Examining theTop M-Commerce Sites
The success of m-commerce depends partly on the quality of the users experience when accessing the site from an Internet-enabled mobile phone. Some key metrics for several popular m-commerce sites are shown in Figure 6-20, including load time and success rate. The score is computed by equally weighting the load time and success rate.
1. Visit each of the sites in Figure 6-20 using an Internet-enabled mobile phone, and time how long each one takes to load, using a stopwatch. You can use an online stop¬watch at www.online-stopwatch.com if you don't have one of your own.
2. Create a spreadsheet with four column headers: Retailer, Load Time 2010, Current load Time, Percent Change.
3. Enter the four retailers and add your data for the third column.
4. Enter the formula to compute the Percentage Change in the CNC row (fourth column) and copy the formula to the other cells in the column.
5. Which retailer's m-commerce site has shown the most change since 2010?
|
Retailer
|
Load Time (Sec)
|
Success Rate
|
Score Out of 1,000
|
|
QVC
|
1.95
|
98.60
|
953
|
|
Walmart.com
|
3.20
|
98.98
|
926
|
|
Best Buy
|
6.81
|
97.38
|
565
|
|
Target
|
5.13
|
98.58
|
782
|
6. What factors contribute to a site's load times? Why would your data be different from a classmate's when accessing these sites?
7. Conduct an experiment to compare m-commerce at Walmart and Target. Start the stopwatch, load Walmart's site, and search for a Fodor's travel guide to Mexico. Add the product to your cart, check out up to the point at which you would enter a credit card number, and then write down the time from the stopwatch. Do the same experiment at Target's site. How did your time estimates compare for the two m-commerce experiences? Overall, which site do you think offers the best user experience?