Contact Solutions report - Mobile Shopping Cliffhanger

SHOPPER RESEARCH

Mobile Shopping Cliffhanger Consumers Identify Big Gaps in Retail Shopping Apps

Effortless & Sustainable Customer Care

table of contents

SHOPPER RESEARCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

KEY DISCOVERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

HIDDEN DISSATISFACTION IN MOBILE SHOPPING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

CARE OR CONSEQUENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

OPPORTUNITY ABOUNDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

WRAPPING UP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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Contact Solutions | Mobile Shopping Cliffhanger

SHOPPER RESEARCH

Mobile Shopping Cliffhanger Consumers Identify Big Gaps in Retail Shopping Apps Consumers are embracing online shopping, shifting a significant portion of their purchases from retail stores to the web at an everincreasing pace. According to Forrester Research, U.S. online sales will top $400 billion in 2018, and nearly $1 trillion worldwide*.

JOHN HIBEL

But now, a second wave of change is already well underway.

Consumers have less time, are more price conscious, and have access to more information than ever before- and that’s changing buying behavior. As a result, consumers are shifting a healthy portion of their online purchases from the web to smartphones and tablets.

Mobile shopping has arrived.

But there is a looming problem.

We recently completed a national consumer survey to identify emerging trends in mobile retail shopping. This research revealed a latent dissatisfaction with mobile apps. If retailers fail to address this problem, it will soon put a damper on mobile shopping revenue growth and customer loyalty.

Fortunately, consumers are telling us exactly what needs to be done.

And for those retailers who solve the problem, consumers indicate a strong willingness to reward them with more purchases, higher loyalty, and lower costs.

I invite you to read this report and find out what you can do to unlock the full potential of mobile shopping.

JOHN HIBEL DIRECTOR OF MARKETING CONTACT SOLUTIONS, INC.

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Contact Solutions | Mobile Shopping Cliffhanger

*Mulpuru, Sucharita “The New Paradigm of Retail” Forrester – July 24, 2014

METHODOLOGY

We surveyed 1,000 U.S. shoppers about their mobile retail shopping experiences.

gender

52% female 48% male

age

24% 18-29 30% 30-44 27% 45-60 19% 60+

education

9%

high school

31% some college 32% college degree 27% graduate degree

geography

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Contact Solutions | Mobile Shopping Cliffhanger

KEY DISCOVERIES

Consumers are embracing online shopping at higher rates, and they are migrating to mobile.

Thirty percent of shoppers choose physical stores for less than half of their everyday shopping.

BUY Time, convenience, faster Internet speeds are all factors. Consumers are on the go, but that doesn’t mean they want to go out of their way to a physical location.When given the choice between online and a physical store, shopper preferences are rapidly moving online.

Online-only retailers and mobile shopping are making a big impact on consumer habits.

52% do more than half of their online shopping with online-only retailers.

52%

30%

30% shop on mobile at least as much as they do on a computer.

Shoppers have high expectations about the level of service they receive, and with retailers like Amazon and Zappos offering easy one-click purchasing, mobile is already cannabalizing other shopping behavior. Shopping is shifting rapidly from traditional websites to mobile, but using mobile can actually help keep shoppers in-store as well.

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Contact Solutions | Mobile Shopping Cliffhanger

HIDDEN DISSATISFACTION IN MOBILE SHOPPING

Retail investments in online and mobile shopping experiences are paying off, but there’s a problem...

3 out of 4 shoppers shop online.

Consumers express satisfaction with their online shopping experiences, but convenience and the ability to cherry-pick the best deals, when and how they want, have given them high expectations.

39% of consumers are disappointed by the inability to get help within the mobile app experience.

With many mobile shopping apps still in their infancy, mobile shopping will grow, but ONLY if customer care can keep up with expectations.

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CARE OR CONSEQUENCES

Retail investments in online and mobile shopping experiences are paying off, but keeping the trend going requires attention to customer care.

The problem may be worse than it seems.

1 of 6 consumers say they struggle with mobile shopping apps more than half of the time.

And more than half (55%) of shoppers struggle with mobile shopping apps at least 20% of the time. With consumers experiencing so much struggle, mobile shopping apps are not close to reaching their full potential and in fact may be vulnerable.

When consumers struggle, 71% will abandon their cart or leave the app entirely.

71%

OUCH!

Avoid letting your business go off a cliff due to abandoned sales. If you don’t offer customer care in-app today, you are alienating more than half your customers and losing sales.

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CARE OR CONSEQUENCES

Mobile shopping apps: what consumers want

Consumers want an easy purchasing experience.

Mimics what they are used to on the web Fast and easy Personalized offers Ability to get customer care Many retailers are doing some of these things well, but not all. Failure to provide in-app customer care can be a deal breaker.

75% of shoppers say the ability to get customer care impacts their shopping experience satisfaction.

Consumers have high expectations when it comes to getting help on their own terms. If they can’t get mobile customer care, they leave with a poor customer experience.

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OPPORTUNITY ABOUNDS

Seamless customer care within the app will pay huge dividends

Shoppers will buy, and repeat business, if they have a great customer experience.

77%

95%

77% of shoppers will be more likely to return to the app. 95% say it will make them more likely to do business again.

92% of shoppers say it would be helpful to have customer care automatically provided within an app to help complete a task or a goal.

Shoppers will readily accept help when its offered, providing that function should be a no brainer.

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Contact Solutions | Mobile Shopping Cliffhanger

OPPORTUNITY ABOUNDS

Experience matters, and shoppers share how they feel. Make room for life’s interruptions.

When consumers have a poor experience with a retailer, 95% will rat you out.

95%

70% of respondents will tell friends and family when they have a poor customer experience. 43% will post a review on the company website or mobile app. 29% will share on their personal social network. 23% will post a review on a third party website.

92% of consumers say they will be more likely to make purchases if they could easily access previous customer service conversations.

Shoppers will buy if they feel supported and ready. Seamless customer care within the app will make 77% of shoppers more likely to return to the app, and 95% say it has an impact on whether they do business again.

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WRAPPING UP

Mobile customer care can enhance your brand experience, increase loyalty and stickiness, and give your customers something to talk about.

The rapid adoption of smartphones means retailers have more reason than ever to optimize their shopping experience for a mobile audience. But if you haven’t integrated customer care, you could be leading your customers off of a cliff to app abandonment. Today’s customers are on the go, highly tech-savvy, and have more choices than ever when it comes to where they spend their dollars. Mobile customer care can enhance your brand experience, increase loyalty and stickiness, and give your customers something to talk about.

If you’re interested in learning how to make effortless customer care a part of your mobile solution, we’d love to show you more of our research.

At Contact Solutions, we believe customer care should be effortless for the customer and sustainable for the enterprise. Our cloud-based, voice and mobile customer care solutions reduce effort through highly personalized self-service and agent-assisted experiences, provided at the convenience of the customer. We use business intelligence to continually improve and optimize customer care so enterprises can achieve superior results at sustainable cost, while adapting quickly to rapidly changing customer demands.

For more, visit www.contactsolutions.com. © 2014 Contact Solutions, LLC. All rights are reserved.

Contact Solutions reserves the right to make changes in specifications and/or to discontinue any product at any time without notice or obligation and will not be liable for any consequences resulting from the use of this publication.

Printed in the U.S.A. IDS.002.004 V1 * OCT 2014 Effortless & Sustainable Customer Care

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