Bad websites costs retailers £500m.

Badly designed websites are costing retailers hundreds of millions of pounds per year in missed sales according to research published today.

The study conducted by researchers at Head London used analysis from Oxford Economics to find the worst hit retailers. The worst hit retailers were reported as being Morrisons, said to have missed out on £314m in sales between 2007 and 2010. Morrisons were followed by Dixons at £32.6m and Phones 4U at £17.5m. Yet, Tesco was found to have added around £255m in sales thanks to its website.

The study suggested that due to poorly designed sites retailers have lost a combined total of £500m over a three year period.

Phil Capper, Managing Director of multi-channel marketing platform ATTAIN, said: "In order to improve online customer engagement retailers need to start understanding more about their customers as individuals. Only by creating an improved single customer view will retailers be able to create an online experience preferred by their customers.”

Phil continued: “If retailers take the time to understand and learn about their customers preferences, habits and behaviour then they can make their online experience more engaging for customers resulting in increased online sales and improved customer retention.”