Poor website experience makes 60 percent of consumers abandon a purchase

A new survey of 6,000 online shoppers in the US and EU finds that many websites are causing problems for eCommerce companies due to poor design.

The study from Storyblok shows that 42 percent say they decide whether to stay on or leave a website within 10 seconds -- 20 percent within five seconds -- while 60 percent have abandons a purchase because of poor website experience.

When asked their main reasons for leaving an e-commerce website, 37 percent say limited payment options, followed by poor navigation or layout (37 percent) and slow loading speeds (33 percent). 42 percent of Americans and 18 percent of Europeans say that on at least one occasion they have been too embarrassed to say where they purchased a product from because the website was so poorly designed.

What consumers value is ease of navigation, fast loading speeds, and simple design. On a positive note though, 60 percent say that e-commerce sites are getting better, with only five percent saying the experience is worse.

Dominik Angerer, CEO and co-founder of Storyblok, says:

Consumers want easy to navigate, intuitively designed, and fast loading websites. However, a lot of e-commerce websites are falling short. Five purchases per shopper in missed sales may not seem like a lot, but when you scale this up to the number of potential new customers businesses are missing out on, it becomes a very significant amount of money.

Additional functionality is still an important factor in attracting customers, but it's critical to get the basics right first. For example, by investing in a headless, composable commerce tech infrastructure, companies can set the foundation for a great, fast-performing user experience.

In spite of economic uncertainty, 23 percent of shoppers say they plan to make more Christmas purchases online this year compared to 2021, with 13 percent intending to make fewer. Of those that say they would make fewer purchases, 19 percent list supply chain or delivery issues as their main concern, and 18 percent say they prefer the in store experience.

When it comes to influencing purchase decisions, social media is cited as much more influential for Americans compared to Europeans. 48 percent of US online shoppers say seeing a product on social media is an important factor, compared to 35 percent in Europe. Marketing emails and online ads have the least influence.

You can read more on the Storyblok blog.

Photo credit: mtkang / Shutterstock