3 Annoying Online Retailer UX Trends

‘Fall-in-love’ at 2nd sight, 3rd or maybe 4th

This ribbed dress followed me everywhere on Zara’s site in different colours, models and poses. I see what they are trying to do here, but pushing it 6 times in one web session is just too much.

If you had an eye on something but still thinking, the fastest way to convince you is to reinforce your initial click in every direction you look at. But if you have a good memory and in a bit of a rush, it’s super annoying to see the same product again and again, and it’s almost impossible to go through the entire catalogue without getting crazy. But this is not the end, wait until you escape to the Men’s section to shop for your partner. Guess what you’ll see among the shirts and pants? Your old friend, the ribbed dress! Surprise!

It’s going to be quick, only 3 pages

By now you already know that I like browsing online retailers, but I indeed feel guilty and overwhelmed about the number of hours spent on this. Apparently retailers know about this and they are trying something interesting by chunking the page number of their catalogue. I noticed this recently when browsing at a few major online retailers:

When I clicked on the “Dress” category, there were only “1 2 3” pages to display. I was like “oh, not too bad, let me see them all”, but as soon as I click on page 3, the page number expanded to “1 2 3 4 5 6 7” and if you click on the last page a few more times, there’s a whopping amount of 235 pages in total, and surely they know how to push you through the initial hump.

Just say “SALE” please

I don’t know since when, a lot of the online retailers became reluctant to the word “sale” on their websites. Instead they started to use words like “we made too much” or “private promotion” to hint the price reduction. An extreme example was with Everlane’s innovative “Choose" what you pay” campaign, where you can choose what to pay for the item from 3 incremental pre-set prices. Honestly, who wouldn't choose the lowest price? Even if so, is it worth the trade off of loosing the information scent of the website when most people can’t even find the sale section.

An example of Everlane’s choose what you pay.

With these new price reduction verbiage, I started to wonder if this is the same idea as the outlet, where so called luxury retailers don’t want to damp the brand prestige by displaying discounted merchandise with full priced ones in the same physical space, so they purposely tone up the “sale” into something obscure.

Or is this a mental game that retailers play with their regular customers, where it’s a well kept secret that only regulars will discover? I don’t have an explanation for this yet, but this is definitely one of most annoying trends I’ve observed with online retailers lately.

Plastic Free July - 11 tips to reduce plastic waste in life

  1. stay alert when it comes to bottled water, take out drinks and straws

    If you play “I spy with my little eye” game at a busy intersection, you’ll never run out of bottled water and plastic cups to spy on. It’s so convenient, so cheap, so available that we drink from them as if it’s not a big deal. You might be like me who make a conscious decision to not buy one, but man, I still somehow end up with one in my hand now and then. Stay alert, bring your own cup and say no to free bottled water!

  2. swap disposable razor with safety razor

    This one is not just for the environment, once you are hocked with safety razor, you will save a fortune over the years ($20 CAD for 100 double-edge safety blades VS $33 CAD for 4 disposable razor cartridges, you do the math)

  3. swap Ziploc bags with reusable food containers

    I used to zip through my ziploc bags so fast that I needed to reuse the ones that are not so dirty. It got me thinking why not just using reusable food containers to start with. I got a set of 24 glass containers in various sizes from Costco, and never lay my eyes on ziploc bags again. My next challenge is to bring these containers to buy fish/meat without feeling judged.

  4. swap plastic bag with reusable tote (dah!)

  5. stop reaching for the produce bag at grocery store

    If you observe people in grocery store, you’ll find them reaching out to the free produce bag whenever they are about to pick up vegetables, fruits or spice. I used to be one of them until I realize I don’t need to put the tomatoes in a produce bag before putting them into my cart. It was liberating!

  6. do you really need a garbage liner?

    Guess what happened to the produce bags that I used to get from the grocery store? They became my garbage bin liners. I have 3 garbage bins and 1 produce bin which I empty twice a week at least, together this will consume 416 bags in a single year. After I stop getting these free produce bags, I stop using garbage liners. Now I empty them directly in the outdoor garbage bin and give them a good rinse and spray. Again, liberating!!

  7. wipe your paint brushes and palette before rinsing

    If you paint like I do, you might also contemplating on the most eco-friendly option to dispose art supplies. If you paint with acrylic, make sure you wipe off excess paint on the brushes and palette before running them under water to reduce the plastic particles getting into the water system. If you are really hard core, you can install filters in the drain to catch more plastic particles.

  8. try shampoo bars

    I wish I know about this earlier, but I did not know shampoo come in solid form until a few years ago. Now my go to shampoo bars are from LUSH, they are compact, naked and lather just as great, and I can travel with it without worrying about the size or weight. Liberating!!!

  9. advocate for plastic-free swags

    Nine out of ten times, I was handed with swags at conferences, corporate events and vendor meetings. They are mostly cheaply made plastic items like pins, stickers, pens and phone accessories, which will likely to end up in the garbage in a few weeks. If you have the power to influence this trend, do something! Stop ordering and giving out these wasteful plastic swags at your events. If you really want to give something with your company’s logo, consider something consumable (cupcakes!), reusable (decent water bottles!), or an experience (free ticket to the next event!).

  10. think critically about the “recyclable” or “bio-degradable” statement

    Sometimes we are ok with single used items as soon as we hear they are “recyclable” or “bio-degradable”, but have you thought about what’s the percentage of recyclable single used cups are actually been recycled? Who separates them from the garbage bin? Which companies recycles these? What’s the cost of recycling? How long does it take? How much man power, electricity and water does it take to recycle? Is there a market for the recycled raw material?

    Think critically about what’s been said, research what’s been done. Maybe then you’ll want to eliminate single use plastic regardless if it’s recyclable or not.

  11. buy bulk and do refills

    Buying bulk will likely reduce the waste on transportation and packaging, but it’s definitely not accessible nor affordable to everyone. More and more refill stores are opening across Canada, do what you can to align with your lifestyle!