To capture the dollars consumers do have to spend in a slower economy, improving the online checkout experience is a top priority for many e-retailers this year. 79% of the retailers surveyed in the second of two installments of the “State of Online Retailing 2009” report from Forrester Research and the National Retail Federation’s Shop.org. say they plan to enhance checkout processes, topping retailers’ list of planned improvements for the rest of the year, according to the survey released today.
90% of medium-sized retailers, defined as those with annual sales of $10 million to $100 million, identified checkout as their top priority, as did 83% of web-based retailers. The 117 retailers surveyed for this installment, which focused on merchandising strategy, also said they planned to emphasize image enhancement on product detail pages as well as site search, to help shoppers find what they want faster.
“In today’s economy, retailers need to be one step ahead, especially when it comes to attracting shoppers who have money to spend,” says Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. “Companies are investing in their web site to set them apart from their competition and make the shopping experience informative, efficient and fun.”
To improve the checkout process, most retailers said they’d increase transparency around shipping charges–for example, showing when a package left the warehouse–to reduce cart abandonment. 88% said they plan to provide more information on shipping on their sites this year. 67% said they’d place more emphasis on exposing the cost of an order, including shipping charges, prior to checkout.
Improving the information available to shoppers on product detail pages also was top of mind among e-retailers, with 50% saying that they’ll add alternative images of products and 31% saying they plan to add zoom, color or fabric swatches this year. 60% already use customer ratings and reviews on product detail pages, and 55% plan to increase their site’s emphasis on ratings and reviews this year. 34% said they’ll incorporate automated recommendation tools from third parties.
Many of the retailers surveyed also plan to tune up site search this year, with 73% planning to add functionality that will allow shoppers to choose multiple attributes when searching. 41% said they are considering using a different search engine on their sites.
Back...
