Online Shoppers Have Higher Expectations

Google and Facebook have set the bar high, even for online shopping sites, according to a survey released by Allurent.

The survey found that 66 percent of respondents in the U.S. indicated that after last year’s holiday season, they expected more from their online shopping destinations because of improving technology.

Forty-six percent of respondents said that they expected retailers to invest more since their ads for their online destinations are so pervasive.

Forty-one percent of respondents expected retailers to take advantage of the increasing broadband penetration in the U.S., while 29 percent expected to see online commerce sites be imitate the innovation they see on sites like Google Maps or Facebook.

Clear, easily accessed product information was chosen by 49 percent of respondents as their favorite feature on shopping sites, followed by Web site usability and operational effectiveness.

Retailers are obviously listening to these consumer voices, but are having difficulty responding.

Retail Systems Research (RSR) released some findings concerning these difficulties in August. The organization found that 56 percent of winning Web retailers (those with annual sales growth of over 3 percent) around the world said they had difficulty understanding how consumers used their site, and saw challenges to designing their online storefronts to oblige their desires.

With many retailers now straddling various channels of commerce, 48 percent of respondents indicated that they had a hard time coordinating those channels to give consumers a seamless shopping experience.

Forty-four percent of these retailers also had difficulty understanding and accommodating to different customer segments, while 41 percent pointed to the ease with which competitors could imitate them as a hurdle towards offering consumers a unique online shopping experience.

RSR also took a look at which Web site technologies were seen as most promising for engaging online customers, according to both winning and lagging (annual sales growth of less than 3 percent) retail executives.

Online behavior tracking received 77 percent of winning votes and 100 percent of lagging votes. Expanded video capabilities received 62 percent of winning votes and 40 percent of lagging votes. 3-D features received 35 percent of winning votes and 20 percent of lagging.

That’s where lagging retailers stopped.

Virtual tours (35 percent), virtual human interfaces (27 percent), and application simulations (19 percent) all received responses from winning retailers.

Online retailers seem to have a big responsibility on their hands. They cannot allow their past successes to lure them into sitting on their hands. Much like everything else on the Web, constant innovation and accommodation is necessary for continued growth and viability.

Source:

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006568