Study: Omnichannel experience has a ways to go

Retailers need to improve several aspects of their omnichannel customer engagement strategies if they want to truly satisfy customers.

According to the 11th annual ForeSee Experience Index (FXI) 2015 Retail Edition, which analyzed consumer surveys from retailers including Amazon.com, Apple, Best Buy, Costco, CVS, Dell, Etsy, Gap, The Home Depot, Netflix, Neiman Marcus, Nike, Nordstrom, REI, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart among others, online website satisfaction is on the rise.

Web customer satisfaction scores rose to 79 on a 100-point scale this year, up two percentage points from 77 in 2014. Store and mobile satisfaction scores are flat at 78 and 79, respectively. And while mobile payment still isn’t widely used by U.S. consumers, it is becoming a more important part of the mobile experience. In 2015, 28% of shoppers say they're open to using mobile payment, compared with 21% in 2014. Security is seen as the primary mobile detractor.

In addition to being more satisfied, online consumers are also more likely to engage with retailers across channels. Forty-one percent of customers who buy online have also stopped into a store location in the past three months. That's compared to 31% of store shoppers who subsequently visit the store online.

Despite technology-fueled advancements in the customer experience, shoppers are still looking for the same thing as always. Price is the highest-priority element of the shopping experience across the three major channels of web (89%), mobile (67%) and store (62%). Merchandise ranked second in all three channels.

Amazon leads all 50 U.S. retailers studied with a customer satisfaction score of 86 on a 100-poimt scale. Amazon had the same score in 2010, and rose as high as 88 in 2013 before dipping to 83 in 2014. In good future-oriented news for Amazon, 39% of web and mobile shoppers would select drone delivery as a shipping option if available.