When a search returns no hits, users struggle to understand what it means. Think of the horror of a salesperson staring dumbly as you repeatedly ask for an item using different names, vocal inflections, anything to get your point across. We didn't see any Web sites in our study that told users when they didn't carry an item. Instead, we saw users struggle to interpret empty search results. At this point, the user gave up.
Nothing empowers a shopper more than getting the best deal.
In both B2B and B2C studies, we've seen users again and again ask for ways to compare items side by side. Without comparison tools on Web sites, users must drill down to get information on a product, grasp the most important details, and either remember them or print them out, back up, find another item, and start the process again. Often users can't remember key features of one product once they've gotten to another, so they're forced to compare only based on what they do remember. Advanced Web users create their own solutions. They would open multiple browser windows and tile them so they can see more than one product at once.