http://cx-i.com/ Copyright Mike Baxter 2005 Mon, 11 Apr 2005 12:15:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss The value of keyword search for e-commerce sites has taken a bit of a battering over the past few months! The latest research suggests it is used as a last resort when browsing fails, it makes customers less likely to find what they are looking for, and even if the perfect search engine could be developed, customers still wouldn't want to use it . But just as the nails are poised over its coffin lid, search may just be about to stage a spectacular recovery ... http://cx-i.com/online_retail/RedemptionOfSearch.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_retail/RedemptionOfSearch.aspx online retail Wed, 22 June 2005 11:55:00 GMT E-commerce is still going through rapid and quite fundamental changes, which makes the work of e-commerce managers an interesting challenge! How do you make sure you've spotted all the emerging technologies, the novel design features and the innovative mechandising ideas? How do you filter all these new ideas and decide which ones to investigate further for possible incorporation into your own site? This article focuses on three issues that e-commerce managers need to consider over the forthcoming year - AJAX, Faceted navigation and Split-testing. They all have the potential to deliver substantial competitive advantage, they are all strategic investments - none can be deployed as a tactical bolt-on at a moment's notice and, unusually for innovations in e-commerce, they are all based on well-established principles and tried-and-tested technologies ... http://cx-i.com/online_retail/On_the_Horizon_for_Ecommerce.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_retail/On_the_Horizon_for_Ecommerce.aspx online retail Mon, 17 May 2005 22:55:00 GMT A basic requirement of any e-commerce site is to enable customers to find whatever product they're looking for, quickly and effortlessly. However, we found at least one confusion zone within the navigation pathways of every one of the 15 leading online retail sites we analysed. These will certainly be damaging sales but may also be damaging the sites' entire online brand image ... http://cx-i.com/online_retail/confuseZones.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_retail/confuseZones.aspx online retail Fri, 22 Apr 2005 20:21:00 GMT The publication of the Labour party manifesto yesterday takes political persuasion to an entirely new level of sophistication and one that might, in the long run, transform the role of online channels in political campaigning. In this post we illustrate and test out the personalisation on offer. We then explore its potential in the short term to be a highly persuasive influence on voters and in the longer term to form the main battleground for electoral politics ... http://cx-i.com/online_politics/persuadePers.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_politics/persuadePers.aspx online politics Thu, 14 Apr 2005 16:28:00 GMT Customers trust the Internet to very different extents. According to a survey by TNS-TRUSTe, around half of all customers actively seek out and read privacy policies, a quarter take proactive measures to protect their personal information and just under a quarter take no measures to either find out about or protect their privacy. The extent to which customers need to be reassured on trust issues, therefore, varies considerably but to satisfy most of the people most of the time requires best-practice to be deployed rigorously. www.zoominfo.com gets all of the basic trust requirements wrong and, as such, provides an interesting case study in what we should be looking out for to safeguard transactional trust ... http://cx-i.com/online_retail/noTrust.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_retail/noTrust.aspx online retail Tue, 12 Apr 2005 17:39:00 GMT Politicians have a lot to persuade us of and putting information online should be ideally suited to voter persuasion. Here, we give an overview of the ways in which the main party political sites should be being persuasive ... http://cx-i.com/online_politics/persuasion.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_politics/persuasion.aspx online politics Mon, 11 Apr 2005 21:28:00 GMT Just how persuasive are the online party political web sites? From the considerable amount we currently know about the art and science of online persuasion, there are certain features that must be considered basics requirements of a persuasive web site. We present our analysis of how well the main political web sites meet these basic requirements ... http://cx-i.com/online_politics/persuadeBasic.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_politics/persuadeBasic.aspx online politics Mon, 11 Apr 2005 22:16:00 GMT All of the major parties are overwhelmingly negative in their campaigning. Our analysis of 123 press releases from the web sites of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties (21st March to 1st April 2005) revealed that over 50% more press releases contain something that attacks the opposing parties than positive campaigning messages. Research from previous elections suggests that this may depress voter turnout ... http://cx-i.com/online_politics/negative_campaigning/ http://cx-i.com/online_politics/negative_campaigning/ online politics Fri, 08 Apr 2005 11:22:00 GMT Political web sites need to get their message across to readers quickly and effortlessly. It is well established that people scan rather than read web content but our analysis suggests that much of the page content on all the major party political websites is neither written nor presented to facilitate scan reading ... http://cx-i.com/online_politics/opUsabilScan.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_politics/opUsabilScan.aspx online politics Wed, 06 Apr 2005 09:36:00 GMT All three of the major UK party political sites suffer basic usability problems that are likely to frustrate and annoy readers. See our analysis of how poor navigation controls make it difficult for readers to see where they are in the site and to navigate back to where they have just been ... http://cx-i.com/online_politics/opUsabilNav.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_politics/opUsabilNav.aspx online politics Tue, 05 Apr 2005 10:40:00 GMT A lot of what is known about the sales of goods online also applies to the sales of services online (and vice versa). The sectors can, therefore, learn a lot from each other's best practices and examples of this will be explored here at cx-i over the coming months. Read more about the research that will be appearing on cx-i over the coming months ... http://cx-i.com/online_fs/introduction.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_fs/introduction.aspx online financial services Sat, 02 Apr 2005 12:01:00 GMT How do managers of financial services e-commerce sites manage more intangible apsects of the customer experience such as respect, trust and credibility? Find out why these issues have become a lot less intangible than they were a couple of years ago ... http://cx-i.com/online_fs/intangibles.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_fs/intangibles.aspx online financial services Sat, 02 Apr 2005 10:42:00 GMT Online Retail 2004, 0ur benchmarking analysis of the online customer experience showed that there's lots to be done to improve the online retail environment. So we're starting on the research for Online Retail 2005! ... http://cx-i.com/online_retail/or_intro.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_retail/or_intro.aspx online retail Sat, 02 Apr 2005 10:42:00 GMT 27% of Americans said that political information they got online made them decide to vote for or against a particular candidate in the 2004 Campaign. So, online channels could play a critical role in determining the outcome of the 2005 General Election in the UK. See the evidence and the arguement for the importance of online politics in the UK General Election ... http://cx-i.com/online_politics/importance.aspx http://cx-i.com/online_politics/importance.aspx online politics Thu, 31 Mar 2005 16:07:00 GMT