What Stops Customers From Buying Online in Russian E-Shops

According to the research of Russian online stores conducted by MasterCard and UsabilityLab, up to 68% of online orders are never completed. Users experience various issues throughout the buying process such as: complex and confusing checkout steps, difficulties in entering credit card details, registration and the payment authorisation. Also, hidden charges and the lack of a mobile version of e-shop have a negative impact.

Product selection

The study showed that the decision to buy online is made by many users already on the stage of adding the product to the shopping cart. But apart from the confusing / unintuitive process of adding or removing the product to / from the cart, online customers see the biggest issue when they are forced to repeat the process again and again due to the interruption for the account registration or technical failures (no auto-resuming option). 

Registration

Overcomplicated and long process of account registration, mistrust over security of personal data, anxiety to loose or need to restore the login and password are also common issues that keep consumers from online buying.

Ordering

Difficult checkout process is another factor that can make up to 18% of the customers to drop the purchase. A typical user expects a kind of unified process design among all e-commerce websites. On the contrary, consumers encounter great variability in names, types of forms and sequence of checkout steps. This confusion and uncertainty of correctness of completing the order urges the users to look for additional hints on the page, which as the study revealed not a common feature of Russian e-shops.

Unexpected charges

Many consumers will exit without a purchase when the information about total product price, return policies and guarantees is unclear. Extra charges which appear on the last step of checkout will most likely force the user to exit and look for the better price somewhere else.

Payment process

The study showed that there is a negative reaction by many respondents when the payment step should be completed on the third-party website. The entire payment process must be planned in such way that the customer either stays on the website, or is invisibly redirected to the online payment service website which should reflect the brand identity of the e-shop (same design, colours, logo, etc.)

Entering credit card details

Online consumers experience several fears about entering credit card details. Some tend to think that they fill the information incorrectly. Others are not familiar with terminology and abbreviations (PAN, CVV, CVC) thus failing to successfully complete the payment. On the other hand, many online stores require users to provide too many details like the name of the bank, customer support telephone number, which in the end confuse even more.

Mobile users

The number of Russian customers using smartphones to buy online is constantly increasing. According to the recent studies, about 20% of purchases in RuNet are made via mobile devices, and this number will only grow in the future. Interviewees noted that lack of mobile website can be a barrier to buy in a particular online store. 

As a result of the research, MasterCard and UsabilityLab developed the guidelines to make the online shopping more convenient for the customers:

• Try to make the whole process easy and intuitive for your customers.
• Always keep in mind the logic of the whole payment process.
• Visualise and explain in a very detail what you expect from the clients - they must intuitively understand what information, when and how you want them to provide.
• Remember about mobile users. Make sure that all of them are comfortable on your website.

"Through the user interface improvement we are increasing the quality of life of online customers," says Dmitry Silaev, commercial director of UsabilityLab. "Proper use of the results of our joint research with MasterCard will allow online retailers and banks to develop better products and services based not on subjective experts opinions, but on the results of the comprehensive analysis of user interaction with the shopping and checkout processes“.

The post is a short translation of the press-release of MasterCard.