E-commerce Insights:Improve Your E-mail Sign-up Process

5. Eliminate bugs and confusion. Your sign-up process has to be clear and functional. Thirty-three sites (73 percent) meet these basic criteria. Only one site, Etronics.com, failed outright. But too many sites complicated this simple process. How? Dresses.com and Danskin call it a “mailing list” rather than an “e-mail list.” Lillian Vernon adds a redundant screen. QVC places “Sign up for e-mail” links on the bottom of every screen, including the e-mail sign-up screen. Each time a user has to think, that brief pause interrupts the flow, increasing the chance of abandonment.