Small businesses face any number of challenges as they try to stand out against their larger retail competitors, but one area they simply can’t ignore is their e-Commerce presence. Nearly 60% of consumers said they would be less likely to purchase from a small business if they form a bad impression of its web site — and only 7.5% said it would have no impact at all, according to a survey from Vistaprint.
Since SMB retailers often lack the marketing and technology resources that their larger competitors have, their sites can lack polish or feature incomplete information. But many of the elements contributing to a bad impression can easily be fixed, including:
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50%: Outdated contact information;
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41.5%: No address, directions or business hours;
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34%: No product information;
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26%: Unprofessional design or color scheme;
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24%: Fonts that make it hard to read; and
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18%: A bad mobile experience.
The Small Business Consumer Expectations Report indicated that “outdated” info can vary depending on the consumer’s definition of the word. But regardless of what consumers believe, small businesses should still be motivated to update their web site as often as possible.
The largest single group of shoppers (29%) call a site out of date if it hasn’t been updated in six months. The majority of shoppers (a total of 57%) are much stricter about what constitutes an outdated site. The breakdown is as follows:
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25%: Hasn’t been updated in more than a month;
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15%: Hasn’t been updated in more than a year;
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10%: Hasn’t been updated in more than a week; and
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7%: If it’s not real-time, then it’s outdated.
“In terms of product and service offerings, you must give the general impression that you’re viable and active,” said Scott Bowen, VP and General Manager of Vistaprint Digital in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “The bar is set pretty high for these owners because they generally don’t have marketing departments like a bigger company would, that can update the site every day or every week. These companies have to do it on their own, or pay someone to do it on their behalf.”
A Great First Impression: It’s All About Content
So what’s the chief imperative for small businesses trying to make this great first impression? Content — and by a wide margin. As many as 68% of shoppers say updated and accurate web site content is by far the most important web site experience driver, according to the report.
Web site design also has a major effect on consumers browsing through smaller retailers’ e-Commerce sites. While 42% of shoppers say that they are not very likely to visit or purchase something from a small business if it has a poorly designed or unprofessional web site, 21% say they aren’t likely to buy at all.
Consumers also include other factors when judging a web site experience, but they don’t carry nearly the same weight as content. These factors include:
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28%: A professional experience;
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21%: A mobile-friendly experience; and
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12%: High-quality images and icons.
When shoppers search on small business web sites, they primarily search for product information (45%). But these retailers also must inform consumers of their operating hours (21%), contact info (19%) and directions to a physical location (5.5%).
“We know that in many cases for small business owners, what sounds obvious is not easy,” Bowen noted. “Many small business owners don’t necessarily have a web site platform that is easy to update or access, and it’s expensive to make changes. They may have even lost touch with the third party that might have originally built their site a year or two ago. It’s not always just about design aesthetic or technology needs such as mobile.”
