Retailers need to be on Web, but in right way
Gary Evans, Senior Retail Editor -- Furniture Today, March 19, 2007
There are more than 234 million references to furniture on Google. Most of them are for selling.
Those enormous numbers underscore the power of the Internet as an enabling technology with both good points and bad.
But as Roy Martin, product manager for software provider Escalate Retail, explained recently, you can't afford to be without an Internet presence. It's not the be-all, end-all to a successful strategy, but it is a major tool.
Martin spoke recently about how to build a Web site and use the Internet like Wal-Mart and other big players. He pointed out that there are some things retailers need to know about using the Web if they're going to turn consumers on — and not off.
First, the market research firm Jupiter Research estimates that, by 2008, 71% of all furniture sales will be influenced by the Internet. That's a startling figure, but think about it: When you want to buy something of any importance, where do you go first? As it is now, he said, 46% of consumers go online before thinking of going into a furniture store.
But a Web site has to grab consumers before they go elsewhere. And do it quickly. Martin said the average consumer spends 38 seconds determining if a site is worth browsing, so merchants need compelling imagery up front.
And, he said, the more detail that merchants provide on an item and the better the product image, the more likely the prospective customer will make it to that next selection stage — actually going into a furniture store.
Jupiter Research also said that four seconds is the maximum time an average online shopper will wait for a Web page to load before potentially abandoning a retail site. Poor site performance was second only to high product prices and shipping costs as leading factors for dissatisfaction.
While Web sites can drive business, they also can create significant frustration for consumers and have a vastly negative impact on the site's sponsor.
Martin said that recent studies indicate that 89% of consumers have experienced issues when attempting to complete a purchase online — the shopping cart blows up, pages won't load, the registration process won't work. Thirty-three percent will try again, but only once. Twenty-seven percent will abandon the transaction and go to a competitor.
If a site works correctly and the shopping experience is pleasurable, the consumer is likely to come back. If not, she may tell her friends and create a negative image that the retailer will never know about.
Companies spend a lot of time and money to put their best Web foot forward, but can undermine their own efforts with poor site performance that diminishes goodwill, puts the brand in a bad light and drives business right into a cyber wall.
All in as little as four to 38 seconds.
