Poor-quality websites are costing businesses billions in lost sales

A poorly built ecommerce site could be costing your business big-time in lost sales, especially in the lead up to Black Friday, a new report from Google has claimed.

The report, based on a survey of more than 10,000 consumers all over the world, as well as 200 website managers in the United States, states that search abandonment (consumers abandoning a website because they couldn’t find what they were searching for) costs in excess of $300 billion annually in the US alone. 

Of the 10,000 consumers polled, 76% reported that they abandoned the retailer after failing to find what they were looking for. Almost half (48%) found, and purchased the desired item, elsewhere. As a matter of fact, more than half (52%) would typically abandon their entire shopping cart after failing to find a single item. 

A positive experience leads to more spending

The pandemic has forced most people to shop online, and for many of them - it was a first-time experience. Google claims 75% of consumers recently “tried a new shopping behavior” as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The problem is quite pervasive, too. Almost all consumers globally (94%) said they often get irrelevant results when searching on a retailer’s website. For almost nine in ten (88%) of website managers in the U.S., search abandonment is a problem, while for 84%, it hurts brand loyalty.

On a more positive note - those that do find everything they were looking for, will usually spend a little extra. More than two-thirds (69%) of consumers said they’d buy additional items, after a successful search experience, and almost all agree (99%) they’re at least somewhat likely to shop again. 

A well-built website, with a good search engine, will boost a retailer’s revenues, Google concluded. According to the report, after using Google Cloud Retail Search, Macy’s saw a 2% increase in conversion and a 1.3% increase in revenue per visit.

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