Daniel Thomas reports on how a wide-ranging review of e-commerce
sites found that users were suffering from "Net-blur" because of
too much content and too many bells and whistles
Last week Abbey National said it has seen a marked improvement in
user numbers on its Web site, since it scrapped a large amount of
third-party content and focused on usability rather than "bells and
whistles" technology.
The bank said its Web site, which was relaunched two weeks ago, has
already achieved a 12% increase in the number of daily visitors to
the site, a 19% increase in repeat visitors and a 10% rise in
online applications.
Abbey expects a return on its £1m investment within 18
months.
These improvements have not come about by accident. Before
relaunching www.abbeynational.co.uk, Abbey commissioned research
firm Taylor Nelson Sofres and consultancy Cap Gemini Ernst &
Young to carry out a wide ranging, seven-month e-commerce
audit.
Taylor Nelson Sofres found that many consumers were rejecting whole
categories of Web sites because of poor service or bad design - a
phenomenon it dubbed "Net-blur".
It may sound like yet more IT jargon, but Net-blur is an important
issue, according to Ben Lovejoy, research director of the
interactive division at Taylor Nelson Sofres.
"We believe Net-blur - where those new to e-banking or e-shopping
view everything as the Internet rather than as individual retailers
or companies - is a real threat to online retailers," he said.
"It is in the interests of all to ensure that Web sites are not
based on what Web designers think looks impressive, but rather give
consumers what they want in the form they want it."
One of the key recommendations arising from the research was that
companies operating online should comply with the so-called
"20-second rule", Lovejoy said. Respondents reported that they only
give a home page between 10 and 30 seconds to catch their interest
before moving to another site, he explained.
Successful Web sites must allow the user to view a home page
showing obvious keywords relevant to users' needs, Lovejoy said.
Clear methods of navigation are also crucial - otherwise the site
risks being abandoned, he warned.
DareStep, the Web design division of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young,
based Abbey's new site on the research findings. Content was
reduced from 4,500 to 1,200 pages and more options were added to
the home page. In addition, the design was simplified to ensure
Abbey passed the 20-second test.
Ambrose McGinn, director of retail e-commerce at Abbey National,
said the page reduction was achieved by cutting out the majority of
third-party content, such as promoting PCs and removal services,
from the site.
The bank was originally interested in becoming a wide ranging
financial portal, but this idea was scrapped following customer
feedback, McGinn said.
"Our customers are getting more demanding - they want to do their
banking quickly and efficiently," he said. "They are not interested
in being weighed down with third-party content - we are now very
much focused on our own products and services."
Simplifying your customer-facing Web site makes sense, particularly
as consumers have become more Web savvy, according to Michael
Evason, an e-commerce analyst at research group Datamonitor.
"The concept of browsing is largely defunct and the idea of
bundling lots of products in one place in case a customer might
like to buy is not viable any more," he said. "They generally have
an idea about what they want - particularly with financial services
and products."
McGinn said one of the problems of the old Abbey site was that it
was focused on design rather than the customer. "It was driven by
the techies," he said. "So this time we had the consumer in mind
all the way through and got rid of the techies until the
implementation stage."
Evason said the design of a site is important, but it needs to form
part of the overall online strategy. "The redesign in itself is not
enough - it needs to be married in with the company's aims and
metrics and, most importantly, the performance needs to be
continually monitored."
It is also important for companies to be realistic about what a
redesign can achieve and not to see a relaunch as an admission of
failure, Evason added.
"A lot of corporates will look at four or five Web site relaunches
and consider the operation a failure," he said. "But they need to
look at e-commerce like the rest of the business - as something to
be continually updated.
"They have to have specific tactical goals in mind," Evason added.
"For example, a different target for each update, whether it be
branding, gaining new customers or customer retention."
McGinn is confident that other online retailers will follow the
example Abbey has set.
"After a tumultuous start, the Internet is entering a new phase of
its development," he said. "As new research into consumer usability
becomes more robust, we will see Internet sites becoming more
geared to what the user wants and less about bells-and-whistles
technology."
Abbey puts IT into customer service
Abbey National has
invested heavily in IT over the past year.
- The bank saved £400,000 in direct marketing costs after
improving the data quality of its customer information system. It
measured the savings when evaluating a data integrity project
implemented during 2001. Abbey National used Innovative Systems'
Data Linking Solution to measure and reduce duplication in its
customer database
- Internet banking arm Cahoot launched a groundbreaking Web card
to offer secure online transactions for debit card customers as
well as credit card holders. The Cahoot Webcard generates a unique
disposable number for each transaction to minimise the risk of card
fraud
- Abbey based its IT infrastructure on the its IBM Websphere
platform to support interactive TV and mobile offerings. It worked
with digital TV providers to drive up awareness of interactive TV
and is actively looking at SMS and third-generation mobile
projects
- It installed a portal that delivers personalised information to
thousands of staff in an effort to fast-track systems for monthly
reporting. The system, called Info-portal, pushes monthly sales
results to staff across the bank's branches. Employees do not
require any formal training in the system as it integrates with the
Abbey's existing reporting setup
- The bank halved its response time to customer e-mails from its
banking site by installing e-mail routing software. It used
Brightware's Contact Center product to intercept customers' e-mail
queries from its retail banking site and re-route them to the
relevant customer adviser.