56% expect to spend most of Christmas budget online, but 48% abandon basket following e-commerce frustrations
Complicated check-out procedures and slow-loading webpages are the biggest online frustrations, research from Rackspace has found, as 56 per cent of UK consumers plan to spend half of their Christmas budget online.
Coming ahead of Cyber Monday, 2 December, the research found that consumers expect to spend an average of £375 this Christmas, with 21 per cent of those surveyed planning to do their Christmas shopping online using a tablet.
Nearly two thirds (63 per cent) said they were disappointed with an element of their online shopping last year, which led to 48 per cent abandoning their purchase, and 34 per cent trying a different website.
“It’s clear from our findings that UK consumers are increasingly going online to shop and with the competition high for that £10bn, online retailers can’t afford to lose custom due to frustrations caused by slow websites or check-outs,” says Jeff Cotten, managing director, international at Rackspace.
“People will be relying on being connected over the holiday period and businesses need to ensure their websites have the support structures in place to cope with the surges of traffic and festive demand.”
The main reason for shopping online for 56 per cent of the 2,000 surveyed was convenience, followed the fact that one third (32 per cent) feel that it is cheaper.