According to a survey commissioned by Redwood Software, 83% of United Kingdom consumers leave stores because they can’t find what they want.
When asked about shopping habits, 83.15% of shoppers are leaving stores (and 72.5% leaving online marketplaces) because they weren’t easily able to find what they were looking for. Increasingly, customers expect companies’ online and physical storefronts to be integrated, delivering a seamless end-to-end experience. Waiting for a sales assistant to physically check stock room inventory made almost half (44.6%) of respondents furious. More so, an assistant’s inability to tell a shopper whether a desired item was in-stock online, or in another store, was also cited as frustrating (40.4%).
Other significant in-store and online shopping annoyances include: discovering that the wanted item is out of stock(51.75%); while 37.3% online shoppers too, did the same; the hassle of returning unwanted purchases online and in store- 57% and 33.5% respectively, and experiencing a delay in getting the refund after the return.
Even customer service desks, meant to address issues such as these, came under fire: 55.2% of those surveyed reported annoyance at having to complete an automated telephone system by entering their personal information, only to be asked the same / more questions by an operator. Similarly, 55.45% were annoyed when repeating information to multiple people or departments across transfers.
Source: Redwood Software Survey – Consumer Trends