Bed Bath & Beyond User Interface

Recently I shopped off the Bed Bath & Beyond website. It was a pretty good experience. Up until the end I was going to give them a hearty thumbs up, but then they blew it.

Good: Website want to get your information. It’s worth real money to them. But they don’t want you to drop out of the purchase because you are so annoyed at their attempts to get your information. BB&B did it just right. Very early on there was the usual screen to create an account to purchase the item. But they had a prominent choice to not create an account. They stated very clearly that you did not have to have an account to shop, and that you would have another chance at the end to create one if you wanted.

They held to their word. Telling the consumer up front builds confidence in the process. Being truthful about the process build confidence that BB&B can be trusted to keep your information private. BB&B can use their easy purchase funnel as a way to convince consumers that are good folks. This experience left me with a rare good taste in my mouth, that of a website that put the consumer first.

Bad: And then they blew it. It came time to do the money. As with most sites, there were a few screens worth. Gift wrapping, did you forget anything, any gift certificates, enter your credit card information, etc. The screen were you click to actually pay the money showed the amount, but didn’t break out the detail. Specifically, they had added in the tax but hadn’t informed you that they had done that and hadn’t displayed the tax amount for you to see. Suddenly the cost seemed to have gone up $15. Coincidentally, my tax was about the same amount as shipping & handling. The screen about shipping had merely said what is was going to do, didn’t say it was doing it, so it looked like they had double-charged me for shipping. I had to call customer support to understand the final bill, which rather defeats the point of doing it all through the web.

You should never show the final cost, or any of the steps along the way, without displaying all the detail that builds up to it.