Night-owl UK consumers are indulging in evening shopping more than ever before with 26% making their online purchases after 8.30pm. Perhaps driven by the pressures of hectic schedules and long working hours, more and more people are shopping online and later in the day when they have got home, fed the family and finally have a bit of ‘me’ time.
Unfortunately though, it seems retailers are still blind to this fact with 72% failing to provide live customer query handling online or over the phone at this critical time.
To take the pulse of the level of CX UK shoppers are enjoying from the 100 most popular online retailers, Yonder Digital Group commissioned research canvassing the opinions of over 2000 consumers and found that the majority favour weekday shopping to weekends and that over a quarter are evening shoppers. The research also analysed the availability of online or telephone live agent support, critical for non-standard queries that automated systems cannot respond to effectively, and found it is rarely available after 8.30pm.
Chris Robinson, Yonder Digital Group CEO, comments, “Online retailers are clearly missing a trick here; a large, and growing, segment of the shopping population is being completely overlooked and cannot access live agent support online or over the telephone at the critical time when they are filling their virtual baskets and taking them to check-out. Any unusual queries such as those relating to bulk-buys or repeat purchases are likely to not be covered by automated CX systems leaving shoppers in the dark. Failing to find the help they need, these shoppers will simply turn elsewhere and purchase from a competitor that does provide them with timely support.”
“Online retailers don’t necessarily need to provide live agent support round the clock to solve the problem and rescue those abandoned baskets, but what they do need is to carry out thorough analysis of their customer data and understand when there are peaks in demand for live agent support. By understanding the customer journey to purchase better, online retailers will be able to strategically plan which resources to deploy and when they are most profitable, thus improving customer satisfaction and growing revenues.”