IT Blues – A New Train of Thought: What About the People Whose Lives We Ruin?

And what about those online stores that promise convenient shopping right out of your home with secure and easy-to-use ordering?

Nice concept.

But will it ever happen? Probably not in our lifetimes. I mean, I can go into a bookstore and buy a book without having to create an account (unless, of course, they have some kind of buyers’ club savings package) or check off a box indicating male or female. They scan the book, ring it in, I give them money, they give me change, they thank me, I thank them, I leave the store with my book. It’s been quick, friendly and easy.

Two nights ago, I tried to order a copy of one of my own books from Amazon.com because friends had told me they had problems. I located the book and added it to a cart and clicked the button to proceed to checkout or some such page. I had to create an account to buy the book. They wanted all kinds of information from me. It took me nearly 10 minutes click through the pages and fill out the information … and then I got some bloody error message and had to do the whole damn thing all over again just to get the same bloody error message. I finally managed to get a copy of the book … from Barnes&Noble.com.

My book, eMarketing Tools for Writers, was mentioned at the Grumpy Old Bookman blog. Grumpy also had this to say: “I might have bought it but I'm afraid the complications of the Fictionwise site wore out my patience.”

He was right. One of the programmers I work with took 20 minutes to order it. He’s a web programmer and e-commerce technology developer. 20 minutes.

So much for the much touted dream of user-friendliness in our lifetimes.

I think the problem stems from the early days of online commerce. Marketers saw it as a gemstone waiting to be polished. Like, when somebody goes to your site to buy something, you quiz them a little before you let them buy. Hell, they’re already at their computers and filling out blanks, so why not throw in a few more blanks and find out something about them like their age range, sex and interests? And make the filling-in-of-these-blanks mandatory if they want to proceed to the screen where they make the actual purchase.

In other words, let’s put the screws to our customers and gather information that we can use to target them, and maybe even sell by some untraceable route to other marketers.

For instance, why the hell do I have to give my physical address when I’m ordering an ebook that will be emailed to me? Why do they need my phone number? I don’t have to give that information at the bookstore.

And then, of course, there’s all the username and password bullshit so that I can clutter my head with more useless information to the extent that I have a hard time remembering my PIN number and phone number.

Instead of gathering information, instead of trying to make an additional sale on the way to the purchase screen, instead of annoying people, online stores should just let the customer buy things quickly and easily. It’s about the sale. How difficult can that be?

And please, all you online stores, do the occasional user test so that I don’t waste my valuable time getting error messages from software that doesn’t work.

BTW, the picture above shows a thwarted online consumer driven to drink and desperation. Notice the low forehead and vacant eyes.