Xmas rush is rewarding and challenging
| Xmas rush is rewarding and challenging | |
25 November 2005
Industry experts are predicting that Christmas 2005 will be the busiest one yet, with an estimated 89 per cent of all shoppers planning to buy on the web. Already the volume of visits to many UK retail sites have surpassed last year’s peak, with even more traffic expected in the next few weeks. According to Web research firm Hitwise, visits to retail websites ended last week 5% higher than the week ending 4 December 2004, the strongest week for visits to retail websites in 2004. “In August, Hitwise predicted that visits to retail websites would peak the week ending 3rd December 2005, and with two weeks to go until the projected peak, retail sites have already passed last year’s high,” said Heather Hopkins, Director of Research for Hitwise UK. “At the current rate of growth, online retailers are set to have their best year yet.” The top UK destinations so far are: 1. eBay UK Weekly updates on the Christmas market are available on Heather Hopkins’ retail analysis blog at http://weblogs.hitwise.com/heather-hopkins/ But as one set of analysts give e-Christmas the thumbs up, other experts are more cautious. Technology firm, Conchango says research they have conducted shows the majority of online retailers are inadequately prepared for the Christmas rush. Only a fifth of the leading transactional websites have posted details of final order fulfilment dates on their websites in spite of last year’s damaging reports of failed deliveries. Conchango warn that the traditional extra workload for the Royal Mail in the run up to Christmas can only make matters worse. In 2004, Royal Mail delivered between December 1 and 21 only two thirds (66.1 per cent) of first class letters posted the following day compared to the normal target of 92.5 per cent the rest of the year. Meanwhile, SciVisum’s Christmas E-commerce Study flags up that of the 89 per cent of UK consumers intending to shop online around half are planning to search eBay for bargains. Of the sample group in the web testing company’s study, only 11 per cent said they would shop on the High Street as well. But SciVisum, too, temper the good news with warnings about order fulfilment and customer satisfaction. Ninety five per cent of shoppers said they would abandon their shopping trolley if website performance was not up to scratch, and of those 55 per cent said they would not give the site a second chance and shop elsewhere. The number one reason for abandoning a website was sluggish performance, cited by 78 per cent. Three quarters (76 per cent) said they would not wait more than a minute for pages to respond before abandoning a site. The biggest annoyance for customers was complicated website registration processes, which 74 per cent found a turn off. In the run up to Christmas, UK web sites need to prepare to handle this predicted surge in demand from consumers, the study concluded. Despite warnings, SciVisum found last year that the majority of e-retail sites failed to prepare their infrastructure for Christmas. If this is repeated again this year, millions of pounds in sales will be at risk. “Bargain hunters will be flocking to the web in droves this Christmas,” said Deri Jones, CEO, SciVisum. “But our study shows that UK consumers are not willing to tolerate poor performance, or give sites a second chance. E-retailers can expect a season of badwill from consumers if they don’t take action now to prepare their websites for the Christmas rush in the coming month.” In the coming weeks, the number of internet shoppers is expected to rise by 12 per cent. And they are quite rightly demanding. Consumers complain they are regularly frustrated by their online shopping experiences, with only 4 per cent saying they generally had good experiences. The top three complaints were complicated website registration forms (74 per cent); general website crashes (66 per cent); and online shopping baskets crashing (62 per cent). Half the respondents also complained that websites often seemed to freeze at odd moments in the journey (49 per cent); of an inability to phone if necessary (52 per cent) and the inability to amend their order (51 per cent). Based on their findings, SciVisum have drawn up guidelines to help e-tailers improve their performance. • Simple uptime/downtime monitoring of a site isn’t enough. Tests that mimic real buyers as they progress through the purchasing process must also be carried. The full SciVisum Christmas Ecommerce Performance Study 2005 management report can be requested and viewed at http://www.scivisum.co.uk/report/xmas2005 Another way to reinforce shopper confidence is by signing up for the ISIS logo (www.imrg.org/ISIS). By meeting these criteria, the right to display the logo indicates that your shop is registered with the official industry backed and Government endorsed merchant accreditation scheme. | |