Online purchase experience feedback of more than 24,000 web users Focus on the differences between General Retail and Food & Grocery

Wwebsite functionality quoted by more than half of clients as the first characteristic that has impacted their online shopping!

Digital experience specialist Yuseo recently conducted a study comparing the feedback given by internet shoppers concerning their online experience, across two different sectors, namely the ‘food & grocery’ market and the ‘general retail’ market. Yuseo gathered the views of over 24,000 online users as to the types of characteristics they value most when using the internet to purchase either food or more general goods and then compared the differences.

Online shopping experience: what clients value most?
Clients of these online shops tell us their views by selecting the four main elements that have impacted their shopping experience. The characteristics that they value most from their latest online shopping experiences on these websites, in the 3 first positions in both markets are: the ease of use, the smoothness of purchase process and a wide range of brands. Each item (on average in both markets) was quoted by 53 % of the 24,000 shoppers questioned for the ‘ease of use’, by 51% for the ‘smoothness of the purchase process‘ and a ‘a broad choice of well known brands’ received 47% of votes. Clearly, the overall handling of the web site comes across as playing a major part in the online purchase satisfaction.

Beyond these aspects, results show more specific characteristics for each field of business. For Food & Grocery, 33% of online buyers quoted at the same level the ‘freshness and products of good quality’ and ‘many good own brand products’; a bit as a surprise, the ‘pricing’ aspect was ranked 6th. Finally the visual characteristics seem to have little impact on the customer experience in this business.
While for the General Retail, the ‘pricing’ aspect comes along at fourth place with 36% closely followed by ‘the existence of interesting offers’ (35%). The visual aspects with 33% ("different images of the products" and "visual and good quality images") are just behind.

Retailers’ focus: the challenging balance between “performing” and “showing my differences”!
Clients of the biggest retailers in these two sectors underline the differences in their positioning as they are involved in a challenging environment.

Food & Grocery
Tesco’s website leads the aspect of ‘ease of use’ and ‘smoothness of the purchase process’ with 51% and 48% on these items. Sainsbury’s follows closely with 51% and 46%. Tesco is also on top on the ‘a broad choice of well known brands’ voted by 42% of its clients.
For the ‘freshness of products’ and ‘broad choice of good own brand products’, 48% and 45% of Waitrose’s clients acknowledge these items. Ocado follows slightly behind with 47% and 32%.
The shopping experience on Asda’s site is unanimously appreciated for getting the ‘best price guarantee’ with a 51% score, against 25 % for average of the sector.

General retail
66 % of Amazon, Marks & Spencer and Littlewoods customers welcome ‘the smoothness of the purchase process’.
For the ‘broad choice of well known brands’, House of Fraser and Littlewoods are on top receiving 68% and 67% of votes from their clients (the average score being 57%).
House of Fraser performs also quite well compare to its competitors on the ‘visuals and high quality images’ topic acknowledged by 47% of its customers. On the ‘existence of different product images and possibilities to "zoom"’, House of Fraser and M & S are hand in hand with 45% (the average score being 33%).
Tesco Direct is recognised for its attractive pricing policy: 51% of its clients praise the ‘guarantee of the best price’ and ‘attractive promotions‘(44%).
Debenhams remains in the fray on most items but is acknowledged for its attractive promotions “ahead of the pack” for 46% of its customers.
Finally, John Lewis outperforms its competitors on the client information and assistance with 47% of its clients selecting this item (29% on average).

The results pinpoints, from a customer perspective, the items that made a difference for each retailer when purchasing last with them. From a new customer point of view, the results and findings provided by the competitive benchmark – the Observatory - enable to pinpoint which items of the online customer experience do impact the attractiveness and image of the site…

Yuseo – specialist in digital behavioural analysis – Where Usability and utility meet Marketing
Leader in France in the digital User Experience surveys, Yuseo has dedicated itself for 11 years in managing customer behavioural studies to deliver hands-on recommendations on different interfaces (Internet, Tablets, Software, Cell Phones …) in projects with significant international exposure (Europe, USA, Japan, China). Awarded in the DELOITTE EMEA «Technology Fast 500», Yuseo offers a unique positioning based on its proprietary online behavioural analysis tools (WebBehave and Yuscard) developed by its in house R&D team to deliver a relevant and actionable measure of the customer experience. Introduced in 2005, such qualified and quantitative measure of the online customer journeys enables to prioritise the drawbacks directly impacting the satisfaction, image and attractiveness of the site.