When a customer is confused about a product in a store it’s easy to find a member of the staff. If a customer is unsure about a product on a website, there is no one physically there to speak to. Sure, there may be a “Contact Us” page, or even a toll-free number, but it’s just as easy to click off the website and go find another one with better product information.

A common cause of confusion over a product is sloppy wording. A block of text may read one way to one person, but have an entirely different slant to another. Misplaced punctuation, spelling errors, grammatical mishaps or even a person’s mood can factor into how text is perceived.

Online click-happy consumerism has left no room for ambiguity in product descriptions, advertising or instructions on a website.

This form of misinterpretation by online shoppers can be explained by “The Rorschach Principle of bad Online communication”.

What is the Rorschach Principle of bad Online communication?

For those not aware, the “Rorschach Test” is an old psychiatry tool.

The “Rorschach Test” involves showning a card, with an ink splodge image on it, to a patient. The patient is asked to look at the card and say what the ink splodge represents.

The answers given can then be interpreted by the psychiatrist by comparing the answers the patient gave to a standardized set of measures, thus determining the patient’s state of mind.

The test has long been out of favour in the mental health profession, but the idea of differing interpretations of the same image is very relevant to the problems faced by online retailers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYi19-Vx6go

What is meant is not always clear

Online shoppers are expert browsers and skim readers. 

Internet consumerism has no patience for flowery product descriptions. An online product listing should be precise and to the point. Clarity often suffers when a business dismisses brevity in a product description.

Online customers will scan text for facts and details and a list of key features will be easily absorbed. Product features hidden within a long block of text, with unnecessary wording, are not as easy to pick out and may be missed.

The person writing the product title and description may think they both explicitly describe the product. However, text lacks vocal tonality and a message can easily be misconstrued, especially when non-descriptive language is used.

Titles should only include the product name and essential information. A description needs to highlight relevant data, such as: volume, size, power, accessories, etc.

Excess information, irrelevant to product functionality, only serves to confuse.

Here are some common description-related issues where simple mistakes lead to missed sales:

Problems faced by bewildered consumers

Bad online Communication samples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3zSaHE2RnQ

A customer has already invested time and effort visiting a store and is therefore reluctant to just up and leave over a trivial matter. Online shopping doesn’t involve any travel and the next store is seconds away. Calling or emailing customer service will take more time than locating an alternative source.

The fact that online stores operate 24/7 is also a big draw for consumers.

Many customers will place online orders outside of normal business opening hours. When there is no one available to call, the likelihood of losing customers through bad wording increases.

With an ever increasing number of consumers shopping online, and investigating products online before travelling to a store to make a purchase, it’s never been more important to ensure product descriptions and related information are accurate and unambiguous.