Defining the customer experience theme Product Offer: The case of Amazon.com
When WUA conducts a benchmark study for any industry, the three main customer experience themes that are measured are Look & Feel, Product Offer, and Brand. We’ve already explored the theme of Brand inside and out. This time around, we’re going to create a clear image of the theme Product Offer.
What is Product Offer?
Upon seeing the theme Product Offer, you wouldn’t be foolish for thinking that it simply means the price at which a product is being offered for. Alas, it’s not so straightforward. While price plays a role in the score that a website receives for the theme Product Offer, it’s not the main factor. Product Offer deals with how a website presents the product it’s selling. Product Offer involves how the customer perceives the price of the product compared to its value, and how the website is able to validate the price at which the product is being offered for. Most importantly, achieving excellence within the theme Product Offer is being to explain exactly what your product is, and striking a balance between too many and too few options with an offer. Since Amazon.com recently swept away the competition in our first-ever benchmark study of the online market for Smart Speakers, we’re going to use the eCommerce giant to exemplify precisely what WUA means with the theme Product Offer.
Introducing the product
Before any product can be sold, the potential customer must be able to comprehend what the product actually is. The process of explaining the product is something that varies from industry to industry. For an insurance company, it’s more than just outlining what each policy covers. It’s about selling something a bit more abstract–the idea that when you need help, you can trust the brand to take care of your issues. Selling a smart speaker is an entirely different ballgame. Not only do you have to spell out exactly what the latest gadget on the market is, but also how it works, what the specs are, and how it can work together with your other devices. Amazon.com, which finished with an astounding score of 90 in the first impression phase for Product Offer, does an excellent job in gradually introducing the customer to their product. Below you’ll see what we mean.
Some of the different smart speakers you can buy on Amazon.com.
The Amazon Echo may be an intelligent piece of technology, but Amazon presents it in a way that is simple for nearly anyone to understand. Above we see the page you get when entering smart speaker section of the Amazon website. The top of the page has a short description of Amazon’s devices and features a gallery of images with simple examples of how Alexa can add value to your household. These examples help to assure customers that the product is well worth the price. Below these images you see the array of Amazon Echo smart speakers they offer online. Not all sites can get the same positive results that Amazon.com does by presenting as many options as they do, but Amazon.com has a history of providing as many choices as possible, so it’s no surprise to see so many featured here. It’s also worth noting that Amazon.com displays the number of reviews each product has and well they have been reviewed. Researchers have previously found that reviews can positively affect the likelihood that a product will be purchased online, meaning it’s a good idea to display reviews alongside products. Now let’s check out what happens when you click on one of these devices.
Displaying the value of the product
When you click on, let’s say, the Echo Dot device, you’ll come across the same classic page displayed for all products on Amazon.com. There’s a quite some information, but only the necessary stuff: features, specs, color options, price, shipping, etc.
The product page for the echo dot.
First off, for all the features that Amazon lists on this page, the cost of this product is low. But as we mentioned earlier, it’s not all about the price when it comes to Product Offer. It’s about communicating that value, and letting the customer know precisely what they’re getting when buying a product, not to mention when they’re getting. Amazon has a taste for details, displaying everything from when the device will come in the mail to how the it will interact with a Spotify account in order to properly inform the customer. Of course, tech-savvy consumers are most likely familiar with the specs of the smart speaker by now, but for the consumers who aren’t so geeky, understanding how Alexa can supposedly make your life easier may be less straightforward. For those shoppers, Amazon.com has created many sections right underneath the page you see above just to further make clear what the Echo and Alexa do.
An introductory page to Alexa.
The Alexa homepage, with its subsections based on all the things Alexa is programmed to do, drives home just exactly what the customer can expect when buying this product. Notice that, unlike the product page, this page is designed with the clear-cut intelligibility, utilizing simple icons and leaving much space between the texts. Amazon.com goes to show here that you must not leave any room for doubt or confusion when selling your product online.
What have we learned today?
To start with, Product Offer does not equal how affordable the price of the product is. Product Offer is a much broader customer experience theme that entails an introduction to the product itself and the web design used to facilitate the presentation of the product. Beyond this, a score for Product Offer is heavily swayed by how well a website is able to portray how much value the customer is getting for the price they pay. In order to express this value, the website must be able to explain all the features of its product in a manner that’s understandable for the customer and that shows how the product can add to their life.
