Rich Internet Application capabilities, such as whiz-bang Flash and AJAX capabilities do look cool. But do they attract return on investment for ecommerce solutions? Do they drive up conversion, average order size or deter abandonment? There does not seem to be definitive A/B testing consensus to prove it, but some RIA capabilities do seem to make a positive impact while many seem to have dubious returns. If your ecommerce site is meant to show a progressive brand, and driving ROI is secondary, than ROI is not the measurement to use to evaluate RIA success. For most ecommerce sites however, ROI is the primary yardstick. Some RIA elements may even be detrimental to ROI, if they are distracting or confusing for the customer. Ecommerce sites do not want to alienate their existing customers with a new or non-standard interface. Because of this some retailers are treating RIA with some trepidation, or at least caution. Some retailers on the other hand are not taking a conservative approach at all, and there are emerging examples of full RIA sites such as beta.bordersstores.com, nike.com, style.ralphlauren.com, memorabilia.hardrock.com, thenorthface.com and jcrew.com. These are mostly Flash-based sites that are progressive in how they approach interaction design. There is some risk in the approach as they are introducing somewhat new navigation schemes. An RIA strategy does not have to be this ambitious however, as a few specific RIA capabilities are leading the pack of adoption, and they seem to have good circumstantial evidence that RIO is achieved. Some RIA standards are also emerging for these specific RIA capabilities, making their implementation more straightforward. Specifically these little gems include:

• Non-wizard checkout – Calling it one-click checkout is a bit Amazon-proprietary and is not what we are specifically after. What we want is a one-page checkout, not a multi-step wizard-type checkout. This is to deter abandonment. The trick is to fit a fair number of checkout questions on just one page. RIA helps. The RIA technique here is to only ask the questions that must be asked. Then allow customers to select additional questions to answer on-demand. For example, the checkout page does not show both shipping and billing address fields if they are the same for the customer. Just show one, and if the customer selects and option that shipping and billing addresses are different then the other set of fields are presented. The same technique can be used for gift messaging, gift wrap options and changing the shipping type. And additional information, such as the return policy can slide in or a layer can be used to overlay the checkout page to deliver this information upon request. These techniques do allow the essential information to be presented in an above-the-fold page, and these other elements can be presented using RIA techniques on-demand so the page expands on when the customer requires it to.

• Dropdown cart – This is the cart that Gap seems to get the consensuses for introducing. Here the cart drops down from the top-right of the page. This cart allows the shopper to continue shopping or to checkout. It is minimally disruptive, and allows the customer to keep shopping, not taking them away from the page they are on. The hope is to increase the average size of order by allowing the customers to keep adding items and not confuse them by interrupting their shopping experience. Many retailers redirect the customer directly to a large cart page, and then onto checkout. This is to drive conversion, but at the expense at the average order size. This RIA technique aims to strike a balance, where the customer chooses to checkout or keep shopping. And you get additional points for showing tax and shipping information in the cart to lower abandonment in checkout so the customer is not surprised when they get to checkout. Inventory information can also be shown if it is relevant to the shopping experience. Here is an example of a drop-down cart on Gap:

• Quick-pick modal – This is a modal screen that displays when the customer hovers over a “quick pick” or “quick look” button image displayed over product images on the product catalog page. This modal then appears over the catalog page and displays the critical product information. This page uses some RIA techniques to fit a surprising amount of information on this page, potentially as much as a product details page. Some retailers have considered removing their product details page entirely because their quick-pick modal displays so much product information. The modal allows customers to research products quicker to find what they are looking for, and is also easier to find other items they may be interested in, because the quick-pick modal seems like such a minimal commitment to click on and read about product. This modal is meant to increase conversion and the average order size. A quick technical note: this modal should not be a pop-up, or browser pop-up blockers may prevent it from appearing, and gives a more jarring experience. Instead this should be a layer that has the appearance of a modal pop-up, but is integrated more seamlessly into the page, and will not be blocked by popup blockers. The same technique should be used for the cart. Additionally this is not technically a Web page, but it can act like one by coding your analytics correctly on the modal, and allowing the modal its own URL, so the page is bookmarkable and sharable by URL. Here is an example of a Quick Look from Old Navy:

• Inventory integration – The RIA technique required for inventory is to show the customer how different product options selected impacts inventory availability. For example, there may be plenty of size 6 shoes in black, but only two left in red. But there are plenty of red shoes in size 6 ½. To show this effectively, the inventory messaging should changes real-time as product options are selected. So in this example, if the customer chooses a red shoe, it would show that only two are left in size 6. However if size 6 is selected first, then it would show only two left in red. RIA helps here by allowing clever inventory code to run to get the inventory of the specific options (usually size and color) that are available, and present them in an efficient way. This does not have to be a Kayak slider-type of control or a Blue Nile configurator, it can just be buttons and drop downs, but the goal is to display options and messaging that reflect what the customer has done in real-time. This is to drive down abandonment as the customer can more easily choose the items that are available. Other options such as shipping can change too in real-time as the user makes selections to further reduce customer surprises at checkout.

The following tables shows some of the other popular RIA capabilities and their business benefits:

These specific RIA capabilities are gaining traction. These capabilities do not require an architectural overhaul to implement them. They are user interface widgets that can be added to almost any existing Web site. If your organization’s current ecommerce infrastructure is good, then you can just include AJAX JavaScript libraries such as Prototype.js, Script.aculo.us, Modalbox, Validation, Prototips or Prototabs to build these widgets. Flash and Flex are not required for this level of RIA. If your current ecommerce software is not flexible enough to add these capabilities, or don’t want to spend any money innovating on your current platform, then you can put a new architectural scaffolding up next to your existing infrastructure. This scaffolding can bring these capabilities to life relatively quickly, perhaps 2-3 months. This new scaffolding can then evolve into a new site infrastructure, but this gets into another topic of evolutionary and assembleable ecommerce platforms which are discussions for another post.