Example Web Store B

The second site we analyzed was for a consumer products company that was quite experienced in selling through large brick and mortar retailers as well as through direct marketing channels such as infomercials. Their web store business was slowly growing as a supplement to these other channels, but an in depth analysis showed that they were still leaving a lot of money on the table because of usability issues.

For the same two month period, there were 1672 failures and 1355 completed sales. That equates to a 55% failure rate on 3027 total attempts. Again, we saw 69.6% of failures occur at the log-in page (the first page of the process). We adjusted our numbers as we had done before to 25%-50% of the observed total of failures. This adjustment was made more to appease the emotional objections of upper management than for empirical reasons. However, we felt that our argument was strengthened if we could still make our case using such conservative numbers.

The average sale per transaction was approximately $155 for this two month period. This means that there was an estimate of lost revenue potential of between $63,536 - $127,072 for the months of October and November (using a 25% and 50% failure rate respectively). The actual numbers could easily be significantly higher.

All things considered (e.g., seasonality), this could mean a potential loss of $750,000 to more than a million dollars (gross) for the year on just these two stores.

Clearly, this was a situation that needed to be addressed. When it was put in these terms, those in charge sat up and took notice. Almost immediately, there was a shift in strategy away from increasing traffic to the web site to increasing conversion rate and decreasing cart abandonment. In economic terms, this was the most cost effective and efficient way to increase incremental revenue.

As we can see from these two examples, it isn't hard to justify an investment in a good usability analysis. With some relatively simple changes to the site design, navigation and certain program processes, we were able to make a significant impact on each of the sites reviewed. Of course, it would have been ideal to have begun these processes proactively instead of retroactively. Many of the obstacles encountered could have been more easily addressed in the initial planning and design stages.

By looking at how usability affects the bottom line, we can easily make the case for a proactive usability strategy as part of any web project. Even if the focus of the site is not e-commerce, there are related metrics such as visitor retention, user satisfaction and ease of use that can be impacted by poor usability. As the web matures, these types of issues will continue to become more salient to those who seek a competitive advantage. The sooner your organization begins the process, the more likely it is that you will be around to celebrate your success.