Slides for talk given at Colombo UX Conference 2015. This talk centered around how we in Sri Lanka should approach ecommerce and what we should and shouldn't be doing.

1. Ecommerce In Sri Lanka
Imagining An Experience
Customers Will Fall In Love With

2. Why this talk?
Ecommerce in Sri Lanka is growing (from the
availability perspective)
UX in Ecommerce is unique
Ecommerce in Sri Lanka is even more unique

3. Why this talk?
Proximity Problem

4. Current Problems of Ecommerce in
SL
Food:
• Poor Menus
• Terrible ordering experience in general
• It’s more convenient to pick up the phone
and call

5. Current Problems of Ecommerce in
SL
Fashion:
• Horrible experience for browsing in general
– Size charts not available
– Descriptions lacking
– Imagery issues
– Problems of choice
• It’s slightly easier to go to an actual
physical outlet

6. Current Problems of Ecommerce in
SL
Standard Retail:
• Not a great experience overall
• Experience centered around price wars

7. Current Problems of Ecommerce in
SL
“The problem with the race to the bottom, is
that you just might win”
- Seth Godin

8. Solving the Ecommerce Problem
Some disclaimers
• Nothing is guaranteed (A/B Test
Everything!)
• Great experiences are unique.

9. Shaping an Experience
Accessibility
• How easy is it to access what I want.
• Usability
Difficulty level – Very Easy

10. Shaping an Experience
Information
• How easy is it to make a decision online?
• How much does the customer need to
think?
Difficulty level – Very Very Very Hard

11. Shaping an Experience
Execution:
• How well are promises fulfilled?
• Deeply dependent on culture of company.
• Very difficult to change
Difficulty level – Meh

12. The Easy Part
End goal is to make shopping online a bit
more ‘fun’.
This won’t end up in making things much
more convenient. But it’ll help

13. The Checkout
Will anyone get this right?

23. Colours
Will anyone get this right?

28. Colours Done Right
Primary – Main Call To Action (CTA).
Secondary – Associated with main action
Tertiary – Separate

29. Pet Peeve
Two Words
Sliding. Banners.

31. Criticism of Carousels
“Carousels are effective at being able to tell
people in Marketing/Senior Management that
their latest idea is on the Home Page. Use
them to put content that users will ignore on
your Home Page. Or, if you prefer, don’t use
them. Ever.”
- Lee Duddell

32. Criticism of Carousels
“The target was the biggest item on the
homepage - the first carousel item.
“Nonetheless, the user failed the task.”
- Nielsen Normal Group

41. Some deserve special attention

43. Enough Easy Stuff
The problem with all of this, is that it doesn’t
make it any easier to shop
We need to understand what deeper
problems we should solve

44. The Hard Stuff
People go through several phases when
purchasing
• They need something or discover a need
• They research
• They compare
• They buy
• They use

45. You Are Not The Only One
Unless you are selling food, even doing
fashion won’t mean you are unique

46. It’s not about who sells it.
It’s about who sells it better

47. 2 Types of Shopping
Curation (Browse based)
Supply-everything-model (Search based)

48. So how are we doing on search?

49. So how are we doing on search?

50. So how are we doing on search?

51. So how are we doing on search?

52. So how are we doing on search?

53. So how are we doing on search?
A: Not doing good at all

63. How do I decide?
Comparison is non existent.
Social proof is nowhere
Information isn’t provided
The customer is expected to evaluate on
their own!

64. Solutions
Q: How do you solve the banner problem?
A: Choose a specific campaign you want to
promote and promote just that.

65. Solutions
Q: How do I help customers decide what to
buy?
A: Try these:
• Take time to fill data in uniformly
• Ensure that images are high quality and
sensible
• Incentivize customers to review products

66. Good. Not Good Enough
Q: How do you solve the banner problem?
A: Use data to personalize the banner for
EACH customer/visitor!!

67. Good. Not Good Enough
Q: How do you help the customer decide?
A: Build the tools for them. Educate them.
Build an experience that matches how they
shop.
Because no one says “I want a tablet with
1gb ram”. They say “I want to skype”

68. Good. Not Good Enough
Because no one says “I want a tablet with
1GB ram”. They say “I want to Skype”

69. And Then They Buy
But. Do you help them?

71. Stop Shouting
The customer heard you the first time!!

72. Breaking the cultural barrier
Great UX isn’t a set of practices. It’s a
culture.
A culture that takes time. And love.
Not everyone wants to give that time.

73. What can we do?
We can’t fight the status quo sometimes, but
we can build the tools to subvert it.

74. But can we go further?
What would the distant future look like?

75. VR Based Shopping?

76. Wearables or other items that create the
experience?
Smart mirrors for fashion?

77. The Defining pieces of tomorrow
Medium – VR and AR
Materials – 3D Printing and Nano Tech
Information – Internet of things. Wearables.

78. The Defining pieces of tomorrow
E Commerce is no longer a “thing”. It’s part of
our life
Data makes decisions for us
Everything talks to each other to satisfy the
needs of the customer.

79. The Defining pieces of tomorrow
The invisible world of Ecommerce.
Where the act of shopping becomes
“thoughtless”

80. The Present
Time taken to deliver a pen drive – 3 days
Delivery Distance – 4 km
Average speed – 0.167 km/h *
Day = Working day of 8 hours

81. Now What Can We Do?
E Commerce tools of today aren’t built for
today. Let alone tomorrow.
VR is the future. Hybrids will rule the earth
(Kinda)
Artificial Intelligence will be the only “sales rep”
you ever need

82. Now What Can We Do?
We can be the ‘first shapers’ of the future

83. Go Make A Dent In The Future
adnanissadeen.com
@kiriappeee
adnan.issadeen@live.com