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Pure Play Retailers Outperform Multichannel Rivals in the Very First eChannel Retail Benchmark

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(PRWEB UK) 10 February 2012

Online and mobile eChannels are now playing a vital role in multichannel strategies. The latest eCustomerServiceIndex results shows that 51% of all UK consumers now own a smartphone and in a five month period last year, Marks and Spencer reported seeing 1.2 million visitors to their mobile site alone, leading to 13,000 orders.

Comparing top retailers performance across their website, mobile site and transactional mobile app, eDigitalResearch found that top performing pure play retailers are tailoring each of their eChannels accordingly but still applying the same recognisable and familiar branding and design.

Online favourite Amazon topped the overall league table with a customer satisfaction score of 86%. Results show that users liked the clear branding, similar format and consistency across all of Amazons eChannels, helping it to score top marks for both their online and mobile site offerings. Pure play fashion giant ASOS came second with an overall score of 84% after providing the highest rated transactional mobile app. Next, Tesco and Asda make up the rest of the top five.

The results also found that eRetail websites continue to outperform their mobile counterparts. Users often became frustrated with keyword searches and product pages when using a mobile site or app due to the fiddly nature of a smaller screen and a lack of features, such as customer reviews and multiple images. To overcome these issues, retailers need to be implementing the latest features and technologies, such as predictive text in search bars, to make the entire customer journey as simple and simple as possible.

Derek Eccleston, Head of Research at eDigitalResearch, clarified, This is an vital and exciting time for the retail industry. The dramatic rise of mobile has been customer led, with more and more people wanting to use their smartphones to shop and browse. It is vital, therefore, for retailers to fully know how their customers are shopping and what they expect from online, mobile sites and transactional apps.

By evaluating the customer experience both within and across each channel, our eChannel Retail Benchmark shows that retailers still need to strengthen their mobile offering in line with what consumers are telling us what they want. Our previous research suggests that customers gravitate towards a mobile site first, whereas a mobile app is used by more loyal and engaged customers and retailers need to bare this in mind when developing their multichannel strategies.

eDigitalResearch have been running the eRetail Benchmark for over a decade, expanding their benchmarking experience to the mobile market in the summer of 2010. As mobile continues to play an vital part in multichannel strategies, the very first eChannel Retail Benchmark looks to provide the retail industry with a definitive best practice guide based on real customer feedback.

For a copy of the eChannel Retail Benchmark presentation, including full league tables and analysis, please complete the following small registration survey: https://ecustomeropinions.com/survey/survey.php?sid=364382467.

For more information, please contact Lisa Bonczyk on 01489 772920.

Methodology

An eMysteryShopper survey was conducted to compare the end to end usability of 10 leading UK retail websites, mobile sites and transactional mobile apps. The fieldwork was carried out using the eMysteryShopper panel of internet users during November 2011 and January 2012. The benchmark measures included: