A new in-depth report on consumer retail purchase behaviour
In 1999 Paco Underhill published Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. The first edition focused on offline or in store consumer retail behaviour. Although it was updated in 2009 to include online retail behaviour, it was still strongest for offline shopping.
This new retail research by Webloyalty and Columnino who specialise in the retail sector compares online and traditional shopping behaviour. We're recommending this in-depth report for retailers since it's a combination of consumer research, secondary research and market forecasting. The consumer research in this report is based on a survey conducted with a UK nationally representative poll of consumers. 2,068 consumers interviewed during January 2015.
How and when do consumers shop?
The report assesses the well-known consumer buying process:
Browsing - Gathering Ideas - Checking Product details & Prices - Leading to buying the product
It compare cross-channel behaviour and use of different devices. According to this research, 87% of…
Recommended design patterns and best practices for your Checkout Funnel
Checkout design is the last in our series of posts covering design best practices for different parts of the Ecommerce customer journey. Previous posts include discussion and examples and potential design elements to test for:
Home page
Product listing or category page
Product page
Site search pages
Shopping Basket design
Design issues for the checkout pages?
Checkout is the most critical part of the conversion path in some ways since it throws many challenges, due to the multiple stages, with each step influenced by the previous one. It is further complicated since it's not necessarily linear; so there is no standard path from start to finish and so this depends on the user's profile, where some steps can be skipped.
In the Smart Insights Ecommerce design guide, I focus on 3 stages:
1. Sign-In /Register
2. Personal Details and Addresses.
and 3. Payment.
One size doesn't fit all for the checkout flow,…
How do American consumers rate their level of multichannel CX?
For the 5th year running, the Temkin Experience Ratings has been compiled by researching 10,000 American consumers who have interacted with almost 300 retailers in the US. This survey breaks down by industry sector, how they evaluated their CX across a range of factors including Success (how companies are meeting the needs of their customers), Effort (Customer ease and accessibility) and Emotion (personal views on the customer experience at relevant touchpoints).
The top three companies providing a positive experience included Aldi, Publix and H-E-B and 5 out of the 12 top companies were from supermarkets. Whereby, those serving low customer experience were Coventry Health Care, Fox Rent a Car, Comcast and Fujitsu.
Source: Temkin…
Are you ready for 'Amazon Prime Air'?
Yes, it's April 1st, but this story is not made up, it's an exclusive report from the 30th March 2015 with the byline Guardian gains access to unnamed British Columbia site where tech giant’s roboticists and engineers, stymied by American regulation, are now developing their unmanned domestic delivery service.
I could barely believe this story when it was originally announced at the end of 2013 on Amazon's Prime Air page and the BBC that Amazon was testing package delivery by drone. The aim of the retailer is offer customers the choice to have packages dropped on their doorstep by flying robots within 30 minutes of ordering goods online. It seemed like science fiction turned into a nice piece publicity stunt.
The report this week shows that this is "for real" and Amazon has…
New research from 300 online retailers shows the impact of different types of personalized product recommendations on conversion rates and other Ecommerce KPIs
We're all familiar with the Amazon personalized product recommendations after many years of seeing and responding to them, but since this well-known whitepaper from the Amazon team explaining the thinking behind the 'collaborative filtering' aka Product recommendations on Amazon [PDF], it's rare for Amazon to share the impact of product recommendations on their results.
Recent research on Personalized Product recommendations from Barilliance sheds light on the impact of personalized recommendations based on an analysis of results from their clients. Barilliance analyzed revenue source data from over 300 eCommerce sites worldwide which use the Barilliance product recommendation engine.
Here are some of the main learnings from the research which highlight the potential gains from implementing personalized product recommendations. Hopefully some of these results are useful for benchmarking the relative importance of personalized recommendations with your site:
Percentage…
How do consumer purchases vary by age and product - new UK statistics
We know the overall popularity of online use and purchase with 38 million adults in the UK (78% of the population) now using the Internet and 75% of us have bought goods and services online. We have all seen the shopping landscape evolve over the years, as we see more charity shops lining our streets and vacant properties - is this due to the accessibility of information, technology, convenience, changing demographics as older generation are using the internet, or consumers looking for a bargain.
So what are consumers buying online?
The popularity of product purchase will naturally vary based on the need for consumers to touch and view products, but how big an impact does this make? The Office of National Statistic's report sheds light on this highlighting that Clothes were the most popular online purchases by 49% of adults,…
Understanding the Irish online: the E-Commerce Marketer's secret weapon
Irish online habits have changed a lot in a very short amount of time. In some respects the Irish demographic is very representative of typical EU online behaviour but in others it is quite distinct. This particular profile of Irish internet users should give companies and marketers some clear ideas of the approaches to take when selling in the Irish market online.
One of the most significant statistics in regards to the internet in Ireland is the penetration of broadband services across the country. According to Eurostat, 81% of Irish homes had broadband access in 2014. That is well above the EU average and means that more than 3 million people in Ireland are online.
Irish Internet users also spend more time on the internet than the EU average.…
How the Designer Rebecca Minkoff is using Touch Screens to recreate the Online Shopping Experience
Retailers have become creative in their use of digital technology to create an interactive shopping experience, as the trend continues as buyers are showrooming and stores are looking for ways to interact with their buyers in-store to boost sales. During Christmas, we showcased how retailers such as Ted Baker and Barneys created exciting digital displays and this has been embraced on a personal level, by the Designer Rebecca Minkoff in her American Stores.
The Minkoff stores were looking for 'a problem-solution approach' to technology; to take away the frustrations and pains of shopping. Their solution was to provide touchscreens as part of the shopping experience. In-store shoppers can request items and ask for assistance in their dressing rooms via touchscreen wall technology. There are instant…
8 areas for SMB retailers to focus on to increase retail sales
Where did 2014 go? The holiday season has come and gone, and now we’re facing a whole new year of marketing innovations and trends. To make sure you’re staying on top of your sales game, spring is the perfect time to try some new marketing and sales trends on for size. By the time fall rolls around, you’ll be pleased at the progress you’ve made improving your sales numbers and conversion rates.
By considering the following tips and tricks, you can better prepare for a great year of sales:
1. Work on your website
If you have an ecommerce website, now is the time of year when you should consider some changes and think about making some enhancements. The trends in 2015 are all about user experience. Focus on making your mobile site easy to navigate and visually appealing.…
Holiday marketing planning for retailers
Marketers, we know the struggle. We know that taking into account the holiday seasons are vital to your retail strategy and it's not just having an idea of what you will do, it's having a plan, a system and a course of action. Without these things, you’ll be left in the marketing dust. Timing is everything.
At Fathomdelivers.com, we have created this infographic and content, to give you a framework that you could work to for the year. If you are looking for management buy-in, it can help to have a visual calendar to show your plans - whether it's for a quarter, a six month period of the year ahead and also a great way to show your results if you don't have an analytics dashboard.
Here are some ideas of how we have used it to plan from October - January, for a retailerr.
October - SEO…
