Question

Topic: Website Critique

Comparison Shopping Search Engine Credibility

Posted by Anonymous on 10/13/2006 at 3:24 PM ET 500 Points
Dear Marketing profs,

My traffic observation shows pretty high rate for visitors who leave our website immediately without even trying to use our price comparison shopping search engine for health products like prescription drugs, OTC medications, contact lenses, nutritional supplements. It is especially high for home page visitors. In the office we had several discussion regarding this matter, since we have growing traffic from PPC programs but loose too many of these leads right away.

Major shopping search engines like Nextag, Shopping.com, Bizrate usually can show price comparison from less than five online pharmacies and merchants, while we at HealthPricer can provide comparison from more than 50 online retailers including prices per tablet/box and search flexibility by different criteria.

Please visit www.healthpricer.com and evaluate it by following criteria:

1. Overall look of site (attractive, boring, easy or difficult to use and browse)

2. Credibility (first impression, attaction to try, transparency, trust feeling for search results)

3. Usefulness. Do you feel that it is easy to find products and compare prices? Do you feel it is usefull enough to be bookmarked and referred to friends?

Any comments and suggestions to user interface and graphic design improvements are welcome.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by ReadCopy on 10/13/2006 at 4:05 PM Member
    Do you know what search terms bring visitors to your site? I'm just wondering if they are expecting to find something else!

  • Posted by cread on 10/13/2006 at 5:27 PM Member
    I tried Xanax, ziac, gelatine, alprazolam with no results.

    You should have a "did you mean" for mispellings. Why have different catagories for perscription, medicene cabinet and supplemnets. They are one or the other. You know which list, why should the customer care?
  • Posted on 10/13/2006 at 6:14 PM Accepted
    I put in femara, lexapro and prozac -- very popular and widely used drugs and they all came back at no match. I was using the rx. Do you really need them to have to specify which category. I wouldn't think there would be any overlap. If I put in femara obviously it wouldn't come up under any category but rx. Like the others, I did my search in less than a minute for 3 drugs. Couldn't find any and left.
  • Posted by kannanveeraiah on 10/14/2006 at 1:02 AM Accepted
    Dear Dmitriy Minenko,

    I am sure, the reply of W.M.M.A. is the right hit on the head of the nail. But, in your clarification to him you are asking for "Which drugs?" and suggesting that the visitor has to put drug name and then choose right category to get search results. Also, for all other respondents too, you are guiding as to what to search and how to search. ....

    Don't you get the message yet ?

    At least in this forum you could discuss; but at your site this is not possible.

    Make your site very user friendly. The visitor should be able to find the comparisons by merely having an idea about its name or about its use or application or brand name. The visitors may not be experts and they may mis-spell. Your site should take care of all these possibilities.

    Simply your website should be answering itself to what the visitors could look for, as after all neither they would be inclined to contact you (by any other means) nor your could meet such demands.


    Best Wishes,

    kannan
  • Posted by darcy.moen on 10/15/2006 at 11:40 AM Accepted
    when it comes to web sites, you can either push a rope, or pull one.

    If you choose to push a rope, and your customers will have to navigate your web site your way, be prepared for higher rates of cart abandonment and low page counts with little drill down. In fact, your customers will show web site navigation trends just like you describe.

    But, if you can adapt your web site and over come the technological issues, making your web site search more intuitive and more like your customer's natural search habits, you Will be rewarded with 'Sticky' and have customers staying and buying from your site.

    Thus is the reward for development. Customers who get what they want, will stay and pay the web site that mirrors or satisfied their search habits. It also raises the bar for your competitors who may not follow you. Thus, you end up with a better web site, and more loyal customers.

    Invest in refining your search engine, and make it work more like your customers do. It will be worth it.

    Customer Loyalty Network
  • Posted by Frank Hurtte on 10/16/2006 at 10:31 AM Accepted
    my only comment is that the first screen looks pretty bare and requires a couple of additional clicks to get to the good information. Maybe you need to put some of the most common drug searches right there on the front page.
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