Online shoppers are not impulse buyers

[Coyote]

Okay - I'm not sure how this data was gathered, but this is an interesting press release that may be of interest to all of us:

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=85896

The end result? Online consumers may actually be less prone to "impulse purchases" than brick-and-mortar shoppers. "The average time delay between a consumer's first visit to a Web site and their first purchase was just over 19 hours, with over 20% of shoppers delaying their buy decision for more than three days."

Now we kind of assume this behavior with shareware. Download our demo, play it, come back and buy it. But I'm curious --- does this same kind of behavior apply to downloads? Will someone often visit our sites multiple times before actually trying the game? Do people visit the site again and again without purchasing / downloading anything? We certainly want to foster return visits whether they buy anything or not.

Anyway - I wanted to point this out and see if anyone had any ideas on how it applies to us and how we might try and take advantage of it.

[Mickey Crocker]

I don't know how average I am but I know every indie game I bought online (4 in total), I purchased after downloading them all at least two times and trying them a few times each before I knew I enjoyed them enough to fork over the money. I actually probably waited over a month on all of them before purchase.

[Coyote]

Ricochet: Lost Worlds took me maybe a week or so.

Orbz was like half a year. I was annoyed because I'd left it paused (or in the menu screen) while I went and ate dinner, and when I'd come back I'd run out of time. So it was forgotten about for a little while.

[Nauris]

I think all the CC hassle is what kills the impulse. In retail store, youre most likely there because you needed something and then impulse-buy some other stuff easily, because what difference does it make? Youre still going to pay at the cash register, no matter what.

Just an uneducated opinion, of course, partially based on my own online shopping experience. I just hate all those CC card forms. And they`re so different - some need just couple of things entered, some may ask you what you had in dinner. Add to that the hassle of unchecking some silly promotions checkboxes and you`ve ruined my day. Its silly, really, because it doesnt take more than five minutes, but it kills the "impulse" part in the buy completely.

Btw - I have impulse bought on Amzaon, though.

[svero]

I don't know how relevant this really is. I think it probably pertains more to actual goods that need to be shipped. Software that can be downloaded directly after purchase or used immediately with a serial number is much more likely to appeal an an impulse buy than something you have to wait a few days to receive from Amazon.com

- S

[Yossarian]

The difference with Amazon is that they have the One Click shopping, though, which I haven't seen on any game portals. If you can get a customer for the first time, and then store enough info to give them one click purchasing, you might be able to promote more impulse buys.

Something about having to enter all the CC info really makes me hesitate. Maybe it is just the realization while I'm doing it that I'm actually spending money. It just reinforces the fact that I'm actually giving someone else my cash. Remove those steps and I'm much more likely to just click Buy Buy Buy Buy...

iTunes is another example that gets me a lot. I enter my info once, and now I just click on the songs I want and bam they're there... if I was more of an audiophile it might get out of control....

[ManuelFLara]

The difference with Amazon is that they have the One Click shopping, though, which I haven't seen on any game portals. If you can get a customer for the first time, and then store enough info to give them one click purchasing, you might be able to promote more impulse buys.
IIRC Amazon patented that one-click-purchase system, is that correct? Maybe they only patented the name of it.

[Nexic]

Almost all payment systems have the option for users to create an account which would allow them to purchase things faster in the furute.

Personally I buy a game as soon as I know I like it, which is usually after the demo time runs out, or once I reach the end of the demo. The exception to this was Jets n Guns that I bought before finished the demo level.

[GBGames]

IIRC Amazon patented that one-click-purchase system, is that correct? Maybe they only patented the name of it.

Barnes and Noble was forced to add a second click to online orders. You can patent the idea of a webform that can use info saved from previous entries through cookies and other methods, but you can't patent the name of something. That's what trademark is for.

[Yossarian]

IIRC Amazon patented that one-click-purchase system, is that correct? Maybe they only patented the name of it.

I'm sure "One-Click" is trademarked and/or copywrited, but I doubt the method is something they could entirely protect. Anyone could some up with a similiar process that just makes it possible to skip most of the BS inherent in online purchasing.


Almost all payment systems have the option for users to create an account which would allow them to purchase things faster in the furute.


True, but there is an important distinction between just storing the info, and providing a process which actually speeds up the *entire* buying process and removes all the forms (and by extension, the thought) from the buying process. Amazon, IMO, does it better than anyone else I've seen for online stores. iTunes, which may be a better model for the "downloadable" market, does it amazingly well for their music store.

On a related note, Pizza Hut has me hooked (again), because I can hop on there, click through a couple of pages to get my order finalized, hit one button and in half an hour a guy knocks on my door with my food. By removing all the "buying" steps, I find myself logging on there all the time as it is the most insanely lazy and easy way to get dinner on my table the world has ever seen.

[Omega]

I'm sure "One-Click" is trademarked and/or copywrited, but I doubt the method is something they could entirely protect. Anyone could some up with a similiar process that just makes it possible to skip most of the BS inherent in online purchasing.


This forum has been hit with 'opinions stated as fact' virus. :) One user writes that they remember reading something, or with a legal question, and somebody who has no idea about this particular situation tries to correct it/answer it with "I'm ignorant to this particular situation, so I doubt it could be." Not only that, but dispensing legal advice! That the 'legal advice' happens to be wrong, and the latter user's idea of the situation also wrong (Amazon did indeed patent One-Click shopping), makes this even worse.

There's a forum I visit that started correcting 'bad info', and the quality of it improved... That's probably what needs to be addressed here by the mods :) We all have our times of spreading bad gouge :) (I know I must have been guilty of that.)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=amazon+one+click+shopping+patent

[Anthony Flack]

It is jaw-droppingly, phenomenally perverse that they could be allowed to patent one-click shopping, though. Just as well they didn't patent two, three and four click shopping while they were at it, or our ordering processes would be even worse!

I wonder when this ridiculous patent expires?

[Omega]

I am not a lawyer, but IIRC, I would say 20 to 50 years from now at the least. There are no distinction between software patents and other patents. nomoresoftwarepatents.com has info on such patents.

It is jaw-droppingly, phenomenally perverse that they could be allowed to patent one-click shopping, though. Just as well they didn't patent two, three and four click shopping while they were at it, or our ordering processes would be even worse!

I think this would be the funniest spoof. At least for April 1st. "We are sorry, but Amazon now claims that two-click shopping carts are actually a 'series' of two protected one-click patent violations in a row. Therefore, the five page checkout system we used to use has been found in violation of FIVE one-click patents according to the Supreme Court."

[Yossarian]

If you paid attention to what I had actually stated, it was that a similiar method could easily be derived. I never said that it One-Click is something you could/should copy. I was stating that *A* process developed to remove most of the shopping cart interaction could be created that would solve the same problem without copying the One-Click method directly.

I was pointing out that the end result (which amazon has acheived with One-Click), is extremely desireable and should be considered if people are looking to get online gamers to make anything close to what is called an "impulse buy".

[Savant]

One-Click is brilliant and I thought it was a great advance in online shopping when Amazon first launched it. Patenting it was just smart business. It gives them an edge over the other online retailers.