Why Amazon scores and Flipkart doesn’t? - A user-based case study.
Recently in an interview, I was asked which e-commerce website I use the most and why. The question although might sound inane, it got me thinking. Perhaps, that was the intent of the interviewer. My answer was Amazon. I use it habitually to buy all my stuff online. Do I go take a look at Flipkart just to see the price and choices available? Absolutely. But I come back to Amazon eventually to order. Why do I do that I thought? What’s so appealing about Amazon that makes me ditch our homegrown platform? I set about trying to figure out the answers. Please read away.
Objectives
- Find the pain points of the customers visiting both the websites
- Visual comparison of Amazon and Flipkart
The e-commerce industry has always been an interesting field as it has something to teach all of us designers!
Amazon
Amazon is an international one-stop e-commerce giant, on which customers browse, search, find products, compare, read reviews and buy.
Flipkart
Flipkart is everything Amazon is, but is active only in India and is better known for its flash sales.
User Research
I reached out to few of my friends with a set of questions, wanting to know what was their choice of website is and why. Their answers were quite interesting. Here are some of them.
Usability Analysis
There are a few factors that play a very crucial role in an e-commerce website.
- The placement of search bar
- Search results
- Filter and sorting options
- Product detail page
- Product categorization
Based on these points, along with the data collected from my sample, here are my analysis.
Search Bar
Once on the homepage, the most popular action the users perform is to look for the search bar to search for their preferred product. Therefore, a search bar should be clearly visible and recognizable. Both Amazon and Flipkart have done a great job with their search bar, however, Amazon’s is slightly better because of the length of the bar and prominence of the search icon.
Staying on the header, one more point I would like to mention is that the number of items in the cart could have been displayed, even if it’s zero. This might give the user an impetus to add a product to the cart.
Search Results
One of the basic requirements for an e-commerce website is to ensure that the search results are quick and relevant.
I did a search for ‘TATA Grand coffee’ on Amazon and Flipkart and asked my friends to search for the same.
Replies from users during the search
“I think the product is not available”
“In Flipkart it says no results found but I found that on Amazon”
“Hey I found it searching from Google”
Filter & Sorting Options
I found both Amazon and Flipkart have a good list of filter and sorting options. In fact, Flipkart provides additional filter options like shoe size, shoe color, theme etc.
Replies from users during the search
“Filters are better on Flipkart”
“I’ve not used Amazon filter options, I think it doesn’t work”
“Fliter options on Flipkart helps me make quicker decisions ”
Product Detail Page
Add To Cart / Buy Now Button
Studies suggest that 88–92% of people are right-handed. Therefore, it’s a good idea to place the ‘Add To Cart’ button on the right side of the page, just like how Amazon does. The placement of Add To Cart button on Flipkart’s product detail page is confusing, to say the least.
Applying predictable design patterns that follows user expectations saves user’s time and seamless journey to check out.
Layout & White Space
It’s not just the visual properties or the placement of elements, whitespace makes it easier for users to decipher nodes of information and react to it. On comparing both the websites, the positioning of the product name, price, ratings are better on Amazon than Flipkart.
Reviews & Ratings
95% of users rely on reviews to learn more about the product and decide whether to buy it or not. The reviews on Flipkart seem to be unreliable and unauthentic. I have personally encountered many such products on Flipkart with overwhelmingly positive reviews and ratings but have major negative reviews on Amazon.
The review and rating section has a design problem too. Users are more likely to conclude that the reviews are fake if they see mostly positive reviews listed first or misinterpret how a product has been rated if they see mostly negative reviews. Earning trust requires an uncluttered design, detailed product information and real customer reviews that can also be graphically represented.
Synthesis
If you’ve made it this far, thanks so much for reading ❤️
So what do you think about my analysis? Do you agree or not?
This is just my view and I am sure both Amazon and Flipkart have valid reasons for their design decisions. I have to confess that writing this post helped me explore ways of improving my own UX skills.
During the earlier said interview, I was asked “what is the role of designers in companies if everything depends on marketing, services, reviews?”. I answered that “although designers won’t necessarily be responsible for directly selling the products, but we can be pretty sure to accentuate the overall happiness of your customers.”
Thanks to everyone who helped me write this article.
