Online Retailers Fail Customer Experience 101
1. The E-tailing group survey (covered in Internet Retailer) revealed that:
- Online shoppers find site search the most useful element of a retail web site by a wide margin, specifically keyword search and advanced search functionality. Next were product comparison tools and customer ratings and reviews.
- The reason - 65% research products online before making gift purchases, 74% typically comparison shop three sites or more before making a purchase, 60% search directly at a favored merchant, and 54% browse multiple online stores before completing a purchase.
- Consumers also value bargains - 86%
want free shipping, 76% want sales and specials, 69% want a
perpetual shopping cart and 60% want one-page checkout.
- “Gifting tools” also are growing in importance - 47% want to be able to buy gift cards online; 41% want to send the different elements of a purchase to different addresses, and 31% want to create wish lists.
- Positive shopping experienced include free shipping and bargains, and negative ones include high shipping costs or other shipping problems, return
problems and out-of-stocks.
Bottom-line: “These responses challenge merchants to
push those shopping online to buy more and entice those who prefer the
store encounter to venture online via a more engaging experience. This will be
accomplished by creating exciting, fun, easy-to-shop environments with
desired products in-stock coupled by relentless customer service
starting with timely, reasonably priced delivery.”
2. The FutureNow study (covered by eMarketer) showed that online retailers are failing to execute on many e-commerce basics.
While "easy checkout, product search and the right policies are as
important as multi-channel integration and authentic user-generated
content, such as ratings and reviews", in reality only:
- 74% of retail Web sites offered estimated delivery times
- 61% did not offer any information on the product page regarding in-stock availability
- 58% correctly answered an e-mail question within 24 hours
- 10% offered in-store pickup of orders out of 52% with physical stores
- 43% offered free shipping
- 42% provided shipping costs early in the checkout process
- 35% had a checkout process with more than four steps
- 33% offered customer reviews
Additionally, 87% of shoppers find retail sites through a major search engine, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN or AOL. 86% said they are inclined to visit retail web sites that they’ve never heard of simply because the site ranks highly on the major web search engines. Bottom-line: “Consumers have become more adept at shopping on the web and as such they now expect a seamless e-commerce experience from the sites they visit.”
4. The WebCollage research (covered in Retail Merchandiser) confirmed that retailers must provide complete product information in
order to meet the needs of their online customers. It discovered that shoppers are more likely to linger and make purchases at retail
websites that offer complete and compelling product information. The most useful pieces of information noted by consumers are detailed product compatibility information and
product accessory listings.
For retailers, the price of having poor online content can be steep.
Shoppers who are not able to find the information they need to make a
purchase are ready and willing to go elsewhere. In the search for more
complete, up-to-date content, 37% of shoppers said they would visit a
competitor’s retail website to find the information they needed.
Recognizing manufacturers as the best authority on their products, 55%
said they would go to a manufacturer’s website to find their
information.
The good news is that the basics can be fixed relatively easily. Omniture's suggestions include:
- Present consumers with better and more enticing product descriptions, better-quality product images, multiple images and customer reviews.
- Offer easily accessible information on product availability, gift options, return policies, shipping policies, and guarantees, as well as customer-friendly and easy-to-read and -understand return/exchange policies.
- In the checkout process include multiple payment options, estimated delivery times, in-stock availability for items, in-store pickup where physical stores exist, a simplified checkout process with a progress indicator, and third-party seals and security assurances.
- Implement customer service systems that provide faster and more accurate replies to customer e-mail inquiries, chat options and a visible phone number for questions and problems.
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