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Can online be as casual as in-store?

Platform: Internet | Author: Justin Pearse | Source: NMA magazine | Published: 30.08.07

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For the first ten years or so of the commercial internet, an imperative has been placed on increasing the efficiency of consumers' online journeys. Search engines have worked to tighten the relevancy of searches, financial services firms to cut the number of clicks to carry out transactions, and retailers to speed the progression to desired product.

But could it be time for online businesses to slow down users' journeys, encouraging a meander through a site rather than a headlong rush for...

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... fulfilment? The rationale, as our feature on page 19 discovers, is some solid offline experience.

As Peter Allen, MD of services for site optimisation company Maxymiser, points out, "Up to 60% of customer purchases offline are made through 'latent demand' - products that catch the eye." It's easy enough for high street retailers to cash in on this, using attention-grabbing promotions throughout the store and changing layouts to make consumers come across new products. Online, sub-optimal journeys, where users are slowed down or distracted, may be the best way to replicate offline techniques and counter an increasingly sophisticated online population keen to get from A to B in the shortest time possible.

However, how effective can the introduction of such sub-optimal journeys be? Browsing in a high street bookshop is a pleasure, drifting around the store in the hope of stumbling across something new. Online, even on Amazon, one of etail's best experiences, it's usually a chore.

Many do believe that the next big thing online will be introducing elements of surprise to customers' journeys, though - even if, as VisitBritain customer experience executive Harry Speller says, "You can't put too much randomness into a site. If you sacrifice usability, you'll lose both visitors and traffic."

What's undeniable is the desire off online businesses to gain more understanding of their customers - a need behind the decision of Dating Direct's Alistair Shrimpton to bring search marketing in-house (see Profile, page 16). As he says, "You're never going to have an agency that is going to know the intricacies of our business as well as we do."

The days of online businesses focusing on customer acquisition at the expense of retention are surely numbered.

Justin Pearse, editor, NMA justin.pearse@centaur.co.uk