Shane Schick tells stories that help people innovate, and to…
Nearly half of consumers say they continue to experience problems shopping online, leaving them less satisfied than when they visit a brand’s physical locations, according to research published by Coveo.
While in-store shopping continues to hold appeal for consumers, Coveo’s report found that 94 per cent prefer to either start or end their purchase online. The biggest pitfall is in the post-purchase phase, where 49 per cent of consumers said they were hamstrung by navigation or search issues. More specifically, 56 per cent said they could not find the information they wanted on their own at this point in the journey.
The role of a strong retail web site was just as an important if consumers came to it directly or via another channel. For instance, 39 per cent said they often see products that catch their interest on social media, but the most popular next step was to purchase the product through the retailer’s site (45 per cent).
Despite the availability of “buy” buttons and digital storefronts on many social platforms, only 14 per cent of consumers opted for this method. Instead, 31 per cent said they would check to see if the item was in stock at their local store.
Unlike physical stores with attractive layouts, however, 39 per cent said retail web sites don’t have enough filtering options and they are presented with too many choices. Perhaps more to the point, 44 per cent said finding what they’re looking for in a few clicks would have the strongest impact on their perception of a brand.
“It’s time to rethink product discovery with a healthy dose of AI to streamline shoppers’ path to purchase,” the report’s authors wrote. “Inject an intelligence layer to your site that provides them with personalized search suggestions, dynamic filters that adjust to each request, and generative AI that answers their questions like an in-store advisor would.”
360 Magazine Insight
Coveo’s research speaks to the fact that many organizations, including retailers, may be too caught up in perception of generative AI as a means to create content and overlooking its more valuable use cases.
The technology’s ability to summarize and organize large quantities of information could be what many brands need to provide the kind of product filtering consumers are looking for, as well as the self-help kind of content they depend on the post-purchase phase.
Retailers may be slow to adopt these kinds of AI use cases because they don’t recognize how some of the challenges mentioned in the report are affecting their customer retention rate and revenue. In fact, this could be a case where brands would do well to replicate a questionnaire similar to Coveo’s and field it to their own database. This could be part of a overall strategy to improve the digital experience, rather than throwing up a chatbot and hoping for the best.
This gated 13-page report also captures consumer attitudes about generative AI, but they’re somewhat hard to swallow given how recently the technology has reached mainstream awareness. Sure, more than 70 per cent of consumers may say they expect generative AI to enhance their online shopping experience, but let’s be honest: they’d be open to almost anything that would do that.
Shane Schick tells stories that help people innovate, and to manage the change innovation brings. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of Marketing magazine and has also been Vice-President, Content & Community (Editor-in-Chief), at IT World Canada, a technology columnist with the Globe and Mail and Yahoo Canada and is the founding editor of ITBusiness.ca.
Shane has been recognized for journalistic excellence by the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance and the Canadian Online Publishing Awards.
