Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

In reference to retail shopping online, a recent national survey revealed that online storefronts still leave a lot of business on the table because of an inadequate shopping experience.

The study concluded this:

67% of Consumers Who Have Visited an Online Store Intending to Buy Left the Site Because the Retailer Did Not Provide Enough Product Information.

83% Would Buy More Online if Retailers Added More Interactive and Interesting Ways to Display and Purchase Products.

When participants were asked which features would encourage them to make decisions to buy, here's what they said:

"...'shortcuts', which provide express product information and pageless purchases (e.g., viewing the cart while being able to get product details and images as well as add the item to your cart), commerce-enabled pictures and videos (e.g., seeing a photo or video and being able to click anywhere on the image to purchase what you see or get more information about the products without leaving the page you’re on), and 'mix and match' (e.g., being able to view a belt, shoes and handbag next to each other on one screen to see how they look together)."

Here's the secret to what this study is saying: People want an experience as similar to offline shopping as they can get. Why do you think that social-networking is becoming such a big thing? It mirrors what happens in real life. People will always gravitate toward community.

It's the same with online retail shopping. People want to be able to walk around the product, turn it over in their hand, look at it from various angles; things they would do if they were at a retail store.

Secondly, they don't want technology getting in the way of their experience. If they click on something, they don't want to be whisked away to somewhere that they can't find their way back from. This creates internet Alzheimer's where nobody can figure out how to get back home. People hate that experience with a passion.

They want to be able to operate from a familiar page and then have things they do pop up while they remain on the page they're on.

This is an area that I would run with if I was in the online retail marketing business. Some industries (automobile) are already creating web experiences where you can turn the car 360 degrees to look at it from every side and literally open the hood to look at the engine online. Do that in whatever field you operate in and you'll see tremendous growth in online sales.