Transaction Problems Cost Online Retailers $44 Billion
According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive for Tealeaf, an online customer experience management software provider, online retailers may have lost an enormous amount of money due to transaction problems on their websites.
The 2010 survey of Online Transactions found that retailers who operate online channels may have thrown away more than $44 billion during the past year because of transaction issues on their sites.
To put this into perspective, Tealeaf created a colorful visual to show that the $44,671,112,437 lost by online retailers is equivalent to:
- 56 nights at Grand Wailea per San Franciscan
- 4-year tuition at Harvard University for every citizen of Iceland
- 11 iPads per New York City resident
- 33 pairs of Christian Louboutin pumps per Gilt Groupe customer
The study found that 66 percent would contact customer service (53 percent would call, 36 percent would e-mail or log a Web complaint) and 32 percent would abandon the transaction entirely (27 percent would turn to a competitor).
About two in three adults (66 percent) have conducted an online shopping transaction in the past year, with each averaging 24 shopping transactions per year. This means more than 120 million online shoppers have spent an average of $1,200 each, equivalent to a median of $144 billion spent by online shoppers per year.
Meanwhile, 56 percent saying they have conducted a financial transaction, such as managing their personal bank accounts, paying bills and investing in the stock market.
Forty-nine percent of adults have conducted travel transactions online, while 17 percent have conducted insurance transactions.
Tealeaf also notes that the damage isn’t limited to the $44 billion lost to transaction troubles. The emergence of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn has “created an echo chamber effect that allows consumers to quickly proliferate damaging customer experiences to the masses, harming a company’s brand and revenue potential.”
Rebecca Ward, CEO of Tealeaf, adds that “Proactively identifying website issues presents an opportunity for businesses to recover some of that $44 billion in potentially lost revenue, especially as we head into the upcoming holiday shopping season.”
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