B2B e-commerce pioneer Staples continues to define the cutting edge

According to a Network World Fusion article, usability studies help Staples stay ahead of the competition:

"By last count, customers that have standing contracts with Staples place 70% of their orders electronically, says Mike Ragunas, vice president of technology strategy and architecture at the Framingham, Mass., office-supply retailer. At least some of those results can be attributed to the company's focus on making it easy for customers to shop at Staples, whether online, in the store or from a catalog. Often that effort involves making Staples.com simple to use."

"Easy Reorder required only relatively simple programming and database work. "The bigger challenge was working with customers on finding the right way to present it," he says. He adds that Staples puts significant effort into usability studies "so when we put something new out, we know customers will get it."


Yes, Staples has usability folks -- a number of them. And the company's bottom line shows the results. Check out this case study.