New survey finds a failure to convert web hits into sales, where only 7% of online shoppers visiting a site complete a purchase
New survey finds a failure to convert web hits into sales, where only 7% of online shoppers visiting a site complete a purchase
Today Sage Pay, the UK payments provider has launched it’s E-Business Benchmark Report, a study that aims to represent the views and opinions of over 2,000 online businesses currently operating in the UK.
Split into four categories – marketing, influencing a purchase, making it easy for people to pay, and security and fraud – the report combines statistics and case studies from businesses, including Graze.com and Hawes and Curtis.
“As the e-commerce market matures, e-businesses need to do more to make the most of their potential,” commented Simon Black, managing director at Sage Pay. “The stats show that merchants are pretty good at getting shoppers to their site but at the crucial point they are letting customers slip away. Our report identifies what successful businesses are doing to get customers buying and provides those doing business on the net with an opportunity to benchmark their e-business.”
Making it easy and simple
As well as useful tips and advice for online businesses of all sizes, other key findings in the report include, providing on-site reassurance such as a security policy and money back guarantee helps with checkout success. In addition, e-businesses with fewer checkout pages convert more sales; social media drives loyalty and helps to convert sales and successful e-businesses customise their payment pages (97%).
According to payments provider’s report, of particular interest to banks and industry bodies will be the findings associated with 3D Secure and card data security. Although around 65% of e-businesses agree that Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) are important, a third of respondents collecting, storing or transferring card data did not know whether they were compliant or not. These results correlate with earlier studies conducted by Sage Pay and show that e-businesses are still struggling to understand regulations.
