Ho hum

Though online sales revenue for holiday shopping in the UK this year is predicted to top £10 billion (source: IMRG), the UK's leading names in retail risk losing substantial revenues to sliding standards of online sales channels, according to a Webcredible study, writes MarketingCharts.

50 percent of the UK's best-known high street names are offering a poorer standard of online service to customers than last year, according to Webcredible's annual benchmark study of online customer experience, The Online High Street.

Overall, 55 percent of the retailers assessed dropped within the rankings compared with their 2006 results.

With an average usability score of only 57 percent, retailers will doubtless be losing site visitors due to mistakes that could be avoided.

The most significant drops in usability came from Marks and Spencer, which plummeted from last year's score of 81 (out of 100) to just 55, and John Lewis, which dropped nine points: from 71 to 62.

Basic rules of good usability are often being ignored, leading to increasing frustration among consumers trying to find, view and pay for merchandise, according to the study. Hidden delivery costs, confusing check-out procedures and repeated error pages are contributing towards a poor customer experience online, it found.

MarketingCharts has more findings from the study.