By Derek Eccleston

The last wave of eRetail Benchmark results saw retail websites hit their highest levels of customer satisfaction in the study’s history. Top retail performers are repeatedly rated highly by online shoppers following constant improvements and updates to websites. Keyword search has seen a surge in satisfaction rates in recent studies, following the introduction of predictive text typing and other new search technologies.

Navigation remains one of the highest performing areas within the study, helping to boost satisfaction rates. Navigation touches all customers in their online shopping journeys and is an important part of the overall experience. Results highlight the importance of offering a multitude of filtering options to help customers reach desired products and website destinations and help them along the route to purchase.

As the MEcommerce revolution continues to gain popularity with more and more customers now having the power to shop when, where and how they want, it is important that retailers continue to provide a seamless shopping experience across the customer journey.

This is an exciting time for retailers. More and more consumers are flocking to the internet to shop and browse. Our eRetail Benchmark study shows that in order to capitalise on these new shoppers, retailers need to be continually updating and evolving their sites in line with customer behaviour and shopping trends, an important aspect of any online business.

Figleaves tops the overall league tables for the second time in the past twelve months, providing a consistent and well thought out online customer journey. The site provides industry best practice for their shopping basket, offering customers a wealth of information and highlighting similar or matching items, helping to minimise basket abandonment and increase revenues.

Results also show that multi-channel retailers are now being overtaken by pure players who are able to provide a positive experience both on and offline, having implemented operational processes and customer service procedures that work seamlessly with their online operations.

Once again, email customer service remains the lowest performing area of the entire study. However, customer satisfaction scores for this section are beginning to increase wave on wave, as retailers grasp the importance of personal customer contact for online shoppers.

For a copy of the full league tables and analysis, download a copy of the eRetail Benchmark report here: https://ecustomeropinions.com/survey/survey.php?sid=458072648. Alternatively, for access to our all of our benchmarking reports, please sign up or log into the benchmarking area of the website: www.edigitalresearch.com/benchmarking.

Methodology

An eMysteryShopper survey was conducted to compare the customer journey of 51 UK retail websites. The fieldwork was carried out using the eMysteryShopper Panel of internet users during July and August 2011. The benchmark measures included:

o First Impressions (Homepage)

o Search – Navigation and Keyword

o Items Found (Product Pages)

o Shopping Basket

o Purchase

o Registration / Login

o Delivery

o Returns / Refunds

o Customer contact – Telephone

o Customer contact - Email

About the author and eDigitalResearch

Derek Eccleston is Research Director at eDigitalResearch, a company which has research specialists with expertise in online business. The company provides multichannel insights, combining surveys, panels and communities to provide holistic perspectives to support decision making. For more information please visit www.edigitalresearch.com or email info@edigitalresearch.com.

About IMRG

IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) is the UK’s industry association for e-retail. Formed in 1990, IMRG is setting and maintaining pragmatic and robust e-retail standards to enable fast-track industry growth, and facilitates its community of members with practical help, information, tools, guidance and networking. For more information please visit http://www.imrg.org/ or email membership@imrg.org.