First, they said, ‘Pay online. Delivery in 1-2 weeks’. We took to the habit tentatively.
Then they came with, ‘Cash on delivery. Delivery within a week, maximum’. We liked it.
Then came 1-day delivery, while payment methods went through a sea change. And then same-day delivery.
We have come a long way in e-commerce, from the early, clunky Rediff Shopping days.
Now, Amazon has thoroughly spoilt us – and I’m extremely conscious that I’m writing this on Prime Day!
I was looking to replace my brand new JBL Endurance Jump and was researching on wireless earphones under Rs.3,000. I had purchased the JBL Endurance Jump via Amazon in June. And after a week’s use, I stumbled on its monumentally idiotic UX/design decision that made its usage pointless for me.
(What was that stupid UX decision by JBL? More on that, at the end of this post. Also, I cannot return this product back to Amazon and get my money back – I can only get it replaced if there was a defect with it.)
For research, Amazon doesn’t work that well – it throws up a lot of junk and wastes time. A more focused, vertical-website like Headphone Zone works wonderfully. They have curated their collection based on the specific needs of their specific target audience. It’s so very easy to navigate the collection there because they have also listed them under use-cases.
And when you check under ‘Fitness’, they have many sub-sections (like True Wireless, Water Resistance, Water-Proof etc.) that are incredibly handy.
As you research, they also have thought of useful pop-ups that can nudge you further, in the right context.
Like any normal user, I researched what I wanted on Headphone Zone, zeroed in on JBL Endurance Run BT (it is superb; fits my need brilliantly!) and promptly headed to Amazon to do a price comparison 🙂
And to my surprise, almost as if Headphone Zone anticipates this behavior, their price was at least Rs.400-500 cheaper than even Amazon! Now, if they planned it in this way, this is incredibly smart and effective.
But there’s one more impediment – that is what I started this post with: delivery.
Amazon has spoilt us with next-day delivery. There are times I order on an evening (late evening, at that) and the product is delivered the next morning. This is almost creepily efficient. Do I like it? I LOVE it! This speed has conditioned us to look to Amazon as the default e-commerce store.
This is precisely how I ordered the JBL Endurance Jump back in June – research on Headphone Zone, order on Amazon, despite the minor increase in price. Because – next-day delivery!
If the product is delivered on Day 2, 3 or 4, would it be alright? Of course. If it was urgent, we’d perhaps buy it offline, somewhere closer to home. If we can wait for 2-4 days for the delivery, we can live with that – we have, before the current days of super-prompt e-commerce deliveries.
On that note, would I be ok with a not-one-day delivery for my JBL Endurance Run BT? Of course. So, I ordered it via Headphone Zone, this time. And, despite knowing that it will not arrive the next day (previous experience, involving a Sony wireless headset), on Day 3, after the ‘out for delivery’ message, it actually said, ‘Prohibited area – entry restricted for delivery’!!
It may be a euphemism for ‘Dude, we’re tired… can’t bother to deliver now. Will try tomorrow, if possible’, but it literally had us checking the local Kannada TV news channels to see if things are ok outside our home.
It was delivered on Day 4 and the product is fantastic, besides the superior experience with Headphone Zone online.
I also realize it is completely unfair to expect the Amazon level when it comes to delivery. But delivery is just one part of the overall experience – the amount of effort that has gone into the UI/UX to make us search and decide better is such an important part too. Awkwardly enough, the last mile becomes a deal-breaker in many cases, as it happened with my first purchase! It’s a different thing that I was unhappy with the product for a reason entirely, not dependent on Amazon 🙂
On JBL Endurance Jump vs. JBL Endurance Run BT:
JBL Endurance Jump is a really good piece of earphones. One UX decision that is brilliant is the fact that you don’t need to switch it on specifically – you just need to unclasp the right-side earpiece from the wire and it switches on and connects with your device (phone), taking that as the cue that you want to start.
But, the other UX decision – of using the surface of the ear-piece as play-stop button – is the biggest problem. It’s touch-sensitive. So any time you want to wipe your face while running and you happen to merely graze against the surface of the earpiece, it pauses/stops! It is super sensitive! I run 5 kilometers every day on a treadmill and in my run, I wipe the sweat off my face and head several times. And the earphones stop all those times, breaking my flow of whatever I’m watching on my phone (right now, it is the Korean Medieval-Zombie series Kingdom, on Netflix). It is incredibly annoying.
And if I don’t wipe the sweat off and just persist, the sweat seeps into the ear and becomes even more annoying because there are these earphones! Ear, sweat, and earphones are a combination I won’t wish even for my worst enemy.
In comparison, JBL Endurance Run BT is brilliant. Really light-weight and more like normal earphones with just a string attaching both sides. I can wipe my face as often as I need because the controls are restricted to actually pressing a button (no touch-sensitive buttons) on a piece away from the ear.