An estimated 25% of revenue - the equivalent of a staggering £14 billion is lost by UK online retailers every year as a result of poor user experience leading to site abandonment, according to the president of a recognised leading company in global payments.

Writing for Retail Bulletin, Shane Fitzpatrick, President and European MD of Chase Paymentech, says today's multi-channel shoppers demand a faultless customer journey from the moment they click onto the website to the moment they complete their order.

"If a retailer fails to deliver a seamless experience across every device, customers are just a click away from their competitors." Says Mr Fitzpatrick, whose company processed more than 29 billion transactions last year alone.

"In 2012, UK shoppers bought more online than ever before with nearly one in every ten pounds being spent in an e-commerce store. Because of this, online retailers have gone from strength to strength, with the likes of ASOS reporting a 41% increase in global sales in December. But there's still work to be done. It's no secret that shopping habits are changing dramatically." He added.

In our regular benchmarking of major websites over the last decade, Sitemorse has noticed a trend where often companies struggling in the market have websites which reflect their poor performance elsewhere.

We find that companies who spend time and effort on making their websites a good experience for users often do well in the market - even those who do not rely on internet shoppers alone. Conversely, other companies struggling in the current cut-throat atmosphere in the High Street often have web presences that leave a lot to be desired.

With such enormous sums at stake, retailers using the web either to sell or just to get customers into their stores need to make sure their websites perform faultlessly. Sitemorse offers products that can help make that happen, and a good starting point might be our latest UK Web INDEX of top 500 Retail websites, to see how some of our best-known brands shape up online.

Links to the INDEX and more on the blog