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Website Design a Top Concern of Online Retailers

Not surprisingly, website design is a top priority for web retailers, 60.3% of which have redesigned their e-commerce sites in the past year, including 20.1% in the past three months and 14.3% within six months, according to Internet Retailer’s survey on website design, content and rich media.

Of those planning to overhaul the look of their websites, 74.7% expect to do so within 12 months and 28.6% within 90 days, the study found.

Other findings from the survey:

• Better product and page organization is a top design goal for 68.9% of all companies, followed by smoother navigation, 67.3%; faster and more intuitive site search, 53.9%; and more product reviews and ratings, 40.9%.
• 70.2% of respondents have websites that allow shoppers to create a personal account and view and update their information
• 52.6% offer advanced site search tools that shoppers can use to search by product type, size, color, material and price.
• 57% of retailers’ sites allow customers to track their individual orders.
• Other popular features include “email a friend” at 54.9%, advanced site search at 47.2%, alternative payments at 43%, and digital coupons or rebates at 40.4%.

• 50.8% of respondents say they will rely on use internal staff to complete the next site redesign; 13.8% say they will use their current design firm; 15.3% say they will use a combination of employees and their design company.
• Only 35.1% of merchants use rich media: Among them, 20.7% are using videos, 16.6% offer zooming in on images; 10.4%, interactive catalogs; 9.8%, dynamic imaging; and 7.8% color swatching.

• 56.3% of web retailers solicit customer feedback before a web design project or study customers’ reaction after the work is completed.
• Once the new design is in place, only 23.3% of web retailers conduct A/B or multivariate tests.

About the study: The survey was emailed in early July to all subscribers of IRNewsLink, Internet Retailer’s e-newsletter, and all responses were collected and analyzed by Vovici Corp. (formerly WebSurveyor). The survey includes detailed answers from 55 chain retailers, 44 catalog companies, 123 virtual merchants and 21 consumer brand manufacturers.