Indian Businesses Not Internet Ready: Kapston.com

According to a recent usability/ user experience research conducted by Kapston.com (operational from Bangalore), 90 percent of Indian corporate and B2B websites fail miserably. The study analysed Indian multinationals and SMEs with and without online transactions.

According to the Kapston.com analysis, following are some of the biggest barriers to a better looking and usable website:

- Lack of knowing the importance: 42 percent

- Lack of quality internal resources: 65 percent

- Budget unavailability: 37 percent

- Resistance/ Buy-in/ Politics within company: 47 percent

- Pride: 35 percent

"Majority of the B2B and corporate businesses in India fail to provide the necessary information leading to losing valuable customers, employees and potential investors. 25 percent of organisations are committed to providing the best possible user experience though there is more room for improvement," said Namitha Ranjith, director of Kapston.com.

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"About 25 percent of the websites resemble glorified brochures. The focus and importance B2C companies demonstrate on usability and customer-centric design is almost absent in B2B and corporate websites," opined Naveen Kodappully, director, User Experience and Usability department of the India-based digital marketing agency.

Key Takeaways

- 60 percent are not committed or are indifferent.

- 85 percent of the corporate websites were not compatible to the 3 most popular browsers.

- 90 percent of corporate and B2B websites used invalid HTML.

- 96 percent failed to implement access keys - helping people who cannot use a mouse to move around the site.

- 40 percent of companies don't even give visitors a brief explanation of their mission or activities on their home page.

- 21 percent firms don't link to a recruitment section.

Kapston rated each website using a range of criteria. This included whether home pages included 'must have' elements like news and contact sections, overall site design, usability, user experience navigation and technical performance including speed of loading and cross browser compatibility.