Accenture: Retailers struggle to meet consumers’ in-store, mobile needs
New York -- U.S. retailers are struggling to meet the demands of consumers, according to a report by Accenture. An overwhelming majority (82%) of consumers expect a retailer’s prices to be the same in-store and online, up 13% over last year’s study, but only 34% of retailers met this expectation for more than 80% of the items assessed, Accenture found.
A survey of U.S. consumers and a separate analysis of how U.S. retailers operate across multiple sales channels indicate that, to win consumer loyalty and achieve growth across all channels, retailers must enhance their mobile commerce offerings and improve the in-store shopping experience. Only 42% of shoppers found it easy to complete a purchase using a mobile device, and when asked which aspect of the shopping experience is most in need of an upgrade, 39% ranked the physical store first, showing that retailers have not made much progress in these categories since last year’s report.
Thirty-two percent of respondents said the second biggest improvement retailers need to make in the consumer shopping experience is to enable them to use all three sales channels – physical store, online and mobile – in an integrated way.
The research also found that many mobile capabilities that can enhance seamless retailing remain underdeveloped. Consumers, for example, said they would like to access services via their mobile phones while shopping in-store. More than a third (39%) said that they would take advantage of the opportunity to earn loyalty points and save money on their purchases through in-store mobile phone offers, and 45% would like to receive real-time promotions sent to their phones or tablet. Yet, only 28% of retailers currently have the capability to deliver that service.
When asked specifically about the improvements that are needed to enhance the in-store experience, survey respondents cited easy ordering of out-of-stock merchandise (19%) and free Wi-Fi (15%). And 36% said they would order out-of-stock items via their mobile phone while in-store if they had that option.
“Our findings highlight a clear gap between the cohesion consumers expect from their shopping experience and what they seem to be getting,” said Dave Richards, global managing director of Accenture’s retail practice. “This suggests it is time for retailers to rethink their investment approach as they look to drive sales. It is critical for retailers to build the capabilities such as digital marketing and analytics that will enable them to tap into the core strengths of the physical store and seamlessly integrate with the rest of their digital offerings. The winners will be those most successful at transitioning their online visitors into in-store purchasers and vice versa.”
In other findings from the research:
• Free delivery continues to outweigh fast delivery in most cases. Fifty-seven percent of consumers said they would be willing to wait between four and seven days for free delivery, and 29% would wait eight days or more,
• Twenty-six percent of respondents said they would be willing to pay $10 or more for same-day delivery for an item they need urgently, 13% would pay extra for next-day delivery and 22% would consider paying $20 or more for delivery within two hours.
• Fifty-five percent of respondents think that scheduling a delivery from retailers is important; 11% said they would be more interested in scheduling a pickup at a collection point and scheduling a delivery during peak than scheduling within a one-hour delivery window (cited by 4%).
• When it comes to order fulfillment, 20% of shoppers said they have increased the use of the pickup in-store option this year. And 46% t of consumers said that consolidating an order into one delivery rather than multiple deliveries is “extremely” or “very” important.