Website Quality and Shopping Behavior

A website or an online application is like a human body. Without solid bones, the whole body would collapse, and we would not be able to use it. Similarly, the HTML code and the programming behind the functionalities and graphical design represent the skeleton of all online compositions. Further, without organs such as the heart, brain, or liver, the body would not be able to fulfill its functions, and without a pleasant appearance, it would repel or others. Analogically, user experience and user interface are key for developing a high-quality website. Only by joining solid bones (code), healthy organs (UX), and a pleasant appearance (UI) can we create functional, meaningful, and aesthetic online applications.

Despite the numerous studies devoted to the analysis of the relationship between website quality and user reactiveness, a uniform definition of website quality is missing. Research focusing on website quality generally combines multiple dimensions and scientific theories to tackle the complexity of a website (Chen et al. in Int J Inf Manage 37(1):1563–1574, 2017; Loiacono et al. in Mark Theory Appl 13(3):432–438, 2002; Wells et al., 2011). The most frequently used approaches include traditional concepts such as the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen in J Exp Soc Psychol 12(6):579–584, 1976; Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior, 1980) and the technology acceptance model (Davis in MIS Q 13(3):319, 1989). Even if these two concepts are not used directly, some researchers describe them as the stepping stone for their own innovative quality assessment methods (Bai et al. in Int J Hospitality Manage 27(3):391–402, 2008; Luo et al. in 2016 13th international conference on service systems and service management (ICSSSM), 2016; Pandey and Chawla in Qual Mark Res Int J 19(3):339–356, 2016). In addition to these traditional concepts, website quality is also evaluated with the same metrics as information systems and interactive interfaces (Abou-Shouk and Khalifa in J Travel Tourism Mark 34(5):608–623, 2016; Trivedi and Trivedi in Int J Electron Bus 14(4):309, 2018). In the following paragraphs, we review and classify the attributes associated with website quality both in the scientific literature and in international standards. The main objective of this chapter is to create a solid basis for the future testing and quantification of these attributes using standardized metrics and tools.

Online business, commonly referred to as e-commerce, describes the process of buying, selling, and delivering services using electronic media. Because e-commerce relies most of its activities on websites that serve as the main channel of communication between the company and the customer, they must be designed to meet all customer needs. In general, the following six elements are mentioned in the context of e-commerce web design: (1) context: aesthetic and functional layout; (2) content: presented on the website in the form of texts, images, or multimedia; (3) community: ways in which pages facilitate interaction between customers with the same interests, such as sharing or commenting on social networks; (4) personalization: the ability of websites to tailor the display of content to customer preferences; (5) communication: the ways in which the website allows communication between the seller and the buyer; (6) trade: the ability of websites to mediate commercial transactions. This chapter uses previous research related to online user experience to list and classify the factors influencing the processing of online information and the overall perception of a website in relation to the website’s purpose.

The quality of a website application reflects not only what is seen by the user (the front-end) but also the technical processes responsible for the functioning of a website (the back-end). HTML represents a language that is used to specify the structure and form of information on a website. The important aspect of HTML is that all the changes made in the code are subsequently interpreted by a browser and displayed on the user’s screen. Nowadays, websites can be viewed on a variety of portable devices with different levels of Internet access which may affect the ways information is represented. In addition, automatic personalization may alter the website features according to user preferences. Moreover, technical aspects such as the structure of the HTML code, loading speed or the use of keywords contribute to the visibility of the website and its placement in the search results displayed by search engines. In this chapter, we demonstrate the impacts of keyword and traffic analysis using a dataset about website traffic prior and after a search engine optimization. The effects of automatic personalization of the website features are assessed by comparing the user behavior and revenues generated by tailored and non-tailored content.

User-friendly websites providing the highest level of user experience nowadays are a necessity for online entrepreneurs. However, user experience testing may often be very time-consuming, expensive, and quite subjective, since the number of testers tends to be on the low side. In this chapter, we propose an analytical procedure based on the available data in Google Analytics (GA). The proposed method builds upon the features and tools provided by the GA interface and introduces the concept of virtual pageviews as a user attention indicator. We demonstrate its effectiveness over three months of data collection during A/B/C testing of a newly redesigned eshop. We also compare the results with information from an eye-tracking experiment organized in a laboratory environment with 20 college students.

Many traditional information system development methodologies are based on outdated concepts from the 1970s. These methodologies are commonly used to develop websites, and it is therefore not surprising that they are not that effective since have never been created for this purpose. Although these methods have many drawbacks in terms of use in web design, some of their basic principles are still applicable. These methods include, for example, the waterfall model, the SSADM method, RAD, or prototyping. There are many articles on how to reduce the size of an image, how to use color or animation effectively. No doubt, all these attributes are important components of web design. Unfortunately, the proposed methodologies do not address the overall web development process as a comprehensive output of partial graphic, programming, and copywriting activities. Due to the lack of specialized literature devoted to the process and management part of web design, a questionnaire survey was organized, supplemented by structured interviews with web design experts. This survey was conducted through the LinkedIn professional network and was attended by a total of 238 respondents, while 18 of them participated also in a structured online interview.