Yesterday the Minute addressed online holiday shopping and the fact that several research organizations noted robust increases for the recently passed November-December period, versus the same period
a year ago.
We suggested that consumers have grown increasingly comfortable with online shopping and can often find the items they want for the same price or even less than at physical retail
locations. One thing we didn't mention is customer service.
A research firm called Customer Respect Group (CRG) recently conducted a study of online retailers and shoppers' experiences with them.
CRG measures a company's attitude towards its customers based on the site's ease of use, company responsiveness to problems, transparency and privacy. The group also ranks whether a site abuses access
to customer data like e-mail addresses and phone numbers, and attitudes toward consumers.
CRG found that Amazon.com and Sears scored the highest in the customer satisfaction arena. Amazon set a
single-day record prior to Christmas with more than 2.8 million items ordered globally. Customers' experiences on Amazon, whether it's how easily they find the item they're looking for, their ability
to navigate the site, check out, use gift certificates, or check on an order status and delivery, matter a lot. People's experiences with online shopping, bill paying, e-mail, and anything for that
matter, spread via word-of-mouth which has become an all-important factor. It always was.
Interestingly, CRG says that Sears, Wal-Mart, and Kohl's also received kudos from online shoppers. These
are brands that are more likely to be bricks-and-mortar destinations but have worked hard to establish viable online presences. A retailer like Sears would do well to leverage its offline reputation
as a trustworthy, reliable brand.
Retailers should be concerned with their company's online image year-round, not only during the mad-dash of the holiday season. Of course retailers may rack up a
majority of their online sales during the fourth quarter, but in order for all those bullish forecasts to bear out, they'll need to adopt unwavering standards.
Finally, a point of clarification
from yesterday's Minute. The percentage growth rates for online holiday shopping offered by researchers including Jupiter, Forrester, Nielsen, comScore, and Retail Forward represent estimates and
projections; they are not actual measurements. We'll have to wait a bit longer for those. And comScore's 26 percent projection was issued in November, not December, eMarketer informs me.