Comparing Online Shopping Sites for Omega 3 Oil Purchases

Introduction and Product Overview

The product selected for this online shopping exercise was Omega 3 fish oil. This health supplement is a very popular product on the internet, and a simple Google search yields millions of results for this product alone. It is typically available in capsule form and sometimes as a liquid, with packaging varying by retailer. Products commonly range from containers holding a thirty-day supply to those with a ninety-day supply. Omega 3 fish oils are widely considered to have significant health benefits, particularly in relation to the improvement of heart disease and the reduction of cholesterol.

Three websites were examined and compared based on seven criteria: load time, graphics, user friendliness, ease of shopping experience, safety guarantees, content, and level of sales pressure (Mandel & Johnson, 2002). Of these seven, the most important are ease of shopping and safety guarantees, since it is critical that credit information remain secure during online purchases. If this information falls into the wrong hands, identity theft or unauthorized credit card charges can easily result.

Criteria and Sites Selected

The sites chosen for exploration were Costco.com, Amazon.com, and OmegaXL.com. The first two are large retail networks. Costco also operates physical retail locations, while Amazon does not. Amazon, however, is a major player in the online retail industry and is considered by many to be an industry leader. Its scale allows it to offer discounts and bargains often unavailable in physical stores. Both Costco and Amazon carry a wide variety of products, which influences how Omega 3 is presented on their pages — there are direct attempts to link the product to similar items or to purchases made by customers who bought comparable products. The OmegaXL.com site, by contrast, is dedicated solely to this one product and devotes all of its content to persuading the customer of its value. This singleness of purpose was both useful and limiting: useful in that customers receive a great deal of focused product information, but limiting in that the absence of competing information creates an impression that the company may be overselling its claims.

In general, the sites were easy to locate and loaded without significant difficulty. Using a DSL connection reduced potential load time disparities. However, with a dial-up connection, greater differences would likely be observed, since one site contained video and high-definition graphics. While these elements are visually appealing, they place heavy demands on bandwidth and can create long wait times for dial-up users. All three sites made clear attempts to assure buyers of transaction security, typically through the Better Business Bureau logo or the VeriSign logo.

OmegaXL.com: A Single-Product Hard-Sell Site

The first site visited was OmegaXL.com. Visually, the site was not striking but reasonably pleasing. The layout was straightforward, and there was little ambiguity about what was being marketed. A buy-one-get-one-free offer was prominently featured. The product was endorsed by Terry Bradshaw, and the site includes a video of him extolling the product's virtues. His willingness to attach his name to the product is intended to inspire shopper confidence. The site loaded marginally slower than the other two, likely due to the embedded video.

The graphics were sharp and vivid, though the color palette was somewhat bland — predominantly blues and dark tones with a few pastels. Social media buttons linking to Facebook and Twitter were appropriately placed. Missing from the home page, however, was any substantive product information or pricing. To access these details, users were required to navigate to other links, which unnecessarily complicated the shopping experience. Price transparency is one of the first things a consumer looks for and should be easily accessible.

This is clearly a hard-sell site, and the placement of information appears designed to keep the customer engaged as long as possible, thereby increasing the likelihood of a purchase. There is no information about competing products or price comparisons. The "Order Now" button was highly visible and easy to find, but this was offset by limited assurances about credit card security. On a positive note, links for FAQs and customer contact were available. Overall, the shopping experience felt unnecessarily drawn out and involved too much sales pressure.

Amazon.com: User-Friendly and Information-Rich

The second site examined was Amazon.com. This is a polished, professionally developed website that loaded quickly and easily. The product was searchable from the site's database and was found under the Health & Personal Care category. The product image was bright and attractive, and the price was clearly displayed. Customer testimonials and a user-generated rating system were present, providing a crowd-sourced evaluation of the product's effectiveness. This approach is far more useful than simple product descriptions, as it allows prospective buyers to hear from unbiased users who have no commercial stake in the product — unlike paid endorsers, they report honestly based on their own experience.

Amazon rates very highly on user friendliness and ease of shopping. All the information a shopper needs to make an informed decision — price, customer reviews, and similar products — is available on a single page. Shoppers can compare competing products without leaving the page, which is one of Amazon's most valuable strengths (Filson, 2004). Delivery options and stock availability are also clearly indicated, preventing the frustrating experience of ordering an item only to later discover it is out of stock.

Another impressive feature is the checkout process. Registered users can log in and use the "Buy It Now" button, which enables a one-click purchase and eliminates the need to re-enter personal and payment information. If there is one critique, it is that the page can feel information-heavy: video testimonials, for example, require significant scrolling before they become visible. The Facebook and Twitter sharing buttons are also noticeably smaller than on OmegaXL.com. These are minor drawbacks, however, and are far outweighed by the site's overall ease and convenience.