Online marketplaces are facing a problem in the name of customer disloyalty. The average buyer has only the patience of the proverbial gold fish’s memory – three seconds. A study by Dyn, an internet performance monitoring company has come up with some interesting results. While the number of people shopping online is going up steeply, buyer retention is a distant dream for ecommerce players.
What makes a customer lose patience in a mere three seconds? Apparently; the slower the site, the lesser the buyer’s patience. Most buyers are disappointed when a site takes too long to load, or if the site or the app crashes, and would rather look for a different option than stick around till the site recovers. Flipkart would have learnt this the hard way when there were issues in the Big Billion Day (when the website crashed in 2014, and the app had problems in 2015).
Experts suggest that online marketplaces deal with technical problems and be prepared for them beforehand. This is a much better option than struggling with the problem once it has occurred, particularly during peak traffic and risk losing buyers.
Martin Ryan, VP and MD of Dyn, feels that marketplaces could choose to use their technical resources on a need basis, instead of having a standard bandwidth throughout. This way, during an idle period, the company’s investments on technology need not be frittered away.
A marketplace should also try to create a uniform experience across its different branches, like websites and apps. This helps the buyer get comfortable, thereby prompting return buys.
It is also important that the marketplace ensures a secure and hassle free shopping and paying experience. With online frauds on the rise, it will help retain a customer if the marketplace ensures a smooth shopping and online payment procedure.
Likewise, if the marketplace gives the customer a personalised shopping experience, the possibility of the customer returning is high.
It is also the onus of the marketplace to monitor its sellers on a regular basis. Ryan suggests the use of performance tools to handle this.
With a little help from the pros, it will be smooth sailing for online sellers to handle their woes.
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
Leave a Comment
