• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, June 10, 2013

A new study from Forrester reports that while U.S. stores may have more digital offerings than stores in Europe, European consumers have higher expectations about how well stores should use those digital tools.

The report says that 65% of U.S. shoppers expect associates to use a mobile device to check product pricing, for example, compared with 75% of European shoppers. While 38% of Americans think the associate should also be able to check technical details about the product, 60% of shoppers in Europe think so. And whereas just 40% of U.S. consumers expect an associated to be able to use a device to learn when an out-of-stock item will be back in the store, 60% of Europeans do.

"While U.S. retailers lead the way in terms of deploying in-store digital technology," writes Martin Gill, Forrester Analyst and author of the report, "European consumers actually have higher expectations of a digitally enhanced store than their U.S. counterparts." 

And certainly, some European retailers are providing novel, and satisfying, digital tactics. Audi's 'Audi City,' a digital car showroom in London, invites customers to use Microsoft Surface terminals and gesture-controlled interactive video displays to explore the products. About 80% of the cars sold through the showroom happen without the customer taking a test drive, and 90% of buyers are first-time Audi buyers.

And Virgin Media is testing a “digitally enhanced” flagship in London. “The ‘Our House’ concept store is an environment designed to mimic shoppers’ homes, showing them how they would use Virgin Media services such as cable TV or WiFi in practice,” he writes. “Microsoft Kinect-controlled displays help shoppers build product bundles to suit their needs, with iPad-equipped store associates on hand to convert a shopper’s virtual shopping cart into an order. The store aims to bring a sense of experience and theater to retail.”

Overall, retailers are ripe for a digital reinvention, as stores increasingly look for digital solutions that don’t just offer consistent and helpful solutions for smartphone-wielding shoppers, but also a strategic edge for stores. 

“Successful eBusiness executives will develop a more rounded in-store digitization strategy that builds out the base capabilities (Wi-Fi, devices, training, etc.) and then creates differentiated, digital experiences that serve shoppers at all stages of the customer life cycle. Business cases must address both customer drivers and store cost drivers, leveraging digital technology to optimize sales and service to customers while reducing the store cost base.”

The report is based on almost 14,000 respondents from the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden, and more than 4,400 adults in the U.S.

"Mobile Shopping" photo from Shutterstock.