Framework of effective web site design for business-to-consumer Internet commerce

INFOR, Feb 2002 by Pairin Katerattanakul

Furthermore, customers may want to review their previous transactions before making new transactions (e.g., purchasing complementary items for the previously purchased items). Thus, Web site should consider keeping records of its customers' previous transactions and allowing individual customer to review his or her records. We also propose that the effective Web site consider providing transaction acknowledgement and a feature that allows customers to track their transaction status.

4.2 Information Sharing on Virtual Community

Armstrong and Hagel (1996) suggested that by creating strong online communities, businesses would be able to build customer loyalty and generate strong economic returns. Schubert and Ginsburg (1999) also argued that successful Web players are taking full advantage of the unique, interactive nature of the Web; that is, vendors in this electronic medium should make use of the advantages of a closer relationship to their customers by means of virtual communities.

Schubert and Ginsburg (1999) posited that "communities of transaction" deal with the exchange of goods and services or the purchase transaction. The mutual support and the means for identification of individual user needs based on shared community knowledge are distinctive features of the communities of transaction. The community knowledge comes from the accumulation of information about a whole community of customer tastes and preferences (Peppers and Rogers 1997). This community knowledge is contributed and shared by community members. The knowledge may comprise the information of interest (Schubert and Ginsburg 1999) such as recommendations in selecting and/or purchasing various brands or models, tips and tricks for using specific products, and collections of questions and answers. All community members can benefit from this knowledge and the sharing of this knowledge influences business transactions.

Thus, the effective Web site for business-to-consumer Internet commerce should consider creating communities of transaction in the site and encouraging customers to communicate both with the company and among themselves to share their knowledge for the community.

4.3 Other System Quality Supporting Consumer Transactions

Ease of Transaction Completion: In addition to system reliability that is one of the important measures for system quality (Srinivasan 1985), several previous IS studies (Davis 1989; Moore and Benbasat 1991) suggested the perceived ease of use as one of the measures for user satisfaction, system adoption, or IS success. Similarly, we suggest that the transactions conducted over the effective Web site be simple and short. Effective Web sites should consider minimizing the steps and the customer's information required to complete the transactions.

Effective Web site should also be flexible to enable its customers to make changes in the requirements (e.g., quantity, shipping address, credit card number) they have entered before submitting the transaction. Moreover, customers may want to put their transactions on hold and come back to finish their transactions on a later day. The Web site should consider supporting this need and not require the customers to re-enter the transaction information since the more easily customers can change their requirements, the more likely they are to complete the transactions. Response Time: Similar to the perceived ease of use, system response time is another measure for user satisfaction and IS success (Benbasat and Dexter 1986; Doll and Torkzadeh 1988). The fast response time of the Internet commerce system affects Web user satisfaction and the success of the Web site. Page-loading speed was rated as the most important determinant of successful Web site design (Gehrke and Turban 1999). Additionally, Lynch and Horton (1999) noted that, for most computing tasks, the threshold of frustration is about ten seconds. Thus, we propose that the effective Web site should consider designing its system to provide fast response time and short time - within ten seconds - required to download its Web pages.