With the rise in recent years of Apparel outfitters: Zara, ASOS, Fashion Nova and others, we sought to define what some of the biggest problems plaguing online users and how to make competitive adjustments.
We started by asking users via a social media poll what are the top concerns they have among the top 10 online apparel brands(18 – 25 women users).
We wanted to make sure we got a good idea of what are audience thought was really missing among our biggest competitors and fulfill that need.
Top 15 e-commerce needs:
It’s easy to find exactly what I want.
I can quickly find the brands I want.
The checkout process is smooth.
I can easily find ratings/reviews for products I’m interested in.
It’s easy to see exactly how much I’ll be charged.
It’s easy to browse for items.
I can find inspiration for products I might want on the website.
It’s easy to return items if I want.
Product images are clear.
I can easily find deals and discounts.
Shipping costs are clear.
Product descriptions are clear.
The search results are relevant.
It’s easy to determine my size.
It’s easy to visualize how the clothes will look on me.
After surveying over 300 people we got the following response as charted below.
“It’s easy to browse for items” was the top key driver for the clothing retail website experience, accounting for 12% of the variation in SUPR-Q scores.
On ten of the websites evaluated (Anthropologie, Banana Republic, Gap, H&M, Kohl’s, Lululemon, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Old Navy, and Urban Outfitters).
“The search results are relevant” was a significant driver of the clothing retail website experience and explained 6% of the variance in SUPR-Q scores. In the retrospective study, fewer than half of the participants (42%) strongly agreed that
search results were relevant across the clothing retail websites.
Figure 2: Screenshot of H&M menu options, showing the organization of categories. Users were left without a clear direction of where to look, because multiple categories could be correct when looking for a women’s sweatshirt. Furthermore, subcategories were not sorted in any meaningful way and may be cumbersome for users to read through.