Dive Brief:
- Nearly 4 in 5 business leaders believe shoppers are impressed by the online shopping experiences they provide, but fewer than half of shoppers say they actually are, according to a survey of 550 e-commerce leaders and 1,000 consumers released by Deloitte last week.
- Less than two-thirds of consumers say brands offer accurate search and discovery, compared to nearly 4 in 5 e-commerce leaders that believe they do. More than three-quarters of leaders say they offer proactive delivery updates, but less than 3 in 5 shoppers agree.
- Improving CX basics could boost the bottom line, according to Bobby Stephens, principal in the Deloitte Digital retail and consumer products practice. Customers spend 37% more with brands that deliver consistent and positive e-commerce experiences.
Dive Insight:
While cutting-edge technology has the potential to reimagine the customer experience, brands still need to focus on getting the foundations right, according to Stephens. The new possibilities are exciting, but customers mainly seek transparency and simplicity.
“There's a chance to nail and retrench on those basics for brands,” Stephens told CX Dive. “Work to continue to improve them as customer expectations change and as the competition changes, versus setting them and forgetting them and moving on to a whole bunch of other things.”
An example of an overhyped CX investment is augmented and virtual reality, according to Stephens. Brands were seven times more likely to say these technologies are very important purchase drivers than consumers.
"Brands are out ahead of consumer expectations writ large, and will consumer expectations ever catch up?” Stephens said. “Maybe in certain sub sectors. Maybe with certain demographics. But across the board, if you're buying a white t-shirt, do you really need to view that in AR or VR?"
Customers will remain unimpressed by these next generation experiences if CX table stakes remain weak, according to Stephens. For instance, the survey found that only 28% of brands offer very easy filtering and sorting functions for product searches.
Additionally, more than 3 in 5 consumers seek simple cash-back loyalty programs. Stephens has found that consumers overall want programs that are easy to understand with clear financial benefits.
"If you don't provide those two things, what's the point?” Stephens said. “Donations to charity and cool experiences don't matter if it's really hard to understand and I don't get some financial benefit out of the relationship.”
Great loyalty perks are simple, offer easily understood financial benefits and shore up other elements of the customer experience at the same time, according to Stephens.
