Survey: Consumers, marketers have different ideas on what leads to purchases
A gap exists between consumers and marketers on how value is defined when shopping online.
That’s according to a new survey from marketing platform Wunderkind and agentic messaging platform Cordial, which found that more than half (56%) of consumers identify the lowest price as a leading consideration when deciding where to buy online. However, just a quarter of marketers believe price is a top consideration.
Fifty percent of consumers say discounts are among the strongest factors determining whether or not they pay attention to a brand message, while just 26% of marketers see discounts that way, according to the survey.
The research also reveals a gap between how marketers measure the impact of personalization and how consumers experience its value. While 61% of marketers say relevant product recommendations have a major impact on conversion, only a third (32%) of consumers say recommendations make shopping easier. Consumers place greater value on experiences that reduce friction, including saved carts (48%) and faster checkout (48%).
[READ MORE: Survey: Consumers leverage AI tools to compare prices, find discounts]
When it comes to the channel consumers prefer when being contacted by a brand, most (82%) prefer email, while 64% prefer text messages. Marketers place greater emphasis on social media, with 74% of marketers noting so, despite only 39% of consumers saying the same.
The report also found that for marketers, customer data remains the biggest opportunity for operational improvement. More than four-in-10 (42%) marketers say more accurate customer data would have the greatest impact on customer marketing performance, followed by improved personalization (37%). Limited customer data and fragmented systems are tied as the leading barriers to personalization (19%).
“Closing the customer marketing gap requires connecting customer identity, behavioral insights and reliable data to make better decisions about what customers need, when they need it and how brands can deliver value across every interaction,” said Rob Garf, chief strategy officer at Cordial. “AI and personalization have significant potential, but only when they are built around a clear understanding of the customer.”
Additional highlights from Wunderkind and Cordial’s survey include the following:
- Almost half (46%) of consumers say clear explanations of how their data is used would increase trust in personalization, while 41% value preference control and 41% want brands to use only information they have shared directly.
- Exclusive discounts are the top incentive for consumers to share their email address or mobile number (32%), matching marketers’ expectations (32%).
- Marketers most commonly use or plan to use artificial intelligence tools for customer service/chatbots (54%), predictive analytics (49%) and product recommendations (43%).
Wunderkind and Cordial surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers and 150 senior U.S. marketers for its report.
