CUSTOMERS OF THE FUTURE
BACKGROUNDER – KEY FINDINGS
Trust me, it’ll be there tomorrow
 The lack of secure and reliable delivery of goods purchased online was a major
source of criticism levelled by the Customers of the Future. Initial fears about
security, trust and privacy diminished over time as the participants purchased
CDs, books and gifts from a variety of Internet sites. Positive purchasing
experiences gradually reduced their anxiety.
 In general, participants were likely to purchase from sites that provided
meaningful and accurate communication, especially regarding delivery.
 Participants wanted to know at the time of ordering whether the product was
immediately available and when it would be delivered.
 Participants became annoyed and frustrated when sites cancelled orders or
delayed delivery without notification – they wanted to be able to understand and
control their orders.
 Poor purchasing experience meant participants were unlikely to purchase from a
particular site again.
Buy Australian
 Participants were favourably disposed to purchasing from Australian sites such
as dstore or wishlist.
 Australian sites provide competitive price and delivery compared to their United
States competitors.
 Opportunity exists for Australian Internet sites to promote their ‘Australianess’ in
terms of delivery logistics.
Earn Permission
 Participants resent the overuse of junk e-mail, sought ways to block it and were
actively critical of companies who used this type of advertising.
 Junk email was unceremoniously deleted without being read.
 Effective ‘permission marketing’, where the consumer chooses to be marketed to
and a relationship is built, would seem to be more effective.
The Power of Branding
 Branding was found to be important to encourage trust, especially where
participants were concerned about security and trust issues.
 Participants trusted a known brand, for example dstore.com, irrespective of the
physical presence of a store.
 Participants were more likely to look for well-known sites based on past
purchasing, for example Sanity.
 When the brand name was unknown the site design became important in making
purchasing decisions.
November 2000
Page 1 of 2
Don’t loose them on the way to the cash register?
 All participants expected easy navigation.
 Site design should be obvious, easy to move through and fast.
 Slabs of text were criticised by participants as ‘boring’
 Irrelevant, repetitive, fast-moving advertising animations were considered
distracting and annoying.
 Oversimplified sites were considered unprofessional.
 Participants applauded sites that were well categorised, had relevant and intuitive
imagery and a robust search function.
Search or browse?
 Participants used search functions where specific products were sought and used
browsing when looking for ideas or when unsure of their goal.
 Specific searches were used in book and CD searches whereas browsing was
the primary means of navigation for gift shopping.
How much product information?
 Reviews and product samples (in the case of a CD) were considered useful and
important in influencing the participants purchasing decision.
 Participants expected at least as much information on the web-site as they would
find on the physical product – for example, dimensions, pictures and instructions.
A perfect online retailer according to the Customers of the Future:
 is a well known brand
 is colourful and provides information but is not boring
 is easy to find and easy to navigate
 provides good search functionality
 provides good product descriptions and reviews
 delivers on time
 provides advice of new products that are of interest
 is Australian
The Internet sites that were researched in Customers of the Future:
 Amazon.com (Amazon)
 barnesandnoble.com (Barnes & Noble)
 bookworld.com.au (Angus & Robertson)
 cdnow.com (CDNOW)
 chaosmusic.com.au (Chaos)
 dstore.com.au (dstore)
 gaslight.com.au (Gaslight Music)
 noizenet.com.au (NoizeNet)
 sanity.com.au (Sanity)
 shoppersworld.com.au (Shoppers World)
 wishlist.com.au (wishlist)
 telstra.com.au (Telstra)
 ninemsn.com.au (Ninemsn)
 yahoo.com.au (Yahoo)
November 2000
Page 2 of 2