Cyber Monday shoppers were more satisfied with their online experience in 2007 than they were in 2006, according to a new study from ForeSee Results.
“The increase in customer satisfaction year-over-year on Cyber Monday bodes well both for sales during the holiday season and during the rest of the year, because satisfaction is a proven predictor of sales, financial performance, and word of mouth recommendations,” said Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results.
“Online retailers seem to be figuring out how to maximize the value of the increased traffic they see during the holidays, starting with Cyber Monday.”
Cyber Monday customer satisfaction was up 1.3 percent in 2007 or one point from satisfaction levels in 2006 (score of 76.6 vs. 75.6 on ForeSee’s 100-point scale). “E-retailers are doing a better job every year preparing their sites to handle the incredibly high volumes of traffic they see on Cyber Monday. We see higher scores with issues like functionality and site performance than we have in previous years,” said Freed. “
“In addition, certain promotions, like free-shipping and two-day sales, have become a lot more common and sophisticated than they were last year, which seems to be paying off.”
For the first time since ForSee results began releasing a holiday benchmark in 2004, online shoppers were more likely to make a purchase both online and offline on Cyber Monday and in the weeks prior to it. Retailers have become better at using their Web sites to increase the likelihood that people will shop on multiple channels, instead of just online.
“In past years, we’ve seen a much less integrated multichannel strategy; shoppers were likely to either buy online or offline, but not both,” said Freed. “This year, we see that retailers have figured out a way to use the online visit to drive sales both online and offline, which really maximizes the value of the website for a multichannel retailer.”
