The average time between when an online shopper first
vists a website and when they make their first purchase has
increased by 15 hours in the past two years, according to
a
survey by ScanAlert.
ScanAlert, which issues
Hacker Safe security
certificates for websites, found that shoppers are taking an
average of 34 hours and 19 minutes from their first visit to an
e-commerce site to when they buy, up from 19 hours 11 min in 2005.
The survey analysed 2.6 million online sales by 128 million
individuals from 470 websites.
"The primary reasons for the delay are greater sourcing choices,
and the availability of broadband access at work and in the home,"
said Nigel Ravenhill, ScanAlert's director of marketing
communications.
Ravenhill said broadband allowed people to complete sales
quickly, but also made it easier to window shop. "Cautious
shoppers, those who take more than three days to buy, are becoming
even more cautious," Ravenhill said.
The 2007 research shows shopping cart abandonment is habitual
and unavoidable for retailers.
Ravenhill said that retailers must evaluate return on
investment from their
pay-per-click advertising campaigns over a longer time.
He said frequent shoppers are also most concerned about the
safety of the sites where they shop, and thus the most influenced
by merchants who build an online comfort zone.