[Usability Study] Comparing 9 Online Supermarkets in 3 countries

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TREE TESTING

USABILITY STUDY ComparingOnline Supermarkets

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TREE TESTINGUsability Study: Comparing Online Supermarkets

Content

Introduction

About the Study

Online supermarkets in the UK and their surge in popularity in the ecommerce market.

Brands tested:

. 180 users: male and female between 25 and 50

. They usually buy groceries online

Study Results. International Results. UK Results. Conclusions

Participants

Study Design. Usability research technique: Tree Testing. Every user randomly conducted 5 tasks in one supermarket. 3 target countries: United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain

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About 12% of the users located in the

United Kingdom shop for groceries on

the Internet. In other European

countries only an average of 7%

do food shopping online.

Books, electronic devices, fashion and shoes - a significant amount of users are already accustomed to placing orders online. And an increasing part are turning to online food stores to shop for groceries on the Net.

Although buying groceries online was one of the last retail markets to develop on the Internet, it is now the one with the highest growth rates. Buying food online is slowly becoming an attractive alternative and new buying habit.

Online grocery shopping is big business

The market will almost double in value

by 2016

Online food stores & their surge in popularity

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Leading bricks and mortar retailers are also at the

forefront of online food shopping


In the UK , the grocery market is worth £169.7 billion in 2013, which is an increase of 3.7% on 2012. Internet orders placed at online food specialists for home delivery accounts for £6.5 billion.*

In addition to their high street presence, more and more retailers like Sainsbury’s and ASDA also use so called “dark stores”. Those stores are not open to the public, but assist nearby shops to deal with orders placed by web customers. *Data is year to April. Source: IGD UK channel forecasts 2013-18

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% - market share of online food sales with regards to all FMCG sold in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain

Source: CONSUMER BAROMETER 2012 GOOGLE (http://www.consumerbarometer.com)

An average of 7% of all FMCG in Europe

purchased online are groceries & healthcare

products

16%

Retail

15%

33%

25%

Technology

7% 7%

Groceries & Healthcare

14% 9%

Automotive Media & Travel Entertainment

37% 35%

Travel

60%64%

Finance & Real Estate

21%23% Male Female

online %- market share per industry in Europe


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60% of the online buyers are loyal and come back to shop again.

Despite the concern of not receiving entirely fresh products or paying an extra charge for the delivery, more and more people appreciate the advantages of making a purchase without having to leave their own house.

While in some countries like France customers use “drive in” stations where they can pick up pre-ordered groceries, people in bigger cities like London prefer their food to be delievered directly to their front door.

Shop from home while watching TV

Being convenient and saving time are the main reasons for doing grocery shopping from home:

Open 24/7No parking space or traffic issue No carrying of heavy bags

Increasing delivery chargesConcern to receive food close to expiration date

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Competition is fierce and supermarkets are testing different approaches to keep internet buyers happy: from offering low delivery charges, short booking slots, and long delievery hours to free delivery offers, and no minimum spends.

Apart from the benefits, some food retailers make their online customer´s life harder by providing confusing product terms or categories, which significantly decrease the user experience of online food buyers.

Online grocery shopping: A new buying experience

Some online food shops make it hard to find a

common item from an average shopping list.

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How easy is it to find a certain product in an online supermarket?

At UserZoom, our UX Research Team conducted an international Tree Test to analyse the navigation structure of 9 online supermarkets.

To enhance a website‘s user experience it is recommended to continously ask users to test it.

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Usability Study: Tree Testing

ComparingOnline Supermarkets

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How did we conduct the study?

*The data used is based on the point of analysis..

Objective:Do the online supermarkets use terminologies and product categories which help online shoppers find the items they are looking for?

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Countries and Online Supermarkets:

COLOMBIA

SLOVAKIA

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We invited 180 male and female users between 25 and 50 years to participate. All users have at least once before bought groceries online.

Participants:

Frequency of buying groceries online (in %)

Once a weekOnce a monthTwice a monthNot on a regular basis

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About Tree Testing

Tree Testing is a usability technique for evaluating the findability, labelling, and organisation of a website’s structure The technique closely matches the navigational experience a visitor would have on a site.

A large website is typically organised into a hierarchy (“tree”) of topics and subtopics. Tree Testing provides a way to measure how well users can find items, content, services, and products in this hierarchy.

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About Tree TestingUnlike traditional usability testing, Tree Testing is not done on the website itself. Instead, a simplified text version of the site structure is used.

Tree Testing ensures that the structure is evaluated in isolation, nullifying the effects of navigational aids, visual design, and other factors.

By means of Tree Testing you can find out, if the chosen navigation structure is actually in line with the users’s expectations.

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Tasks

1. Honey

2. Orange Juice

Every user performed 5 different tasks with regards to the navigation structure of 1 online supermarket. The participants were asked to look for the following products:

3. Muffins

4. Pizza

5. Rubbish Bags

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International Results

*The data used is based on the point of analysis.

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The German supermarket EDEKAis the one with the

highest success rates

Where do online shopperssucceed the most?

1

4

2

3

5

6

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In all supermarkets, most products are only found after several attempts.

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Task 1: Look for Honey

Most users don´t select the correct main category when looking for “Honey”.

While some supermarkets use the term “breakfast” (REWE, Caprabo) other food shops use the category “Cereal, Tinned & Dried” (ASDA) to accomodate honey.

Many online customers don´t relate honey to those categories and check out other menu options like “Food” or “Canned” instead.

Apart from at the German supermarket EDEKA, 50% of allstudy participants can not find the honey section.

61%

39%

78%

41%

17%

5%

12%

26%

32%

*Successful in first attempt

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Task 2: Look for Fresh Orange Juice

The task to look for fresh orange juice achieves the highest success rates in all supermarkets analysed.

Most web shops include orange juice in the “Beverage” category, which users can easily identify.

On the other hand, ASDA places juice in two different categories (“Food” and “Drinks”). Because of that, participants have trouble finding it here.

The category “Beverages” works great for juices.

78%

28%

94%

88%

39%

5%

58%

68%

71%


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Task 3: Look for Muffins

If “Muffins” are placed in the main category “Bakery” most users find them easier as opposed to when they are in the “Breakfast” section. It doesn´t seem to help customers find an item when it´s in a category, which is related to the time of day they actually consume it, e.g. “Breakfast”.At some supermarkets the term “Muffins” can be found in different categories, although the products actually differ (e.g. at ASDA and Sainsbury´s). Other supermarkets use similar terms such as “Pastries”, “Sweets”, and “Breakfast”, which confuse users into not knowing where to look first.The German supermarket Bringmeister places “Muffins” in “Everyday Commodities”. But because the users don´t relate the little cakes to this section, they can´t find the product at all.

User don´t always think about the time of the day when they consume a product, when they are about to purchase it.

*Because EDEKA doesn´t sell chilled or baked products, “Muffins” were replaced by “Cake Mix”

55%

56%

18%

0%

48%

50%

59%

37%

48%


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Task 4: Look for a Pizza

Not all participants find “Pizza” straight away.

To look for a pizza in an online supermarket turns out to be a problem for most users in every country. Only a few can locate them after a couple of clicks.

Waitrose, EDEKA and REWE achieve the highest success rates with regards to users finding a pizza in their first attempt, followed by the Spanish shop Mercadona and British ASDA.

Some supermarkets like Caprabo have generic categories like “Food” which can actually contain everything, but at the same time they accomodate pizzas in “Ready Meals”, where users don´t expect them to be.

*Because EDEKA doesn´t sell chilled or baked products, “Pizza” was replaced by “Pasta Sauce”

58%

72%

44%

72%

71%

44%

63%

32%

6%


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Task 5: Look for Rubbish Bags

Finding rubbish bags is the most difficult task in all countries.

In general, users relate them to the categories “Home” and “Household Articles”. As soon as a supermarket uses both terms, user behaviour changes depending on the country, e.g. while at the German supermarket EDEKA 94% of the users looked for “Rubbish Bags” in the “Home” section, online customers at Carrefour equally searched the “Home” and “Household Article” categories.

Waitrose uses keywords related to certain products in the main categories, such as “Foils, Bags & Wraps”, although e.g. “Rubbish Bags” can not be found there, but in the “Cleaning

Cupboard” section.

Similar categories cast doubt.

24%

11%

78%

24%

67%

21%

35%

5%

11%

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There is room for improvement in every

online supermarket analysed

SummaryMany users have trouble finding specific products.

The terms most online food shops use to describe parent categories in the navigation tree are not clear enough. A great amount of the online shoppers don´t click on some of the correct main categories in order to reveal underlying subcategories. This explains why more than half of the Internet customers can´t find a product straight away.

The analysed supermarkets choose names, which in many cases don´t describe a product sufficently. Hence, most users look at other options in the navigation tree. Or participants get confused, because two product names are too similar. They jump from one menu to the next in order to find the difference between two given options.

In total, Waitrose obtains the highest success rates, followed by Sainsbury’s. At ASDA users have greater difficulty finding the requested items.

The task which turned out to be the hardest was “looking for rubbish bags”. More than 50% of the participants can´t find them in their first attempt. All online shoppers encounter problems due to the navigation structure or terminology used (Waitrose, ASDA, and Sainsbury´s).

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1

2

3

Where can online shoppers find items the easiest?

Waitrose is also valued best by the users after they just complete the test.

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61%

39%

5%

72%

50%

48%

How many users find a product in their first attempt?

45%

Honey

Task success rate for each user search (where do users click first in the navigation tree when looking for a product)

Pizza

78%

28%5%

Orange Juice Muffins

58%

44%

Rubbish Bag

24%

21%

11%

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Why users can not find a product.

Main problems encountered in the British supermarkets

*The data used is based on the point of analysis.

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The success rate for finding a product in the first attempt is generally low. Most users are only able to find a product after several clicks. When an online customer takes longer to find a desired item, the time someone spends to complete the purchase also increases. As a result, their user satisfaction decreases.

At ASDA of all the users looking for rubbish bags, only 21% found them in their first attempt. Several clicks later, the success rate increases to 58%. The same happened at Sainsbury´s and to a lesser extent at Waitrose.

An easy-to-find product increases the user satisfaction

58%35% 21%

24% 11%21%

User satisfaction is ultimately low if finding a product is too much of an effort

First attempt

After several clicks

1. The less time a user spends on a purchase, the happier he is

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Some groceries are placed in parent categories, which are not clearly named. Users then browse a shop for a long time, while opening different menus to find a desired product. At ASDA, only 5% of the participants are able to find “Honey” straight away. 16% of the remaining participants finally encounter “Honey” after several tries. The problem is, that most shoppers search within the category “Condiments, Sauces & Seasonings” instead of looking in “Cereal, Tinned & Dried”.

Parent categories are not self-explanatory

User can neither find “Honey” in their first attempt nor after a couple of clicks

First attempt

All clicks

2. Applicable product categories make finding a product easier

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At ASDA users can find “Juice” in 2 similar categories: “Drinks” and “ Food”. Because of that, participants do not know where to look first and the quest to find juice turns out to be really complicated. While “Fresh Juice” is placed in “Foods”, all other juices are within the “Drinks” section, misleading 74% of the users to look for fresh juice there. At the end, only 5% find the product in the “Food” section.

If products are repeated in 2 different

categories, users are misled to think they

are surfing on the parent category level

Same product in two different categories

3. One category per product helps locating an item

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In some cases, online shoppers find 2 items with the same product name. Most participants then choose to click on the first option.

Although items are named exactly the same, you don´t always encounter the same product, e.g. at Sainsbury’s users find it difficult to understand the difference between “Breakfast Muffins” and “Muffins”.

4. One name per product leads to clearer results

Although the word “Muffins” can be found in various categories, users are led to different products

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Most food retailers place “Rubbish Bags” in categories where users don´t expect them to be.

At Sainsbury´s 83% of the users look in the “Home & Garden” section rather than going to “Food & Drinks”.

5. Commonly used terms make a shopper´s life easier

After several clicks:

After several clicks, the success rate for finding the bin bags increases to 11%.

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The name used at Waitrose to categorise the parent level is “Cleaning Cupboard”.

Most users don´t expect “Rubbish Bags” to be there, but search in “Foils, Bags & Wraps”.

6. An intuitive navigation works best

First attempt 24%

After several attempts, 65% of the users still think the bags should be in the “Foils, Bags & Wraps” section.

After several attempts

After several attempts 35%

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Conclusions

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Don´t use ambiguous names to categorise products.A category name should be clear and should only have a single meaning. It should clearly reflect what the category contains.

Avoid assigning two simliar names to two different categories, especially if they could contain similar products. This way, a user will find it easier to choose the right navigation path. 2.

1.

A very generic name, which can be used for any kind of product doesn´t help, but will only confuse a customer. 3.

It´s important that a main category clearly indicates what its´ subcategories contain. After the first click, a user wants to find a product easy and fast by means of a clear and direct click path. Be sure to avoid non-intuitive names, which may cause users to head off into many different directions.

4.

It is not ideal to use the name of a meal to categorise food, because users don´t relate the same products to the different kinds of meals, e.g. not everybody eats the same groceries for breakfast.

5.

Key Lessons Learned

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Research Benefits:

Conducting user studies by means of Tree Testing helps finding out how users arrange and structure products in an online supermarket, which saves time and resources when building or optimising a web shop.

The study results can also positively affect your ROI on maintaining an online store or web presence. Since a more effective purchase process increases user satisfaction, leading to greater brand loyalty and full shopping carts.

This clearly increases your Return on Investment.

UX Research Team UserZoom

Dolors Pou Jen Kirschniok Jordi Sintes

www.userzoom.co.ukwww.linkedin.com/company/userzoom

UserZoom UK

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Tel: + 44 (0) 1625 525 650Mob: + 44 (0) 7900 472 920Contact: Arthur [email protected]

@UserZoom_UK

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