CorpComms Magazine

The majority of consumers find online shopping a disappointing experience and complain that e-tailers fail to offer the services they would like, a new survey of 2,000 online shoppers has revealed.

Almost nine out of ten shoppers say they find user reviews absolutely vital yet just 42 per cent of online retailers offer this service, the survey by web content platform EPiServer found.

Just one in five of retailers offer product recommendations even though the majority of online shoppers claim that they find this feature useful.

While many e-tailers offer a 'wish list' service, almost six in ten (58 per cent) shoppers say that they consider options such as 'other shoppers bought' more valuable to their decision making process.

The survey, 'Developing your e-commerce strategy: how to deliver what consumers really want', targeted four specific areas: overall web experience, browsing, after-sales and buying. The average score achieved by 25 UK retailers, taken from the Hitwise Top 50 Shops list, was just 63 per cent.

The survey also found that, while retailers succeeded to deliver the fundamentals of e-commerce, they often failed to go that bit further and provide a more pleasurable online experience. However, 97 per cent of online shoppers conceded that e-tailer sites were easy to navigate while 96 per cent say they have an effective search function.

Maria Wasing, vice president of marketing Europe at EPiServer, observed: 'There are major challenges ahead for retailers. The ones that tap into the power of the social-web and social commerce to gain traffic, loyalty and revenue will be the ones that succeed.'

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