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.
Lisa
March 6th, 2006
Fast Company magazine did an interesting spread of technology statistics in their March 2006 issue. According to Forrester Research, by 2010, 85% of US households will have a cell phone, 53% will own a laptop, 37% will use a digital recorder and 35% an MP3 player.
And, comScore Media Metrix (November 2005) found that Americans spend 80 minutes online each day with the following activities:
-25.5 minutes on portals
-24.5 minutes on email
-13.6 minutes on retail
-9.8 minutes on community
-9.6 minutes on entertainment
-8.0 minutes on finance
-6.1 minutes on directories
-6.0 minutes on news
-4.8 minutes on technology
-3.5 minutes on search
So, what does this mean for your Website and Internet Marketing? How can you offer content that can be downloaded to cells and iPods? Can you better reach your customers via email or through portals? What opportunities do you have for retail on your Website? Keep watching online trends and don’t be afraid to adjust your Web strategy based on the new frontier!
Personally, I think the community stats will increase with the Echo/Gen Y generation coming on strong. Sites like MySpace are seeing huge traffic from the younger set. How will this impact your online marketing efforts? Likely, online PR and viral marketing will grow as mediums to reach into these online communities.
Lisa
March 6th, 2006
