E-Commerce Website Conversion Issues
Is your e-commerce website not converting the number of orders that it should be? Mashable put together a great list of the top 10 e-commerce website conversion issues customers encountered. This information was collected by research data firm, QuBit, by analyzing over 18,000 comments submitted from online customers.
When designing a website or talking to your web designer, keep these issues in mind and you may increase your conversions at a great rate!
Here are the top 10 website issues (according to QuBit’s research):
1. Pricing
Pricing was the leading issue for consumers when making their final decisions. Transparency and accessibility are key for the online retail world, with comparative shopping being drastically easier on the Internet. QuBit recommends crossing out previous prices or focusing on a “deal of the week” to satisfy price-conscious consumers.
2. Product descriptions
More than 12% of the feedback was related to the lack of clear and complete product descriptions. Descriptions must be thorough enough to replace the knowledge of a sales associate. “The vast proportion of feedback found on fashion retail sites blames lack of sizing information as a primary reason for exiting the site,” the report reads. Retailers must consider including: the materials used, origin of goods, and sizing information.
3. Stock information
The availability of products must be communicated to website visitors early on in the purchasing process. When a product is out of stock, timely information about when it will be available should be made readily available. Otherwise, users should be given the option to be notified once the product is back in stock.
4. Site functionality
You don’t want customers to become frustrated. Make sure you have fully functionality within their shopping experience. Missing functionalities included (but not limited to): wish lists, in-store pick-up, personalized recommendations, guest checkout and product filters.
5. Shipping information
Shipping prices and times must be made known. Lack of this information is likely to cause checkout drop-offs and complete abandonment of the site, the report explained. Offering international shipping and as well displaying shipping prices in destination currencies are two desired features also mentioned in the report.
6. Images
Use images to show off your products. People like to see what they’re buying before they make a purchase. High quality photography is important for converting shoppers into buyers.
7. Discounts
Many comments pointed to not being able to find where to enter discount codes as a problem. Likewise, consumers seemed confused as to whether offline discounts could be applied online. If so, whether the discounts applied to their demographic or purchase. We’ve all been there—exclusion lists are lengthy and include details on countries, states, brands and even particular items. Clean these up. Make your customers happier.
8. Navigation
Consumers are accustomed to visiting large commerce websites, such as Amazon. These sites have feature clear navigation—and they expect that same level of quality across all retail websites. Broken links within the shopping cart, lack of category pages in the main navigation and broken browser functionalities (such as the back button) are major issues cited by consumers.
9. Video
Product videos add flare to a product page. Apparently consumers expect them too. The lack of videos were documented in the report. QuBit pointed to Burberry as being a great in this area. The retailer’s website presents a seamless experience of videos and photos.
10. Website speed
Slow loading times are of huge concern to retailers. Consumers simply hate waiting around for a website to finally show up. Retailers should benchmark their load times against those of their competitors and act accordingly.
E-Commerce website conversion issues are fixable. The key is to to identify where you are going wrong, and then make the appropriate changes. By doing this you’ll make your customer’s experience better. And a better customer experience typically leads to more money in your pocket.
