Customer Profile - The Customer Pains

Moving on to the second component of the Value Proposition Canvas, we set out to explore the “Pains” or frustrations that users have while going through the online shopping experience.

Figure 4.3.1 - Second Component of Customer Profile

To provide more clarity while examining the “Pains” of consumers, we will look at websites and mobile apps separately. Since prior research and our interviewees have both told us that Taiwanese consumers do not favor apps, let us first take a look at the frustrations of using mobile apps.

Of course we all know that the mobile screen being smaller will pose certain issues with consumers, but hearing some of these issues from the interviewees offered a clearer understanding of why it mattered.

Y: "I don’t use apps because most of the time I like to compare and open many websites. On the desktop you can open many windows to compare items and prices. On apps you can’t open multiple apps without switching in between and you can’t view multiple items at once to compare.”

C: "One downside is not able to view many things at once on mobile app, on the app you can only see 4-6 items at once, but on the desktop you can view many more things. So harder to do comparisons on the mobile so that is also a problem - especially comparing across different sites is almost impossible.”

L: "Viewing experience on mobile is terrible as you can’t view many items at once - you always have to keep clicking next page next page - I think its one of the annoyances.”

Clearly the limitations of displaying multiple items on a smaller screen has had huge influence on consumers, in terms of the difficulty in comparing and also the excessive navigation users have to go through while browsing or searching for something on the app. This limited view of items goes beyond just viewing photos of items but also the details and information presented when users are looking into the specifics of a product.

Other frustrations include lack of delivery options, lack of third-party payment options, difficulties in browsing and the way search results are displayed.

When considering some other product/service categories, perhaps pain points or frustrations do not heavily dissuade the user and many a times users might just chose to overlook such frustrations. This does not seem to be the case when it comes to using mobile apps for online shopping, which seems surprising even more so since we are so reliant on our smartphones these days. When asked if those pain points and frustrations actually affected their purchase decisions, 3 out of 4 interviewees insisted that because of their frustrations they would choose to use a different app, or abandon the mobile app altogether and revert to website shopping.

C: "If they have limited delivery options then, I will choose another seller/site.

Also if I’m doing comparisons then I wouldn’t choose to use mobile app but the desktop."

Y: "For me it’s a major consideration. I don’t browse or purchase on app as I can’t do my comparisons and ‘homework’ or research on the products.”

L: "It does affect, if I have to click through many pages then I will just forgo this app and go to nicer designed overseas sites. Some of the overseas sites are also nicer looking.”

Although our interviewees did not provide too long a list of frustrations for using mobile apps, they did all reiterate points that centered on simplicity and convenience.

Those also made up some of the points that were ranked higher in terms of “Pains”

while using mobile apps for shopping.

Figure 4.3.2 - Ranked Pain Points (MOBILE)

The top frustration for consumers was the limited number of items mobile apps displayed. This not only affected the browsing experience, the way search results were

displayed but also the navigation and overall user experience as mentioned above in some of our direct quotes from interviewees. This was pretty much what we expected, but the next few “Pains” were unexpected – in that consumers were really keen on comparison features or bothered by the difficulty in trying to compare while using the mobile app. This highlights the importance of comparisons while seeking to make a purchase and is somewhat reflective of the brick-and-mortar shopping journey as well.

Consumers have a tendency to want to get the most value out of their shopping, thus are looking to compare and contrast items, choosing the one that gets them the most bang for their buck.

Although the next few points in the list of frustrations could very well be a cause of the small screen size mobile app developers have to work with, we have decided to look at it independently of that. Poor user interface, unintuitive navigation and display of information are all a choice of design. Some apps have gotten it right, and have thrived in the mobile retail scene. Some have just placed less thought into design and tried to shrink down the website into a mobile app. The user experience is thus not ideal, when the flow and the display of information have not been calibrated to a mobile app shopping process.

The final two “Pains” are less critical to our interviewees, and in part just poorer execution of value-added features for customers. These are frustrations that could often be overlooked by users if they find what they are looking for and really like a certain product.

Now let us compare that with the website experience that our users have. Here the answers were far less homogeneous, with different interviewees basing their answers on different phases of the shopping experience. Some were more frustrated with the initial browsing and searching phases of shopping as explained below.

Y: "Because I really like to click and open many windows while searching for something, there are some annoyances. Some products are identical but are being sold by different sellers, but it is only after I clicked everything that I realize that actually I’m wasting time looking at duplicates. Also for comparing across websites that is still sometimes not as easy.”

C: "For some websites in which the layout is very messy, then it becomes overwhelming! Some example like on one page you are bombarded with 200 items, which makes it difficult to shop too, so I think there should be a balance between how many items to display - mobile app too little vs. desktop too many.”

Others were focused more on the latter stages of the shopping experience, the decision making portion and the payment.

L: " Price comparison is a big factor for me when trying to make a decision, so maybe in the sense of comparing the process has to be easier. Also maybe when making payment, the filing in of information - sometimes that is annoying to have to keep redoing.”

The website experience clearly involves a different set of issues for consumers. We also note that the frustrations for using websites have a less critical impact on a user’s

decision to continue using the platform to purchase goods. Pain points have to be rather severe for it to deter consumers from using the site to purchase.

C: "If the website has a very poor layout, it turns you away at the first step. That’s why I like to buy clothes at the physical store, but other than that I will still make a purchase as long as I need it. I feel it is also helped by the refund policy in Taiwan, which makes it easy for me to purchase and if it doesn’t match my expectation then I can return it.”

L: "If I really can’t find something because of the poor search results then I will go elsewhere to find it. Especially in Taiwan it is also very easy to get items offline, unlike US where they have to travel very far to a store.”

Nonetheless, we were able rank the various “Pains” asking our interviewees to estimate the severity of those frustrations that they mentioned. As different users had different frustrations we had aggregated them into a single list based on how agitated the users were regarding their own pain points.

Some of our interviewees had felt that the frustrations were a little annoying but did not have too much difference on whether they would continue to use the stated platform - in this case websites for online shopping. Others felt the annoyances were really hindering a smooth seamless user experience, and was something that should really be improved upon. The more it disrupted their shopping experience, the higher it would be ranked.

Figure 4.3.3 - Ranked Pain Points (WEBSITES)

The first page that users land on when visiting a retail site plays a very important role, as they say first impression counts. Whether a site has come up with a suitable layout design and balances amount of information displayed with the simplicity of the page, this strongly influences the way users react to the site. Thus explaining why an overcrowded landing page becomes the top frustrations for users.

C: "PCHome I don’t like because its really messy and I don’t like the interface.

Momoshop I’ve used, but Taobao is too messy and you need a separate account.”

H: "Most websites have done a good job but for like Yahoo sometimes the various site links are all over the place, and unclear if the offers are for Auctions or Retail etc.”

The other frustrations such as poor display of search results, and the difficulty involved in doing comparisons are somewhat similar with those experienced on a mobile app.

Then at the bottom of the list is the need for users to key in repetitive information every time they are making a purchase.

If we put them side-by-side, we clearly see the list is much longer on the left side of Figure 4.3.4 for mobile. They both have different “Pains” independent of each other, but some occur in varying degrees on both platform types. When using mobile apps, it is almost impossible to do comparisons, in contrast when using websites users can open multiple browser windows to compare items although it is also just an out of the box way to do comparisons. It makes it possible but the difficulty in doing it still makes it a pain point.

Figure 4.3.4 – Comparing Pains (Mobile Apps Vs. Websites)

Still when asked to summarize their overall experience with using current mobile apps or websites, our interviewees felt that it was a generally good experience. There will definitely be many areas that can be improved, one being the general user interface (UI) or user experience (UX) of local apps or websites as highlighted by one of our interviewees.

L: “So far everything is fine, but in general the UI for many Taiwanese sites still fall behind international ones like Amazon - then the overall experience just falls short.”

The pain points mentioned for both platforms are definitely concerns for the online shopping industry here in Taiwan, but more importantly it gives us certain insights as to why websites are still the current choice for a large proportion of local consumers.