54% of consumers are interrupted three times or more per digital experience
It could be an ad promoting the latest deal, a pop-up asking to them to subscribe to a newsletter or a promo code, but more than half of consumers are running into a series of digital hurdles they need to jump before they get what they want, according to research from Sauce Labs.
The provider of continuous testing and software quality solutions surveyed more than 500 U.S. consumers to produce its 2024 user experience (UX) report, titled Every Experience Counts.
While consumers may be accustomed to online interruptions when they’re trying to shop or pursue other digital experiences, Sauce Lab’s research suggested the bigger problem is something breaking down. Forty-two per cent of those surveyed said they’re running into bugs, defects and quality issues.
Examples here could include a login button doesn’t allow customers to log in, or their cart appears empty even after they’re added products to it. Even simple search boxes sometimes fail to show any results.
More than 10 per cent of those surveyed said dysfunctional digital experiences have an extreme impact on their purchase decisions. Overall, Sauce Labs found it takes three to four bad experiences for customers to churn and take their business elsewhere.
Beyond fixing their digital experiences, the report suggested brands should also be offering more guidance to consumers on how to enjoy them successfully. Only 50 per cent said companies offer clear instructions, and half said digital experiences aren’t as intuitive as they could be.
As a result, 25% of consumers sometimes wind up abandoning their goal when they encounter a challenging digital experience, the report said.
When bugs, hacks, and inconsistent experiences are this common and this expensive, they are a multi-million dollar revenue suckerpunch,” the report’s authors wrote. “When you release something into the world, even tiny defects can have massive consequences—a bug can flutter its wings and cause a hurricane. Which means yesterday’s error rates are no longer acceptable.”
360 Magazine Insight
Perhaps due to the sample size of its study, Sauce Labs has to get creative with the numbers in its report to convey the sense of urgency it wants around fixing dysfunctional digital experiences. Most of the findings here are grouped to show one big stat indicating an issue, but it’s made up of those who faced the problem “always,” “sometimes” or “rarely.”
The truth is that consumers are often quite dogged and reluctant to talk away from a digital experience once they’ve started. The best part of this research really comes through free-form responses to questions about the impact bad digital experiences have on their lives.
Consumers write about not being able to pay their medical insurance, getting sent 11 pairs of sneakers instead of just one they ordered, and being unable to get back into a social media account after more than five years. These worst-case scenarios are incredibly relatable and could be used by customer experience (CX) leaders to get the attention of their management team about improving their own dysfunctional sites and apps.
There’s lots more worth exploring in this ungated 38-page report, including how many fields consumers will tolerate in an online form, the value of offering freebies and more.
