How do you make online shopping decisions?

[Dave A]

I was putting some thought into some of the online buying decisions I have made in my life, and I've come up with a theory of sorts.

However, before I get into that I better make sure my experience is at least in some way similar to other people out there. So if you've got a moment, could you please answer a few questions or give some info on your online shopping experiences.

How did you start hunting down what you wanted?
How did you research?
What influenced your decision?

And if you've never bought anything online, maybe the question to answer would be - why not? What has stopped you?

[daveob]

How did you start hunting down what you wanted?
All my online purchases are for software ( apps and utilities ) or services ( never ordered a physical product online ). All searches are done for a specific solution to a problem or requirement that I have already identified.

How did you research?
google ( for software ) and rentacoder ( for coding solutions )

What influenced your decision?
must match all the specs that I need and be able to do what's required. Trial version is a definite plus point - I will rarely buy software without first trying it out. Price plays a big part - is the price that is being charged reasonable for the effort that went into creating the product ( can I code the solution myself for a much better cost ), or is it so well priced that I would be wasting my time to get a coder to re-create the solution for me.

hth

[Dave A]

It looks like it's just you and me, Dave.

You've confirmed one thing for me - search is a critical part of the buying process.

But consider this for a moment: How often did wherever you end up making the purchase turn up on page one of your organic search results?

For me the answer is... Never. Not once yet!
A couple of times the right site has come up with the Adsense ads that come up with the SERP, but more generally following one of the top five or so results has led to me to the site where I've made the purchase. Via a link on that page or a referral, but it has never happened directly from an organic SERP.

I know this might be a bit of a brain scratch, but have you had the same experience?

[daveob]

A couple of times the right site has come up with the Adsense ads that come up with the SERP, but more generally following one of the top five or so results has led to me to the site where I've made the purchase. Via a link on that page or a referral, but it has never happened directly from an organic SERP.

I know this might be a bit of a brain scratch, but have you had the same experience?

Yes. I would have to agree 100% with you on this. If I'm looking for a software solution to a problem or to streamline a process, I know that I'm usually in for a multi-hop search and expect it to take between 30 minutes and 4 hours.

The only exception to this is when someone I know has recommended a specific software solution and I can just google for that ( if I don't already have the URL ) - then it would generally appear on the first 2 pages of the results.

Keeping this in mind, the most logical process (for me) would be to post on a forum ( like this one which is perfect as it's filled with business minded people ) and ask for suggestions and advice. Problem is that when I want something, I want it NOW - I don't want to wait for replies to be able to take advantage of other's experiences and advice - so off I go on the google hunt.

Now if you had a section in the forum where members ( with more than x posts to their credit ) can post recommendations and solutions for business items -- that would be a help - recommended by someone who has forum credit.
For example :
Online Credit Card transactions :
Netcash - contact details - setup and operating costs, etc
PriceTag - etc, etc

This would have to be strictly monitored and anything off topic deleted without mercy.

Yes, there are plenty of Business Directory sites out there, but how many of them were posted by someone with "Net-Cred" ?

A perfect example : a few days ago Dave_A made a post about some software he has been using : "Password Safe".

Now passwords are a really sensitive subject, so if I had come across that site during a general web crawl or search, there's absolutely no way in a zillion years that I would install it, not to mention add all my passwords into it.

But this was different - here's Dave_A recommending it and saying how impressed he is and has been using it for x time, and Dave_A has BIG net-cred in my books - end result is that I am now using Password Safe and if anything goes wrong I am going to hunt down Dave_A

Seriously though Dave_A -- Thanks for the post about Password Safe - really impressive and making life much easier.

[Dave A]

A perfect example : a few days ago Dave_A made a post about some software he has been using : "Password Safe".

Now passwords are a really sensitive subject, so if I had come across that site during a general web crawl or search, there's absolutely no way in a zillion years that I would install it, not to mention add all my passwords into it.

But this was different - here's Dave_A recommending it

Exactly why I made that particular post - I share exactly the same concerns and it is a real problem nowadays.

Well, theory confirmed so far. Now to write the article and why taking note of this is important.