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Accenture Survey: Retailers Still Playing “Catch-Up” With Mobile Customer Expectations

The number of on-the-go mobile consumers increased by a healthy 10% from 2014 to 2015, and retailers have been hurrying to meet the needs of this fast-growing group. However, the 2015 Adaptive Retail Survey from Accenture reveals that retailers still remain a crucial few steps behind:

  • 47% of consumers want more retail services via mobile devices, particularly real-time in-store promotions. Yet only 7% of retailers actually have the ability to send them;

  • 32% of shoppers want to be able to scan products in-store using their mobile devices, but only 17% of retailers provide scanning capabilities; and

  • 42% of shoppers want to receive automatic credit for coupons and discounts via their mobile phones, but only 16% of retailers can automatically credit coupons.

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With these shortcomings, shoppers continue to have mixed feelings about retailers’ ability to meet their expectations, according to Accenture.

The majority (67%) of shoppers were satisfied with store environment and product quality, while thoughts on staff and omnichannel capabilities were mixed. Slightly more than half (52%) were happy with the delivery process and consumer-staff interactions, while 51% were happy with the online shopping environment and returns capabilities.

The Race Is On

“This year’s survey confirms that retailers have begun to adapt to the evolving needs of their customers,” said Patricia Walker, Senior Managing Director and North America Retail Practice Lead at Accenture. “However, the challenge they face is investing in building the important digital elements of their channel strategy while remaining focused on driving profits, which in many cases is still primarily driven by stores. Retailers need to understand however, that they are actually involved in a race that will likely accelerate, as consumers continually seek more value, greater convenience and better customer experience across all channels.”

To compile this research, Accenture conducted two surveys at the end of 2015 that gathered insight into both the retailer and consumer points of view. The first was an online survey of more than 10,000 consumers in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the U.S. Respondents had to have shopped both online and in stores during the last three months of 2015

For the second study, Accenture benchmarked a global sample of 162 retail companies in November 2015, assessing them on nearly 200 dimensions that evaluated their performance across six metrics:

  • Consistent experience;

  • Connected shopping;

  • Flexible fulfilment;

  • Personalized interaction;

  • Integrated merchandising; and

  • A better, faster, memorable experience.

Shoppers Seek Product Availability Info

A significant majority (68%) of retailers say they employ staff who can give detailed product information. However, only 1% of them actually provide their sales staff with tablets or mobile devices that would enable them to access the personal histories of customers while they shop in-store. This ability to check on both the products sold as well as consumer purchasing history will be vital for retailers headed into 2016 and beyond, according to Walker.

“Visibility across channels is becoming more important to consumers globally,” Walker said. “Our research found that the number of consumers who want the ability to check product availability online prior to visiting a store almost doubled this past year, to 49%, up from 27% in 2014. However, just 28% of retailers offer this capability.”

Personalization Takes Priority…But How Much Is Too Much?

For the most part, retailers are taking measures to better understand their customers in order to provide more personalized experiences. For example, 71% of retailers have established loyalty programs, while 88% enable shoppers to access Facebook (or the global equivalent social network) via their web site.

These personalization efforts are designed to put more control in the hands of consumers: 41% of retailers allow shoppers to specify the marketing preferences they desire, while 22% allow shoppers to create profiles of their likes and dislikes.

While personalization is becoming more adaptive to consumer needs, there is still a thin line between the methods that are, and are not, acceptable for retailers to use. The research indicated that 75% of shoppers believe that a retailer’s ability to automatically adjust the price of items for loyalty points and other discounts is a “cool” offering. Yet the reaction to a sales associate knowing the items in a shopper’s online wish list or shopping basket was not as positive, with 41% labeling it as “creepy.”

When a web site “knows” this information as opposed to an actual person, the reaction is much more favorable. Up to 45% of shoppers said that a retail web site that automatically tailors to “who I am, what I like and what I have previously purchased” is “cool.”

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