E-commerce News

As the world of ecommerce continues to grow and evolve, it’s important for merchants to take note of changing consumer trends and preferences so that they are in the best position to adapt accordingly.  There are a bevy of studies and reports that regularly emerge detailing these trends, which we highly recommend retailers keep follow.  Knowing what potential customers are looking for when it comes to online shopping is the best way to position yourself as a leader and separate your operation from the competition.

Case in point, we came across a study today proving that online shoppers are increasingly becoming more diligent in their product research and price comparison efforts.  We can assume that a lot of this is due to continued economic problems which are forcing consumers to be frugal, but the data offers retailers of every size and scope solid information from which to build on.

The Compete Online Shopper Intelligence Study indicates that a whooping 94 percent of online shoppers now conduct research prior to making a purchase.  Furthermore, the study revealed that 61 percent of those polled rely on search engines more than any other online shopping resource, ahead of coupon sites (35 percent), retailer emails (29 percent) and online product reviews (24 percent).

While general and comparison search engine usage is high—amounting to roughly 80 million users totaleach year—the report also dictates their popularity is often dependant on the type of products being sought.  Apparel and clothing shoppers, for example, are the least likely to use such online shopping methods, relying instead on retailer websites and catalogs and purchasing from retailers they’ve bought from before.  If you’re an apparel retailer, this type of information means that establishing customer loyalty is a huge priority.

Electronics shoppers also use comparison engines less than the general public but they are more active in seeking out information on new items, whether it be professional product reviews, social-content reviews and recommendations from friends and family.   As such, electronics merchants would be wise to incorporate various mediums for reaching new and existing customers, since these consumers appear to be more well-informed than some of their counterparts who prefer other product categories.

What else did the report show?  Sales assistants, of both the online and in-store variety, are utilized by shoe shoppers more than any other category of consumers.  This would seem fairly obvious for brick and mortar retailers since finding the right fit in a shoe is paramount to making a purchase. But it also indicates that online shoe merchants could increase their effectiveness by incorporating some sort of web chat or interaction with their customers during the buying process.  Finding the right fit means less returns and happier shoppers.

You can read a little bit more about the Compete report and check out graphical results for the data it collected on Compete’s blog.  As always though, we encourage you to leave us a comment with your feedback and thoughts!