Survey: 42% of Consumers Ditch Online Transactions After a Glitch

Evidence emerged again this week that Web-site breakdowns are causing more broken transactions online than e-commerce managers might suspect. Indeed, the proportion of consumers who report having had a problem completing an online transaction has remained little changed over the past three years at around 90%, while the fraction that abandon transactions when they have a problem stands at a lofty 42%, according to a survey released this week by Harris Interactive and sponsored by TeaLeaf Technology Inc. “Intolerance to failures has grown dramatically,” says Geoff Galat, vice president of marketing at TeaLeaf, a San Francisco-based company whose software allows businesses to monitor customer experiences on their Web sites. Galat says breakdowns covered by the survey included problems at checkout pages as well as glitches during efforts to interact with customer service on the site. The problems lead to consumer frustration and lost business. “At the end of the day, I'm trying to buy something and they're not letting me,” Galat says in summing up consumer attitudes. Across all consumers surveyed?some 2,420 U.S. adults who interacted with a shopping, banking, travel, or insurance site–the top problems were difficulty navigating (37%), error messages (34%), and problems logging in (30%). The problem that triggers most consumers to switch to a competitor is difficulty navigating (31%) followed closely by so-called endless loops that prevent transactions from consummating (30%). Galat adds that the continuing problems are surprising, given that the Web is now far removed from its infancy. At the rate technology advances, he says, people expect better performance even over the three years TeaLeaf has been sponsoring its survey. “Sites are continuing to break at the same rate, yet they're three years more mature,” he notes. “There's a fundamental disconnect there.” Similarly, the TeaLeaf survey indicates a 2% conversion rate, down from 3% over the same period of time, despite further advances in technology. “You would think conversion rates were becoming better, not worse,” Galat says. The cost to online businesses is hard to measure. Galat estimates that, with 9 out of 10 consumers experiencing transaction problems at one time or another, about 4.5% of all online transactions are “put at risk,” though it's difficult to say how many of those transactions will be abandoned. In a similar survey report last year, TeaLeaf projected the dollars at risk could total $60 billion through 2010 (Digital Transactions News, Sept. 25, 2006). “The business impact is astounding,” he says. The risk is magnified by the ease with which consumers can switch to another site or post complaints online. “Lodging a complaint today means I can post what happened and instantly millions of people can be exposed,” says Galat. “It's a viral effect.” Harris Interactive conducted the survey from Aug. 13 to Aug. 21. Those canvassed are said to be representative of adults who are online.