E-commerce Prototype Testing
Creating the optimal checkout process
A leading e-commerce company was looking to enhance their online checkout process by expanding the online payment options made available to their customers. The company wanted to understand how this payment option could best be incorporated into the current checkout process. In addition, they developed three different message options and wanted to understand which one best communicated their message - and if the offers were compelling enough to influence additional purchases. AnswerLab was asked to design a research solution to identify how to incorporate the new payment option into the current checkout process and to determine the appropriate ‘user-friendly’ messaging prior to launch.
Given the volume of the company’s online business, we felt using a large-sample methodology was the best approach. Our research solution was designed to help our client make an educated decision on which message most appropriately conveyed the value proposition of the additional payment option, as well as to understand how to clearly incorporate this new application into the current checkout process. We recommended recruiting 625 current customers and 625 potential customers, all of whom had experience shopping online. To ensure the study reflected a realistic online purchase environment, AnswerLab created and built three fully functioning online prototype environments, each of which communicated one of the client’s message options. We used online technology to implement a monadic research study to capture qualitative, quantitative and behavioral data for each prototype. The research allowed us to obtain concrete data points for all three messages across key metrics such as awareness, recall, purchase consideration and usage of the new online payment option.
We found there was a significant increase in satisfaction with the overall checkout process among users who utilized the new payment option. There were also opportunities to improve the presentation and increase the clarity of the checkout information provided, as many users had difficulty locating the details they required to make an educated decision on the new payment offer. Our recommendations for improvement were focused to increase comprehension and to meet online shoppers’ own expectations with an online checkout process. The research also gave our client valuable insights in how to effectively communicate the information to their current (and potential) customers and how to best integrate this feature into their current checkout process. More importantly, the results provided our client with actionable results which allowed them to make educated, user-friendly decisions prior to the launch of a new feature application.
