Britons want to be in charge of their shopping experience. That means the freedom to shop where and when they like, whether online, over their mobile or in an in-store kiosk, according to new research.
Research from NCR Corporation, carried out by Buzzback Market Research, found that 83% of consumers wanted the flexibility to research, compare and shop across channels. And 84% said they wanted retailers to make sure their social media activities were integrated with their other communications such as websites and email.
At the same time, 46% feel they are bombarded with irrelevant information and offers over a “dizzying array of touchpoints.”
The answer, says NCR, is to provide shoppers with personalized offers and information, based on analysis on the shopper’s previous shopping history.
“Retailers need to harmonise the total cross-channel shopping experience in the emerging era of converged retailing,” says Rick Chavie, vice president of marketing of NCR’s retail and hospitality business.
A white paper about NCR’s research on converged retailing is available at www.ncr.com/c-tailing.
Our view: So it seems what customers want is converged retailing. The chances are that’s not the name they’re using for it – but certainly this study does bear out our sense that there’s a growing awareness that more can be done in e-commerce than retailers always offer to their customers. Certainly the inbox full of irrelevant offers will be familiar to most of us.
The question we’d like to see the answer to is whether an inbox full of junk mail makes us more likely to start ignoring the really relevant offers too – or if whole industry could benefit by making sure only the useful is sent out in the first place.
