As retail becomes increasingly digital, greater pressure is being felt on the brick and mortar side of the business. But even online retailers face challenges, according to Esteban Ribero, Senior Vice President, Planning & Insights, Performics. His company recently fielded a study using the Digital Satisfaction Index™ (DSI) to measure online consumer attitudes. “We executed a retail-specific DSI surveying 1500 respondents that compared digital satisfaction for retailers in general, as well as for specific brands,” he explained.
Retailers, whether online or in-store, need to be able to
deliver the goods to consumers in terms of quality, service and value while
also finding the careful balance between personalization and privacy. I sat
down with Ribero and asked him the following questions:
Charlene
Weisler: What do you mean by digital satisfaction? What are the most important drivers in digital satisfaction?
Esteban
Ribero: There are all kinds of studies done around consumer satisfaction but
there has never been one for DSI retail. We wanted to see what drives customer
engagement in this area. We found that there are four components of digital
satisfaction:
1. How useful the
experience is. Can people accomplish what they set out to do when they visit
your site? How easy is that to do?
2. How secure is
your online environment? There are still a lot of concerns about privacy where
people have to feel comfortable about sharing their personal information
online.
3. Trust, which is
different from privacy. Retailers have to make sure that the information they
are giving online is truthful, accurate and reliable, especially in the context
of fake news. It is more important than ever now.
4. How social is the experience? How much
customers can get a peek into other peoples’ lives to create a more engaged
experience, how much they can read reviews and comment on those reviews.
Weisler: What
do shoppers generally think about the user interface of retail websites and
apps? Is there a constant? Do some retailers do it better and if so, what do
they do to stand out?
Ribero:
We were surprised to find out that consumers were very satisfied already with
the utility of their retail websites and apps. We thought that perhaps some
consumers would find sites clunky or not very human but the research shows that
people find the experience positive. Of the three retailers in our study (Lululemon,
Gap, H&M), Lululemon customers were the most satisfied with landing page
and app experience, and Gap customers were the least satisfied. This could be due to Lululemon offering a
more modern digitized experience.
Weisler: What
is the balance between privacy and personalization? Is there a concern about
the ultimate use/sale of personal data?
Ribero:
This was the most interesting takeaway from the study. There is a trade-off
between privacy and personalization. We go with the assumption that consumers
want more personalization and the industry strives to ascertain ahead of time
what consumers may want to insure greater personalization. However, as we have
done that, consumers may push back because we have been tracking them using
information that they did not give explicit permission for us to use for
tracking. So they feel more concerned about privacy and all the information we
gather about them. But at the same time they say that they want more
personalized experiences. The struggle is they want more personalization
without giving us any information to do that. What we need to do as an industry is be more
open with the consumer as to what information we use to track them. When we
don’t do this it tends to backfire on us. The trick is to make it feel like a
generic message but finding a way to tailor it to the consumer. Don’t put one’s
name on it – it feels creepy.
Weisler: What
is showrooming? What kind of shoppers are most likely to showroom, and how does
showrooming fit into driving digital satisfaction for retailers if at all?
Ribero:
Showrooming is the ability of consumers to experience the merchandise without
having to actually order online. When consumers are shopping in a brick and
mortar store, they may at the same time use their cell phone’s mobile apps to
browse products for that same store or competitors. That behavior is here to
stay and we are seeing it more and more.
Weisler: Based
on what you have seen in your research, where do you see the future of retail
in the next 3-5 years?
Ribero:
We always dream about that moment where, as in the movie Minority Report, Tom
Cruise enters a store and they know all about him – his preferences, his past
purchasing. I think we are getting to that but in a way that consumers see as
more controlled in their environment and their choices. At the end of the day,
that where I see where the future is headed. Consumers taking control of their
experiences, of the events they want, of the way they want to engage with
brands. And I see continued merging between the digital space and the brick and
mortar space. Brands will continue to transform their stores as showrooms to
get a seamless way for people to interact with the brand.
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
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