eCommerce success, however is usually measured on the site experience. Building online relationships and generating returning business is more important than ever. With customer loyalty becoming increasingly challenging it is important to identify user experience as a significant driver of your websites success.

Which? Magazine has recently researched online retailers most favoured by consumers and our consultants have trawled through the sites to find what it is that makes these sites so popular.

Some of the best

Liz Earle – Which? rating: 98%

Liz Earle has done an excellent job of extending their online sales process in their offline model. Liz Earle make sure that their post purchase experience has customers coming back for more. Users benefit from prompt (often early) delivery, as well free samples and great packaging, all of which ensures that customers are eager to return.

John Lewis – Which? rating: 89%

Not only do John Lewis top the overall charts of website experience, but they are popular across a number of different categories.  (1st place for Furniture and Home wares, Electricals, Clothes Shoes and Accessories. Joint 1st for Cosmetics and Toiletries) John Lewis’ site is not seen as being the cheapest yet still score highly on their site usability and delivery policy. This clearly shows that you do not need to drop your prices in order to compete online, you simply need to target your site to meet your user’s expectations and technical capabilities.

Lakeland – Which? rating: 88%

Lakelands strength for its consumers is its range of stock. Consumers are always able to find what they are looking for. The diversity in stock and ease of use mean this is another site that users are willing to overlook their prices being higher than some competitors.

Some of the worst

PC World – Which? rating: 56%

PC World have not taken their user experience into account when developing their site. Customers often complain the site is not user friendly and that the process of buying is unclear, even doubting whether or not the order has been successfully completed.

B&Q – Which? rating: 55%

B&Q did not perform well in the Which? Survey, in particular receiving low scores for their pricing, product stock updates and accuracy, delivery and overall site usability.

What can we learn from this?

Altogether this research highlights the importance of considering your consumer. Whether you are a B2B or B2C company there is a person, like you, trying to use your site. One of the main motivations for people shopping online is that it is easier, therefore consumers crave simply processes and easy to use websites with relevant information for them. You may not be able to compete with retail giants such as Amazon on price, but you can definitely extend your customer service online to gain a competitive edge.