According to the 'Customer Pulse Report UK, 2016', online sales have continued to grow, shown by figures from the 'Interactive Media in Retail Group', who claim sales grew by 15 per cent in 2016, exceeding £130billion in sales. However, as the online sales market broadens and matures, so does a customer's intolerance to poor experience and shoddy online practise.
As many as 73 per cent of online shoppers state they would switch to another retailer if they did experience poor service and 53 per cent of shoppers have recently experienced a problem with an online order during the last 12 months, compared with 47 per cent the previous year.
Consumers expressed their biggest online order concerns to be: late deliveries (42%) and missed deliveries – despite being present at the time of delivery (36%.) Other issues included; consumers never receiving an item (24%) and no items received, despite the delivery company stating otherwise (12%.)
Appropriately, there has been an increase in incorrect items received (21% - up from 15% in 2015) and damaged items received (26% - up from 22% in 2015.)
Clouder.co.uk decided to speak to consumers, to find out about their past online experiences and if they feel retailers need to step up their game. Accordin to the company's findings, in 2017, shoppers want free, fast and an accurate delivery of items and, it does appear that many retailers are showing signs of struggle in keeping up with these modern-day demands.
Mehdi Daoudi, CEO and Co-founder of Catchpoint said, "as more retailers reveal how much revenue growth comes from their online presence, the ability to constantly monitor how customers are experiencing digital services is going to be critical. It looks like the Great British Shopper expects a rich and responsive online experience that enables them to find and pay for what they want with minimum fuss."
Tomas Zalatoris, CEO of Clouder.co.uk added "customer satisfaction should be a priority in any business. At Clouder, we recognise the fast pace and precise nature of meeting consumer expectation in 2017; which is why we delivery free of cost and include a 1-hour delivery time, no matter the order, to retain our customer base and to ensure they are satisfied from start to finish."