I read an article on the BBC site recently by a company that runs online ecommerce websites which claimed that having spelling errors in youre online shop can damage conversion rates by as much as 50%. I was not convinced of their case, believing it to be a link-bait PR article by the company in question to make you go and visit their webstes. Today, PC Pro have posted a similar article on their website claiming that spell checking can boost your web profits (allbeit using the same company as the BBC website).

There's no doubt that missing images, poor spelling, inappropriate navigation systems, layout errors and slow connections all play a part in your conversion rates, but most people don't actually spot spelling mistakes on web pages. There are 3 deliberate spelling mistakes in the first paragraph - did you notice them? As long as the errors are not essential parts of the page like 'add to shooping cart' or 'chekout now' its unlikely to have as much impact as Mr Dumcombe claims. However there is no independent evidence to compare with the findings. I don't think many online shops would be happy to risk losing money just to find out how much money they would lost by having spelling errors on their website.

There's a great article on strategies to improve conversion rates here.

I'm planning on writing an article about ecommerce conversion rates and how to improve them shortly.