Most (85%) consumers shop online or via a mobile app, with 59% using these digital channels as their primary holiday shopping channel, according to the Black Friday Consumer Report from Perforce Software.
As brands head into a highly profitable time of year, starting with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it's imperative development teams prepare for peak traffic, optimal channel performance, and seamless user experiences to retain and attract shoppers.
"The last few years have accelerated brand digital transformation efforts and expectations — and now, the cost of failure is much higher when delivering web and mobile experiences," said Eran Kinsbruner, Chief Evangelist at Perforce. "Brands no longer have excuses to be unprepared for high traffic seasons like holiday shopping. It's up to DevOps teams to evolve their testing strategies and lay a stronger foundation for web and mobile success; carefully planning and appropriately allocating the people, processes, and technology (in that order) to collaborate and become more agile."
Consumers Are Not Afraid to Take Business Elsewhere
Consumers' expectations for user experience are incredible high, and brands must understand what shoppers want to deliver better experiences and gain their wallet share.
The report shows 78% of consumers have thought about taking their business elsewhere if a shopping app crashes on them or is slow to load when navigating; and only 6% will stay loyal to a brand after a crash occurs.
Further, 31% believe these channels should never crash, 15% expect crashes to be fixed within seconds, and 28% expect fixes within minutes to keep them shopping on the same app or site.
68% of consumers have even wanted to throw their phone against the wall when a shopping app crashes
The survey also found that 68% of consumers have even wanted to throw their phone against the wall when a shopping app crashes.
With holiday season traffic reaching peak numbers, it's critical to test load capacity and improve the backend to endure high visitor traffic.
"Our survey reinforced what we already knew — when shopping digitally, we're finding people have less patience for bad experiences," said Stephen Feloney, VP of Products, Application Quality at Perforce. "Brands must do a better job of adopting continuous testing strategies to capture performance and functional issues early, as well as to fix security, accessibility, and user experience bugs before they reach the consumer."
Methodology: Perforce surveyed 1,000 people 18+ in the US with Dynata, a Data and Survey Insights Platform.
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