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Level of embarrassment is nearly identical to figure found in previous research two years ago – despite marketing spend increasing by an average of £150,000
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Business leaders estimate that poor website user experience costs £71,500 in lost sales per year – up from £47k in 2023
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Website error fixing and maintenance wastes an average of 4.3 hours per week (up from 3.5) – with 8% of businesses spending more than 10 hours per week (up from 2%)
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Only 47% of websites are accessible to individuals with hearing, vision or mobility issues, with 28% reporting no accessibility at all
London, UK; 26 March 2025: Storyblok, the headless CMS for brands that want to make a bigger, faster market impact, today announced research that reveals that UK companies are losing an increasingly large sum of money each year due to poor website experience despite spending a substantial amount on marketing technology.
300 senior business leaders at large and mid-sized e-commerce companies in the US and Europe were asked a range of questions about their company’s website performance, accessibility and marketing technology costs.
Surprisingly, 46% of UK businesses said their website had recently embarrassed them in front of a key stakeholder or customer, however, 98% said their website met all or most of their expectations. These figures are almost identical to research Storyblok conducted in 2023 that revealed 47% of UK businesses were embarrassed by their website and 90% said their website met their expectations.
Businesses invested, on average, £486,000 over the past five years, with 48% spending more than £500,000 – up from 25% in 2023. Only 3% of businesses believe they receive a poor ROI on their marketing technology spend compared to 9% in 2023.
Despite soaring marketing technology budgets, the time taken to maintain websites continues to grow. In 2023, companies reported an average of 3.5 hours per week spent on routine tasks, this has now grown to 4.3 hours with 8% reporting more than 10 hours spent. Revenue lost through poor website performance has grown from £47,000 in 2023 to £71,500 per year, with 15% of businesses estimating they lose more than £100,000.
For the first time, Storyblok also surveyed website accessibility, finding that 47% reported having at least some accessibility functionality for people with vision, hearing or mobility impairments. 28% reported having no accessibility functionality despite the European Accessibility Act – which comes into force at the end of June – requiring any company doing business with customers in the EU to provide accessible digital services.
Dominik Angerer, CEO and Co-Founder of Storyblok, said: “When we conducted this research two years ago, we were surprised to find so many businesses were embarrassed by their website and believed it was losing them vast sums of money. What made it more puzzling is that the majority of businesses said that they received good ROI on their marketing technology. Fast forward to today, and we are genuinely shocked to find the situation has got worse. Businesses are losing a lot more money, maintenance times are increasing and costs are soaring. Yet, satisfaction with marketing solutions has increased.
“To make sense of this research, we have to realise that many businesses do not understand that they can and should expect a lot more from their marketing tech. A new generation of composable architecture and solutions provides a much more cost and time-effective solution than inefficient legacy tech stacks that are increasingly unfit for their purpose. Nearly all the problems we uncovered in this research would be solved if business leaders raised their expectations and embraced modern marketing technology.”
