September 24, 2001 New Thinking:
Fast downloading, information rich websites

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• 59 percent of people want more product information
• 40 percent will visit a site more often if its pages load faster
• 36 percent want personalization features
• Only 20 percent are interested in multimedia or rich media features on a website
• Only 12 percent are interested in mobile commerce facilities

"To make the best use of their budgets in the near term, most companies should avoid risky, glamorous Web enhancements," according to Cormac Foster, analyst, Jupiter Media Metrix. "Retail sites especially might learn that they can address their user experience issues at a low cost without having to invest in new technologies."

It has been obvious from day one on the Web that what people want is fast downloading, information rich websites. Speed is a critical factor that drives Web usage. When people come to a website they are invariably looking for information. They don’t want to hang around. They don’t want to be left waiting. The best website is the one that gets them the right content fastest.

Despite these critical and obvious demands, too many technologists, marketers and designers force on people what they absolutely don’t want. Mobile commerce has not worked because it wastes time and money. When mobile commerce delivers the right information faster and cheaper than a website, then it will work. Rich media pundits are like reverse Luddites – they demand that you have the rich media technology whether you want it or not. They think that because something is more difficult to do it must be better.

Staples.com has made a success of selling office supplies on the Web. It has done this by finding out what its customers want and giving it to them. Its number one priority has always been to make its website usable. That sounds like an obvious thing to do. So why are there so many websites doing the exact opposite?

It’s down to the people who are in charge of the websites doing what suits them, what reflects their likes and dislikes, their experience and skills. Technologists love to push new technologies. Marketers love to drive image-rich messages. Graphic designers want to show off their art school training. They claim that their websites are for their customers but they’re really for themselves and their peers.

That doesn’t happen at Staples.com. "We have five guiding principles," Jeanne B. Lewis, president of Staples.com, told PC Magazine in September 2001. "Listen, watch, prioritize, execute, and stay focused." Staples.com expects to do $800 million in revenue in 2001, up from $94 million in 1999, when it launched.

Staples.com has achieved this tremendous growth by focusing on what people want and giving it to them. What people want is lots of quality product information that downloads quickly and can be read easily. As Colin Hynes, head of usability for Staples.com puts it, "What is a website worth to anybody if they can't find what they need?"


Gerry McGovern


 

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