I admit, sometimes I shop online…a bit…okay, quite a bit.
Shopping with the click of a button is convenient and fast, and allows you to purchase things from far away such as electronics from Hong Kong or jewelry from France, but some websites make their checkout process so complicated that I just want to say:
This is the rule: The more steps that a consumer needs to take = the less chance of them ever completing the process, especially if the process itself is already confusing and glitchy.
There have been many times when I filled in an order form and after clicking ‘Continue’, the site asks me to create an account with them as it is ‘mandatory’. However, there was no mention of it previously. The second most annoying thing is the various ‘captcha’ boxes that are intended to verify that you are a human, not a spam bot. Problem with these are, most are barely legible, like this one:
Additionally, your site should not be glitchy, people are trusting you with their credit card numbers and personal information, and you should respect that trust by creating a glitch-free and safe/encoded checkout. I recently had the misfortune of having to deal with a glitchy website while helping a relative book a plane ticket online with Hainan Airlines. It was good up until the payment stage, which I inputted the credit card information and secure pin and submitted it. However, it directed me back to the previous page and told me to re-try, which I did four times. It ended up charging my credit card four times despite saying it did not go through. What should have taken 15 minutes to book an air ticket ended up becoming 6 hours of phone calls and anger. Needless to say, I will never ever fly with Hainan Airlines after the glitch and their poor service following that.
I can only say one thing to online vendors, ‘Shut up, make it work, and take my money’
The security issue has always been the problem on online shopping. I do not like to shop online either, however they are very convenient and less expensive.
I always hated to type in password or “captcha” in a little box. I feel like i’m just leaking my important information online and I never get the “captcha” correct! and always have to go through many trials, which irritates me and gives me feeling to give up on buying stuff online.
I totally agree with her post, online vendors should just “Shut up, make it work, and take my money”. I amd willing to pay for what I want to purchase, so just let me go through a simple step to make a payment.