More than 45 million people a year book flights through it, but Ryanair's website has ranked bottom of the table in a survey of Irish online shopping sites by internet consultants Amas. John Collinsreports.
The Amas survey, published today in its quarterly State of the Net report, scored 25 Irish sites on whether they met 10 points of good practice. Ryanair and consumer electronics store Peats were tied for last place. Mobile operator Meteor scored a perfect 10, while Buy4Now, Dell and Tesco achieved nine points.
Fiachra Ó Marcaigh, director of Amas, said he was surprised that so many sites failed on basic requirements. "The types of good practice we checked for are not new and are widely accepted," he said. "We have had e-commerce for over a decade now, so it is surprising that some leading online sellers don't do more to meet these accepted norms."
The sites were ranked on issues such as not requiring customers to opt-out of additional charges or marketing sign-ups, using secure connections to collect credit card details, making privacy policies and terms and conditions clearly visible and accessible, protecting against pricing errors and providing simple, clear check-out processes.
One of the most common failures was the opt-out issue. Nine of the 25 sites require some sort of opt-out behaviour by shoppers. Amas pointed out that Ryanair customers have to opt out multiple times to avoid extra charges for travel insurance, checked baggage and priority boarding.
Rival Aer Lingus scored eight, despite recently introducing a similar requirement to opt out of travel insurance.
Sixteen sites did not display privacy policies prominently, either at the point where personal information is collected, or by requiring an acceptance click during registration.
"Commercial success and best practice are clearly not closely connected," said Mr Ó Marcaigh. "You certainly can't take Ryanair's success away from them."
