Towards Appraising Online Stores SEPI Research Group, Department of Computer Science and AI University of Malta 1 CSAW 2004 Towards Appraising Online Stores

Towards Appraising Online Stores

SEPI Research Group, Department of Computer Science and AI

University of Malta1

CSAW 2004

Towards Appraising Online Towards Appraising Online StoresStores

Ernest CachiaMark Micallef

Software Engineering Process Improvement Research Group(SEPI)




Introduction First Step How E-Commerce Systems Differ Survey Design Results Conclusions and Future Work

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IntroductionIntroduction





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Overall GoalsOverall GoalsE-C o m m e rce S y s t e m E-C o m m e rce S y s t e m

F o r m u la tio n

An aly s is

C o n t e n t a n dA r c h it e c t ur a l

D e sign

P ag e G en er a tio nan d T es tin g

C u s to m erE v alu a tio n

M e trica t io n Fra m e wo rk

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

0

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S e cu rity C h e ck lis t

- L a t e st se c ur it y upda t e s inst a lle do n se r v e s- F ir e w a ll R ule s R e v ie w e d- Int r usio n D e t e c t io n U p t o D a t e- P a ssw o r ds c he c ke d f o rc o nf o r m a nc e

G u ide lin e s

- Im pr o v e t he st r uc t ur e o f y o urpr o duc t list be c a use it w ill c o nf uset he use r

R ep o s ito ry





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The First StepThe First Step





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Initial TargetsInitial Targets• Identify most important quality attributes in e-

commerce systems• Limit Scope to the Online Store variety of E-

Commerce Systems (for the time being)• Success of such systems depends largely on

users accessing a website and buying products or services

• Therefore, users’ opinions should be given a large weighting





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Overview of ActivitiesOverview of Activities1. Research into existing work2. Discovering how e-commerce systems

differ from generic systems3. Designing a questionnaire4. Conduct a survey amongst 350 e-

commerce users5. Analysis of results6. Extraction of important e-commerce

attributes (and their importance ranking)





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How do E-Commerce Systems How do E-Commerce Systems Differ?Differ?





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Why was this information Why was this information required?required?

• Identifying why e-commerce systems differ was an important step:– Further justifies the need for an e-commerce

metrication framework– Allows us to identify quality attributes based

on these differences

• 5 main differences were identified





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How E-Commerce System How E-Commerce System DifferDiffer

• Content Driven (Navigability)• Exposed to the world (Security)• Browser-Based (Portability)• Enormous User Base (Scalability,

Multilinguality)• Frequent Change (Maintainability, Reliability)





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Survey OrganisationSurvey Organisation





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Survey DesignSurvey Design• Designed to rank importance of quality

attributes defined above

• Divided into two parts:– Section 1: Collection of demographic

information about users– Section 2: Collection of information about

which attributes are deemed most important by users





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Example Questions from Example Questions from Section 1Section 1

• Age Group

• Main use of e-commerce (personal or business)

• Education Level

• Frequency of online shopping

• Products/Services bought online

• OS, Browser, Devices





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Example Questions from Example Questions from Section 2Section 2

• Abandoned Transactions

• Reasons for abandoned transactions

• “First Impression” Factors

• Intentions when visiting an e-commerce site

• Ranking of attributes/features





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Survey ResultsSurvey Results





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Our Sample SpaceOur Sample Space• 350 Respondents

• 94% of participants were under 50 years old

• Browser usage, OS usage and Device usage compare to other surveys carried out





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95%

7% 6% 4% 2% 3%0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

InternetExplorer

Netscape Mozilla Opera Konquerer Other

BrowsersBrowsers





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98%

9%

2% 1% 1%0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Windows Linux/Unix MacOS Windows CE Other

Operating SystemsOperating Systems





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93%

24%

2%5%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Desktop PC Laptop PDA Mobile Phones

DevicesDevices





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80%

32%30%29%26%25%24%

13%13%11%9% 8% 8%5% 4%

1%0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Products

Books

Software

Hardware

Music

Holidays

Videos/DVDs

Electronics

Cinema/Theatre

IP Telephony

Clothes

Business Supplies

Business Travel

Toys/Games

Shares/Stocks

Food

Jewelry

Most Popular ProductsMost Popular Products





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77%

23%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Abandoned Transactions Never Abandoned Transactions

Abandoned TransactionsAbandoned Transactions





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36% 35%33%

14%

4%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Reasons

Website Error

Process too long

Site too slow

Delivery/Payment/PricingProblems

Browser CompatibilityProblems

Reasons for Abandoned Reasons for Abandoned TransactionsTransactions





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Security and Privacy IssuesSecurity and Privacy Issues

(1/3)(1/3)

• Security turned out to be an important factor• For example, when asked to identify a reason why they would prefer

not to use e-commerce, users replied as follows…

30%

36%

14%

7%5%

8%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Touch Security Delivery Browse Trust Other





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Security and Privacy Issues Security and Privacy Issues (2/3)(2/3)

• How sure would you have to be about a site’s security capabilities before you buy from it?

44%42%

13%

1%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

WatertightSecurity

Minor Risks ConsiderableRisks

Security NotImportant





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Security and Privacy Issues Security and Privacy Issues (3/3)(3/3)

• When asked to rank the importance of quality attributes in order of importance, security received and average scored of 6.24 (out of a possible 7).

• This made it the most important quality attribute as perceived by users of e-commerce systems

• We recommended security as an essential quality attribute in e-commerce systems





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Portability Issues Portability Issues (1/4)(1/4)

• Refers to the extent to which a system is accessible from different operating systems, browser and devices

• Participants ranked portability as the 5th most important attribute (out of 7)

• Case for portability not too strong if one relies on the results of this survey





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• 98% of respondents use WindowsTM -based OSs

• Almost 93% use Desktop PCs

• 95% use Internet ExplorerTM

• Less than 4% of users who abandoned transactions did so because of compatibility problems





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• Results seem to indicate that portability is not important

• However one must be careful:– 88.7% of users will not change browsers so as to be

able to view a particular site– A small percentage of customer lost due to lack

portability might still amount to large amounts of lost revenue

– New mobile technologies are likely increase the importance of portability issues in e-commerce





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Portability Portability (4/4)(4/4)

• Portability is recommended as a necessary attribute in e-commerce systems

• However, in the current environment, compatibility with dominant technologies would seem to ensure a sufficient reach





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Performance and Scalability Performance and Scalability (1/3)(1/3)

• Speed is important to users

• 33% of users who abandoned transactions mid-way through did so because the site was too slow

• Only 18.4% would remain unconditionally loyal to their favorite site if it became slow





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• What is the most important “first impression” factor you look for in a site?

30%

22%

7%

37%

4%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Navigation Performance Aesthetics Reputation Other





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• Participants ranked performance as the 4th most important quality attribute

• We are recommending Performance as an essential quality attribute





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Navigability Navigability (1/3)(1/3)

• Why did you abandon transactions mid-way through?

43%

36% 35%33%

14%

4%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Reasons

Decided agains buyingproduct

Website Error

Process too long

Site too slow

Delivery/Payment/PricingProblems

Browser CompatibilityProblems

Also more likely tosimply find another site





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• 72% of users know beforehand what they are looking for when visiting an online store

• This indicates that search and navigation features are important

• 30% of participants also chose navigation as their primary “first impression” factor





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• Navigability was ranked as the 3rd most important attribute by users

• We are recommending usability with an emphasis on navigability as an essential quality attribute in online stores





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Multi-Lingual FeaturesMulti-Lingual Features• Not being recommended as an essential attribute

• The importance of such features is highly dependant on the context in which an online store is operating

• 51% of participants claim e-commerce systems could still be classified as a quality system if it had no multi-lingual features

• Respondents ranked this feature in 6th place (out of 7)





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Low-Bandwidth Version of Low-Bandwidth Version of SiteSite

• Some e-commerce sites have a text-only or low-bandwidth version available

• Useful for users with slow connections

• 52.5% of participants deem such a feature unnecessary

• Users ranked this attribute as the least important

• Considering increasing popularity of broadband connections, we are not recommending this as a necessary attribute





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Ranking of Essential Ranking of Essential AttributesAttributes

1. Security

2. Reliability

3. Navigability

4. Performance

5. Portability





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Conclusions and Further Conclusions and Further WorkWork





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Conclusions and Further Conclusions and Further WorkWork• These results are an important first step to our overall goals

• Since this research we have explored:– Information Architecture– Graph Theory– Security

• Further work will include:– Investigation into each of the above attributes and how they can

be measured– Development of a metrication framework that will combine

metrics for different attributes together– Development of a list of guidelines– Incorporation of guidelines into framework




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Questions and DiscussionQuestions and Discussion

Documents

Towards Appraising Online Stores SEPI Research Group, Department of Computer Science and AI University of Malta 1 CSAW 2004 Towards Appraising Online Stores