How are errors displayed?

Errors are a fact of life in online retail – an invalid credit card, a mistyped email address, or an expired coupon code is just a few of the things that can go awry. How a store deals with those obstacles and keeps the checkout process moving along is what determines a good user experience and ultimately a purchase. Traditionally, all errors were shown at the top of the page and a user was left to their own devices to match those up with the fields on the screen and make the correction(s). This is still the case with 35% of Top 100 retailers. 39% however, have advanced to the point where an error message is displayed at the top of the screen AND the corresponding fields or field labels are also highlighted. Intuitively this is much better, but there is no empirical evidence that shows an increase in conversion rate with either method.

Of note:New methods of validation are available with the increasing use of Ajax, however very few of the Top 100 retailers have employed this method to date. I.e. Fields such as address can be validated immediately without waiting for a “form submission - page reload - hunt for error notice” and immediate feedback can be delivered to a user right at the input field using a checkmark or the like. We expect to see this deployed on more sites within the coming year.

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