Consumers are clear about what they want to improve from online shopping sites. First, they would like the products to contain more visual information and many more details (37%), followed by a better search (29%) and a better customer service, either through a button where to click to make a automatic call or through a live chat service.
This arises from the data obtained by an Oracle report, which indicates that 1 in 5 consumers want contact information to be much easier to find, while 17% want design improvements and easy navigation and shopping processes. Only 13% cited the personalized offers within the Top3 of the experience improvements.
However, why do consumers visit physical stores? 75% of people reported that they visited to see a product before buying, 44% when you need the product immediately and 41% to avoid shipping costs of an online purchase, all being consistent with the cons found in the online stores.
The shipment seems to be an important issue: 63% of the respondents said that they withdrew from the purchase process when the shipping costs are higher than expected, while free transportation has also been cited by 52% of the people as the most important factor of online shopping.
When asked about what they expected retailers to not know about them, 42% said they do not track their purchases history, they do not know what they buy through which channel (20%) or they know what they put in their shopping carts before making the same (15%).
However, younger consumers seem more comfortable with their information being known by sellers. 24% of consumers between the ages of 18 and 24 and 20% of those between 25 and 34, would not mind that the salespeople know that they put them in their shopping carts.
The main expectation of consumers when making an online purchase is to find the same price in the store through two different channels (37%), although it is closely followed by the proportion that expects online prices to be lower ( 3. 4%). Others are the expectations of fulfillment of fast orders and free of costs (34%) and the proportion of returning through any channel (29%). On the other hand, 1 in 5 people say that they should be able to access their shopping cart through different channels.
Other results indicate 54% of consumers regularly use two or more channels before making a purchase. If an item is not in stock, 44% of respondents said they expected a store associated with it to have it. Only 25% said that they would leave the store and look for it in another. Approximately one third of consumers said that product quality is a priority when they make an online purchase, while 3 out of 10 said that an easy return policy is very important.