Shoppers Want ‘Seamless’ Experience In-Store, Online, via Mobile (April 16, 2013)
Whether it’s in-store, online or using a mobile device, consumers want a seamless shopping experience, with nearly 90 percent of consumers saying it’s important to them to be able to shop in the way that is most convenient for them, regardless of the sales channel, according to a recent report.
More than 80 percent of consumers also reported that the flexibility to pay for a product using cash, payment card or other method, such as e-wallet, is “important” or “very important,” according to the report by Accenture, a management consulting, technology services and outsourcing firm.
“Seamlessness is a tall order for most traditional retailers,” said Chris Donnelly, global managing director of Accenture’s Retail practice. “In many cases we have found a significant gap between consumer expectations and reality.”
The poll of 750 U.S. consumers indicates that only 26 percent of consumers found shopping by mobile phone to be an easy experience, compared with 94 percent who said in-store shopping is easy and 74 percent who said the same about online shopping. However, 43 percent of consumers plan to shop more online in the future and 23 percent plan to shop more with their mobile phones. Eighty-five percent of respondents said they would use loyalty points or real-time promotions if offered to them on their mobile phones as they shopped.
While “showrooming”—when consumers research a product in-store then buy it online—has been a problem for brick-and-mortar retailers for years, 88 percent of consumers reported “webrooming,” which is browsing on the Internet then buying in-store. About three-fourths of respondents reported “showrooming.”
