Instart Logic Retail Survey Revealed Three e-Commerce Paradoxes

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THREE E-COMMERCE PARADOXES REVEALED -INSTART
LOGIC RETAIL SURVEY
BY CORINNA KRUEGER
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As the web goes mobile, online retailers
struggle to achieve the promise of m-commerce.
Instart Logic conducted its 2014 Q1 e-Commerce
Survey recently to explore this challenge.
Responses revealed three paradoxes, highlighting
sizable gaps between what etailers know works,
and what theyre doing today.
Note Statistics quoted below are from the
Instart Logic Q1 2014 E-commerce Survey, unless
another source is shown.
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MORE, BIGGER, BETTER PICTURES INCREASE CONVERSIONS

• Bigger, higher-quality product images and more
  images of items for sale push up traffic, loyalty
  and conversions. Pictures stir emotion and
  action.
• Instart Logics Q1 E-commerce Survey found that
  etailers know this
• 84 believe that more images per product will
  increase conversions.
• 61 say that higher-resolution images (1 MB
  instead of 200KB) of products will increase
  conversions.
• Despite this strong conviction, etailers have not
  rushed to carry out image upgrades and engage
  more visually with visitors to their sites.

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1ST PARADOX BETTER PICTURES BOOST BUSINESS, BUT
ETAILERS ARE SLOW TO UPGRADE THE VISUAL EXPERIENCE
Etailers ranked improving visual content only
fourth among their website investments this year.
Just 20 expected to carry out a serious effort
to upgrade site imagery in 2014. Only 6 had gone
ultra visual and readied their sites for the
era of ultra-sharp Retina-class displays. These
are replacing traditional screens, and make 250k
photos look amateurish and uninviting. The
survey found that many online retailers have
actually gone the other direction, particularly
with their mobile websites, where 30 use
lower-resolution images to achieve faster page
loading 42 have not changed the number, size,
or resolution of the website images they use to
sell products and services.
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2ND PARADOX ETAILERS KNOW SPEED MAKES MONEY, BUT
HAVE NOT PUT THE PEDAL TO THE METAL
For years, studies have reported that consumers
penalize slow websites by bouncing away.
According to a Walmart Labs presentation, every
100-millisecond improvement in page load time
brought Walmart.com a 1 increase in
revenue. Online retailers know speed matters
55 said fast page loading is the most important
factor in boosting conversions, so youd expect
online retailers to insist on maximum performance
from their sites. Not so 98 admit they havent
squeezed all possible speed from their
websites. Many sites didnt merely fall short of
their potential performance they slowed down.
On Alexa tests of the leading 500 retail sites in
2013, the median page load took 9.3 seconds. This
unwelcome slowdown from a median time of 7.7
seconds one year earlier could be blamed on
increased page size, which is 31 larger than a
year earlier, according to the HTTP Archive.
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3RD PARADOX MOBILE USERS DEMAND SNAPPY PAGE
LOADS, BUT SPEED ON MOBILE IS NOT YET A PRIORITY
The slowdown of major retail sites has even
greater potential cost among impatient mobile
users. 82 of etailers believe their mobile
customer will wait three seconds before peeling
out 8 say their mobile customer will wait just
one second before bouncing away from the
site. 90 of Internet retailers view mobile as
an important growth channel, reinforcing studies
like Internet Retailers 2014 Mobile 500, which
shows m-commerce in the U.S. grew 63 to 34.2
billion at the end of 2013, up from 21 billion
in 2012. Mobile accounted for nearly 13 of U.S.
e-commerce sales, up from just over 9 in
2012. The recently-released U.S. e-Commerce
Forecast from Forrester Research says increased
shopping by consumers on mobile phones and
tablets will continue to propel this
growth. Instart Logic found that for most online
retail companies, mobile comprises 10 to 50 of
their traffic today. 4 said mobile already
brings over half their traffic.
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• E-tailers strive to put the right user experience
  on each devicea huge task considering all the
  devices with varied computing power and screen
  resolution. They take different approaches to
  cater to mobile users
• 27 have both a primary site and a separate
  m.site.
• 10 provide separate websites for desktop,
  smartphone and tablet users
• 34 online retailers already have a responsive
  website
• However, 61 of online retailers say their focus
  is on improving user experiences on their
  traditional website, not their mobile site,
  despite the growth of mobile purchasing.
• They are aware of the potential to boost mobile
  traffic, conversions, and revenue by accelerating
  delivery over wireless connections, and switching
  to bigger, more compelling visualswhich
  communicate better than text to in-a-rush mobile
  users. However, etailers have not rushed to take
  these steps.
• That is surprising, because now is a pivotal time
  for etailers to address their growing population
  of mobile users both actual and potential by
  evaluating new technology to accelerate page load
  times over wireless connections. Greater speed,
  in turn, makes ultra visual engagement
  practical.
• When it comes to online retailers applying new
  application delivery services that enable faster
  performance with upgraded imagery, there are
  already compelling success models. It wont be
  long before other retailers decide to grab hold
  of the opportunity its a first-mover
  advantage situation.