Online shopping has come a long way and is now part of everyday life for almost everyone in the UK today. In fact, 87% of UK consumers made at least one online purchase in the last 12 months.

Nothing is worse than an online system that doesn’t work. When your online shopping experience ends up in countless phone calls to the retailer and your bank, or visits to the post office…you sometimes wonder why you didn’t just get out of your pajamas and go into the store in the first place.

Recently, our Sales Director Steff had a frustrating online experience:

“I needed a new mattress and naturally wanted to do it the easy way, so of course I fired up my laptop, browsed online, and - after realising I needed a degree in the art of sleeping to pick a mattress with the right firmness and material - I finally chose one and clicked ‘Add to Basket’. I filled in my details, paid, and got back to work, safe in the knowledge that Six Ticks would soon be providing our web development and techie services with another well-rested mind, thanks to my brand new mattress! The automated email pinged into my inbox. Ah, the magic of the internet and online shopping!

"So I took a look to confirm the delivery date and details:

• New Mattress - check
• Costs inc VAT - check
• Address correct - check

Delivery date - 30th December 2030-  check

…Wait, what?! 

2030?! Here at Six Ticks we are a pretty patient bunch, but 11 years for a mattress?

"When Systems Go Wrong I sometimes wonder how much of my life has been wasted fighting the internet, repeatedly filling in forms that are broken, following up on orders that have gone wrong. So much unnecessary time lost because a website is poorly designed or isn’t working properly. For our team of expert web designers, this is the most frustrating thing in the world to encounter! In this case, instead of just clicking ‘order’ and sitting back waiting for my mattress, I now had to call the company (and actually speak to a real person...grrr!), fight my way through several departments and security questions (No, I don't remember the name of my mum's childhood best friend's pet hamster!), and all because their system had an error.

"So, what was their excuse? I was told:

“Oh, the system adds that date when we don’t have an item in stock.”

Seriously? What? Why?!

Why did the developers think that would be a good idea? Why would they lure me into buying a mattress that they don’t have available? Again, I repeat – Arrrgh! My whole order had been a complete waste of time. From the epic decision of choosing the mattress, entering all my details, and then chasing the company to find out why it wasn’t expected for 11 years.

It was everything that is wrong with poor online practices. Needless to say, I will never use that company again. And, I’m not alone in holding a grudge. Savvy online shoppers remember bad online experiences and do not tolerate sloppy systems." 

Checking Out

It is estimated that 4 trillion online shopping baskets were abandoned in 2017. 4 TRILLION!

So why do people shop but then drop their basket? Here are the top 5 reasons:

1. Extra hidden costs
2. Forced account creation
3. Long complicated checkout procedures
4. Lack of transparency
5. Website errors
6. Slow loading pages

Nowadays customers expect everything to be simple online. If your website or online process is complicated, confusing, or customers doubt your security, it’s likely you’ll lose them. Businesses simply can’t afford to be losing these customers due to these basic development errors that can be easily prevented if your systems are up to scratch.

Six Ticks Custom Websites and CRM

So the good news is. Six Ticks can help! We provide professional, secure, customised websites and CRM systems. We develop websites which tick all the boxes for your business and which will help you to engage customers and make things simple for them.

Had an online shopping nightmare? We’d love to hear from you! Tell us about any interesting online shopping experiences you’ve had and we’ll share your story here.