Radial and CFI Group recently surveyed 500 randomly selected consumers to discover their online shopping expectations. The questions we asked revealed what matters most to shoppers in the areas of returns, fraud, loyalty programs, and online communities. Read on to learn the results of our study and get the insights you need to improve satisfaction, loyalty, and profits in 2017 and beyond. Returns If you aren’t giving consumers multiple options to return products they purchased online, you risk losing their business to competitors who do. Our study found that this capability is important to a whopping 87 percent of shoppers. And why wouldn’t it be? After all, just as consumers are used to seamlessly shopping across channels, they expect to be able to quickly and easily return products across channels as well. In fact, 90 percent of shoppers want to be able to return a product they purchased online to a retailer’s physical store, while 66 percent are more likely to ship the product back. Either way, having a synchronized omnichannel platform that allows shoppers to return products in-store or easily ship them back is no longer a nice-to-have capability; it’s a requirement if you plan on keeping shoppers happy and, in many cases, it’s necessary to even get the sale as some consumers won’t complete their purchase if you don’t have an easy return policy. Consumers also want their returns to be handled quickly, with 80 percent expecting them to be processed within 2-5 days. Returns that take longer can result in a frustrated or even lost customer. Study Reveals Consumers’ Growing Online Shopping Expectations “90 percent of shoppers want to be able to return a product they purchased online to a retailer’s physical store, while 66 percent are more likely to ship the product back.”
Transcript
Radial and CFI Group recently surveyed 500 randomly selected consumers to discover their online shopping expectations. The questions we asked revealed what matters most to shoppers in the areas of returns, fraud, loyalty programs, and online communities. Read on to learn the results of our study and get the insights you need to improve satisfaction, loyalty, and profits in 2017 and beyond.
ReturnsIf you aren’t giving consumers multiple options to return products they purchased online, you risk losing their business to competitors who do. Our study found that this capability is important to a whopping 87 percent of shoppers. And why wouldn’t it be? After all, just as consumers are used to seamlessly shopping across channels, they expect to be able to quickly and easily return products across channels as well. In fact, 90 percent of shoppers want to be able to return a product they purchased online to a retailer’s physical store, while 66 percent are more likely to ship the product back.
Either way, having a synchronized omnichannel platform that allows shoppers to return products in-store or easily ship them back is no longer a nice-to-have capability; it’s a requirement if you plan on keeping shoppers happy and, in many cases, it’s necessary to even get the sale as some consumers won’t complete their purchase if you don’t have an easy return policy. Consumers also want their returns to be handled quickly, with 80 percent expecting them to be processed within 2-5 days. Returns that take longer can result in a frustrated or even lost customer.
Study Reveals Consumers’ Growing Online Shopping Expectations
“90 percent of shoppers want to be
able to return a product they
purchased online to
a retailer’s physical store,
while 66 percent are more likely to ship the
product back.”
Study Reveals Consumers’ Online Shopping Expectations
FraudGood customers are fed up with their orders being incorrectly identified as fraudulent. Eleven percent of shoppers in our study said they’ve had an order canceled due to it being mistakenly labeled as fraudulent, and it has made a huge impact on their willingness to continue shopping with the retailer. In fact, 40 percent of shoppers said they will be hesitant to shop with the retailer in the future, and 27 percent will never shop with the retailer again.
Merchants around the world lose $77 million to fraud every single day and every dollar of fraud actually costs them $2.40. With customers quick to abandon a retailer with questionable fraud detection practices, it’s no wonder that successful retailers are turning to third-party fraud solutions which leverage machine learning, big data and human intelligence to dramatically reduce eCommerce fraud and improve the customer experience in the process.
Loyalty Programs and Online CommunitiesWill consumers buy-in to loyalty programs and online communities? Our study results suggest they will, as long as you provide the right incentives and capabilities online. Eighty-four percent of shoppers will sign up for your loyalty program if you make it worth their while, which means offering special promotions and preferred treatment or enabling customers to get their orders faster.
Shoppers want to join your online communities as well, but will only do so if they provide benefits, such as the opportunity to receive discounts and promotions, publish detailed product information, and share customers’ reviews. If you only improve one part of the user experience of your eCommerce site this year, make sure it’s adding customer reviews. Our survey found that customer reviews significantly impact purchase decisions for 95 percent of the consumers surveyed.
Grow Your Retail BusinessOnline consumers want to shop with retailers that provide options for purchasing and returning items seamlessly, whether in-store or online. They don’t want to end up in the latest retail data breach story, and they want loyalty programs and online communities that incentivize them to remain loyal customers. Review the findings from our study in the infographic below to help you learn how to meet all of these expectations so you can optimize your online shopping experience and prepare your retail business for a prosperous 2017.
“Customer reviews
significantly impact
purchase decisions for 95 percent of
the consumers surveyed.”
STUDY REVEALS
Consumers’ OnlineShopping Expectations
ReturnsToday’s omnichannel shoppers want retailers to offer
multiple return options for online orders and they expect
returns to be processed quickly.
87%of shoppers want multiple return options.
90% of shoppers want to
return online orders in-store.
STORE
66% of shoppers still
return orders by shipping
them directly back to retailers.
OrderReturned!
80% of shoppers expect returns to be processed within 2-5 days.
DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5 DAY 6 DAY 7
FraudAccurate fraud detection is more important than ever as
incidents of wrongfully identified fraudulent orders
continue to frustrate or even turn away good customers.
11% of shoppers have had orders rejected due
to being incorrectly identified as fraud.
https://www.fraud-order.com
27% of shoppers will
never shop with the retailer
again.
40% of shoppers will be
hesitant to shop with the
retailer in the future.
Loyalty Programs andOnline Communities
Most consumers are willing to join retailers’ loyalty programs and
online communities as long as they improve their shopping
experiences. While promotions are essential for attracting shoppers,
customer reviews are becoming increasingly important as well. In
fact, most shoppers are inclined to shop with a competitor when a
retailer’s website doesn’t provide customer reviews.
84%of shoppers
are willing to
sign up for a
loyalty
program.
71%of shoppers
will join a
retailer’s
online
community.
SIGN UPTODAY!
Reasons consumers joina loyalty program
Reasons consumers joinan online community
Get their orders faster
Receive preferred treatment
Discounts & promotions
93%
40% 37%
Product information
Read customers’ reviews
Discounts & promotions
80%64%
48%
Of the 29% of shoppers who won’t
join retailers’ loyalty programs...
46% don’t want to give out
their personal information.
54% say it’s because it’s not
worth it.
95% of shoppers’ purchasing decisions are
influenced by customer reviews, whether or not they are part of
