Online Shoppers Taking 34+ Hours To Buy After Finding Your Site

Shoppers Taking Longer

There is a great report on Marketing Sherpa about the amount of time it’s taking Online shoppers to buy from the moment they first click onto your eCommerce site. Anne Holland discusses the ScanAlert research report findings and what merchants can do to embrace this new trend.

Apparently, online shoppers are taking 34 hours plus to convert a sale, which is up from 19 hours in a similar report conducted in 2005.

But, the bigger news broken in this report is stunning trend data. You see, back in 2005 when the study was conducted for the first time, consumers took an average of 19 hours to covert. Over the past two years, that delay time has risen by 80%. So, more consumer comfort in shopping online equals *longer* conversion cycles. That’s something I don’t think any of us ever predicted would happen.

In my opinion, these findings make sense, however Anne’s right, I wouldn’t have predicted it 2 years ago. Shoppers are spending more time shopping around, reading reviews, hunting for bargains and using social media before actually making their purchases. I have always been that way when shopping Online. For me, it’s not typically an impulse buy when I shop over the Net. Many times I buy specialty products or items I need to have in my possession right away. I take my time and shop for better prices, faster shipping times and quality merchant stores, so it doesn’t surprise me that others tend to do the same.

In the article, Anne shares her top 4 tests that merchants should consider when attempting to reel in those longer or delayed conversions. Rather than go into great detail about her suggestions (which I think are good), I will just post a list of the 4 things and urge you to check out her remarks about each one.

Add “About Us” blurbs to every conceivable entry point
Grab emails early on — before the shopping cart
Content: give more product info than the competition does
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I will post a few of my own ideas here when I get a chance to review the actual report, so far haven’t seen it posted on ScanAlert. I will also link to that report directly from the ScanAlert site so you all can have quick access to the actual report.