Cure for abandonment

The attitudes of consumers to the whole process of shopping online is causing E-retailers a major headache. Figures being bandied about in the industry talk of 25% of shoppers abandoning their shopping carts at the checkout. Some even say that this is a gross under-statement. So why are people cutting and running?

Time — or the lack of it — could be one factor. And online isn’t the only industry where this impacts. If the queues are too long at a high street store, or if the service is unbelievably slow, many are giving in to the temptation to walk out.

But online shoppers, instead of being wooed, are often coralled, cajoled into moving on swiftly and then penalised if they don’t. It’s a bit like making a reservation at a restaurant and being told that it needs the table back in two hours. Really makes one feel like a valued customer.

On too many sites you get timed out,” says Jo Evans, managing director of IMRG, a collaborative community dedicated to maximising the commercial potential of electronic shopping. “So around Christmas, when you are buying for three or four people, after half an hour is gone they clear your basket.

Phone distractions

“It’s so frustrating. This is my business and I’m on the Internet all the time, but you can get distracted by a telephone call or an urgent email — and by the time you return to the page the basket is empty. So you quietly swear under your breath and go to another website.”

It’s easy to under-estimate the complexity of providing a smooth operation for those who want to order goods or services on the web, but then that’s the problem of the site owner. It’s the consumer at the sharp end whose penalised for their inadequacies.

Google is one company which is trying to make things easier. Its reseach had revealed that people had a multitude of concerns at checkout. So, since most shoppers start their process with a search, it launched its own service enabling them to buy from participating retailers using a single Google log-in. It now has thousands of stores globally on its books, including Vodafone, dabs.com, ebuyer and Goldsmiths.

“Users no longer have to remember multiple passwords, or navigate new and unfamiliar checkout flows, or even worry about financial details being spread over the net,” says Robert Swerlig, head of commerce partnerships for Google Checkout. “They just have to sign up to Checkout and it’s fast secure shopping over the net.

Prada vs fish and chips

He draws an interesting parallel between online and offline shopping to show the attraction of Checkout. “Imagine, in the offline world, that the experience of shopping at Prada and that of shopping at your local fish and chip shop — if it accepts credit cards — is fundamentally the same,” he says.