Mall Mice

Online shopping has an interface problem. The underlying mechanic of online stores is that of a mail order catalog on steroids. Google is awesome at helping me to find exactly what I am looking for and Amazon does a bang up job of showing me things that are similar enough to other things that I have that I will of course want them too. However, walking through a store to see if there is anything that catches my eye is poorly emulated.

Wandering through the mall, stopping in to the occasional shop to see what they have, is a much more satisfying experience than going to Amazon and clicking on a few random categories and seeing what the best sellers are this week. The best example of this disconnect is Costco. Their stores display a mastery of the art of the serendipitous find and the impulse buy. I cannot count the number of times that I have gone in to buy cat litter and came across something else that I needed or wanted but hadn’t been planning on getting right then. Tell me that you haven’t thought to yourself when inside Costco, “Well, I’m already here and if I get it now I won’t have to worry about it next time,” or “It’s only fifteen dollars.” Now compare that to the experience of going to Costco.com. I just went to their website to research this post and I didn’t buy anything. I don’t know that I’ve ever gone into one of their bricks and mortar stores and walked out without buying at least a churro.

Costco’s website does do a good job of presenting me with a wide range of items in a visual format. I even clicked on two of them and said to myself, “that’s a good deal. I should consider buying that.” In the real world store, they have shown that those thoughts combined with a ten to fifteen dollar price point will get a lot of merchandise into your cart. The cheapest thing on the front page of their website is ninety nine dollars. I bet they could make a lot more money if they could sell hot dogs online.

I can only imagine the collective heat put upon our credit cards once this gui design problem is solved. Isn’t it exciting to ponder a day when you can’t turn off your computer for the night without at least one new purchase already working it’s way towards you.