Radio Rentals is experiencing positive results after tackling one of its shoppers’ main online purchase barriers.

Radio Rentals, which has 85 stores nationwide, loans household goods to Australians on a credit model.

This means individuals must legally submit loan application forms before they can purchase Radio Rental products.

Ryuji Uematsu, MD of Rysen, which developed Radio Rental’s new website, says this was a major sales barrier for the retailer.

“We found with [Radio Rental’s old website] that a lot of people would start filling in an application form and never complete it,” he says.

“There was a huge drop off in certain sections, especially when people needed to enter information like employment history or salary.”

Launched last month, the chain’s updated website features a streamlined and simplified loan process.

The application form is now spread over four linked web pages so that “it doesn’t look as overwhelming”, says Uematsu.

Confused shoppers can also request a call from a Radio Rentals officer and save their partially completed applications for later.

“People can now fill in some information and come back to the purchase, rather than say ‘the whole thing is too hard’ and forget it.”

Uematsu says the overhaul is paying off: traffic to the site is increasing, along with the overall number of loan applications.

“It’s been notable and significant.”

Mixing different demographics

While Radio Rental’s main market is lower socio-economic “Aussie battlers”, it is also popular with well paid executives.

“It has customers at the other end. People who want to loan the latest technology rather than purchase it,” says Uematsu.

The new website was designed around its core market, but executives were taken into account.

Uematsu says his favourite design feature is a hover function that allows products to be previewed without clicking.

“This is more of an emerging trend in e-commerce. It allows users to get a sense of content without having to click further.”

Radio Rental’s South Australian wing, Rentlo, will receive the same website this month.

Both rental chains’ websites are set to be optimised for smartphones by December.