Shoppers don’t click with irritating online retail sites
● Sales are booming on existing e-commerce sites and new sites are popping up, but even so, many customers are abandoning their carts before checkout.
While platforms have improved over the past 10 years, “many are still getting it so wrong”, says Louw van Riet, MD of e-Commerce Development SA.
“You must do everything to not frustrate the user.”
Market research provider Euromonitor International identifies the top e-commerce players in SA in terms of sales as Naspers (Takealot.com), Pick n Pay, Apple, Mr Price Group, Woolworths and HomeChoice.
But their domination may be under threat.
With the Covid-19 lockdown, Van Riet has seen new e-commerce sites proliferate. “What the new sites offer is a better user experience.”
This, he says, is because new platforms such as Shopify offer better design, artificial intelligence, better indexing and most importantly, a clean data set — data that is accurate, complete, consistent and uniform. When data is collected from a variety of sources it often is not “cleaned”, which affects the quality of the search experience.
“The user experience is about data,” says Van Riet, who advises business to give customers enough information, images, videos and reviews to help them feel comfortable with their purchase.
He says the bigger e-commerce sites might battle with the surge in competition because the platforms on which they are built are becoming dated.
He notes that the search function on the established sites can be poor because they have not indexed products correctly, leading to consumers abandoning the site in search of one that is easier to navigate.
Though many large companies don’t want to divulge their investment in online retail because this is seen as proprietary information, they do come with deep pockets.
“Large retailers will typically be spending from R10m upwards on the consulting, testing and development phase,” says David Jenkins, founding partner at Mickey Llew, a specialist search-engine optimisation agency. But he says the financial investment is just one factor in successfully executing online retail.
“Businesses need to pick the right tech stack,” says Jenkins, referring to the set of technologies an organisation needs to build a site or app.
“Certain platforms are better fits for specific products.”
Part of what a business needs to assess is how well a platform caters for the intended user experience, he says.
Examples of what companies can consider are Magento, an open-source platform that allows them to edit the code; Hybris, an SAP system that is highly customisable, but at a cost; and Shopify, which has less flexibility but is suited to smaller businesses.
One of SA’s oldest e-commerce sites is the one launched by Woolworths. According to Liz Hillock, its head of online & mobile, a few years ago the company “replatformed” to an Oracle stack, which has allowed it to enhance its micro services — smaller sites within a main website that can easily be changed or adapted.
This has allowed Woolworths to double the speed of using its site, which Hillock says is critical when ensuring that online shoppers get as far as clicking “checkout”.
Hillock says the site enhancements proved their worth when the lockdown kicked in and the number of visitors to the site soared.
If the user experience is frustrating or unpleasant, then items are left in carts but are never paid for.
Jenkins says that globally the rate at which item searches are converted to sales averages 1%-3%, but varies dramatically from industry to industry and depends on how well a site targets its customers.
Tightly focused e-commerce sites achieve much higher conversion rates. An example is State of the Art, based in Cape Town, which offers an exclusive selection of original artworks and has a 95% conversion rate.
Its owner, Jennifer Reynolds, attributes this to a function that allows a customer to reserve a piece of art for 48 hours while mulling his or her decision.
What the new sites offer is a better user experience
Louw van Riet MD, e-Commerce Development SA