Consumers do not want to prod around for ever to get at what they want, this is not Lord of the Ring

Ambrose McGinn, Abbey National

During that 20 seconds, consumers must be able to see that a page has almost loaded, that it is relevant to their needs and looks easy to navigate.

If it does none of these things, consumers will look elsewhere.

"There are endless stories about people going to a website and finding that it does not do what it says on the box," said Ambrose McGinn, director of retail e-commerce at Abbey National.

Bad grapevine

Mr McGinn said many consumers who did not use the web much transferred a bad experience with one site to all net sites, and were far less likely to use the web for shopping and banking.

"If it is really bad, they may tell their friends, and that's something that you just don't want," he said.

Mr McGinn said that bad websites could mean companies missing out on lucrative opportunities.

More than 1.2 million of the Abbey National's 15 million customers used its website to manage their money, said Mr McGinn.

Money maker

Internal research by Abbey National has shown that web customers are 57% more profitable than the average customer and have 50% more products, such as loans, than those customers who avoid the internet.

Abbey National's new website is only weeks old

Now, 20% of the Abbey National's personal loan business comes via the web.

"It's got real critical mass and has a real impact on the cost base of the whole organisation," he said. Abbey National has rebuilt its website around many of the principles revealed in the research project.

Mr McGinn said the number of pages on the site has been cut from 4500 to 1200 and it now has a consistent look throughout.

Not a puzzle

Often, web shoppers are thrown by abrupt changes in the way they navigate around a page or if they are forced to scroll around the screen to find what they want.

He said Abbey National had concentrated on providing information about its financial services and dropped the extras that were added to keep people interested.

"We've kept the stuff that people expect us to provide and nothing else," said Mr McGinn. "Consumers do not want to prod around for ever to get at what they want; this is not Lord of the Rings."

The new site has only been launched for two weeks but already it is proving very popular with customers, said Mr McGinn.