IBM study reveals retailers' online challenges
With the 2013 holiday shopping season almost in full swing, retail business leaders around the nation are relieved to hear that U.S. consumer spending rose more than expected in October. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that their minds will be at ease during the busiest shopping season of the year. As one would expect, their thoughts will be wrought with economic uncertainty, increased competition and the challenges surrounding omni-channel retailing – a multi-faceted (and often difficult) push toward creating a seamless shopping experience for customers.
Understanding the customer struggle and addressing their pain points is at the top of eCommerce business owners minds and it was also at the center of a recent IBM survey titled, “Reducing Customer Struggle 2013.” The survey, which was conducted for IBM by Econsultancy, surveyed more than 500 business professionals around the globe and within a wide range of industries.
The study revealed that mobile is a key focus for many companies as well as the dynamics of today’s consumer. “Specifically, companies understand how customers behave during the initial awareness stages of the sales funnel, but still lack understanding around the purchase stages and the reasons behind cart abandonment,” IBM editors explained.
Takeaways from the IBM survey, such as those listed below, show that online retailers have an uphill climb in regard to fully grasping and delivering on customers' online needs:
7 percent: The amount of surveyed companies that said they have an “excellent” understanding of the overall online customer experience.
78 percent: Those who said their company has a “good” or “okay” understanding of the overall online customer experience.
40 percent: Companies that agreed to the statement that “delivering positive customer experiences is harder on mobile than the web.”
70 percent: Survey respondents that described their multichannel experience as “okay” or “poor.”
4 percent: The amount of respondents that said they provide an “excellent” multichannel experience.
7 percent: Those respondents who said “very much so” to whether the offline parts of their business have visibility into individual customer engagement via digital channels.
73 percent: Surveyed companies that plan to increase investment in online channels this year.
53 percent: Companies that expect to increase investment in social channels.
Furthermore, survey respondents said 19 percent of their total traffic can be attributed to the mobile channel. Those same respondents went on to identify bad navigation, screen-sizing issues and form-filling problems as the top three mobile issues that they face today. About 72 percent expect to invest more in mobile channels moving forward.
For retailers that rely on IBM's WebSphere Commerce, contact the team at NetSphere Strategies. IBM recently enhanced the ability for launching mobile sites, and we'd be happy to help.
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