Majority of Online Retailers Could Leave Holiday Shoppers Hanging

  • by December 1, 2000
According to Jupiter Research, 56% of online retailers say they are prepared to handle high order volumes this holiday shopping season, compared to just 10% who were confident of their sites' infrastructure last year. Jupiter cautions, however, that the increase in online shopping traffic this season and online retailers' lack of customer service contingency plans could leave shoppers hanging in the event of a site crash.

Media Metrix, in a separate release yesterday, announced that unique visitors to retail sites during the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday increased by 40.3% compared to the same week last year, with the Media Metrix Online Shopping Index climbing from 25.1 million unique visitors to 35.2 million.

Jupiter's Executive Survey of online retailers found that while 51% of online retailers have made significant infrastructure investments, a mere 25% have contingency plans in place to handle potentially overwhelming customer service inquiries. Jupiter projects that, while online retailers' order fulfillment operations-including demand planning, processing and shipping-will improve over last year, internal communications systems may not be ready to handle the deluge of customer inquiries following potential site outages.

Based on its executive survey, Jupiter cautions that online retailers' customer call centers could be overwhelmed, causing potentially serious delays in response times and overall poor customer service. Only half of online retailers have solid communications protocols in place to effectively communicate internally during site outages and only 25% of retail sites said they would outsource peak customer contact volume this holiday season.

"The good news this year is that on the whole, online retail infrastructure is in better shape than in years past," said David Schatsky, Director of Jupiter's operations and infrastructure research. "Online retailers that survived benefited from past seasons' experiences, however many retailers might not be ready for the unexpected. Many do not have back up staffing plans for customer service overflow nor do they have a crisis plan to handle customer questions during outages."

Overall, Jupiter advises online retailers to under-promise and over-deliver. Steps retailers can take now include monitoring order backlog daily; communicating frequently with customers about changes in order status; keeping flexible staff on call in distribution centers and call centers; and making sure that promised delivery times can be met each day.

Jupiter also advises online retailers to monitor customer contact volumes and continually reassess staffing forecasts, they should develop multi-tiered internal overflow support by preparing non-service departments, such as marketing, merchandising and finance. Key internal departments should be notified of anticipated peak times throughout the holiday season and develop a mutual understanding of how customer support can be handled effectively a

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