How Retailers Are Failing Online Shoppers ... and 4 Ways to Do Better

Eliminating a checkout form field or making it easy to find the featured product from an Instagram post may be tiny tweaks from an operational standpoint for your e-commerce business, but those small details can have big impacts on the bottom line.

That’s the takeaway from a recent survey we conducted at FullStory, which found that high-quality online experiences translate directly into earning potential for brands.

Better shopping experiences not only have the potential to earn more up front, but they’re more likely to attract repeat business. Good experiences now eclipse traditional brand loyalty, with four in 10 respondents saying they don’t care where they buy from as long as the experience works.

On the flip side, 53 percent of consumers won’t return to businesses that provide poor digital experiences — and currently, most retail brands are at risk. While online shopping fares better than other sectors, just 46 percent of respondents said the retail site experience was “simple,” while 17 percent said interactions were “stressful” or “difficult.”

What’s more, the majority of U.S. consumers (58 percent) would be willing to pay anywhere from 5 percent to 25 percent more to guarantee a flawless online shopping experience. Young digital natives are even more likely to prize superior experiences, with 83 percent of respondents under 25 saying they would pay a premium for guaranteed flawless interactions.

Sweat the Details of Retail Digital Experience to Grow Sales and Loyalty

To improve digital shopping experiences, merchants should prioritize convenience and ease of use. Specific areas of improvement to consider include the following:

1. Keep it simple. 

FullStory’s data shows that the No. 1 factor to ensure a great digital experience in 2023 is the ability to “quickly accomplish what I came to do” — a priority for 81 percent of U.S. consumers.

Site navigation is core to helping shoppers complete tasks, yet nearly half of respondents (45 percent) said they had been frustrated by dead clicks, while nearly three in 10 (29 percent) said they had encountered loops that circled through a sequence without accomplishing the intended function. Almost a quarter (22 percent) said they had been confused by website navigation or the lack thereof and unclear on what to do next.

Before investing in new and buzzy digital capabilities like NFTs or virtual reality headsets, retailers should be sure to nail the basics on mobile and site navigation. Shoppers have high expectations and won’t tolerate brands that can’t deliver on the fundamentals.

2. Act quickly when users are struggling. 

No matter how intuitive you think your site or app is, customers will always find ways to prove you wrong. And just because your company’s support inbox isn’t flooded with complaints about digital frustrations doesn’t mean there aren’t any.

In the survey, more than half (51 percent) admitted that they won’t report issues when they occur, meaning brands are often unaware of digital errors that are costing them revenue. While consumers may not be telling you there are issues, what they do on your site or mobile app says otherwise. Of survey respondents, 71 percent have "rage clicked" on something that frustrated them online.

These frustrations translate into lost revenue. Therefore, be sure to complement traditional analytics and voice of customer (VOC) with tools that can identify friction and surface conversion-impacting insights — across traditional web and mobile experiences — about visitor habits like “abandoned forms” and “scroll depth.” These critical struggles are easily overlooked, but typically easy to fix and deliver a big impact on conversion, retention and overall satisfaction.

3. Prioritize site performance.

E-commerce web pages often incorporate multiple features like real-time inventory lookup or augmented reality tools. However, if site performance suffers as a result of back-end technical integrations, then those tools may do more harm than good.

When FullStory survey respondents were asked to pick their biggest frustrations, challenges related to load times led the list. Sixty-five percent said pages that don’t load quickly are a top frustration, while 62 percent cited page load errors, including elements that get stuck in processing mode.

These irritations have a direct impact on the bottom line. Research shows that 70 percent of consumers say that a site’s load speed impacts their willingness to buy from that company. Every little bit counts — for every one second delay, website conversion rates drop by over 2 percent.

Consistently winning and retaining customers means continuously improving your digital experience, which requires capturing data. Unfortunately, many analytics tools demand a tradeoff: logging the data can ding page performance. The result is a lose-lose situation as would-be customers grow impatient at the loading delay and bounce rates rise. Be diligent about evaluating technology and ensure you pick platforms and tools that have no discernible impact on site performance.

4. Focus on mobile. 

According to Forrester, 92 percent of U.S. online adults use a smartphone. And they’re turning to these devices not only to buy but to research. In fact, 47 percent have used a smartphone mobile website, and 34 percent have used a smartphone app to do their research. Therefore, wowing these mobile-first shoppers is key to driving immediate conversions — and to influencing purchases in physical stores.

Unfortunately, many retailers still struggle to deliver a great mobile experience. Four out of 10 survey respondents (39 percent) report that the digital experience is better when accessed on their computer or laptop compared to their mobile device.

Even the smallest frustrations or difficulties can send consumers fleeing, so they need to be quickly found and addressed. Tools like session replay provide full transparency into both what's happening and why on your app(s), making it easy to fix mobile bugs and user pain points. And track mobile-first signals such as “pinch-to-zoom,” "navigated to screen," "crashed," and "low memory" for the most complete picture and best results.

To provide stellar digital retail experiences, the devil is in the details. Not only are consumers willing to pay more for smooth and intuitive site interactions, but superior experiences are now the essential building blocks of brand loyalty. Investing in digital experience improvements can help retailers grow short-term sales and establish a foundation for future growth.

Darren Kennedy is senior vice president, customer experience at FullStory, a provider of digital experience intelligence.