Some of the biggest online retail sites have been identified as the most difficult to use according to a recent usability poll of consumers.  The cost of poor site performance is not just lost visitors, it's lost revenue.  Nearly three-quarters of online businesses correlate poor site performance with lost revenue, and more than half with lost traffic.

13 percent of respondents to the survey singled out retail and ecommerce sites as the most difficult to use, beaten only by financial services and public sector websites.

The CTO e-Commerce specialists PureNet, Ian Lawton, said: “The experience a website user receives has become a big deal in all sectors, but online businesses are likely to be the ones hardest hit if the overall experience is below par.

“Online shoppers expect not only virtually instant page-loads, but fast and flawless execution of transactions and enhanced functionality that delivers a rich site experience.  Clearly, online businesses need to think carefully about website usability.

“As demand and competition for online functionality increases, it’s crucial that businesses trading online invest in the right technology to ensure the best user experience possible in order to maximise their revenue.”

In a separate survey, 69 percent of online merchants in the UK said they anticipated that their revenues from Internet sales would grow in 2010, while only 11 percent predicted a decrease, according to an e-commerce payment firm.

The annual UK Online Fraud Report, which charts the experiences and expectations of over 200 UK e-tailers and the views of more than 1,000 consumers in the UK, found that forty percent of online businesses expected growth of 20 percent or less.  6 percent said they hoped to more than double their revenues in the current year, with smaller retailers generally more optimistic than larger ones.