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With a record figure of £5.6 billion expected to be spent online this Christmas season on gifts, the market is growing for quick and easy online transactions.

Yet with an increased user load during this holiday season, more and more online shoppers are saying they are unhappy with the services provided online.

Nearly half of the UK’s shoppers said they the products they bought online were not what they ordered according to reports by the Interactive Media in Retail Group.

With most people expected to order their goods about three weeks before Christmas, in time for delivery, businesses have little time to act if they want to ensure their customers’ satisfaction.

Video review site Vzaar said that one in five surveyed by them would be willing to pay an extra ten per cent to have a more interactive experience while shopping in order to be sure of what they were ordering, which if were made available for certain shoppers could make online retailers an estimated extra £300 million in advertisements and listings.

“The rise in popularity of video sharing sites is one of the main pillars of web 2.0, but retailers have yet to embrace its power,” said Adrian Sevitz, known as the chief geek at Vzaar according to vnu.net.

“In the busy Christmas period, innovative use of video could really help sites stand out from the competition, encourage trust among customers and maximise profits,” he added.

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Almost nine in ten online shoppers have suffered a problem when attempting to complete a web-based transaction, new research has revealed.

Furthermore, nearly one in four of these consumers would cancel the transaction if they experienced any negative issues, the survey by Harris Interactive for software firm Tealeaf found.

Nearly a third of those who came up against a problem while shopping online had done as a result of a hard-to-navigate website, while 29 per cent said they could not go through with the transaction after getting stuck in an ‘endless loop’.

‘After a decade of ecommerce, British consumers have very high expectations of their online experiences, yet many companies doing business online are still failing to deliver an acceptable level of customer experience and service to internet customers,’ commented Rebecca Ward, chief executive of Tealeaf.

A recent study by web application testing firm SciVisum suggested that British online retailers risk losing £300 million in sales every year due to hidden errors on their ecommerce sites.

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