Survey of Multi-Channel Ecommerce Merchants Web Sites Shows Conversions of 1%-5%

[mandy]

What Website functions and features have multichannel merchants invested in? At this point, secure-socket connections for credit-card purchases are all but universal. Ninety-four percent of respondents (including all the largest merchants and 96% of the midsize respondents) offer secure-socket ordering. E-mail confirmation of orders is also the rule rather than the exception, with 86% of respondents doing so. Other common site features include automatic calculation of shipping and handling and sales tax (69%) and online order tracking (67%).

The use of real-time customer service, such as live chat, apparently swelled during the past year. Whereas just 9% of last year's respondents offered it, 24% of this year's do. Similarly, 48% of this year's respondents offer real-time stock availability, compared with 29% of last year's...

68% of this year's respondents didn't know their approximate conversion rate of visitors to buyers. Among those who did, 68% gave a conversion rate of 1%-5%.

full article: http://multichannelmerchant.com/webchann..._05012--6/