[Indies] Downloads started vs downloads completed

Hello.

I noticed last week that visitors to my site were downloading products, but only around 30% of people who started downloads actually let them finish.

I put this down to the fact that my site didn't mention the download size anywhere. I remedied this a week or so ago and I've seen an increase in download-to-completion ratio (now around 50%) but that's still kinda low I think?

Why do people start downloading relatively small files then change their minds part way through?

What can I do to increase this?

Are you sure that's what's happening? It's been a long time since I had to go digging through webstats, but IIRC mine showed incomplete downloads when users were downloading a file with a download manager which was splitting the file into two or more simultaneous threads. Are you sure that's not happening?

Could be... never thought of that.

Would that explain why the average download size is less than 50% of what I'd expect it to be?

If my memory of how web stats work is correct, then yes, it would. I think if you have access to the raw logs, there's a way to tell whether download managers are at play or not, but I don't remember any more than that.

You could probably also write a PHP download tracking system, but again, it's not my area.

it could be the download manager starting the download and encountering a timeout at 50%, then downloading the other 50%.
Or it could be people are too lacksadasical. But I think its the downloader issue.

Good point, Gabriel.

A couple of years ago, I would've prolly put this down to ppl on dialup getting bored of waiting. Now, with broadband so widely available, I'm not so sure.