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The importance of usability to your retail sales

The Colorado Springs Gazette (Sunday, March 5, 2006) recently reported that “efficiency [is] essential to e-shopping.” This is nothing new to us at Intuitive Websites, since our mantra has always been to get inside the head of the user. It just provides more evidence that the truth is with the user.

A poll of 775 consumers by Allurent, Inc. shows that 82 percent would be less likely to return to a site where they had a frustrating experience. Thirty-three percent say they may not shop at the company’s brick and mortar store after a bad online experience. “And 55% of consumers surveyed said that a frustrating shopping experience online negatively impacts their overall opinion of that retailer.”

In addition to issues with high shipping costs, pricing, and inventory problems, other issues that led to negative online shopping experiences included:
-poor site navigation
-problems with checkout
-inadequate browsing capabilities
-not enough product details to close the sale

And, 51% said they abandoned their shopping cart because the checkout process was too lengthy.

Thomas Young

Thomas Young is the CEO and Founder of Intuitive Websites. He is a consultant, award winning Vistage speaker and author of “Winning the Website War” and “Sales and Marketing Alignment.” Tom has helped thousands of companies succeed online and has over 25 years digital marketing experience.