The big lie of the digital age, when you click on “buy” you’re not buying anything

It’s the era of online stores. E-commerce continues to grow unabated, and physical stores have a competitor that more and more users to drag a type of service that is ideal for many. And yet it is not in all sections.

Two researchers have shown in their study “What we buy When We ‘buy now” have shown that the idea that people have of what he does when click” Buy Now “in an online store is often very different than it receives.

You think what you get, is not what you get

If you buy physical goods actually buyers get these goods: when you buy a car, it’s yours, when you buy a shirt, it is yours. When you buy a tractor, it’s yours (well, maybe not). But things change when you buy digital goods.

In that case these goods often have associated licenses that restrict their use by those who have purchased them. This, while also trying to apply to physical goods (“do not modify your iPhone / Xbox / laptop or lose your warranty”) is a reality in segments such as music, movies or e – books. Some of that content can only be played on specific devices and cannot be shared or one can make copies of them much less “redistributing”, or what is the same, share with friends-.

The problem is, say these researchers, the use of the word “Buy”, which by definition one assumes that carries much broader rights we have acquired good. These investigators launched an online test in which they sold different physical and digital goods and after participation of 1,299 people showed that indeed the idea that they had these users after clicking the “Buy” or “Buy Now” was not what really those goods was applied in many cases.

The resulting data revealed a number of insights into how consumers understand and confuse digital transactions. A surprisingly high percentage of consumers believe that when “purchase now” acquire the same type of rights to use and transfer digital goods that they enjoy in physical goods. The poll also strongly suggests that these rights matter to consumers. Consumers are willing to pay more for them and prefer to acquire content through other means, both legal and illegal, in the absence of such options. Our study suggests that a relatively simple and inexpensive intervention -add a brief warning on a digital product page outlining consumer rights in a clear- language is an effective way to significantly reduce confusion about the materials that have consumers.

The word “Buy” should be changed to another

That is precisely what we propose these two researchers: that online shops specify that content and digital goods specified what rights are associated with that purchase action. Maybe I should change the word “Buy” on those buttons, but that would have an impact live performance of these online stores. As the report…

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The sale of digital content generates hundreds of billions in revenue and a percentage of these revenues are based on deception. Presumably if consumers knew the limited set of rights that actually acquired, the market could reduce the price of digital content or generate competitive business models that offered different sets of rights. […] We conclude that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could align business practices with the perception of commodores. The vast experience of the FTC disseminate information to consumers, as well as a number of research companies that interfere with the use of digital content by consumers through digital rights management (DRM) makes the FTC you can solve the deceptions that result from using button “Buy now”.

These practices are similar to those that led the scandal in-app purchases that deceived million users. Many applications and mobile games that are advertised as “free” purchases actually included then within those applications and games without users might understand the whole concept. Apple had to come to terms with users and subsequently ended up changing the button in those contents indicated that before the word “Free” and now uses the word “Get”.

This study shows that online shopping should also take action in this regard and clarify what rights the user gets when buying certain goods – physical or digital – . Until that happens, you know: careful what you assume when you click on the button “Buy Now”.