Online retailers walk a tightrope when it comes to providing a shopper experience – get it right and recommendations pour in; if it goes even slightly awry and over half will never shop with you again, even offline.
This is the stark finding of a new report by Demandware, a global leader in on-demand ecommerce, examining the shopping behaviours and preferences of web-centric consumers.
Of course, everyone knows online consumers are fickle, but the extent of their unforgiving behaviour – with 72 per cent compelled to share a negative online experience with friends and family, and 70 per cent turning to a competitor as a result – should make brand owners sit up and take notice.
The survey, conducted in early 2011, focused on consumers who are innately drawn to the Web, accessing it several times per day for information, from multiple touchpoints and locations.
Of the 454 consumers surveyed across North America, UK, France and Germany, 90 per cent are smartphone owners, a group at the forefront of new shopping experiences and increasingly dictating the way retailers must engage with them across all touchpoints.
The research reveals that in comparison to traditional consumers, these “smart consumers” have heightened expectations of retailers and the overall brand experience. When presented with a positive online shopping experience, they are more likely to reward retailers with brand loyalty, with 67 per cent indicating their willingness to share a positive experience among their network. Conversely, they can be very unforgiving.
Web-centric consumers use a variety of touchpoints and channels to inform their purchasing decisions, placing increased pressure on retailers to provide holistic and exceptional experiences across all touchpoints.
As consumers increasingly share opinions and attitudes across Web and mobile-enabled social networks, a single poor experience has far-reaching consequences for retailers, who risk disappointing these consumers and losing them for good.
The research shows that a bad experience in one channel doesn’t just impact a consumer’s perception of that channel. Consumers associate a negative experience across the entire brand. Some 52 per cent of “smart consumers” who have a bad experience online are less likely to shop from that brand again in an offline channel, while only 38 per cent of traditional consumers shared the same attitude.
Although they increasingly shop across channels, “smart consumers” trust the Web above all other channels as a means to access product information, and it has become a critical touchpoint even in the store. Some 83 per cent identified their Web-enabled smartphone to be the most valuable and useful in-store technology. Sixty-nine per cent of consumers trust Web data, including product information and reviews, more than information attained from a sales associate in the store, while only 16 per cent believe that store associates are the best resource for product information. But 43 per cent of consumers will trust a sales associate more if the associate is aided by a Web-connected device.
