internet shopping, a bit technical

[lemonice]

Do you ever have problems making internet purchases eg with shopping carts? I have a full e commerce web site and far more visitors than sales which I think is not that unusual. BUT a tiny number of people have contacted me because they can't make a purchase off it and this makes me think that there will be more people who just give up. Any ideas what i can do to prevent this problem. I thought maybe it was one or any of the following, pop up killers, browser which doesn't support SSL or cookies. I am completely non technical so would have to ask the web designers to make any changes if necessary, what can I do to make sure customers can buy if they want to? Sorry this is so dull!

All the things you mention are possibilities but I would have thought the web designers would have tested them! Is there a message saying to ring to make a purchase if the kart mechanism doesn't work?

I would have thought so too (re testing), but it's difficult when people say something doesn't work to analyse whether it actually doesn't work or they are doing something odd. It does say contact us for any help on the basket but I suppose if people are frustrated they don't bother (I understand that completely) I think people put things in the basket and it's the proceed to checkout which causes a problem but not when I do it.

lemonice, you need to get more information from those people that do contact you with problems purchasing. Talk to your web people and explain your concerns. They may have an error log which they can check to see if errors are being thrown during the checkout process. I'm sure they'll be able to reassure you!

I guess this would be breaking the rules on advertising, but I would be quite happy to try a pretend purchase if you put the web address on here (so long as I could stop before my credit card was debited!). I do loads of internet shopping, and I have only come across one website that wouldn't let me purchase in the end and just kept sending me in circles. I just abandoned it and bough the stuff elsewhere, but that's exactly what you don't want to be happening!

Agree with the others, I think you need to get a variety of friends with different pc's to test it out. Must admit if the price is good I still try and purchase the goods from them even if I have site problems. BUT it can get very annoying if you're just trying to work out the shipping costs and have to go through to the checkout to get that info.

You definitely need some more feedback from those who have reported in to you. Maybe they can advise who they don't have problems with (other sites) and your web team can compare them to see if they're using the same technology? Hope it gets sorted soon.

hi lemonice, spacemonkey is right - you need to get more info from people who have problems with it and also make sure that the web people have tested it on a variety of PCs and MACs across various different platforms Windows 2000/XP OS9 / OS10 etc. You should receive a written assurance from them that this has been done.

The other obvious thing to test would be different web browsers, I guess- lots of people I work with use Netscape rather than IE, and I also know quite a few who favour Opera and Mozilla.

lemonice, I was blocked yesterday from even getting a quote on Liverpool Victoria's website - the message said:

"Unfortunately your Internet settings will not allow you to view our online home or motor insurance pages.

The reason for this is normally due to you either having pop-up blocking software running on your computer, or because of your Internet browser settings. To find out how to solve these problems, please follow the instructions below:

Problem: You have pop-up blocking software on your computer.

Solution: Hold down the SHIFT key when you click on the link to our quote pages, or de-activate your pop-up blocking software.

Problem: Your Internet browser settings will not allow the application to start.

Solution: In Internet Explorer, click on Tools in the menu bar, select Internet Options, select the Security tab, then set the slider to Medium."

I've tried what they suggest and it doesn't help (Internet Explorer security slider is already at medium) - the thing is that I know I activated a popup blocker somewhere and I can't remember where. Ooops.

If it helps I'll try your site too and see what happens to me?

Thanks for the offers and for replying to an extremely boring question. I can't put the site up because I completely agree with the not advertise policy, although i am going to be advertising properly on Mumsnet soon.

Well can you give us a googleable hint???

Had to disappear yesterday. We're in the top ten ranking for kaloo.

Lemonice, I'm happy to test purchase your site. I've got Norton Internet Security 2004 which prevented me from accessing.. um... Sainsburys I think. It was a cookie problem which was cured by reducing my "cookie security" or something to medium rather than medium-high.

You can email me your website address to huffahorse at homail dot com if you like. I'm happy to pass it on to anyone else who volunteers to check it too.

Did the customers give you any indication of where in the purchase they encountered the problem?

Thanks for that SD. i think if ican find a problem and a solution then I can ask the web designers to do an alert or whatever, it's just that they seem better at doing something specific
than if I vaguely say it might not be working probably.

My dd1 came in the shop yesterday when i was on this thread
and said o, your fuelling your addiction are you and then said how boring it must be talking to people who were discussing web browsers, obviously thinks I've turned into a total nerd.

speaking as a web person myself, it's very difficult to isolate a problem when you have no detail to work with

the more info you can get from the customers who had problems, the better ...

I know what you mean SM, the trouble is receiving feedback from unsuccessful customers.

I've had some really useful feedback from SD.

I'm very grateful for any input from mns

I would happy to do a test purchase too and feedback to you lemonice. Send an email to amelia at mumsnet dot com with the URL!

lemonice - I am the developer for a big e-comm site and I have to deal with problems like this.

Like everyone else says, you need more info for the developers to be able to do anything about it - whenever someone says they have a problem, ask them what browser they are using (because some browsers behave in different ways), what Operating system, and what exactly went wrong (eg. added to basket OK but couldn't get to checkout). Pass this info on to the developers and get them to test that browser.

Other things can cause problems, but IME that is rare - the vast majority of internet users have cookies turned on, or if they don't they know it'll cause problems.

Do you want me to test the site in several browsers for you?

Finally, no, it's not unusual to have more visitors than sales. But you should have a conversion rate (percentage who buy) of between 3 and 10% - if it's below 3% then there may be a problem with either the site or the way it is marketed.

Thanks senorapostrophe, I'm grateful for any help so that I can make sure that customers aren't being blocked especially before i start promoting it more.

Sweet baby by the wayI did look on the site the other day

email me the url - lucy at future-shock.net