Website designs hamper companies

Report by Forrester Research highlights customer dissatisfaction is having an adverse effect on product sales.

More than 50 per cent of potential sales are lost because Websitess having an adverse effect on product sales. are so badly designed that customers cannot find the product they want.

That was the claim made by consultancy firm Forrester Research, which audited 20 corporate sites and found that only 51 per cent were compliant with simple Web usability principles such as whether the site is organised by user goals and whether a search lists retrievals in order of relevance.

In its report - Why Most Websites Fail - Forrester claimed that the cost of fixing a bad Web design, which has not been properly tested, will have an adverse impact on the company's sales and online reputation, as well as a financial one in terms of a fix. The report estimated that about 50 per cent of potential sales are lost from badly designed sites because consumers have difficulty finding the products they want.

Another 40 per cent of potential sales are lost because people do not make return visits to the site because they were so frustrated first time around.

Forrester believes that many Web users actually give up searching the internet altogether because they cannot find what they want quickly and efficiently. The research company recommended that the bad Websites should be closed down. In the majority of cases, however, it believes improvements are possible to the existing site.

The report comes at the same time as a study by Zona Research in the US, which maintains that 62 per cent of Web shoppers give up trying to buy what they want online because it takes too long or is too complicated.

Forrester predicted that internet developer companies will start building usability into their offerings, but it will still be up to the client to take an active role in monitoring whether the site is working for them.