Speed and simplicity are the key to a great digital experience

When thinking about a great digital experience, 77 per cent of Brits say that accomplishing what they set out to do quickly is their top priority, emphasising the need for easy, simple, and seamless experiences online. That’s according to a new EMEA report from Digital Experience Intelligence (DXI) platform FullStory.

The EMEA State of Digital Experiences 2023 report includes data from 3,000 European consumers, including 1,000 in the UK, who identified their top priorities for a ‘great’ digital experience:

1.   Being able to quickly accomplish what I came to do (77 per cent)
2.   Personal information remains private (70 per cent)
3.   Not needing to contact Customer Support (52 per cent)
4.   Constantly improving experiences (43 per cent)
5.   Personalised content (37 per cent)
6.   Errors are addressed immediately (21 per cent)

With frictionless digital experiences as a top priority, UK consumers ranked ‘slow loading pages’ as their biggest source of frustration (73 per cent). This was followed by page loading errors (63 per cent), and dead links that don’t go anywhere (44 per cent).

Unfortunately, according to the report, these issues remain concerningly common across UK apps and sites, with many brands struggling to get the basics right. Of those surveyed, 49 per cent of Brits said they are frustrated by the digital experiences they receive across websites and apps. Faced with these issues, seven in ten will walk away from an app or site after a bad experience—more than any other region surveyed.

The quality of experiences also varies per sector. According to FullStory, UK financial services, online supermarkets, and food delivery sites are the most likely to get these basics right. By contrast, sites from the automotive sector, healthcare, and transportation typically score lowest.

Commenting on the findings, Andrew Fairbank, FullStory’s VP EMEA, said: “With so much talk about generative AI, hyper-personalisation, and augmented reality, it can be easy to lose focus on the basic elements that are so vital to a customer’s digital experience. Having a clear website or app, with a smooth and simple journey remains the most important thing for customers, so brands really need to nail those basics first and foremost.

“While there’s always a place for innovations and R&D, we first need to prioritise understanding our customers and making their day-to-day experiences as frictionless as possible. We need to know what is happening on our sites and apps, where customers are having issues, what impact that has on the bottom line, and how to fix it as quickly as possible.”

“All too often, seemingly minor issues can go months or even years without being uncovered — becoming a permanent drain on revenue. Basic analytics are no longer enough, we need to move to more advanced signals, from heatmaps to ‘rage clicks’. These are the insights that will help keep customers loyal and provide a competitive edge.”