Two thousand consumers in Germany were asked about their online shopping behaviour and their opinion on the functionality of websites. Thirty-eight per cent of the respondents said that they cancelled their purchases due to poor design, programming, and usability. On average, these consumers estimate that the purchases would have had a total value of about 67 EUR – with 26 per cent even stating that they had abandoned purchases worth more than 100 EUR due to poor user experience.
With 49 million people in Germany shopping online and 76 per cent of online shoppers abandoning an average purchase of EUR 67.26, Storyblok estimates that lost sales due to poor website functionality amount to approximately EUR 2.5 billion annually.
The reasons for cancelled purchases
For German users, the reasons for not shopping on a website include limited payment functions, poor navigation or layout, non-competitive prices and unclear web pages, followed by annoying pop-ups, slow loading times and old, long-outdated content. The 18- to 25-year-olds named a confusing design and too many pop-ups as the main reasons for leaving an e-commerce website. On the other hand, they consider simple navigation, fast loading times and a plain design to be the most critical components of a good user experience. The opinions of more than 80 per cent of the over-55s mirrored the sentiment of the younger generation. Furthermore, they felt that simple navigation and fast loading times were the most critical factors.
In terms of abandoned purchases, it is evident that younger consumers constitute the larger share. On average, 83 per cent of 18-24-year-olds abandon shopping baskets worth 58.79 EUR, whereas only 68 per cent of users between 55 and 64 abandon shopping baskets with a higher average value of about 66 EUR.
Dominik Angerer, CEO and co-founder of Storyblok, says: “Consumers want easy-to-navigate, intuitively designed and fast-loading websites. However, many e-commerce websites are still poorly designed. Four lost purchases per customer may not seem like much at first. Still, it becomes a significant amount when you extrapolate that to the number of potential new customers that businesses are missing out on here. Simplicity and clarity are still important factors in attracting customers – but it is important to lay the foundations first. For example, if businesses invest in a headless-compatible commerce tech infrastructure, they can lay the foundation for a great as well as fast e-commerce user experience.”
Christmas shopping increasingly happens online
One positive news for German e-commerce companies is that 19 per cent of consumers says they will do more Christmas shopping online this year than last year. Eighteen per cent said they would shop less, and 55 per cent plan to buy about the same as last year. The most significant increases in planned online purchases were recorded in Bremen (29 per cent) and Hamburg (28 per cent), while people in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (33 per cent) and Bavaria (27 per cent) plan to spend the least.
The research also awarded that consumers in Germany decide on average within less than 19 seconds whether to stay on or leave an e-commerce website – in the US, it was also 19 seconds and in the UK, only 15 seconds.
Source: onlinemarktplatz.de
