Lessons of Google Checkout
July 26, 2007 at 12:31 am by Ehab Bandar
The promise of Google Checkout to provide a “faster, safer and more convenient way to shop online” is a compelling one, especially given the number of e-commerce accounts one can accumulate over time (think online Christmas shopping). The benefits to users are many, including a central place to manage all your online purchases, added protection from someone fraudulently using your credit card, and limiting the chance for commercial spam. While this objective remains a noble one, its current incarnation of creating a parallel and optional path for users means a disjointed experience. The benefits of Google Checkout are only truly realized with an all or nothing approach. But getting there might be difficult given the customer experience kinks it has to overcome. My experience with Google Checkout on CompUSA shows what I mean:
- In my example, I searched for a bluetooth mouse on http://www.google.com/checkout/m.html and eyed the first result: a Kensington PilotMouse. Next to the item the Google Checkout button was displayed. Unlike the common usage of “Add to Cart” or “View Item”, the Google Checkout wording implies that I want to checkout and purchase this product. This is off-putting since I’m not quite sure I want to checkout, but I take my chances and click on the button anyway.
- Clicking on the button takes me to the product page for the PilotMouse on the CompUSA site, which I didn’t quite expect. Here, no mention of Google Checkout is present. There’s only a CompUSA ‘Add to Cart’ button, which I promptly select.
- On the cart, I see the added PilotMouse and I’m presented with an option to checkout using CompUSA or Google Checkout.
The choice is an odd one for a first time user. There’s no immediate reason why I would choose Google over CompUSA unless I’ve really committed to the idea of using Google Checkout wherever possible. It’s also unclear on what level of service I would be getting by choosing one over the other. Is Google the payment gateway only? Who would I call for customer service issues, Google or CompUSA? Where can I track my order or shipping? If I have a payment question or want a refund, where do I go? Let’s assume those questions didn’t faze me, I decide to change the shipping method and click on Google Checkout to get a faster checkout experience. - I’m now required to login (unless I’m already signed in, of course). Once signed in, I can view the item in my cart or click ‘Edit Order’ to change the items in my CompUSA cart. Clicking ‘Edit Order’ becomes a sort of odd handoff, where I’m presented again with the option to checkout using CompUSA or the Google Checkout service. But the handoff is not clean, and even more frustrating is that my shipping preference was never reflected on the Google page. I guess faster checkout doesn’t always translate into faster shipping.
While the many benefits of Google Checkout outweigh its issues, the challenge of Google Checkout is one of adoption, data integration, branding, and how to provide a seamless customer experience. Having it as an optional add-on checkout option, however, raises the interesting prospect of increasing the confusion quotient, which was the original impetus for the need for Google Checkout. It was the number of accounts, sites, and options that Google was trying to solve. Indirectly, users might simply throw their hands up and decide they only want one checkout option: Enter Google Checkout stage right.
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July 28th, 2007 at 3:00 PM
I have similar thoughts and feelings regarding hotels.com. I recently booked a hotel in Spokane at the last minute, and my usual choices didn’t have all my nights available. So I turned to hotels.com. I meant to call one of the hotels that they presented me with directly, but hotels.com very cleverly had their own phone number listed. So I went through the hotels.com process and booked through them, because I figured it was the Right Thing To Do. However, upon arrival, the hotel I chose did not have my hotels.com reservation noted. They put me in a room anyway and took my credit card imprint. When I tried to check out, the poor gal manning the desk had numerous people waiting, and she had no idea how to handle my hotels.com transaction. So I didn’t get any kind of receipt from the hotel.
Bottom line: I’d rather book directly with the hotel to save time, aggravation, confusion, etc. than save a few dollars.
December 8th, 2007 at 4:26 AM
Interesting post.