Buying the Book

Preamble

After going to Blogger.com I was told to log in using my Google account. Since I don’t have an account I had to create one. No problem, other than that there was no direct link that said “don’t have a Google account click here.” So I had to find my way around to create an account.

I eventually found the “Create an Account-Blogger” page, though under the “Required information” section it asks you to put in “your current email address” in order to create a Google account.

What email address?

A Google email address? Another email service’s address? What if this is the user’s first time creating an email address? Does this imply that the user has to create an account with another service in order to create a Google account?

This is not very clear and will definitely be unclear to someone starting out with the Internet.

So I went to Google.com and the Gmail section in order to create a Gmail account and here’s what it said:

“To sign up, enter your mobile phone number below. We'll send you a text message with an invitation code to create your account.”

What? What if I don’t have a mobile phone for whatever reason?

It doesn’t matter, because when you click on the link that says: “Can I sign up without the invitation code? Or without a mobile phone?”

You get this answer:

“Currently, we are only sending these codes as text messages to mobile phones. So you will need to have a mobile phone with text message capabilities (most phones have this) and the invitation code itself”

Why should anyone have to have a mobile phone in order to gain an email address?

Answer: “One of the reasons we are offering this new way to sign up for Gmail is to help protect our users and combat abuse.”

Please. This is an easy way to lose potential customers and prevent new customers from creating Gmail account.

So if I don’t have a mobile phone, I lose (no account for me)?

Here’s another reason to lose customers:

Question: “Will it cost me money to receive the text message?”

Answer: “Your mobile service provider may charge you for the text messages you receive. See your mobile service plan for details.”

That doesn’t sound very encouraging.

What if I have a mobile phone and don’t want to give out my number, and there is no reason why anyone should have to, especially in order to create an email address.

I hope that if I do give out my number I will not receive any emails, text, or any messages whatsoever on my mobile phone from Google or anyone related to this transaction.

According to Google:

Question: “What will Google do with my mobile phone number?”

Answer: “We'll use your phone number to send an invitation code in a text message to your phone. In doing so, we store each phone number to make sure it is used to create no more than 10 accounts.”

“In accordance with the Gmail Privacy Policy, your number will never be sold or shared for marketing purposes without your permission, nor will we contact you using this number without your express permission.”

I hope so.

Sometimes you have to take risks in life.

Creating an email account does not need to be this frustrating.

Now onto the book search…

Google It

Typed in “Don’t Make Me Think” in the search box.

The author’s website http://www.sensible.com/ came up first in the results and his website let’s you buy the book from Amazon.com. Not yet.

The other search results were for Amazon related pages and other pages providing info on the book.

Another result that came up (9th listing from the top) is http://www.sherpastore.com, part of Marketing Sherpa, another marketing website, though the price is close to retail.

Go to Yahoo.com

Typed in “Don’t Make Me Think” in the search box.

Amazon.com came up first and often in the results.

The author’s website http://www.sensible.com/ also came up 2nd and 3rd in the results.

Spotcost.com also comes up as one of the results (8th listing from the top). This site claims to provide price comparisons of the book so it gets clicked.

Spotcost.com lists different vendors to buy the book from including Wal-Mart, Amazon Marketplace, Amazon.com, A1 Books, Abebooks, Alibris, Barnes & Noble, and Powells.

Most of these are familiar since I probably did business with them in the past through the Amazon marketplace.

Choosing a vendor

I chose to use Walmart.com since they are probably a trustworthy site and the price was acceptable as well.

Clicking on the Walmart.com link takes you to a page where you can read more about and buy the book. You get standard information about the book, what it’s about, what the price is and how much the shipping is.

What’s good about the Walmart.com page?

* Black type on a white background + White space on the borders = Easy to read.

* The page is simple and to the point.

* The links to the bottom of the page are convenient enabling you to quickly look at Gifting Options, Payment Options, and Shipping & Delivery.

The link to "About the book" is unnecessary. The information being linked to is already displayed on the page.

* The page has a wish list and registry enabling me to save this book for later purchases.

What could be improved about the page?

* There are no reviews (unlike Amazon.com). How can someone tell whether this book is worthwhile or not?

* The reader can zoom in on the cover but not look inside the book. The cover is nice, but remember not to judge a book by it cover so let consumers see the content.

* The page displays info about the book. What about info about the author and what the publisher has to say?

* Also, a significant part of the bottom half of the webpage specifies the payment options and shipping info.

Will the viewer have to read that info each time they look up a book? Put that info somewhere else.

That same space could have been used to talk more about the book or eliminated.

When selling something, focus on the information that will persuade the consumer to make a sale.

Perhaps the page can have separate links to payment options or shipping info. If I’m going to make repeated purchases from this website I’m not interested in seeing the credit card payment options and shipping info each time.

* There are no upsells or “buy this book with this other suggested book” such as Amazon.com offers.

* Is the book new, used, what condition is it in? Amazon.com specifies whether the books are new or used (Amazon Marketplace). Is one to assume that the book is new on the Wal-mart website?

* It would be nice to see how much I’m saving before I click on the “add to cart button” such as Amazon.com which displays the list price and the savings price including the percentage saved. Wal-mart displays this after you click on the “add to cart button.”

The only reason I clicked on the “add to cart button” was because I already saw the other prices on Spotcost.com including Amazon’s price and Wal-mart’s was cheaper and reasonable compared to the others.

Had I simply went to Walmart.com I would have to click on the “add to cart button” to view the discounted price, if any, and perhaps even go over to Amzaon.com to see how the price compares. If I didn’t like the price on Walmart.com I would either have to go back a page or update the item quantity to 0 instead of 1. I don’t need to do this each time I look up a book.

Make it easy to do business with your website.

Simply listing the list price and the discounted price like Amazon does will suffice.

Buying the book

Clicked on the “add to cart button” and needed to update the quantity from 2 to 1, from having to click the “add to cart button” to see what it does and how much I’m saving.

Checking out

Clicked on the checkout button and went to the section “New Online Customers” and clicked continue since “this is your first purchase from Walmart.com”

Signing up

The page asks standard information about the viewer (name, address, etc.)

Hopefully they won’t use the email to send advertisements and if they do, opt out

It asks about whether or not I want “Newsletter Subscriptions”. Nope, just want to order the book.

The Newsletter Subscriptions options is okay as a marketing promotion since it let’s Wal-mart keep in touch with its customers.

Those newsletters better be relevant and interesting to the customers who subscribe or else the newsletters will come across as a nuisance and interruption rather than something beneficial. People are already bombarded with newsletters and emails, many of which tend to be unnecessary (like many advertisements out there).

Wal-mart can change the line “Please uncheck this box if you don't want to receive our newsletter” to ““Please check this box if you want to receive our newsletter.”

Let the customer know that they chose the newsletter rather than you (Wal-Mart) choosing for the customer.

Processing the Order

Standard questions asked (name, address, phone, etc.)

Payments

Subtotal: ….
Shipping: ….
Tax: $1.69

Order Total: ….

Tax? What’s with the tax? Amazon doesn’t charge tax on books. Perhaps I should go over there (can’t for this exercise)…

Wal-Mart gives 3 payment choices

* Pay With a Wal-Mart Gift Card

- How many cards does a person need?

+ Good for database marketing on Wal-Mart’s part

- Bad for undisciplined consumers with multiple cards

* Pay With Bill Me Later

- (Bad for consumers who are “late payment challenged”)

* Pay With a Credit Card or Debit Card

Go with this one

(2 card choices in the drop down menu are Wal-Mart Credit Card and Wal-Mart Discover)

Filled out the credit card info

Confirmation

Everything looks okay.

The line “your order is not complete until you click here” and its “place your order” button appear twice. Once near the top of the page and again near the bottom.

While this may enhance the aesthetics of the page, this is unnecessary and confusing to the user.

Do I click on the top button or the bottom button?

I have to look at the hyperlink in order to discover that the buttons lead to the same destination.

How many people, especially those new to computers and the Internet know how to do that or even what a hyperlink is?

Make it easy and clear for the consumer. Having 1 line and “place your order” button is sufficient.

Conclusions

Wal-Mart gives me a confirmation number and says it will send a confirmation email.

Similar to what Amazon does.

Let’s see how this all turns out.

So far the buying experience was acceptable and I was familiar with the process.

Wal-Mart.com has not given me any strong reason to switch from Amazon.com to Wal-Mart.com