A study shows a low portion of online sales in Australia done via apps and smartphones.
According to study by IT hosting and cloud computing company Rackspace Hosting, which was conducted by Roy Morgan Research Respondents, compared to a recent, similar survey in the UK, Australians are about half as likely to use an app or a smartphone for online purchases
“Australians don’t seem to have taken a liking to shopping on their smartphones or using apps quite yet and the vast majority use their PC or laptop for online purchases,” said Mark Randall, country manager of Rackspace Australia and New Zealand. “More than 85 per cent of respondents make their online purchases on their home or work computers.”
Another key finding of the study is that Australian shoppers are impatient, with one of the standout pet peeves of online shoppers being loading times. Of those survey, 44 per cent said they would move on if a page takes more than 15 seconds to load. After 30 seconds almost 70 per cent said they would be gone and if a website takes more than a minute to load, more than 90 per cent said they would give up.
“Some of the key sales drivers can be directly attributed back to the technology that powers the online store. Online shoppers are impatient” Randall said. “Carefully selecting a reliable and fast hosting solution and other technology service providers could mean that an online retailer greatly increases their chances of a successful sale.”
And not surprisingly, convenience, price and variety are still the main reasons as to why about 90 per cent of Australians have a love affair with online shopping.
“Our survey indicates that online shopping in Australia is going strong and most Australians have and will continue to purchase online in 2012,” Randall said. “Online shoppers’ loyalty is largely driven by convenience, variety and pricing. But, if online retailers get one thing wrong, they could quickly lose them to the competition.”
Of the respondents, 83.2 per cent listed convenience as one of the key benefits, closely followed by price (71.1 per cent), price comparison (60.8 per cent) and a wider variety of products and services (47.4 per cent).
“Shopping websites that don’t invest in website technology that allows shoppers to easily browse through products, ensures that prices remain competitive, and deliver an overall convenient shopping experience could quickly lose customers.” Randall said.