Sarah Michael
November 14, 2012
news.com.au
THERE is no need for retailers to introduce “fitting fees” because hardly any shoppers try in store before buying cheaper online.
New research from the Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS) found just four per cent of people start shopping in store before eventually purchasing goods online.
And most of those people (61 per cent) did not intend to purchase online at first, but found the product they were looking for was not available in store.
“They were forced to – there’s not a lot of people going out saying ‘great I’m going to buy something online but I’m going to try it in store first,” said Jason Pallant, research assistant at the ACRS.
Just 17 per cent of those who went from store to online – or less than one per cent of all respondents – intended to do so from the beginning.
Do you test products in store before buying cheaper online? Or do you only do it when retailers are out of stock? Leave a comment below.
Mr Pallant said there was a myth created in the past few years that most online shoppers use in-store resources and staff for research before buying things online.
He added there have been rumours in the retail industry that companies would introduce “fitting fees”, which had led to people thinking the problem was worse than it is.
The survey of about 600 people found more than half (52 per cent) shopped in store only, 24 per cent started looking online then went into a store, and 20 per cent shopped online only.
The research also looked more broadly at omni-channel retailing, or stores that integrate their bricks and mortar, web and mobile offerings.
Mr Pallant said customers would shop elsewhere when they couldn’t find the product they wanted and this was a key problem for retailers – and something omni-channel retailing could address.
“That is the core idea of omni-channel retailing – just because one particular store doesn’t have stock [a customer] should be able to just make an order and the retailer fulfils from whatever place is quickest,” he said.
“Whether that means take it off shelf somewhere down the road, or it comes from the website, it shouldn’t be up to the shopper to deal with that problem – it’s the retailer’s job.”
Mr Pallant said a lot of retailers were struggling with this at the moment because it takes a lot of back-end IT systems and processes to organise the strategy.
“But to the shopper it sounds simple – they don’t care it’s under the inventory of another store, [they think] ‘who cares I just want that product and I want that now’.”
Mr Pallant said retailers should be looking to minimise “barriers to purchase”, which include anything that hinders customers from the research stage through to final sale.
The research found shoppers who experienced multiple barriers during their shopping journey were 30 per cent less likely to eventually make a purchase.
The most common barriers for shoppers were bad customer service, not enough specific information on a product or too much information about the range of products available that it became overwhelming.
The research also found the most appealing features for online shoppers were:
1. The ability to return products purchased online through physical store
2. The ability to check stock levels of individual stores through website
3. Consistent promotions online and in-store
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