The 10 sins of ecommerce: backed by data

The 10 website woes that drive customers away

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Anna McKibben
11/17/2022

Websites are faced with potentially troublesome traffic around the holidays, if their sites aren’t structured to receive this influx of customers their businesses will struggle to make money in the most profitable time of year.

But this is not the customer’s greatest bugbear when it comes to browsing, researching and shopping for products online.

To answer that question, Bespoke Software Company asked 2,267 UK residents why they didn’t buy from a website. Bespoke’s Jignesh Vaducha says: “Customers will judge your website almost instantaneously due to several different factors, so knowing when your website needs to be updated will only help your business become more successful.”

The respondents were aged 18-70 years old, and they highlighted an array of issues that could limit the success of an ecommerce site.

One-star reviews

It comes as little surprise that bad reviews are a major customer turn off and as many as 75 percent of those surveyed by Bespoke ranked poor reviews from past customers as a significant problem for prospective and new customers.

It isn’t the first survey to confirm this. A 2012 report by Frontiers in Psychology assessed the effects of online consumer reviews on purchasing decisions, by tracking their eye movements. It found that 93 percent of customers refer to comments and online reviews to inform and influence their purchasing decisions.

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Grammar, spelling and punctuation

A turn off beyond the world of e-commerce, when applied to online shopping, poor grammar, spelling and punctuation can create the illusion of fraud and make the customer feel a site, or the goods for sale on it, may be fake.

Many of the responses to the Bespoke survey took this a step further and noted how a site is limited by “unprofessional elements”, specifically poor quality photos, grammar mistakes, and a lack of videos of product.

An easy way to improve the layout of your website, which 36 percent of Bespoke respondents listed as a concern, is to consider boxes with accurate pictures when selling specific products and using a single column when conveying information.

Instead, card-based layouts are the way to go, as advised by UX and CRO specialist Paul Boag.

Time poor customers

With this in mind, it comes as little surprise that 33 percent of those questioned by Bespoke would resist buying from a website because it is too time consuming or frustrating, while others said they would not purchase if they felt “overwhelmed”.

Vaducha advises: “Examine your own website. Does it accurately represent you as a brand and provide the first impression you seek?”

Clarity, safety and ease are all interlinked and necessary to building a successful brand that can profit from online sales.

Irritating pop ups

The survey found 68 percent feel too many pop-ups are a good enough reason not to buy from a website. This is confirmed by the share of people that are off put from buying when they feel overwhelmed.

Further research by Hubspot and Adblocker reveals that 73 percent are the worst form of online marketing while 54 percent of respondents agree that pop-ups cause the worst irritation to customers. Forbes suggests that it is better for businesses to employ “nonintrusive alternatives” like a stationary banner or sidebar ads.

The illusion of trust

The most prominent reason people are resistant to purchasing from a site is the suggestion that it is untrustworthy – that a customers’ information could be seized and taken advantage of. As many as 80 percent of those surveyed listed this as their most prominent issue.

While it ties into the grammar and presentation elements, 87 percent felt that a specific “threat of fraud” was enough to stop their purchase in its tracks. As Jessica Rose, the CEO of Copper H2O, points out: “It is more important than ever to make sure your online systems are secure.”

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