Why consumers use the internet
It is important to understand why the average consumer uses the internet to make a purchase. Consumers are driven by the follow factors when shopping on-line:
77% – Saving Money / lower prices
55% – Convenience / no travel
47% – More choice and variety – access to products from all over the world
18% – New and Exciting way to shop
Poor customer service, lack of product information and risk of fraud are cited as the main reasons consumers are reluctant to shop on the internet. Repeat internet business, according to the Forrester Group, is motivated by a completely different set of factors, which are as follows:
75% – Quality of content
68% – Ease of use
59% – Speed of the site
45% – Customer support and ease of contact
14% – Incentives of coupons
13% – Availability of branded products
Once again poor customer service and poor communication are cited as the main reasons the consumer looked elsewhere when making a similar subsequent purchase.
You need to use this knowledge when building your site, for example: the above information tells us that you could lose almost 60% of your returning customers simply because your site is not fast enough. So making sure your site is well optimised for speed and hosted on fast infrastructure will significantly increase your repeat sales.