As ECommerce Guide begins it series this week on e-commerce Web site design tips, a new survey reveals Web design played a key role in 2005 online holiday spending. The report was recently issued by Questus, an interactive marketing and research firm. Aside from pricing and shipping costs, the report found that over a third of shoppers cited navigation, the checkout process, and product descriptions as critical site aspects that impacted their completion of online purchases.

Appearance also affected e-shoppers, the report says, with most (68 percent) citing distrust of sites that didn't appear professional. The report found that a quarter of shoppers left a site if they found it difficult to locate products, and a fifth left because the site didn't seem trustworthy or secure. Additionally, the report found that online shoppers preferred fewer links than more links on each Web page.

Required site registration was also a major barrier for shoppers, says Questus. The report found that nearly a third of online holiday shoppers left a site without making a purchase because they didn't want to register with the site.

Overall online spending was strong during the 2005 holiday season, with 77 percent of Internet users making online purchases and almost 40 percent making half or more of their 2005 holiday purchases online. The report found that online holiday shopping is poised for even more growth in 2006, with 40 percent of online shoppers planning to spend even more online during the 2006 holiday season.

The report was based on an Internet survey using Questus' proprietary panel, Big Look. The 425 respondents were all employed U.S. residents over the age of 18.

For more information on building effective online store product pages, see James Maguire's article "E-Commerce Site Design: The Product Page."

Devin Comiskey is the Managing Editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.