The company''s release stated that they had an idea as to why e-tailing continues to fail and what it''s going to take to fix it. Some of their observations I agree with, and some I don''t, but there''s plenty of food for thought here.

Icon Medialab said its human-computer interaction (HCI) experts say the reason so much of e-tailing is in trouble (yes, I know there are more than a few exceptions) has to do "almost completely with Web designers and marketers who fail to develop usable sites that fundamentally address how consumers shop online."

"The fact is, many B2C sites fail by the most basic measures of success in retailing, whether in terms of consumer loyalty, profitability or brand-building," said Stefana Broadbent, who has the cool title of Chief HCI Officer at Icon. "And, for the most part, the situation remains unresolved, as the rising tide of dot-com failures makes clear. What is also clear, in retrospect, is that the e-tailing industry on the whole failed from the onset -- and the biggest mistake was ignoring the consumer and how they interact with the computer."

OK, I''ll give that statement a qualified maybe. I think there are a number of other reasons why some e-tailers have failed, including an over-reliance on sugar daddy venture capitalists. Old-fashioned concepts like expansion based on cash flow, over-spending on advertising, dealing with way too much competition, the impact of the late-arriving giants of brick-and-mortar retailing (such as Kmart''s BlueLight.com) and, sorry to say it, just plain inexperience in business should share in the blame.

(By the way, do you suppose brick-and-mortar retailers have "human-human interaction" experts?)

Anyway, the HCI experts point to the following issues as contributing to the myopia of Web designers and marketers:

• It''s much easier to sell books and CDs online than mobile phones -- the decision process leading up to the purchase of books and CDs is significantly easier to support. (I''d put furniture and other "touchie-feelie" goods in the difficult-sell category, too.)
• Given current limitations on bandwidth, it''s extremely difficult to replicate the experience of shopping in a store on a Web site -- tradeoffs have to be made when deciding what''s most important to users at particular stages in the shopping process.
• It''s difficult to meet the emotional and practical needs of consumers as they decide when, where and how to shop in an online environment -- gaining a comprehensive understanding of how users structure their activities is key.
• Online shopping used to be a novelty -- today, users are much more demanding and won''t support a site that doesn''t address their needs. (Well, yes and no, IMHO. I recently tracked down the Snyder of Berlin potato chip people online and ordered a case for the holidays; these chips were a favorite treat as a kid. The site was just a billboard, but I was motivated enough to print out an order form and snail-mail a check.)

"In the early stages of Internet commerce, users were satisfied with practically any form of access to information or goods," Broadbent said. "Today, they''re much more sophisticated -- and they''re demanding increasingly complex solutions that are both quick and easy to use. Online merchants that fail to understand the needs of their customers -- and fail to build systems that support those needs -- will risk extinction."

Based on Icon Medialab''s work with clients engaged in both B2C and B2B e-commerce, Tom Nicholson, Chief Creative Officer, cites the following steps that Web marketers should take before a site goes live and changes become expensive:

• Ensure that you have a deep understanding of users'' goals, objectives, motivations, expectations and cultural backgrounds -- successful, user-focused sites don''t just happen by chance.
• Involve users throughout the design and development cycle -- not just when the site isn''t working.
• Don''t rely on users'' ability to make their needs explicit -- many times users aren''t aware of the possibilities until they see and experience them.
• Use contextual inquiry and observation to identify how users structure and carry out activities and what sources of information they rely on to accomplish their tasks.
• Trust the data -- use it to structure all interactions between technology and users.
• Don''t be fooled by simple design guidelines -- if design was that easy more people would get it right.