SciVisum's Regional eCommerce study, which surveyed 1,000 people aged 18 to 60, revealed that three-quarters of the UK population shop online and spend an average of £89 per month. But, these shoppers are becoming increasingly frustrated with e-commerce sites that perform poorly.
The study showed 78 per cent of e-shoppers have turned off a computer out of frustration with site performance, and less than half of respondents wouldn't give a site more than two chances before trying out the competition or heading to the high street.
While 57 per cent cited speed as the main reason for buying online, they were increasingly irritated by the technical performance of e-commerce sites, and 47 per cent said those that crashed halfway through a transaction were a major cause of web rage.
While 54 per cent were frustrated by the inability to ask questions over the phone, others cited usability issues such as complicated registration (47 per cent), inability to find information (46 per cent) and inability to amend orders (45 per cent).
The study also found online shoppers in North-East England and Scotland were the least tolerant of poor performance, with almost a quarter declaring they would never return to their favourite site if performance was bad, versus an average of six per cent elsewhere. Shoppers in the South East were more tolerant as 59 per cent would forgive their favourite site's poor performance more than five times, compared with an average of 34 per cent nationwide.
According to SciVisum, while the study confirms the growth of e-commerce in the mass market, it serves as a warning to e-tailers to improve the online shopping experience or risk losing business.
Deri Jones, chief executive officer at SciVisum, says: "Web rage is a burgeoning online phenomenon. The message to e-tailers is very clear: online shoppers are showing zero tolerance to poor performance and e-tailers must follow this lead if they're to avoid losing customers to competitors or the high street."
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