Close to three-quarters of online shoppers (73%) will ditch an ecommerce site within one or two minutes of not finding the products they are looking for according to a survey sponsored by SLI Systems and conducted by Zoomerang.
Thirty-six percent said they would not return to that site and fifty-six percent said they would only go back to the site if it carried unique items that could not be found anywhere else. Almost all of the survey respondents (96%) said that a Web site’s search function is important to the online shopping experience.
“Consumers have become more adept at shopping on the Web and as such, they now expect a seamless e-commerce experience from the sites they visit,” said Dr. Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems.
“Retail sites must present shoppers with what they’re looking for in a matter of seconds or risk losing a sale, and even worse, losing a customer for good. Adopting a solid site search strategy that provides relevant results and browsing options to visitors and includes many ways for site owners to merchandise products, can lead to prosperity during the holidays and year round.”
Using search engine optimization (SEO) is important for online retailers to generate traffic. The majority of online shoppers (87%) find retail sites through a major search engine, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN or AOL. Eighty-six percent of online shoppers are likely to visit Web sites they have not heard of before because the sites rank high on the major search engines.
“Throughout the year, and particularly during the holiday season when our traffic increases tremendously, we’re dedicated to helping our online customers easily find the products they came to us for,” said Alan Boyer, senior marketing manager for DeepDiscount.com, an SLI Systems customer.
“While SEO helps bring people to our site, site search plays a critical role in making sure they don’t leave empty-handed.”
