Have an online shop? Then focus on the first-time buyer

First-time buyers in your online shop need to be able to move forward without unnecessary uncertainty. Far too many online retailers spend more energy on frequent shoppers than on getting new customers into the shop. In this video from 2010, I show an example from an online bag shop.

First-time buyers in your online shop don’t trust you yet

An owner had emailed me a link to his online shop. I thought it looked great, and there were lots of good things, including a clear indication of how far you were through the purchase.

But when I reached the customer details page, the first thing I saw was a field for retrieving an existing customer profile using an email address and password. The details a new customer needed to enter were further down.

It wasn’t necessarily a technical error. It was a place where I thought there was room to improve the experience.

An optional login can still look like an obstacle

A new customer may be sceptical and unsure. If the first thing they see is a password field, they may think: But I don’t have an account here. Even if there’s an explanation, the customer may not take the time to read it.

Getting someone to buy for the first time is hard. So it’s a shame if they become uncertain right at the point of completing the purchase.

Show the expected details first

My suggestion was to reverse the order. First show the fields for name, address and delivery. Customers expect to provide those details when a bag needs to be sent to them.

A returning customer has already experienced the shop working. They’ll be better able to find a login a little further down. It’s the new customer, who doesn’t yet have that trust, you particularly need to help through the process.

I’ve also talked about a test of which subscription the customer sees first, where we measured both purchases and revenue.

A tight T-shirt and an email from Carry Along

First, thanks to Filecamp for a lovely T-shirt. It’s a little too tight, so I’m afraid I’ve put on a bit of weight. Perhaps I’ll pass it on to a nice homeless person. As before, this business of people sending T-shirts is just messing around, not something I get paid for.

What I want to show comes from an email from a man behind Carry Along, a website selling bags. He’s read E-pusher and is really pleased with it. He says things are going well and sends a link.

I take a look and am impressed. It’s a bloody good-looking website. But I find a place with plenty of room for improvement. It’s not a technical error. It’s a typical thing lots of online shops do.

I’ve chosen the bag and just want to pay

I’ve got to a bag costing around 1,500 kroner, specifically 1,599 kroner in this example. Everything’s fine, and now I need to enter my customer details.

There are lots of good things on the page. A display showing steps one, two, three and four makes it clear where I am in the purchase. But let’s put all the good things aside and look at what’s interesting.

The first thing I see is the option to retrieve a customer profile using an email address and password. The other details come further down.

I know it’s optional. Even so, putting that option first focuses on the person buying for the second time.

My mum might think: But I don’t have a password

The hard customer to win is often the first-time buyer. Getting someone in from Google AdWords or elsewhere and convincing them to buy a bag is the challenge.

The new customer may be sceptical, worried and nervous. That’s why the first thing they see on the way to payment shouldn’t be a username or password field.

I use my mum as an example. She might look at the fields and think: Hang on, email and password, I don’t have those here.

Perhaps she’ll read the explanation and realise it’s for people who’ve shopped there before. But perhaps she’ll think the internet is a strange place and not for her. Then you’ve lost the sale right there. What a shame.

Reverse the order

My suggestion is simple: Take the section where a new customer enters their details and put it at the top. Move the option to retrieve an existing customer profile further down.

A new customer expects to enter their name, address and the other details about where to send the bag. That’s not strange. It fits what they’re doing.

The person returning has already chosen to come back. They’ve received their bag, experienced things working and built trust in the shop.

That customer is much better placed to spend ten seconds looking for the login option and finding it further down.

You’ve already convinced the returning customer

When you prioritise the returning customer at the top, you risk losing some first-time customers. They’re the ones who don’t yet know whether they can trust you.

So my view in the video is that more or less all the focus in an online shop should be on the first-time visitor. The person who’s been there before and come to trust you will find the other button.

I show a specific point in the buying process where, in my opinion, the order could be improved. It’s a reflection on the experience in 2010, not a measured result from a change at Carry Along.