More than one in two consumers abandon sales from websites as a consequence of having to download additional plug-ins to view rich media features, according to new research.
The 2010 Brandbank Retail Media Report found that despite many industry voices calling for a move towards rich media capabilities in eCommerce platforms, without careful planning these features can be detrimental to sales.
Get the basics right
The research, which polled 2,255 UK consumer with research group YouGov,
Found that rather than demanding more interactive experiences, consumer’s main priorities when shopping online are seeing multiple product images and correct, comprehensive product information.
Over two thirds (67%) of consumers say that they are put off buying a product where no product image is given and 61% are put off buying a product with limited textual information. Other top consumer gripes include poor quality product images (58%) and out-of-date product information (58%).
Having a lifestyle image to accompany a pack-shot is also important with almost one in two (48%) consumers saying that they would not buy a product without seeing images of it being used in a real-life setting.
Compared to these basic priorities, rich media features such as zoom, 360-degree image rotation, video and audio come further down the priorities list with consumers and can actually give rise to negative experiences and loss of sales.
39 percent of consumers are deterred from buying by having to wait a long time for product videos or images to load, while over half (58%) are put off by having to download additional software or plug-ins to view product images or video.
Rob Tarrant, Managing Director at Brandbank comments: “I think everyone in the industry is excited about the move towards media-rich features like 360 degree spin and at Brandbank we’re gearing up for this in a big way. However, whilst rich media is, undoubtedly, highly effective in certain situations, at this point it’s not appropriate to every retail sector. Talking to people heavily involved in the retail side of things, it’s apparent that, in terms of sales, the most effective web features are still the more basic alternative views, conceptual imagery and additional product information.”