First time e-commerce site visitors are unlikely to buy anything

Thursday, March 2, 2017 - 11:12 by Simon Crisp

A new survey from Episerver has found that nine out of 10 people who visit a site that offers safe shopping online for the first time do not do so with the intention of completing a purchase, according to Internet Retailing.

It was also revealed that 98 per cent of people have chosen not to buy anything because the content they encounter either features some inaccuracies, or is not presented in a fully formed manner, with expected elements missing.

While this could be seen as an indication of the innate problems with e-commerce site design, analysts also believe that this shows that retailers need to rethink the types of experiences they offer in order to cater to the differing intentions of first time visitors.

Over a third of those questioned said that they thought retailers could do more to make the experience of shopping online more personal to their needs. Less than a tenth said that this was something that was generally handled successfully by the sites they visit.

The report looked into how the desktop and mobile experiences differ in this respect, with analysts concluding that retailers should invest in overhauling their presence on portable platforms and making mobile sites and apps more customisable.

Conversely, the areas in which the greatest efforts are being invested by retailers include the provision of location-based offers to customers, the creation of engaging image-based content and experimentation with VR and AR.

The study found that many shoppers are more likely to remain loyal to a specific retail brand if they are able to enjoy a tailor made e-commerce experience, but at the moment many companies are turning their attentions elsewhere, which could be detrimental to their market success in the long term.