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Research commissioned by Compuware, the software and services
company, has found that despite 50% of European retailers and
financial organisations claiming to monitor and manage the
performance of their transactional web site, just 6% of organisations
have comprehensive and specific information about the actual
end user experience for each individual logging on.
Out of the 200 IT directors surveyed, 50% said monitoring
the load on the web server to ensure that peaks in demand do
not bring the site down best described their approach to managing
and monitoring web site performance. This approach does not
enable organisations to measure and evaluate real end user
experience in real time and provide analysis alluding to the
probable cause of poor performance. 20% of organisations indicated
that measuring end user experience by using dedicated PCs in
different locations, which simulate transactions to provide
an insight into user experience, best described their approach
to managing and monitoring the performance of their transactional
web sites. However, this method is synthetic and can be deceiving
as it presents an artificial representation of the user experience.
With such insufficient methods in place, it is therefore perhaps
unsurprising that poorly performing transactional web sites
are costing a third of retailers and companies in the financial
sector across Europe approximately £500,000 / Euros 730,000
per year. An additional 21% estimated that poor web site performance
was costing them around £1.5million / Euros 2.1million,
with a further 23% estimating the cost to be in the region
of £2million / Euros 3million.
“Transactional sites have become an essential element
of any organisations business, much like shop fronts, and it
is important that they manage the experience that each user
has of the site, said Michael Allen, EMEA sales director, performance
management, Compuware.
“Whilst Retail and financial organisations may think
that they have the necessary procedures in place to safeguard
user experience, the reality is that they don’t. Retail
organisations are struggling, with many having to close flagship
stores, whilst financial institutions are fighting to differentiate
themselves in a highly competitive market. For companies operating
in both of these sectors this is not an ideal situation. They
want to be making money from their
e-commerce investment and
using it to further competitive advantage. Companies may consider
themselves to be on top of managing the end user experience
of their transactional web sites, but as the research highlights,
this belief is misplaced. The measurements that they are currently
using are ineffective and unrepresentative.”
If retail and financial organisations were effectively monitoring
the performance of their transactional web sites, it would
be reasonable to assume that they would be aware of which ISP
each customer was using and the impact that their ISP choice
has when they log onto the site. However, just 26% of companies
actually have this level of visibility and a further 61% have
no idea what type of internet connections – dial up
or broadband – customers are using. This was further
underlined by the fact that 61% of companies have no idea if,
and when, a client drops off a page or how many times they
might click the refresh button in a particular section.
Consumers have confirmed that they find the mismanagement
of web sites highly frustrating, with 72% stating that if a
web site performs badly then they are likely not to make a
transaction. A further 68% said that if web site performance
does not match their expectations they will use an alternative
web site to make the purchase. Only 43% of customers questioned
said that if they logged onto a site and it performed poorly
they would re-visit it.
“The consumer responses clearly demonstrate that there
is a big knowledge gap between what businesses think they know
and what they actually know. The internet is a free market
and the bottom line is that if your site is performing badly
there will be a company with a similar product who has a site
meeting the performance expectations of users,” continued
Allen. “If a customer complained, presently just 6% of
European retailers and financial organisations would be able
to take proactive steps to resolve individual user performance
issues. Organisations need to become more customer centric
in their approach to service delivery management. If
companies want to start making money from their transactional
web sites, instead of losing it, they need to be able to pinpoint
problems, be in a position to solve them quickly and proactively
manage their online service.”
Independent research company Vanson Bourne conducted the research
across the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands. 200 CIOs
in retail and financial companies were surveyed. In addition,
400 consumers were polled by Spark Communications. |
