Survey reveals increase in online transactions

Research commissioned by Tealeaf has revealed that 53 per cent of British online adults say they are now conducting more transactions online than they did in the past due to the economic climate.

According to the 2009 Survey of Online Consumer Behaviour, conducted by Harris Interactive, the ability to compare products and prices was cited by 74 per cent of these as the main reason behind this shift.

However, the survey found that businesses are failing to fully capitalise on this, with 77 per cent of online adults that have conducted an online transaction in the past year saying they have experienced problems when doing so.

In addition, 46 per cent of these advised they would abandon the transaction as a result, with 40 per cent saying they would switch to an online or offline competitor.

Consumers, empowered by social media, are increasingly likely to share experiences and opinions about companies, rather than with them.

The survey results show that online adults are increasingly turning to social media to broadcast their online experiences to others, rather than directly with companies.

The survey revealed that 13 per cent of online adults who encountered problems conducting online transactions said they shared those experiences on a blog or social networking site - nearly twice as many as in 2008 (eight per cent).

However, direct communication with a company declined, with 25 per cent of online adults who experience problems conducting online transactions then posting a complaint on a company website (down from 29 per cent in 2008) and 35 per cent of all British online adults contacting a company's call centre after encountering problems using the website in 2009 (down from 42 per cent in 2008).

This shift in consumer behaviour extends the business impact of customer experience issues beyond any single transaction to an overall long-lasting negative impact on brand reputation, with 74 per cent of online adults saying negative comments they read online influence their likelihood to do business with a company.

Further, the survey reveals that social networking sites can be highly influential, with 51 per cent of online adults saying social media content had directly influenced how they conduct online transactions and 75 per cent of those saying it had affected their choice of vendor.

Interestingly, the survey also found that online adults whose transactions have been influenced by social media content actually respond to positive reviews (35 per cent) more so than negative ones (26 per cent), so good online transaction experiences are amplified online just as much, if not more, than bad.

The percentage of consumers who have experienced problems (77 per cent) when conducting online transactions has improved compared with the last two years (89 per cent in 2008 and 86 per cent in 2007), with many companies realising the benefits of becoming more 'customer-centric' and investing in usability or customer experience management solutions.

But customer service teams are still unable to efficiently deal with website enquiries: 51 per cent of British adults who contacted a call centre after encountering a website problem were unable to have their issue resolved, and 77 per cent reported that the agent was not knowledgeable about the website or about their particular online problem.

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