Content management system (CMS) provider Storyblok has published research which reveals UK companies are losing a considerable sum of money each year due to poor website experience despite spending a substantial amount on marketing technology.
500 business leaders at mid-sized ecommerce companies in the US and Europe were asked a range of questions about their company’s website performance and associated costs. Surprisingly, 47% of UK businesses said their website had recently embarrassed them in front of a key stakeholder or customer, however, 90% said their website met all or most of their expectations.
Nearly every business (92%) thinks their website’s poor user experience is costing them sales, with 9% estimating this sum exceeds £100,000 per year. Storyblok’s recent survey of 6,000 consumers in the US and Europe echoed these findings, with 60% of consumers stating they abandon an average of 5 purchases a year due to poor user experience on websites.
Despite these findings, spending on marketing technology and satisfaction with the results remains very high – businesses invested, on average, £336,500 over the past five years, with 25% spending more than £500,000. Only 9% of businesses think they receive a poor ROI on their marketing technology spend.
Dominik Angerer, CEO and Co-Founder of Storyblok, said: “At first, these results look completely contradictory. On one hand, businesses believe their websites are costly embarrassments, on the other hand, they are seemingly satisfied with their performance. The answer is that expectations are too low.
“Many businesses believe that marketing technology is inherently very expensive and is difficult and time-consuming to get right. This is no longer the case. A modern wave of API-first, best-of-breed technology is currently disrupting the industry, making the martech stack not only more cost-effective, but also more user-friendly for the teams working with it – developers and marketers. Business leaders no longer have to accept ‘webarrassment’ as the standard.”
Storyblok’s research also revealed that in addition to lost sales, companies are spending a significant amount of time on maintenance and fixing errors on their websites. Each week, on average, 3.5 hours are lost to these tasks.