Trust Key for Online Retailers

With the latest comScore numbers showing a 19% increase in retail e-commerce spending from October 2006 to October 2007 and another report projecting online sales to reach $31 billion this holiday season, the attention of online marketers will naturally be centered around what strategies can be deployed to stimulate conversion by making the online shopping experience as smooth and enjoyable as possible.

Fortunately, the results from iPerceptions' E-Commerce Industry Customer Satisfaction Report for Q3, 2007 offer a blueprint for success by identifying strengths to be leveraged and weaknesses to be targeted for improvement, based on data collected from leading online retailers.

Relative to their best online experience, visitors to these sites were asked to rate specific website Attributes on a 0 to 10 point scale.

In ranked order, here are the Attribute results:

Some comments:

- With Trust emerging as the clear-cut strength across brands, this is compelling evidence that e-retailers have collectively done a bang-up job of positioning their websites as safe and secure shopping channels.

- Facebook’s new advertising platform re-emphasized the importance of
trusted referrals in driving new business. In our Q3 industry findings, the score for Referral indexed in the middle of the pack. It seems e-retailers have a bit of work to do in convincing their visitors to become brand evangelists.

- Discovery, which gauges visitors’ ability to find what they were looking for, surprisingly indexed as the second-weakest Attribute. Many website visits are strictly task-based; the visitor is there to find something and will evaluate his/her experience accordingly. Leverage robust search tools, effective linking, and clear, uncluttered navigation to send visitors happily on their way to a purchase.

- The old adage is that content is king, and it appears to have lost none of its potency in the digital space. While the overall relevancy and pertinence of site content graded out solidly among Q3 respondents, content depth was the greatest area of weakness across brands. The key learning here is not to be skimpy on product specifications. The devil is in the details.

Q3 results were gleaned from online surveys running on the websites of 7 leading e-commerce brands and comprising responses for close to 30,000 visitors. In a sample of this size, scoring variations of +- 0.05 are statistically significant at 90% confidence.