There is debate as to who coined the phrase buzzword bingo but Scott Adams undoubtedly
took the game global in 1994 when Dilbert
was given a buzzword bingo card on his way to a meeting with his boss. The same
year that this cartoon was created, the Internet population opened up beyond
researchers and academics as the Internet became available to the public.
1999 – 2000 saw the first generation of online stores as many established
retailers took their business online, although it was after the dot com bust of
2001 that retailers started to truly embrace the Internet.
In the last 5 years of mainstream eCommerce our vocabulary has
become richer to include terms such as Shopping Cart Abandonment, Purchase Momentum and Conversion Rate (to name but a few). Retailers regularly display
eCommerce tourettes, with repeated utterances of these eCommerce catchphrases.
So as with any technological advancements, the eCommerce revolution brought a new set of buzzwords.
Wikipedia defines a buzzword as "typically intended to impress one's audience with the pretense of knowledge." 5 years is not long for a new business channel to emerge and
mature but the underlying principles of commerce have been around for hundreds
if not thousands of years. These may be buzzwords for the digital space but they are not new to retail.
Customers’ expect the online shopping experience to learn from these hundreds of years of retail experience and their patience is running out with those
retailers that can't deliver a robust user experience based on these most basic
of underlying principles - this pretense of knowledge has no value to the customer, retailers need to
follow through with actions.
Take a simple task such as picking up and carrying items in a
bricks n’ mortar store. The Piggly-Wiggly
supermarket chain introduced the first ever Shopping Trolley back in
1937. The trolley has evolved since the 30’s but the purpose has remained
the same – to allow the customer to conveniently transport items with them as they
move around the shop.
Yet when stores went online these 70 years of
shopping experience were forgotten!
When a customer adds an item to their basket they are taken away
from the product page and forced to view the basket. Why shouldn’t the online
customer keep the basket with them at all times, like they do offline? Forcing
the user to view the Shopping basket every time a user clicks ‘add to basket’
is slowly being consigned to the web 1.0 history books, but why has it taken
retailers so long to implement basic principles that are established in the offline world?
Time is running out for those retailers that continue to talk
the talk but don't follow through with actions. Don't frustrate your customers
by hiding behind these so-called buzzwords and apply your offline retail
knowledge online.
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P.S.
Conchango are recruiting! If any of my ramblings interest you and you
are passionate about User Experience then we'd like to hear from you.
Why not contact me and let's have a chat?
Listening to: In Distance by Bitcrush.