Websites for mortgage lenders tend to be less usable than e-commerce sites like Amazon and Walmart, according to research from Change Sciences, with many lenders missing opportunities to establish relationships with mortgage shoppers.
Users found mortgage websites to be average compared to other financial sites, found the survey of website usability for 12 leading mortgage lender websites and how they support people seeking products and services. They were also found less usable than personal finance sites.
“Mortgage sites differ significantly despite sharing common design characteristics. The top three mortgage sites are 18% more usable, 11% more engaging and 30% more likely to convert than the bottom performing mortgage web site,” said Change Sciences. “Unlike other industries we study, no one mortgage site stands out as the leader of the pack. The top three mortgage sites differ by no more than 2 points overall.”
Bank of America, BB&T, Chase, Citigroup, ERA Mortgage, PNC Home Lending, PNC Mortgage, Quicken Loans, TD Bank, US Bank, and Wells Fargo were included in the research, which compared each sites’ usability, engagement, and conversion with competitive sites as well as the best sites on the web.
While there weren’t any leaders among websites included in the survey, some lenders stood out for the wrong reasons.
Bank of America is 14% less usable, 13% less engaging, and performed 18% worse on conversion from shopper to buying customer, compared to the top three sites. TD Bank is 26% less likely to convert than the top three, the survey found, along with being 13% less usable and 8% less engaging.
Written by Alyssa Gerace
