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Redclaw
07-27-2004, 01:05 AM
There seem to be 3 dominant styles of order page design in use at the moment:


1: Display a table of games with tick boxes where the customer can select the game(s) they are interested in before proceeding.(see www.redclawgames.com/buy.php for example)

2: Display an information page for just the game that was clicked on which then leads into the order process. (see https://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=1505-7 for example)

3: Go straight to an order form without any further ado. (click the "buy" button here http://www.popcap.com/launchpage.php?theGame=astropop for example)


Of course the answer to the question of which one works best would be "Test it!", which I intend to do. But I was wondering if anyone had any data to share from their own tests with regard to which one they found most successfull in closing the sale.

The way I see it, the big plus of offering the table of games with tick boxes is that the customer can order multiple games at once. But the downside is that they may have only been interested in buying one game, but then got distracted by the others on the list. Say a second game on the order page takes their interest, so they download the demo and don't like it. Would they then still remember to (or want to) come back to order the original one?

There's a great deal of room for experimentation within these designs, so I was wondering has anyone got any data or opinions to share on the various methods outlined.

And as a sidenote, I once tried a proper shopping cart system where you added games to the cart and saw your order total increase, etc. Initially it worked great, but after a while I found that people would just come to the page... stuff every single item in the cart in a matter of seconds... then just leave! Maybe they thought it was a game? :)

Mike Boeh
07-27-2004, 05:40 AM
I have played around with a lot of different methods here, and none seem to significantly affect my bottom line. I am currently doing something a bit different, where I offer 5 games for half price, or just the game the user wanted.
http://www.retro64.com/getgold.asp

svero
07-27-2004, 05:55 AM
ive recently been trying a wordy one that pushes explanation and safety but it hasnt been any better or worse. I may just end up super simplifying it.

Redclaw
07-27-2004, 07:02 AM
I offer 5 games for half price, or just the game the user wanted.
http://www.retro64.com/getgold.aspJesus! Are you sure you aren't discounting a little too much there? I'm sure it will be a popular bundle, but you're only getting half the value and it doesn't leave anything for the customer to come back for.

I find that quite a few people will buy a game (full price), then come back weeks/months later to buy again (full price again), and so on, each time building customer loyalty and trust. Also anything over a 10%-20% discount makes me immediately think the quality must be suspect.

Though I guess that's why you test these things. :)

MattInglot
07-27-2004, 11:49 AM
Having only one product simplifies things greatly :) Once the visitor clicks a Buy button he/she is taken directly to the order form (http://www.custombar.net/index.php?p=order).

This page acts a gateway to several payment systems (CC, PayPal, snail mail) and also collects the order quantity. The user's name, e-mail, and country/state are also collected. They are then taken to a confirmation page that is custom tailored to the payment type that was chosen, and gives a summary of the order and any applicable taxes. For CC a Secure Checkout button is displayed for transferring to SSL and beginning the CC payment process. Same with PayPal except it takes you to the PayPal page. The snail mail just gives instructions on how to mail your cheque.

I've tried to make the order page as short as possible without omitting important or required information. There's information there about safety and privacy as well, both because the CC processor requires it and because I think it's important to provide some assurance that the transaction will be completed safely, particularly considering the internet-savvy target audience of CustomBar.

Nemesis
07-27-2004, 02:00 PM
And besides, I don't think customers in general order more than one game at a time, unless there are some attractive bundles / promotions available.

papillon
07-27-2004, 02:07 PM
Every now and then I get someone who goes through the site and orders everything, even though I don't have a convenient way of doing that...

Nemesis
07-27-2004, 02:29 PM
That might be due to the fact that your games have a particular style so anyone who likes one of your games will likely want them all because such games may not be available anywhere else! :)