Unresponsiveness and errors result in e-commerce order cancellations

Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - 12:36 by Graham Miller

Shoppers are a discerning bunch and it seems that the majority will choose to cancel an order made via safe shopping online, if they have an unsatisfactory experience, according to a new study conducted by Monitis.

Researchers found that 56 per cent of prolific e-commerce users, which is a group including anyone who shops online for two or more hours each week, have requested a cancellation because they found a site to be slow or buggy.

Seventy four per cent revealed that they would end their loyalty to a particular retailer and shop elsewhere if a rival could offer them a better general e-commerce experience.

This jumps to an even higher proportion (86 per cent), when looking at those who most regularly use safe shopping online in order to buy products and services.

Interestingly, 61 per cent of respondents said that low prices available online made e-commerce more attractive than high street shopping, which was lower than the proportion who cited the convenience of web-based retail as the main benefit it offers.

Spokesperson, Hovhannes Avoyan, explained that there is more to running an e-commerce website than simply ensuring that it is always available to capture an audience, no matter what time they want to indulge in some retail therapy.

It is also necessary to make sure that users are satisfied with the performance of the site and are not confounded by flaws in its design, which make it difficult to actually enjoy safe shopping online.

Hopefully, these figures will influence retailers ahead of the Christmas rush, encouraging them to tone and hone e-commerce sites, so that they are easy to use and can cope with the added pressure that will be put upon them during the busiest period of the year for online outlets.