Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Opportunity: Many people do the majority of their clothes shopping online, but the variety of things available online is constantly growing and now includes even groceries making convenience levels at an all time high.

The Who: The people doing the shopping

The What: They are shopping online instead of at a physical store.

The Why: It is more convenient and many times cheaper to shop online.

Testing the Who: Technically everyone who has access to the Internet could have this need. Many people are already taking advantage of it but some people still do shop at physical locations. Some of these cases are out of preference but some are because lack of knowledge or trust for online shopping.

Testing the What: The boundaries of online shopping are mostly a matter of the product. Obviously someone would be more willing to buy a piece of clothing online over a house, without ever seeing it in person. I do think the product variation can greatly increase, though. Another boundary is shipping times. Amazon has done a great job getting a lot of items on 2-day shipping with Prime.

Testing the Why: The why varies from a convenience to a potential actual need. If someone just prefers online shopping because it is easier they are probably someone who enjoys convenience. However, I do think there could be a need for someone who would like to buy groceries but doesn’t own a car. It opens up opportunities to buy things that wouldn’t normally be available to you if there isn’t a physical store in your city.

Interviews: In doing all of the interviews, it actually seemed like most people had very similar ideas to my own. For the last two people I interviewed I was curious as to why they thought most people were saying very similar things. Their reasons were basically because of how much newer generations grew up with the Internet that they know online shopping better than in person, and in some cases it’s all they know. I did get one different idea to my own which I thought was pretty creative. Online shopping gives you the ability to send products to other addresses than your own. This could allow you to simply get a gift sent directly to the person you’re giving it to rather than having to have it shipped to you and then you ship it to them. I think in asking a much larger pool of people there could be many more creative ideas, but most people use it for the daily convenience factors.