November 29 2006

UK plc has to try harder

Two studies, looking at site usability and the total customer experience, from site to delivery, both report that even the best retailers could do better.

None of the findings in the end-to-end experience report from customer experience company Blast Radius are particularly surprising but re-iterate individual customer's experiences and where "UK plc has to try harder". Products were bought from 28 online retailers by mystery shoppers who then tried to return them - in a perfect multi-channel world this should be as simple online as taking goods back to the high street. The main issues raised by the research were:

Delivery - Orders were cancelled with 2 companies when the goods hadn't been delivered after 9 days and 14 days respectively. The issue of out-of-stock goods being available to order and a delivery date set was raised.

Returns - Some of the retailers didn't give details on how purchases could be returned and one charged £30 to return goods which cost £4.50 to deliver.

Branding - Marked inconsistencies were noted with the branding experience. Despite high levels of investment in the websites, a 'white van, brown box' approach had been taken by some of the online retailers - in contrast to the high street where end-to-end branding is the norm. Others though were commended for including a catalogue or additional information with order and for using clearly branded packaging.

The study results show that investment by online retailers tends to focus on securing the sale, while the customer focus is on what happens once they have made a purchase. "This service disconnect is critical and reveals a short-sighted view of the customer based on immediate revenue collection where real value is gained from long-term relationships," said Lee Feldman, chief creative office, Blast Radius.

The full report - The UK's Best Online Shopping Experiences - 2006 can be downloaded from the company's website [Note - pdf].

A separate study, by usability specialists Webcredible, evaluated the websites of 20 leading high street stores. The most critical usability errors found, were:

Not providing separate links to both the basket and the checkout.

Not providing orientation clues.

No highly visible 'add to basket' button.

No highly visible 'proceed to checkout' button.

Users are not shown where they are and where they're going in the checkout process.

Not providing a summary page clearly marked 'you haven't bought this product yet'.

Most of these should be on the 'web design crime list' since they are all reasons why purchases are not made and shopping carts abandoned. "As many as 83% of internet users leave a website because they can't find what they are looking for," said Trenton Moss, director of Webcredible. One company, for example, let customers put items into their shopping basket without letting them know how much they cost.

Marks & Spencer, Early Learning Centre, Mothercare, John Lewis and HMV had the highest scoring websites of those tested.

Emma Herrod