Focus Group is the term that designates a type of research that takes place in a qualitative way among a group of people, who are invited to reflect and discuss about a certain subject.
In the case of e-commerce, this group of people is formed by visitors to your virtual store or by consumers (or potential consumers) of the products that such store sells.
It works like this: the organizer (you, in this case) invites representatives of your target audience to a meeting, which can be online or in person, where the product ( product mix ) or the User Experience (UX) of an online store can be tried, used, and immediately analyzed. The data obtained during the meeting, in turn, should be used for the purpose of optimizing your e-commerce.
One of the problems with this style of research is getting participants to show up on a specific date and time at a specific location. Therefore, offer as an incentive a gift such as pairs of tickets to a football game or tickets to a theater play for those who are willing to participate.
During Focus Group sessions it is recommended that:
– The meeting is recorded so that you can review everything calmly;
– Explain and document that the meeting information is confidential;
– The organizer makes a general presentation of the product or virtual store;
– Questions are asked to keep the meeting in the focus of the project;
– Participants are not interrupted during their analyses.
Later, in another meeting with only you and the employees who make decisions in your company present, the Focus Group recording can be shared so that you can analyze things like:
– The arguments of the participants about the product or virtual store in question;
– The capture of trends of all or part of the group;
– The influence of communication (gestural, corporal, verbal, etc.) of the participants;
– The positive and negative points listed in the process.
It is important to emphasize that data obtained from a focus group should not be taken as absolute law. Instead, it should be compared with data from other research, such as the Business Scenario Simulator and Buyer Persona . By doing so, you can extract better insights and solutions for optimizing the product or online store in question.
