PMC has provided web usability testing for both the Carpetright and Sleepright e-commerce platforms. Key to this was the retail systems specialist's use of eye-tracking technology to identify how people used and reacted to the sites.

Ian Woosey, group IT director, Carpetright says: "We want our web presence and transactional abilities to be industry leading. That means we had to get everything 'right first time'. PMC helped ensure an excellent customer experience from launch. Using their eye-tracking technology they provided us with real-world results on how users interact with our sites. That's incredibly valuable when you're building an online business."

"It's vital that retailers present shoppers with faultless, easy-to-use websites. That demands a 'right first time' approach. It's not acceptable to launch a site without first class usability testing. It's important to find issues and potential frustrations before your customers do. That's because online faults will cost you customers, reputation and money. Eye-tracking technology enables us to show retailers real-world results on how users interact with their sites," comments Paul Mason, CEO at PMC.

The company conducted Carpetright's user testing at its Abingdon laboratory. First, it selected a representative group of people with varying levels of IT competence to ensure a valid user survey. Then it set them different tasks to see how they interacted with the site including: 'find your local store', 'place an order', 'qualify for a discount' or 'search for new products'."

"With eye-tracking technology we can understand how users work with a site and how they search for information. The human eye is drawn to words or images for many reasons - not all of them good. Eye-tracking enables us to help retailers develop the most user-friendly layouts," Mason adds.

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