About the study
The study examined how 36 women between the ages of 19-57 shop for home textile products online. The study was conducted in February 2014.
The respondents were instructed to visit a predetermined website to complete a purchase of curtains, including hemtex.se and jotex.se. They were urged to act just as they had done at home.
19 of the respondents were studied through both eye-tracking and interviews. The remaining respondents were filmed and interviewed when they completed the e-commerce purchase.
The purpose of the study was to investigate whether customers feel that they have all the information they need to buy curtains online.
Results
Most people who buy home textiles do so in a physical store. And when they do, it is mainly at Åhléns, IKEA and Hemtex. But when customers have to shop online, these three top players are not as relevant. This may be because the products you consume in physical stores compared to online are of a different nature.
An actor such as Hemtex is not considered by the respondents to be an e-commerce store. On the other hand, it is great when it comes to shopping in a physical store. At present, the company uses its website to drive customers to the store. Hemtex would probably benefit from investing more in its online store, as the customer buys for more money via distance shopping than in a physical store.
Results from eye tracking study
One of the online stores had a guide: “everything for your curtain set”. Few of the respondents noticed the guide and even fewer used it. This may depend on the guide’s location on the page or its design. However, about 17 percent of the respondents felt unsure whether they had all the materials to set up the curtains at home. This shows that the service you offer does not reach you. The study’s eye tracking also shows that few respondents looked at the “we also recommend” products.
