Fashion retailer New Look has joined the likes of John Lewis and Amazon (who traditional lead the multichannel customer experience) in the latest eRetail Benchmark study from leading Voice of the Customer provider eDigitalResearch.
eDigitalResearch have been benchmarking the ever-growing digital customer experience field for fifteen years now, having championed the notion of the online customer journey way back in 1999. The eRetail Benchmark measures and assesses the entire end-to-end digital experience – from the homepage to making a purchase and after sales care – and covers key multichannel touch points, including web, mobile and app.
The latest study, researched throughout the crucial Christmas trading period, has found that New Look now top the table for their digital customer experience thanks in part to an extensive development of their mobile site. Surveyors were particularly impressed with the brand’s seamless and consistent homepage, search and shopping basket across all three digital channels. Their homepage is littered with clear, vibrant navigational links (especially on mobile) making it easy for users to delve straight into their product pages, while their fast and extremely accurate search facility makes it quick and simple to browse the entire New Look range.
Having topped the eRetail Benchmark over Christmas 2013, John Lewis continue to maintain their leading multichannel position, scoring particularly well on their website and mobile site. Users liked the retailer’s consistent navigational links, as well as their clear focus on security and customer support when it comes to making a purchase.
Year-on-year eRetail Benchmark comparisons reveal an increase in overall satisfaction. As more and more consumers continue to turn to digital touch points for their shopping and browsing needs (the majority of brands in the eRetail Benchmark now see more than half of their website traffic generated from mobile devices), retailers are increasingly developing their digital channels. Differences in the overall digital customer experience of leading multichannel retailers is now minimal.
Chris Russell, Joint CEO at eDigitalResearch, explains, “The digital customer experience has never been so important – and with a growing number of consumers now shopping online, we’re seeing retailers continually investing in their digital experience. However, as more resource is ploughed into online channels, we’ll soon reach a point where digital customer experiences are on a par with one another – we’re already seeing minimal differences between leaders of the eRetail Benchmark.
“A great digital customer experience is therefore becoming a key fundamental – or brilliant basic if you will. But unless brands are able to replicate their digital customer experience across the entire customer journey, including delivery and customer contact, then a great digital experience will mean nothing. Service and fulfilment will become vital in the next few months and years and will increasingly be what sets apart brands in the retail sphere”.
On the eRetail Benchmark’s fifteen year history, Chris continues, “At the beginning of the dotcom revolution, errors were commonplace – retailers were failing at everything, from their homepage to delivery. We identified an opportunity at eDigitalResearch and argued that online shopping is an ‘end-to-end’ experience – fail at any point on that journey, and customers were likely to be left unhappy and unlikely to return.
“It’s fantastic to look back and see just how far retailers have come with the online evolution and understand the positive impact that changes have had on the overall digital experience. The stories and innovations coming from the latest set of results are fascinating – but looking forward to what the future holds for digital channels and the effects on the overall customer experience is even more exciting and something we’ll continue to measure at eDigitalResearch”.
To celebrate the launch of the benchmark’s 50th edition and fifteen year history, eDigitalResearch are launching a comprehensive guide to the ever-changing digital customer experience.
Download a free copy of eDigitalResearch’s full benchmark results and key insight from across the past decade here
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