It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like (Many UK Retailers Aren’t Ready for) Christmas
Christmas comes once a year — and always on the same date — but a third of UK online retailers may need to be gifted calendars under the yuletide tree this year.
According to research from ecommerce analyst Ampersand, one in three online retailers are failing to provide basic online shopping services in time for the Christmas season.
“Ampersand’s research looked at four basic services that retailers should be implementing to increase sales from the 95 percent of UK adults who now shop online,” notes eConsultancy in a recent post. “These include offering a persistent cart (the ability to add items to your basket on one device and checkout on another), a transactional mobile site, express delivery (Sunday, same or next day), and free easy returns. One in three of the top 100 online retailers are not offering their customers at least one of these services that are essential to a good cross-channel customer experience.”
An astounding 26 percent of UK online retailers do not offer free returns, now de rigueur for the holiday marketplace. While 64 percent of the top online sellers offer next or same day delivery, very few include Sunday shipments.
All of these things could cause consumers to bark “Bah, Humbug” to many online retailers this year.
Ampersand’s Darryl Adie, Managing Director at the firm, said “With £8.7 billion being spent via smartphones and tablet devices between May and July of this year, retailers need to do everything in their power to make the mobile shopping experience easy for consumers, especially during the Christmas rush. Those that are yet to offer basic services that consumers demand are in danger of missing out on potential revenue and customer loyalty.”
