5 ms·

The $300 Million Button

142 points by cynusx 15y ago

andrewpi 15y ago
Any idea what site this article refers to?
- spking 15y ago
  It's Amazon.com.
  - reitzensteinm 15y ago
    Apparently not: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=434850 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=434850
    - pitdesi 15y ago
      For the lazy: The answer is Best Buy, circa 04-05
    - spking 15y ago
      I guess only Jared Spool knows the true answer.
    - sjs 15y ago
      Well then Best Buy has lapsed. Canadian site requires you to register in order to check out.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- briguy 15y ago
  Based on my personal experience as a user of the site, feels like could be staples.com (I used to hate that form, and now it is gone, so I buy more often)....also the revenues match up to Staples of 25B.
rkalla 15y ago
The original reasoning that went into the design of the first form is (I think) the classic perspective taken from someone that has never had to use their own product. "Why wouldn't someone want to create an account? Ship it!" Then as soon as you are in a rush, shopping for some tents online for a camping trip (something you rarely do) and REI is forcing you to create an account just to order the clearance tents you found, you want to yell at somebody. I think this story is valuable if for no other reason to make sites realize how much of a road block registration is.
- jobu 15y ago
  Agreed. Another roadblock I hate is requiring me to enter my full name and address before they give tax & shipping info. A simple zip code field & calculate price button should not be that hard. Does anybody publish some decent design guidelines for online shopping sites? So many sites try to follow Amazon without realizing Amazon can get away with terrible design choices because they are so massive.
  - jholman 15y ago
    And speaking of "a simple zip code field"... If you're going to require a zip code to ship, because you only ship to the US, wouldn't it be nice if you said so up-front, so I could avoid wasting half an hour comparing your totally effing useless-to-me products to retailers that actually want to sell to me?
  - rkalla 15y ago
    Couldn't agree more; as soon as I get a whiff of a website trying to dig more information out of me than it needs to perform a specific function, my tolerance for everything else on the website drops considerably. "To calculate shipping, please enter all your personal info, credit card and hours a day no one is at your house." As for Amazon, you are right; I think they make up for it with good prices and an excellent shopping experience. In a way, I think they can get away with it because they are so good at what they do. I wish to go AWS Payments would allow payments without an account though so it could be used in lieu of PayPal... but that is an aside.
- 15y ago
rokhayakebe 15y ago
I actually LOVE LOVE website that let you shop as a guest. No, I do not want to sign up.
- ChuckFrank 15y ago
  Brilliant. I'm amazed that more sites don't let you do this.
AndrewWarner 15y ago
Why don't ecommerce sites just create an account for users on the fly? Why do they require the extra step?
- staktrace 15y ago
  That doesn't help the customers who come back later for a second purchase and then have to fumble to find their account info.
  - notatoad 15y ago
    it would help, because users who don't want to be bothered can just create a new account on the fly. you're already collecting all the information necessary to create an account when somebody completes a purcase, so just make an account for them. include a temporary account password on the email receipt, with a message telling users they can use that pw to log in to the site to check the status of the order. once a week, run a cron to clean up all the accounts of people whose orders have completed and haven't changed the password.
    - staktrace 15y ago
      That's better, but I still don't like it because you're forcing a relationship upon the user, regardless of whether or not they want one.
alohahacker 15y ago
I know from a couple months ago hearing the founder of omniture Josh James talk about changing a button and color to a homepage. He said it caused his client to grow significantly and caused sales to go up 15-20% almost overnight creating tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. The website they helped fix was still in its beginning years. Their client was ebay. I wouldn't be suprised if this was the website he's talking about.
killerswan 15y ago
I have seen lots of companies add that button, and I have never seen a company remove it!
orky56 15y ago
I love this article because it nicely allows C-level execs to understand the ROI of usability and design. So often at larger companies, these areas lack budgets purely for the fact that it is so hard to quantify the returns i.e. with just general "positive" user experience. Here we can see a pure a before/after A/B type situation that had far-reaching consequences.
- bluedanieru 15y ago
  "But my organization is different because..."

142 points by cynusx 15y ago

andrewpi 15y ago

Any idea what site this article refers to?

spking 15y ago
It's Amazon.com.
- reitzensteinm 15y ago
  Apparently not: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=434850 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=434850
  - pitdesi 15y ago
    For the lazy: The answer is Best Buy, circa 04-05
  - spking 15y ago
    I guess only Jared Spool knows the true answer.
  - sjs 15y ago
    Well then Best Buy has lapsed. Canadian site requires you to register in order to check out.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
briguy 15y ago
Based on my personal experience as a user of the site, feels like could be staples.com (I used to hate that form, and now it is gone, so I buy more often)....also the revenues match up to Staples of 25B.

rkalla 15y ago

The original reasoning that went into the design of the first form is (I think) the classic perspective taken from someone that has never had to use their own product. "Why wouldn't someone want to create an account? Ship it!" Then as soon as you are in a rush, shopping for some tents online for a camping trip (something you rarely do) and REI is forcing you to create an account just to order the clearance tents you found, you want to yell at somebody. I think this story is valuable if for no other reason to make sites realize how much of a road block registration is.

jobu 15y ago
Agreed. Another roadblock I hate is requiring me to enter my full name and address before they give tax & shipping info. A simple zip code field & calculate price button should not be that hard. Does anybody publish some decent design guidelines for online shopping sites? So many sites try to follow Amazon without realizing Amazon can get away with terrible design choices because they are so massive.
- jholman 15y ago
  And speaking of "a simple zip code field"... If you're going to require a zip code to ship, because you only ship to the US, wouldn't it be nice if you said so up-front, so I could avoid wasting half an hour comparing your totally effing useless-to-me products to retailers that actually want to sell to me?
- rkalla 15y ago
  Couldn't agree more; as soon as I get a whiff of a website trying to dig more information out of me than it needs to perform a specific function, my tolerance for everything else on the website drops considerably. "To calculate shipping, please enter all your personal info, credit card and hours a day no one is at your house." As for Amazon, you are right; I think they make up for it with good prices and an excellent shopping experience. In a way, I think they can get away with it because they are so good at what they do. I wish to go AWS Payments would allow payments without an account though so it could be used in lieu of PayPal... but that is an aside.
15y ago

rokhayakebe 15y ago

I actually LOVE LOVE website that let you shop as a guest. No, I do not want to sign up.

ChuckFrank 15y ago
Brilliant. I'm amazed that more sites don't let you do this.

AndrewWarner 15y ago

Why don't ecommerce sites just create an account for users on the fly? Why do they require the extra step?

staktrace 15y ago
That doesn't help the customers who come back later for a second purchase and then have to fumble to find their account info.
- notatoad 15y ago
  it would help, because users who don't want to be bothered can just create a new account on the fly. you're already collecting all the information necessary to create an account when somebody completes a purcase, so just make an account for them. include a temporary account password on the email receipt, with a message telling users they can use that pw to log in to the site to check the status of the order. once a week, run a cron to clean up all the accounts of people whose orders have completed and haven't changed the password.
  - staktrace 15y ago
    That's better, but I still don't like it because you're forcing a relationship upon the user, regardless of whether or not they want one.

alohahacker 15y ago

I know from a couple months ago hearing the founder of omniture Josh James talk about changing a button and color to a homepage. He said it caused his client to grow significantly and caused sales to go up 15-20% almost overnight creating tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. The website they helped fix was still in its beginning years. Their client was ebay. I wouldn't be suprised if this was the website he's talking about.

killerswan 15y ago

I have seen lots of companies add that button, and I have never seen a company remove it!

orky56 15y ago

I love this article because it nicely allows C-level execs to understand the ROI of usability and design. So often at larger companies, these areas lack budgets purely for the fact that it is so hard to quantify the returns i.e. with just general "positive" user experience. Here we can see a pure a before/after A/B type situation that had far-reaching consequences.

bluedanieru 15y ago
"But my organization is different because..."