Saturday, July 21, 2007
Web Shoppers and Info Security: A Question of Credibility
Today's online shoppers may be more cautious than they were two years ago. Some are waiting up to 35 hours before completing a shopping cart transaction. A study of consumers' Internet buying habits suggests that online merchants face stiffer competition and new hurdles in closing sales over the Web. A Web site security auditing firm revisited its initial online buyers' survey, completed in 2005, to compare consumer shopping behavior. The company's results, released this month, show that consumers' concern over information security and buying comfort takes precedence over selling prices. "The credibility issue clearly is the big factor. Price today is not the be-all in deciding to buy online. Trust trumps price."
One of the main revelations in the new study is that consumers are taking longer to click the Buy button. This is known as sale conversion. In 2005, the average time delay between a consumer's first visit to a Web site and the time of purchase was just over 19 hours. The aggregate sales generated by potential buyers produced an average site conversion of just 2.07 percent according to the study. In the more recent survey, however, the delay between the first visit and the purchase rose to 34 hours and 19 minutes, more than a half-day longer than in 2005. Fully 57 percent of the shoppers studied took more than one hour, with 37 percent (a slight 5 percent increase over 2005) taking more than 12 hours, the study showed.
2007 research concludes that online comparison shopping is an unavoidable fact of life for online retailers. Using dial-up Internet access is ludicrously slow for viewing product images on Web sites, but as more surfers take up broadband, they're able to shop around more efficiently. "Broadband makes it easy for consumers to hopscotch to many Web sites," the study said, noting that the added competition for customers often becomes very frustrating for online merchants.
The report also found that shopping cart abandonment -- or examining products on a Web site and leaving without buying them -- is a habitual part of many consumers' shopping behavior prior to purchasing. As a result, online retailers must re-evaluate their pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, using a much longer time frame to calculate their return on investment (ROI).
The research also shows that consumers who spend the longest time shopping are also the most concerned about the safety of the sites where they shop and are the most influenced by an online comfort zone. One reality that Web merchants can glean from the survey results is that trust placement really counts. Old-school thinking about placing a security statement on the order page may not work as well today.
"Many merchants think that the place for the trust mark is on the order page. Many shoppers never get that far into the Web site," observed the report. "Online merchants still need to do the basics, but lots of merchants fail to do this."
For instance, a Web site's landing page is the key to showing the trust and legitimacy that encourages the potential buyer to stay on the site and complete the purchase, concluded the report.
Some of the survey results may be a bit ahead of the curve, other experts caution. Take, for instance, the president of the Rimm-Kaufman Group, Alan Rimm-Kaufman, which also studies online buying trends. His analysis of consumers online does not show the significant slowdown in buying time or sales conversion that the 2007 study revealed.
Still, Rimm-Kaufman does not disagree with the report's conclusions about consumers' need for a secure buying environment with a strong comfort zone. However, he thinks that the study may reflect a bias caused by the report author's bigger clients included since the previous study. "We don't see significant changes in the time consumers take to make a purchase. Higher priced items can take longer to close, up to five days. So merchants do need to look at the sales curve," Rimm-Kaufman said. "Seasonality gives merchants high and fast conversions."
The online stakes for merchants have definitely risen since last year, noted Rimm-Kaufman, who concurs with the report's appraisal of increased competition driven by the rapid growth of broadband. Both competition for buyers' attention and their expectations are much greater than in previous years.
Still, Rimm-Kaufman does not see better consumer research deterring them from buying. Online shopping is very mainstream now, and consumers are much more sophisticated in searching, he said. "Site credibility is crucical, and online retail is damn hard [for online merchants]."
From his view in working with online merchants to improve their sales conversation rates, Bryan Eisenberg agrees with the research's findings about consumers taking longer to make a purchase decision online. Eisenberg is chief persuasion officer and cofounder of Future Now, and is also chairman emeritus and founder of the Web Analytics Association. Competition and time constraints are having a slowing affect on buying, he acknowledged. "I think there are two levels to what we are seeing. Our own research shows shoppers resorting to a hunt-and-peck approach due to their time constraints. And most retailers are not doing enough to meet buyers' needs, forcing them to take more time," Eisenberg said.
Web merchants need to take different angles than traditional store owners use in order to make buying on a Web site quicker and easier, he said. For instance, they should provide enough product information in one place so would-be buyers do not have to look around the Web for it.
Get The Privacy Seal, Exposing Trustworthy Web Sites Since 2002!
One of the main revelations in the new study is that consumers are taking longer to click the Buy button. This is known as sale conversion. In 2005, the average time delay between a consumer's first visit to a Web site and the time of purchase was just over 19 hours. The aggregate sales generated by potential buyers produced an average site conversion of just 2.07 percent according to the study. In the more recent survey, however, the delay between the first visit and the purchase rose to 34 hours and 19 minutes, more than a half-day longer than in 2005. Fully 57 percent of the shoppers studied took more than one hour, with 37 percent (a slight 5 percent increase over 2005) taking more than 12 hours, the study showed.
2007 research concludes that online comparison shopping is an unavoidable fact of life for online retailers. Using dial-up Internet access is ludicrously slow for viewing product images on Web sites, but as more surfers take up broadband, they're able to shop around more efficiently. "Broadband makes it easy for consumers to hopscotch to many Web sites," the study said, noting that the added competition for customers often becomes very frustrating for online merchants.
The report also found that shopping cart abandonment -- or examining products on a Web site and leaving without buying them -- is a habitual part of many consumers' shopping behavior prior to purchasing. As a result, online retailers must re-evaluate their pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, using a much longer time frame to calculate their return on investment (ROI).
The research also shows that consumers who spend the longest time shopping are also the most concerned about the safety of the sites where they shop and are the most influenced by an online comfort zone. One reality that Web merchants can glean from the survey results is that trust placement really counts. Old-school thinking about placing a security statement on the order page may not work as well today.
"Many merchants think that the place for the trust mark is on the order page. Many shoppers never get that far into the Web site," observed the report. "Online merchants still need to do the basics, but lots of merchants fail to do this."
For instance, a Web site's landing page is the key to showing the trust and legitimacy that encourages the potential buyer to stay on the site and complete the purchase, concluded the report.
Some of the survey results may be a bit ahead of the curve, other experts caution. Take, for instance, the president of the Rimm-Kaufman Group, Alan Rimm-Kaufman, which also studies online buying trends. His analysis of consumers online does not show the significant slowdown in buying time or sales conversion that the 2007 study revealed.
Still, Rimm-Kaufman does not disagree with the report's conclusions about consumers' need for a secure buying environment with a strong comfort zone. However, he thinks that the study may reflect a bias caused by the report author's bigger clients included since the previous study. "We don't see significant changes in the time consumers take to make a purchase. Higher priced items can take longer to close, up to five days. So merchants do need to look at the sales curve," Rimm-Kaufman said. "Seasonality gives merchants high and fast conversions."
The online stakes for merchants have definitely risen since last year, noted Rimm-Kaufman, who concurs with the report's appraisal of increased competition driven by the rapid growth of broadband. Both competition for buyers' attention and their expectations are much greater than in previous years.
Still, Rimm-Kaufman does not see better consumer research deterring them from buying. Online shopping is very mainstream now, and consumers are much more sophisticated in searching, he said. "Site credibility is crucical, and online retail is damn hard [for online merchants]."
From his view in working with online merchants to improve their sales conversation rates, Bryan Eisenberg agrees with the research's findings about consumers taking longer to make a purchase decision online. Eisenberg is chief persuasion officer and cofounder of Future Now, and is also chairman emeritus and founder of the Web Analytics Association. Competition and time constraints are having a slowing affect on buying, he acknowledged. "I think there are two levels to what we are seeing. Our own research shows shoppers resorting to a hunt-and-peck approach due to their time constraints. And most retailers are not doing enough to meet buyers' needs, forcing them to take more time," Eisenberg said.
Web merchants need to take different angles than traditional store owners use in order to make buying on a Web site quicker and easier, he said. For instance, they should provide enough product information in one place so would-be buyers do not have to look around the Web for it.
Get The Privacy Seal, Exposing Trustworthy Web Sites Since 2002!
