|
 An
online entrepreneur says that poor spelling is costing the UK
millions of pounds in lost revenue for internet businesses.
Charles Duncombe says an analysis of website figures shows a
single spelling mistake can cut online sales in half.
Mr Duncombe says when recruiting staff
he has been "shocked at the poor quality of written English".
Sales figures suggest misspellings put off consumers who could
have concerns about a website's credibility, he says.
The concerns were echoed by the
Confederation of British Industry (CBI), whose head of
education and skills warned that too many employers were
having to invest in remedial literacy lessons for their staff.
Written word
Mr Duncombe, who runs travel, mobile
phones and clothing websites, says that poor spelling is a
serious problem for the online economy. "Often these
cutting-edge companies depend upon old-fashioned skills," says
Mr Duncombe. And he says that the struggle to recruit enough
staff who can spell means that this sector of the economy is
not as efficient as it might be.
Figures from the Office for National
Statistics published last month showed internet sales in the
UK running at £527m per week. "I know that industry bemoaning
the education system is nothing new but it is becoming more
and more of a problem with more companies going online.
"This is because when you sell or
communicate on the internet, 99% of the time it is done by the
written word." Mr Duncombe says that it is possible to
identify the specific impact of a spelling mistake on sales.
He says he measured the revenue per
visitor to the
www.tightsplease.co.uk website and found that the revenue
was twice as high after an error was corrected.
"If you project this across the whole of
internet retail, then millions of pounds worth of business is
probably being lost each week due to simple spelling
mistakes," says Mr Duncombe, director of the Just Say Please
group.
Spelling is important to the credibility
of a website, he says. When there are underlying concerns
about fraud and safety, then getting the basics right is
essential.
"You get about six seconds to capture
the attention on a website."
When recruiting school and university
leavers, Mr Duncombe says too many applications have contained
spelling mistakes or poor grammar.
"Some people even used text speak in
their cover letter," he says. Even among those who appeared to
be able to spell, he says that a written test, without access
to a computer spellchecker, revealed further problems with
spelling.
 William
Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford
University, says that in some informal parts of the internet,
such as Facebook, there is greater tolerance towards spelling
and grammar.
"However, there are other aspects, such
as a home page or commercial offering that are not among
friends and which raise concerns over trust and credibility,"
said Professor Dutton.
"In these instances, when a consumer
might be wary of spam or phishing efforts, a misspelt word
could be a killer issue."
James Fothergill, the CBI's head of
education and skills, said: "Our recent research shows that
42% of employers are not satisfied with the basic reading and
writing skills of school and college leavers and almost half
have had to invest in remedial training to get their staff's
skills up to scratch.
"This situation is a real concern and
the government must make the improvement of basic literacy and
numeracy skills of all school and college leavers a top
priority."
Related articles
and websites
: Tightsplease |
Just For Marriage |
Lingerie Please
|
