Guest Post: Listen to what consumers want online to combat abandoned sales

Knowing what consumers want from their online journey as well as their physical one should be a priority.

By David Pope, marketing director EMEA at Jumio

At Jumio we recently published results of a poll we carried out with Harris Research examining the level of transactional abandonment on mobile devices and what drives it, in a number of industries including travel.

We discovered that travel had a mobile shopping cart abandonment rate of 38%, the third worst offender with only online food shopping and fashion being worse. This cost the UK travel industry £2.7bn in lost revenues in 2014.

Our research asked consumers what caused them to abandon purchases and what changes in user experience could stop them giving up on their transactions before completing them. The percentages are the proportion of respondents who supported each of the statements.

In the industry, we know that mobile payments are secure. Encryption and multi-factor authentication all combine to make mobile commerce a safe and secure method to carry out financial transactions.

Of course there are instances when fraud happens, when this occurs both consumer and business suffer. And the industry continues to innovate and develop systems that are even more secure and easy to use.

Yet being secure is not enough for consumers. The process has to feel secure too and this is something where travel companies have a critical role to play.

Sometimes payment pages 3DSecure pages have a different look and feel to other sections of a website or app. This could be down to the payment service provider or, simply, poor design. But with growing awareness of payment security, consumers know to be on the lookout for discrepancies in payment pages.

Making the whole payment process seamless and familiar will go a long way to dealing with security concerns.

2. App/Website that is easier to navigate/easier to use on mobile device – 26%

The temptation for companies to have all singing, all dancing mobile websites and apps that show off the carefully crafted corporate image in the way they want it to be seen is one we all share.

But when this actually impacts on user experience it is doing more harm than good.

The IMRG/Capgemini Quarterly Benchmark shows that mobile makes up 40% of all online sales. This figure is rising and clearly shows that mobile is on track to be the dominant commerce platform for UK consumers.

So there has to be a mobile first attitude towards designing websites and apps. Cut out what’s not necessary; complicated navigation, fancy graphics and videos are only slowing down user experience.

The longer it takes to complete that purchase, the greater the risk of abandonment. If your websites and apps are not optimised towards making browsing and purchasing simple and seamless, you are turning customers away.

3. Not having to register to complete a transaction – 22%

When customers register, businesses get a wealth of information that can be critical to CRM campaigns. You can offer them targeted deals, you can update them on the latest products and offers and you have first class intelligence about your core customer base.

Yet if the cost of getting this data is losing sales then it is a price too high.

Unless registration is compulsory to comply with legislation, it shouldn’t be compulsory. That’s not to say that you can’t incentivise customers to register. But don’t make it a barrier to sales.

4. Less personal data entry or payment information fields to complete – 21%

Booking travel is a complex business. Airlines and travel companies have to know a lot about the customers booking with them, and passengers travelling from the UK have to comply with Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) regulations. This means entering a large amount of personal information.

One way to ease the pain of data entry is to offer ID document scanning, whereby customers scan their payment card and their passport or driving licence using their device camera and the customer’s payment data and personal details are automatically filled into the booking form.

This computer vision technology not only solves the payment friction challenge, it also makes providing APIS data quicker and easier for the passenger.

Conclusion

Research we’ve carried out at Jumio shows a clear correlation between the length of time it takes to carry out a transaction and the likelihood of abandonment. So getting it right has to be a priority.

Yet none of these customer demands are insurmountable. With the right technology and crucially, the right attitude, they can all be successfully addressed.

These is after all, a £2.7bn reward waiting for the companies who get it right.