Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the i-Cue Design innovation?
2. What's different about the i-Cue innovation?
3. What are the main benefits for online retailers?
4. What are the main benefits for online shoppers?
5. What problems does i-Cue Design solve?
6. Does saving a few seconds really matter? Is it worth the trouble to convert from one of the typical shopping cart methods to the i-Cue Design solution?
7. Is this only for mobile sites?
8. Is a typical "buy" button really that bad? They’re all over the Internet.
9. How does an i-Cue Design cart compare with using a faster "buy" button solution, such as one made with Ajax, where less data is sent with a server call?
10. It looks like a checkbox. What's the difference?
11. How much time does an i-Cue Design solution save compared to a checkbox solution?
12. Does this mean I don't need an app anymore?
13. Is integrating i-Cue Design's solution a major development project?
14. Can my tech team implement this or can/will you do it for us?
15. How long will it take? And what will it cost?

1. What is the i-Cue Design innovation?

The i-Cue Design innovation is a business method that reconfigures the steps in an online purchase. It combines common coding and graphics elements of an online cart with an innovative conceptual breakthrough that is the basis of the patent. It eliminates clicks and buttons and their associated server calls, thus reducing the time to complete a multi-item order and the corresponding server load. Because it works within any web page, its functionality is independent of types of websites, devices, and mode of connection to the Internet. As long as a website can be accessed by a device with a browser, the i-Cue Design "instant-add" innovation will run on it.

2. What’s different about the i-Cue innovation?

i-Cue Design reduces page reloads, server interactions, and extra customer interaction (clicks) that are commonly assumed to be "necessary" for making an online transaction. It spares shoppers the annoyance of being interrupted in their shopping process by forced page changes. In contrast to other cart designs, the i-Cue Design solution requires no forced page changes (full or partial) when the "add", "delete" or "change quantity" task is requested by a shopper. When a shopper makes a selection they get an immediate confirmation that their chosen item is "in cart" and they can keep shopping without interruption, adding other items, changing pages, changing quantity, viewing details, without a single unrequested page change or server call.

3. What are the main benefits for online retailers?

The benefits of i-Cue Design for online retailers span a range of areas critical to building customer loyalty, increasing sales, and optimizing development.

4. What are the main benefits for online shoppers?

The i-Cue Design innovation replaces common, time-wasting annoyances in online shopping with its uniquely enjoyable cart solution. Whether on traditional or mobile websites it gives shoppers:

5. What problems does i-Cue Design solve?

The main problem i-Cue Design solves is the time it takes to add items to an online cart, and especially across different pages or categories during an online shopping excursion. i-Cue Design removes the server calls other shopping carts require, a particularly important innovation for the Mobile web with its inherent latency and slower load times. Because adding items from different pages and categories on a site with an i-Cue Design cart does not interrupt the shopping experience with forced page changes, the customer is able to have more continuous absorption and sense of pleasure, or "flow", while shopping, and is more inclined to keep adding items to the cart simply because it is a pleasurable experience.* Maintaining the shopping context with fewer required clicks results in reduced cart abandonment and a likely higher average sale.

Eliminating required button clicks and forced page changes reduces both shopper frustration and the ensuing confusion of being sent to an unrequested page, be it the View Cart page or another page. Today’s typical slow, clunky shopping experience can be replaced by the faster, more intuitive, less confusing i-Cue Design cart.

Many retailers have developed mobile apps as a way of addressing the inherent latency and slow load times of the mobile web. Although apps have other advantages, it is not necessary to develop one in order to address these latency and speed issues for basic transaction tasks--add, delete, change quantity--because i-Cue Design easily and elegantly solves these problems. And, i-Cue Design allows the online retailer to offer the same fast, intuitive shopping experience to all its customers, not just those who prefer an app. After all, as many analysts and researchers recognize, the increasing quantity of available shopping apps is likely to result in "app saturation".

6. Does saving a few seconds really matter? Is it worth the trouble to convert from one of the typical shopping cart methods to the i-Cue Design solution?

It matters a lot. Recent research shows that a well designed website reduces friction in the shopping experience by eliminating clicks and time-wasting page changes. The quicker, easier shopping process results in reduced cart abandonment, more completed transactions, and a strong likelihood that customers will increase the number of items added per shopping session simply because of how easy it is.

7. Is this only for mobile sites?

No. The i-Cue Design advantage enhances traditional websites viewed on traditional computer monitors and even those accessed via high-speed connections. The same benefits of speed, ease, and maintaining context and the sense of pleasure, or "flow", accrue, and it also creates a solid foundation for making a smooth move to the Mobile Web, with a cart solution already in place that will migrate without a problem to a site designed for the smaller screen

8. Is a typical "buy" button really that bad? They’re all over the Internet.

A shopping cart solution that uses a typical "buy" or "add to cart" button requires the longest time and the most interruptions in a shopping experience. Below is an example of a mobile shopping scenario adding 3 items on one page, and 2 items on a second page. Please note, that in this type of cart solution, once an item has been added, there is a forced page change to the "view cart" page and the shopper must click "back" or "continue shopping" in order to add more items to the cart.

TYPICAL "STANDARD" BUTTON experience where the shopper is taken to the View Cart page after adding any single item and then must click "continue shopping" to add another.

i-CUE DESIGN "instant-add" experience

Time efficiency is built in to the i-Cue Design technique, and is independent of platforms and devices. In the above example, you can see that a cart using the typical "buy" button solution takes 50 seconds longer—over four times as long as the i-Cue Design solution.

To view a live demo of this example, please go to the demo page.

9. How does an i-Cue Design cart compare with using a faster "buy" button solution, such as one made with Ajax, where less data is sent with a server call?

An Ajax cart solution still requires a server call to "add", "delete", or change quantity.

Because an Ajax button sends less information to the server, it is sometimes described as requiring only a "partial page reload", which takes less time. However, on a mobile device, even a partial or tiny page reload takes an average of 3 seconds with the strongest signal. It will be more with a weaker signal. That’s why a high-speed button like an Ajax button is still inefficient and slow compared to the i-Cue Design virtually instantaneous, "instant-add" solution.

With an i-Cue Design cart you click on the checkbox to make your selection and immediately get confirmation that the item is "in cart". That takes a virtually instantaneous fraction of a second--as fast as a mobile app. You can then checkout, or choose another item, or another page, or a page detail and continue shopping in similar fashion, uninterrupted by intermediate, unrequested server calls.

Here’s a graphic view of the difference between the experience of using an Ajax style button (using a partial page reload) and the i-Cue "instant-add" design in a mobile scenario of adding 3 products to one page and 2 products to a second page.

AJAX BUTTON experience

i-CUE DESIGN "instant-add" experience

Time efficiency is built in to the i-Cue Design technique, and is independent of platforms and devices. As you can see, the Ajax button takes 15 seconds longer, more than twice as long as the i-Cue Design solution.

To view a live demo of this example, please go to the demo page.

10. It looks like a checkbox. What’s the difference?

Every other checkbox solution requires that you check a box and then click again on another button to "submit selected items" to your cart, which requires a server call. Because the "submit selected items" button is often at the bottom of a list of checkboxes, this solution leaves open the possibility that a shopper will think that selecting and checking the first checkbox means that their item has been added when it has not, causing confusion and requiring them to re-locate the selected item--or causing sufficient annoyance that they simply abandon the cart.

The i-Cue Design solution does not require the secondary "submit selected items" button-click, which always requires a server call. Thus, not only does i-Cue Design eliminate a click (saving the time to complete a server call), it also guarantees that your customer's selections will not be lost from their cart, and they will not lose the sense of where they are in the shopping process.

11. How much time does an i-Cue Design solution save compared to a checkbox solution?

Here's a graphic view of the difference between a typical checkbox solution and the i-Cue Design solution in a mobile shopping scenario of adding 5 products--3 products on one page, 2 products on another page:

TYPICAL CHECKBOX solution

i-CUE DESIGN "instant-add" experience

Time efficiency is built in to the i-Cue Design solution and is independent of platforms and devices. As you can see, the typical checkbox solution takes 16.5 seconds longer—more than twice as long as the i-Cue Design solution.

To view a live demo of this example, please go to the demo page.

12. Does this mean I don't need an app anymore?

If the app you have or are thinking about developing is just for making basic tasks like "add", "delete" or "change quantity" virtually instantaneous, you don't need one. i-Cue Design delivers the app-like experience without the need of an app. If you are making a transition to the Mobile Web, the extra bonus of the i-Cue Design cart solution is that it can be used on both your e-commerce and m-commerce websites, giving your customers the same, familiar cart solution on both.

13. Is integrating i-Cue Design's solution a major development project?

Of course, the answer depends on the specifics of your website. The i-Cue Design technology can be built in to a site you are developing, or can be added into an existing site where changes can be phased, tested, and tweaked as you gain experience and get customer feedback. You can also integrate i-Cue Design differentially across your site, using the i-Cue Design cart for some types of products and not for others. It does not need to be an all or nothing implementation. We can match your pace.

14. Can my tech team implement this or can/will you do it for us?

Either way. We can train your people or we can do the implementation for you. Or we can do a little of both. We’ll co-create the plan to meet your needs.

15. How long will it take? And what will it cost?

As soon as we learn what your goals are and get basic information about how your site is structured we can give you an estimate. Please contact us to discuss the possibilities.

*"The Impact of Flow on Online Consumer Behavior", Lee, S.M., Liqiang, C., Journal of Computer Information Systems, Summer 2010