Previous estimates have put abandonment rates at over 90 per cent, but were rarely backed up with hard evidence. Ask any online retailer, and they usually claim to complete more than nine in 10 transactions. But they won't look you in the eye at the same time. According to Forrester, the reason customers are going off their trolleys is not the old one about performance problems and long waits for response from the server, but the length and complexity of online forms. The truth is that poorly designed forms and poor performance are close relatives.
Many forms require a number of server hops long before the user hits the submit button.
That way, the user gets faster response times and the retailer is spared needless hits on the web server. The reverse is true. Intelligent people manage to process more information than less intelligent ones, but they also manage to think more quickly. So Ms Hewitt's parliamentary cronies have been asking their fellow MPs to submit friendly questions to the e-minister during Trade and Industry question time. If this was cricket, it would involve underarm bowling and a soft ball, but of course this isn't cricket, as disgusted MPs, many of them from Ms Hewitt's side of the house, have been quick to point out.