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Amazon tops retail multichannel benchmark

By Retail Technology | Wednesday October 2 2013

Best-in-class mobile touchpoints earn e-commerce giant top spot in the latest industry study, scoring highly for search, navigation and purchase functions

The latest eChannel Retail Benchmark study from eDigitalResearch puts Amazon top after its mobile channels outperformed the e-retail brand’s popular and more established website.

Amazon has moved to the top of the table since the last set of results at the beginning of 2013, with a 3% rise in its overall multichannel score thanks to an improved mobile performance. Its mobile site and app scored particularly well for the search, navigation and purchase sections of the customer journey, with users impressed with its integrated barcode scanners and one-click purchase options.

House of Fraser has made the biggest improvement, moving six places up the league table to claim second spot. The department store retailer’s website performed particularly well, with users rating the brands shopping basket area highly thanks to its simple layout and integrated live chat help feature. However, House of Fraser still needs to improve its mobile touchpoints, especially its app, to bring them in line with the rest of its overall multichannel customer experience.

M-commerce performance improving

The study found performance of mobile channels in general has improved since the beginning of 2013 as retailers continue to invest in bigger and better mobile sites and apps. It said mobile sites now offer as good a purchase section of customer journey,as their website counterparts after witnessing a 5% increase in customer satisfaction with mobile shoppers making a purchase. However, the purchase section still remains a key area of the customer journey that website, mobile sites and apps need to look at in order to improve their overall multichannel customer experience.

According to the research, mobile developers particularly need to focus effort and energy on bettering the product pages of the mobile customer journey. Shoppers need the confidence to be able to buy products from a small screen and retailers should be offering all the features they provide online, including customer reviews, a range of images and zoom functions, to encourage users to buy products on the move.

Enhancing multichannel experience

Derek Eccleston, commercial director at eDigitalResearch, commented: “As digital channels continue to boom in popularity with consumers, retailers must make sure that they are offering a seamless and integrated experience across touchpoints. With both consumers and retailers increasingly bringing technology instore with initiatives such as free Wi-Fi, it has never been more important to ensure that a brand’s mobile presence enhances the multichannel experience. 

“Mobile sites and apps must help customers to search for products, read customer reviews and check stock levels, stopping them from buying from a competitor who offers them the ability to do all of this and more. As Amazon have proved, creating mobile features that utilise key features in today’s mobile handsets, making shopping on-the-go quick and simple will resonate well with multichannel shoppers and is only likely to enhance a brand’s image in the eyes of a consumer.”

Click here for a copy of the full eChannel Retail Benchmark results, following a short registration survey.

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