Users choosing incorrect shipping location

[Zhris]

Hello,

I developed an eCommerce website which due to the type of products being sold, is aimed at an older generation. In response to this, the plan was to keep the website as simple as possible, without having to force the user to provide us with information that PayPal can't already handle.

Before passing the user to PayPal, the only thing we ask for is their shipping location (a group of radio buttons with a few countries / rest of the world). This is in order to apply the correct shipping charge.

The issue here is inevitable, that "no offence" USA users tend to choose UK (free shipping), whether that be because they want to attempt to get away with free shipping or they think they are from the UK.

The ideas I have to get around this issue include:
- Forcing every user to enter their address on the website, passing it to PayPal. Although my aim was to avoid doing this.
- Attempt to locate them by their IP. Although this brings about other issues i.e. if the wrong location was picked up / they are purchasing for someone outside their own country etc.

Does anyone have any other ideas in order to resolve this issue?

Thanks alot,

Chris

 

[audiopro]

I would suggest you collect the address on your website.
Give them the country options and then present them with an address form to reflect the country, if UK (where I assume you are shipping from) include a dropdown containing all of the counties and make the UK field fixed.

Once the address is completed, present them with the full address and wording stating that sending an incorrect or incomplete address may result in late or non delivery of their goods.


Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[BigRed1212]

Us old people don't see good. UK and US are close together when you are looking at small fonts with no glasses.

Also us Americans are lazy. We are genuinely surprised when we go to a country list drop-down if the US isn't the first choice listed or the default choice. There are other countries in the world? Who knew? If we have to scroll all the way down past France and Moldavia and Suriname all the way to the U's, we're liable to just select anything at that point.

Maybe somehow if your wording highlighted that users must choose the correct country or it messes things up, like audiopro suggests.

I guess another option would be to handle the shipping cost determination in PayPal if it will let you do that.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Hi Chris,

I agree with Keith. But you don't have to ask them for the entire address - just their country. It's perfectly usual for e-commerce sites to do that, to deal with exactly the situation you described.

By the way, I don't agree with your premise: that because the product is aimed at older people you need to keep the process as simple as possible. I'd say you need to keep it as simple as possible for all ages.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips, training, consultancy

 

[Zhris]

Hi everyone,

Firstly, thank you very much for your responses.

I think that Keith's suggestion of wording is an excellent idea, and I will definately incorporate this, hopefully making the user think twice.

The radio button list currently looks like this, which is close to asking the user to select their country:

UK / Europe - Free postage
USA / Canada - £2.00 postage
Australia / New Zealand - £2.00 postage
Rest of the world - £2.00 postage

I also can't believe I didn't consider using PayPal's shipping cost determination. I will look into this.

Mike, your statement regarding simplicity is very true. I understand that anything unnecessary probably isn't worth having, regardless of age. When it comes to the checkout stage, its extremely rare that I find a website that doesn't force you to create an account / fill out info on site. When this isn't the case, the website is often feels / looks very amateurish. I had to find a balance to fufill what users expect from an eCommerce website.

Thanks again,

Chris

 

[spamjim]

Why are you displaying the price for shipping next to the country? The user should be asked to choose only a country, not a shipping price.

You can display the shipping price on the next page and then pass off to paypal. You don't need to do everything on one page.

 

[Mike Lewis]

One other point: It would be better if you could show the charges in the currency of the country in question.

I realise that that could cause other complications with your payment provider - not least because you'd have to constantly update the figures as exchange rates fluctuate. But I doubt if all that many folk in the USA know what the £ symbol means, and very few would be able to instantly convert to dollars in their head.

Just another thing to worry about.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips, training, consultancy

 

[Zhris]

Hey,

The reason I display location with postage is:

A) I'm only making the user choose their location in order to apply the correct shipping charge. Therefore they correspond with each other and it made sense to group them.
B) As part of my simplifications, I wanted to ensure the user has to navigate through as few pages as possible before proceeding to Pay Pal.
C) I want to ensure the user is aware of the postage costs as early as possible. Although there is a separate page displaying this information as part of the FAQ, there is an insignificant number of hits. This can work psychologically positively or negatively.

I can see the advantages of having the location / postage cost & possibly an order summary on separate pages. This could reduce the number of people who try to get away with free postage and may also look tidier.

With regards to currency conversion, its something I have also had issues with, receiving emails asking why they were charged more than the website stated. We used to only deliver within the UK therefore a currency feature was never considered. I saw that there is javascript code available which I may try out, which will look for prices and convert them automatically based on the users preference of country. I could also use the preference here to to default select a shipping location, providing other locations under.

You've all provided extremely valuable information which will help me to improve the system overall.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[audiopro]

You will have the same problem converting between £ and € in Europe but the fluctuation in exchange rate is not really that great.

More small print for your address form.

"Prices on this website are quoted in Pounds Sterling and purchases made in other currencies are dependent on the currency exchange rate in force, at the time of ordering."

Nobody reads T's & C's but it is as well to have them on your site.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[Jtorres13]

Mine may be a silly suggestions, but why don't you put the flag instead of the country name. Ask the userr, "Pick your country's flag," or just add the flag pic next to the countri'es name, so they see both things (name+flag pic) That may work... unless they're a bunch of near-sighted morons... LOL
Good luck.

 

[Mike Lewis]

... why don't you put the flag instead of the country name

I can think of several possible reasons:

1. Not all destinations have a unique flag (for example, "EU outside the UK", "Scottish Islands", "Rest of world").

2. He would have to go to some trouble to find the flags for all the possible countries.

3. If a customer can't pick his country from a list, he is unlikely to be able to pick a flag.

4. Country names can be sorted to alphabetical orders; flags can't.

Mike



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Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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