No Ecommerce Glitches Here; Keep Moving

One-third of online shoppers encountered "glitches" this holiday shopping season, according to a joint survey from ecommerce development firm Guidance and Chicago-based market researcher Synovate. Data gathered indicated that 64 percent of shoppers completed their purchases incident-free.

Of those who reported trouble this year, 13 percent said they had to abandon a very slow website while they were trying to shop, 8 percent said a website froze or crashed altogether, 7 percent could not complete a purchase on their first attempt, 6 percent tried to access a website that was down temporarily and 4 percent said a purchase they thought they had completed actually didn't go through. Additional finding from the study include:

• Women were more likely to say their purchases were completed without incident (44 percent, compared with 36 percent of men).
• Just 27.5 percent of those who earn less than $25,000 per year said they didn't encounter problems, compared with 46 percent of those who earn more than $75,000.
• Respondents in the Midwest were far more likely to experience problems: only 29 percent reported no problems, compared with 44 percent for those in both the Northeast and the South, and 42.5 percent of those in the West.

"While online shoppers may have escaped the ferocious winter weather, a significant number didn't elude the issues that tend to afflict overburdened, under-engineered ecommerce sites," said Jason Meugniot, Guidance CEO and owner. "Ideally, every shopping cart that is not abandoned by the shopper should be converted - and every one that doesn't sends a message to the consumer. Uptime, speed and reliability ought to be prerequisites of the online shopping experience. Still, I'm heartened by the success that many online shoppers enjoyed, especially since deep discounts, special offers and free shipping/returns made online shopping a better value than ever this season."