Challis Hodge’s UXblog

I’ve made some startling discoveries this week and felt like I needed to share them right away. First of all it appears Web Site Design Impacts Online Sales!

“When potential buyers come from a search marketing program and land on your site, it is important to make sure they know where to go and how to get the discounts you advertised,” said Jimmy Duval, director of e-commerce products for Yahoo Small Business.

As the dust settles on this latest season’s holiday shopping data, there is yet one more issue to consider before this time next year: conversions.

Conversions!? is this a fancy new buzz word? Has anyone heard this term before?

The recent release of the Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index, a study produced by ForeSee Results and FGI Research, revealed that consumer satisfaction with most of the top 40 retail Web sites dropped over the holiday season. In fact, overall consumer satisfaction is down 4 percent from earlier in 2005.

Beyond higher holiday expectations for lower merchandise prices, the concept of designing for conversions — which refers to the percentage of site visitors who actually make an online purchase — is finding an audience with savvy online retailers. That’s because they know that while over 70 percent of e-shoppers think shopping online is easier than shopping offline, Web design played a key role in 2005 online holiday spending.

Second, it appears Bad Online Shopping Experiences Are Bad For Business!

A frustrating online shopping experience can negatively impact consumers’ opinion of a business overall, and the spillover can impact brick and mortar stores as well, according to a national consumer web survey.

Negative online shopping experiences can be bad for business, says a national consumer survey.

Allurent Inc., in a recent Web study, said 55 percent of consumers surveyed said a frustrating online shopping experience negatively impacts their overall opinion of that retailer. Nearly 33 percent said they may stop shopping at the retailer’s brick and mortar store as well.

The 2005 Holiday Shopping: Online Customer Experience Survey revealed 82 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to return to a site where they had a frustrating shopping experience. As more consumers flock to the Web to make purchases, retailers are putting more at risk.

So is it just me or did we have this knowledge ten years ago? I’m puzzled that folks are writing and researching these topics as if the last decade never happened.