepage?     47
What is the longest acceptable loading time for a webpage (before you choose to abandon the website)?     48
Does a mention of a physical address (versus a PO Box) on an e-tailer website instill more confidence?     49
To which do you give preference: an actual e-mail address listed on the website or a "contact us" form?     50
Do you see an ability to view an online retailer website via your mobile device as an advantage?     51
Would you place an order via your mobile device with an in-built Internet browser?     52
Have you ever shopped (or if not, would you consider shopping) with an overseas online merchant?     53
Does an e-tailer that has their website localized into several major world languages instill more confidence/trust in you?      54
Is the country where the product is manufactured one of the key factors you consider?     55
Do you base your shopping choice on the materials of which the product is made?     56
All factors being equal, are you more likely to shop with a website that has a toll-free phone number prominently displayed on top of each page?     57
Does a memorable or an easy-to-dial toll free phone number instill more credibility in an online merchant?     58
If an online store had a toll free number prominently displayed on each page, which would you prefer: ordering online or ordering over the phone?     59
Which of the following payment options would you prefer in an online store (if you could choose any)?     60
If you had two e-tailers to choose from: merchant 1 with lower prices but poor customer support, and merchant 2 with slightly (10%-20%) higher prices but excellent support, from which one would you purchase?     61
Would you expect better customer support from online retailers selling higher ticket items, or support equal to that of web-stores selling lower-priced merchandise?     62
What is the maximum period of time you will wait on the phone for a web-store phone operator to answer your call?     63
On which schedule do you prefer call support centers to be available?     64
When/if you realize that phone support is outsourced to a third party, will you view it as a disadvantage (provided you receive satisfactory service)?     65
If it is obvious that the phone support operator's first language is not English, do you view it as a disadvantage (provided you receive replies to your questions)?     66
Is the gender of the phone operator important?     67
If upon calling in you never get to talk to a live person, will you still shop with that e-tailer? Please grade the likelihood of you shopping with them on a scale of 1 to 10     68
Rank the following e-commerce website disadvantages according to the severity of impact they have on making you abandon the website without completing a purchase     69
How often do you read Shipping Policies before placing an order?     70
When an order shipped on time does not arrive promptly, and it is the fault of the carrier, on whom do you place the burden of responsibility?     71
When an item shipped was damaged in transit due to the fault of the carrier, on whom do you place the burden of responsibility?     72
How often do you read Return Policies before placing an order?     73
How often do you turn to the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) pages/sections on merchant websites?     74
Rank the following factors on a scale of 1 to 10 depending on their influence on you while shopping online: recognized brands, wide selection of products, availability of coupons/deals, reviews, detailed pictures, lists of bestsellers, complimentary gifts     75
Would you ask an online store about sending you a printed catalogue of their merchandise?     80
If you liked one product's description better than another's, how much more would you be willing to spend on the one you liked more?     81
When a merchant offers additional content, which of the following does it do?     82
Does the presence of additional useful content increase the likelihood of you bookmarking the merchant's website?     83
How would you feel if instead of the free content, a merchant offered you a book with this content as a gift with every order?     84
Would it lessen the value of the above-quoted book if it were an eBook (as opposed to a hard-copy)?     86
When browsing the Internet for a specific product, what criteria ultimately dictate you choosing one store over another to make your purchase?     87
Tools & Trends
Which of the following websites do you use: price comparison sites, review sites, coupon sites, rebate sites?     89
If you knew that some of the product/service comparison websites were paid (by the retailers they feature) to feature their specific products/services, would it bring the value of such websites down?     90
If you found a specific product or a particular deal on a partner website that redirected you to the main merchant website, which would you bookmark in the process and/or return back to?     91
What is your view of software that self-installs on your computer, and then offers you shopping options when you are in the market for a product/service?     92
Do you find an option of multiple product comparisons within one shop to be a useful tool?     93
Have you ever used the above-quoted option of multiple product comparisons within one shop?     94
If a product/service was recommended to you by a friend/peer, would you go online to check it out?     95
Do you recommend products/services purchased online to your friends/peers?     96
Should online merchants have live online chat (text chat) help available?     97
What is your view of live online chat personnel initiating chats while you are looking around the website (and/or adding items to your shopping cart)?     98
Do you find video-introductions by a company CEO, a celebrity, or other authoritative figure to be influential when used on the websites of online retailers?     99
On a scale from 1 to 10, rank reviews/testimonials from the following parties: peer, third party, celebrity, trusted experts     101
List three products or services (or types of products/services) that you cannot picture yourself buying online     105
From where do you most often shop online?     108
What time of the day is the most likely time for you to shop online?     109
What day of the week is most convenient for you to do your online shopping?     110
How much money do you spend online every year?      111
Do you believe online shopping can become addictive?     112
Which of the following would be the maximum price per product/service that you are willing to spend online?     113
What would you consider a substantial one-purchase spending for the total of an online order?     114
What is the likely length of time you would spend deciding which online retailer you will place your substantial-amount order with?     115
What product price range makes you spend time shopping for a better price?     116
In which of the following product categories do you always expect to find a better deal online?     118
In which of the following service categories do you always expect to find a better deal online?     119
Do you expect online merchants to offer price-matching and/or price-beating?     121
How often do you search for a coupon, discount and/or deal before committing to buy?     122
Purchasing Phase     125
General Questions
Does mandatory registration with a website to make a purchase cause you to abandon the website?     127
On a scale of 1 to 10, express your opinion regarding the following mandatory registration fields: sex, date of birth, e-mail address, phone number(s), full mailing address     128
What is your view of up-selling and cross-selling in the checkout process?     132
What is the longest acceptable duration of the checkout process?     133
If a merchant offers "free shipping", but you find out that it is only the "ground shipping" that is free, do you feel you are being mislead?     134
Which of the following options of shipping cost calculation do you find most appealing?     135
What are your views of additional unexpected service charges or processing fees added on top of the order total?     136
When do you expect e-retailers to offer gift services?     137
What They Buy & How They Do It
Would you shop for unique/unusual/fun merchandise online?     139
If you shopped for the above type of products in the past, would you be in the market for another type of unique and/or fun product online?     140
Would an immediate offer of an additional discount prompting you to place a new order with the same merchant work with you?     141
If you received a coupon/discount offer within one month of your original purchase that would apply to your future orders only, how would you feel?     142
Have you ever used mail-in rebates?     143
Post-Purchase Marketing & Other Questions     145
Post-Purchase Marketing
How often do you participate in surveys offered on the order confirmation page?     147
If you opted-in for being informed about merchant promos, how would you want to be contacted?     148
If you opted-in for a merchant newsletter, how often would you want to receive it?     149
How many e-mails do you have to look through every day?     150
Grade the importance of the following factors with regards to the formation of customer satisfaction in the post-order phase     151
Other Questions
Do you subscribe to blogs, RSS news feeds and/or podcasts?     155
Do you (or any member of your family) participate in social networks or online forums?     156
Can you picture yourself as a person running an online retail shop?     157
Conclusion     159