A new survey has revealed that when faced with the option of buying online or in a store, 34% of UK shoppers would prefer to buy online.
This statistic shows that high street retail holds an important place in the minds of consumers, but 34% is still a large amount of people.
The stats were revealed after Econsultancy released the results of its ‘Habits and Motivations of Consumers’ report, which looked at eCommerce consumer behavior in both the UK and the US.
The survey also looked at which features encourage consumers to shop online. The most popular motivation was free shipping, with 82% of UK and 80% US consumers choosing this. This gives etailers offering this a clear advantage over its competitors.
Plenty of well-known retailers have cottoned on to this, with many offering some degree of free shipping, and perhaps most importantly, promoting it heavily throughout their websites.
Other factors also influenced consumers, such as price guarantees. These were an influence for 72% of UK and 64% of US shoppers, and it suggests that providing promises to match your rivals prices, and in some cases even listing them on the site, can be a useful tactic for your eCommerce websites.
Offering alternative payment methods also makes sense for online retailers. It allows etailers to capture as many customers as possible, appealing to those that may be concerned about card fraud or those that simply don’t have a credit or debit card. 60% UK and 48% of US consumers said that payment alternatives such as PayPal would encourage them to shop online.
Not surprisingly, online chat was less of an influence on purchases with just 15% of UK and 22% of US respondents saying it would make them more likely to purchase online. Online chat is not widely available, especially in the UK, but, if it helps 15% to 22% of consumers to complete their purchase, then it is a worthwhile tool for etailers.
During the survey, consumers were asked how often they encountered various problems when attempting to make purchases online. The most common problems uncovered were slow loading web pages and being unable to have questions answered, which is where online chat could be useful. These issues were frequent for 13% of respondents, and somewhat frequent for 31%. Other problems included inadequate site search functions and insufficient information.
Those taking part were also asked how much their recent online purchase cost. Almost half (46%) of those asked had spent up to £100. The largest proportion spent between £25-£100, and 37% of respondents spent between £100-£500.
If you would like to discuss any of the above or would like to see how Visualsoft could help boost sales for your website, feel free to contact a member of our team today.
