An Allurent survey after the record-breaking online holiday shopping found that retailers are risking significant damage to their brands by failing to deliver a positive customer experience online. Some 82 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to return to a site where they had a frustrating shopping experience. More than half - 55 percent - said a frustrating shopping experience online has a negative impact on their overall opinion of that retailer. Nearly a third said a frustrating experience when shopping online would make them less likely to buy at that retailer's bricks-and-mortar store.

The "2005 Holiday Shopping: Online Customer Experience Survey" pointed to poor site navigation, problems with checkout, inadequate browsing capabilities, and not enough product details to close the sale as significant issues, in addition of oft-cited concerns such as high shipping costs, inventory problems and pricing.

More than half of the respondents (51 percent) said they abandoned a shopping cart even though they had intended to buy products on the site.

Some 54 percent of respondents prefer to shop in a physical store because they can understand a product better there, and 76 percent said they were more likely to buy products on a site that helps them do so by offering features such as product zoom, 360 degree product views, and online videos of products in context.

Though 81 percent said shopping online during the holiday season was convenient, relatively fewer - 57 percent - said it was trouble free and only 29 percent described it as fun; 66 percent said they would be more likely to buy products online if doing so was more like a positive offline shopping experience.