Holiday parties are a great place to learn through word of mouth about new retailers or brands that just opened nearby. Consumers grab their mobile phone and search in Google or Bing for the name to get an address, phone number and the hours of operation, but get nothing. And even if there's something, the information may not be complete -- or worse, inaccurate.
Uberall recently analyzed store listings for 250 stores from five of the largest retailers that announced major store closures by the end of 2019. These stores include Toys “R” Us, Dressbarn, Family Dollar, Office Depot, and Payless. There are several things that all of these had in common.
The analysis, conducted between Aug. 5 and Sept. 9, 2019, evaluated the quality of online information for the failing locations.
Across a sample of 250 failed stores from five major retailers, a mere 3% of the store listings, on average, were 100% accurate.
Some 51% of listings contained incorrect information and 46% of were missing information such as their address or hours of operation.
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Incorrect or missing information could lead to lost sales and even damage to brand loyalty over the long term.
Some 46% of listings featured missing information, such as a phone number or hours of operation, while 51% had errors such as misspelled names, wrong addresses, or more. Only 3% of the listings were completely accurate.
Of the five retailers analyzed, Family Dollar had zero listings with completely accurate information. Office Depot listings had the most incorrect information, with 63% of the information incorrect and 31% missing.
Dressbarn came in at No. 2, with 59% of the information incorrect and 36% missing. Payless came in at No. 3, with 51% of the information incorrect and 26% missing. Family Dollar came in at No. 4, with 46% of the information incorrect and 54% of it missing. Toys “R” Us came in at No. 5, with 34% of the information incorrect and 65% of it missing.