May 06, 2014 Opinion piece
A recent YouGov survey of 2,000 adults commissioned by Vouchercodes.co.uk has revealed that most UK shoppers still prefer to shop in high street stores than online.
The report, ‘The Future of Online Retail’ found that fewer than half (41%) are ‘completely happy’ shopping on the web.
What were the disadvantages of shopping online?
According to the study, 59% cite certain barriers that hold them back from making online purchases. The main reason given was that would like to see the physical object first (30%). Other influencing factors include the hassle of returning unwanted items (21%) and the perceived lack of product information that is available online (21%).
Is there a lack of information online?
When engaging with a retailer through a digital channel, a customer may justifiably expect to have access to the same quality of relevant information as would be available in-store in order to help them make an informed purchase decision. Yet the perception that the information that exists online will be in some way inaccurate or incomplete remains, a perception often borne out by experience.
Performing research across multiple channels has become standard practice for many customers, who have readily adopted the omnichannel approach to shopping. A purchase journey can begin and end in any number of touch-points and an experience that is not consistent and joined up at each point is off-putting for many.
How can greater cross-channel consistency be achieved?
Achieving consistency is not simply a matter of replicating offline information on the retailer’s website. Ensuring that the same information appears across multiple platforms (mobile, social etc) in addition to all the marketing and advertising banners used for promotion requires the adoption of a standardised and centralised approach to data-sharing between all touch-points.
Getting this area right is no longer a nice-to-have; indeed in the food and drink sector it is shortly to become a legal imperative. The main elements of EU regulation 1169/2011 come into effect in December 2014, setting out a standardised format for how information should be displayed on food and drink product packaging. The regulation does not just apply to physical packaging however; the same information will be required to be available through online touch-points such as the retail website as well.
Customers will become increasingly omnichannel in their shopping behaviour; achieving consistency across all channels is a challenge, but when properly implemented can prove to be the enabler of the high quality experiences these customers demand.
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