The notion that consumers flit from website to website to get the best deals has been blown out of the water with nearly three-fifths of people preferring to use just a handful of e-tailers.
A report by EPiServer, which surveyed 1,000 UK consumers, shows that 57% remain loyal to their favourite online brands. It also reveals that a third have increased the amount of online shopping they do in the last year, and almost half (44%) have made purchases using a mobile device in the last six months.
This is compared to 94% of UK consumers who have shopped on the high street during the same timeframe.
The research suggests that clothes and shoes are the most frequent online purchases (46%), closely followed by CDs/DVDs/video games (45%), and books/stationery (37%).
EPiServer product manager David Bowen commented: “The digital high street continues to boom, but our research goes to show that the ease of online shopping has not killed brand loyalty and a positive customer experience is still more important to UK shoppers than price.
“Retailers shouldn’t just be trying to compete on price; instead they ought to concentrate on delivering the best possible online experience to keep customers spending. Unfortunately our report also showed that many online retailers are actually still letting customers down in many areas, and they will be missing out on market share as a result.”
Bowen also warned e-tailers of the dangers of getting it wrong: “There is nowhere to hide online, so a great customer experience is championed widely whilst poor service can spread like wildfire.”
