Poor online shopping experiences increase consumer stress by up to 50%
Results from a neurological study of consumers’ reactions to a poor online experience have found many suffer from web stress when trying to make an online purchase.
Brain wave analysis from the experiment revealed that participants had to concentrate up to 50% more when using badly performing websites, while facial muscle and behavioural analysis of the subjects also revealed greater agitation and stress in these periods.
The study, conducted by Foviance on behalf of CA, was designed to explore web stress in relation to application performance, and its impact on consumer behaviour and buying habits.
“Consumers have high expectations of web applications and web sites — to be always available and instantly responsive,” says Catriona Campbell, founder of Foviance. “This experiment simulated the experience of underperforming web applications for our volunteers. The results show that when online expectations aren’t met, people quickly become agitated, confused and have to concentrate 50% more than normal.”
Readers can download the full report and watch a video of how the study was conducted on CA’s website.
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Web analytic tools can deliver real value in improving customer experience, providing much insight into the usability of a website as well as a better view of a customer’s online behaviour. These tools can identify where along the purchasing process consumers are experiencing “web stress” and therefore refine these particular pages accordingly.
To ensure their share of the anticipated €323bn that the online shopping industry is predicted to be worth by 2011, retailers need to not only remove the chance of “web stress” through better website design but also go one step further and anticipate the needs of a potential customer through better segmentation and targeting.