Harris Interactive conducted a survey on consumer shopping patterns this holiday season on behalf of Sun Microsystems.
According to this sruvey, 91 percent of American consumers will walk out of a store and shop elsewhere if they cannot find the particular gift they want. Adults online who plan to shop for gifts this season are equally unforgiving of online retailers that do not have the product they want when they want it — only four percent would buy a different gift on that same site. Technical hitches on websites are also likely to result in lost revenue for retailers with only 35 percent of consumers indicating that they would come back and try later. The survey’s findings confirm that retailers unable to meet consumer demand and deliver what they want, when they want it, may lose money to competitors. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
At a time of year when consumers spend the most, losing customers could translate to a worse year, overall, for that retailer. Sun Microsystems, which will have a presence at the National Retail Federation (NRF) event in January, believes that retailers who have made smarter technology investments in four key areas — lead time optimization, supply chain management, mark down optimization and labor force management — will likely have an advantage over their competitors this holiday season.
“Retailers who have not invested in smart processes and enough compute power to handle seasonal spikes in demand will feel enormous pain,” said Mike Green, vice president, retail industry, Sun Microsystems. “Harris Interactive’s research confirms that we live in a culture in which instant gratification is synonymous with customer service and it is now the standard expectation of shoppers. Add to that the compliance demands of Sarbanes-Oxley and it would be surprising if what retailers spend on technology did not increase again in 2005.”
Other Key Survey Findings:
— Virtually all of American adults, 99 percent, who plan to shop for holiday gifts this year, would buy some of their presents at a brick and mortar store. Only 16 percent of those surveyed expect to do all of their seasonal shopping in stores, confirming the transformation in consumer shopping habits over the past decade.
— 53 percent plan to do up to half of their shopping online; 31 percent would purchase at least a quarter of their gifts at online stores. 37 percent plan to engage in up to half of their shopping through catalogues, television or on the phone. This figure jumps to 61 percent among 18-34 year-olds.
— 60 percent of adults, who plan to shop for holiday gifts this season, would stroll into another physical retailer they cannot find the gift they want in a store, while another 31 percent would go online.
— Only four percent of online adults, who plan to shop for holiday gifts this season, would buy a different gift at the same online retailer if they could not find the gift that they originally wanted; 51 percent would visit a different online retailer if they could not find their gift at their first option and 29 percent would opt for visiting a store.
— Reinforcing how critical business continuity is, 42 percent of online adults planning to shop this season would visit another online retailer or a store if a website they visited was experiencing technical problems. Only five percent would contact customer service as an alternative; 35 percent would try the site again later.
Smart Technology Investment Delivers Happy Customers
To meet the demands of sophisticated, impatient consumers with a number of retail options open to them, Sun believes there are four critical areas of focus for their retail customers — whether they are bricks and mortar or online. In all of these areas, smart technology investment strategies are critical to bottom-line success:
— Lead time optimization makes sure that the right product is in the right store at the right time and eliminates stock-outs.
— Supply chain management helps ensure that the link from the sourcing of product through transportation and warehousing to the store is timely, efficient and unbroken. A key technology revolutionizing this chain is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that allows products to be tagged and monitored from source to shelf.
— Mark down optimization focuses on the need to eliminate costly overstocked product as quickly as possible by sending it to an outlet store or putting it on sale.
— Labor force management is critical with the peak demand of the season and the consumer expectation of high customer services levels. With 300 percent annual employee turnover in the retail world and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance in effect, identity management technology is becoming critical to keeping track of temporary employees.
“Technology exists to transform how retailers optimize product and labor management and improve the shopping experience for demanding consumers,” Green explains. “Happy, satisfied customers who come back again and again is the ultimate target for all retailers particularly at a time of the year when the most money is spent.”
murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
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