According to a global consumer survey by the mobility and IoT company SOTI, COVID-19 has accelerated many e-commerce trends, and consumers have higher expectations of online stores today than they did a year ago. In the survey, 60 percent of Swedish respondents stated that a poor experience at an online store destroys their trust in that brand. SOTI notes in the report that deliveries must be faster, returns more efficient, and the protection of personal information and payment data improved so that retailers can remain competitive and continue to grow.
In both Sweden and the rest of the world, there are three aspects that the 6,000 respondents find most frustrating when ordering online:
- Delivery Time (38 %)
- Return Process (28 %)
- Having to create an account to shop (30 %)
“Brick-and-mortar stores were already under pressure from e-commerce even before the pandemic, but what’s interesting about this survey is how expectations and conditions for e-commerce have also become more demanding over the past year. This is an important factor for both brick-and-mortar stores—which are launching e-commerce operations—and pure online retailers to consider when planning their digital strategies,” says Stefan Spendrup, Head of Northern and Western Europe at SOTI.
One in four Swedes, 26 percent, say that during the pandemic they chose to shop at the store that could deliver the fastest. Even more—30 percent—say they look for another store to shop at if delivery takes more than two days. Twenty-one percent believe that the pandemic will cause stores that can’t handle delivery effectively to go out of business.
In addition to the shopping experience, retailers must also ensure that the entire process is simple and seamless, from search to purchase to return. Return processing has evolved from being a secondary focus for retailers to becoming a key factor in successfully converting visitors into customers. More than half—53 percent—believe the returns process should be automated to make it faster, and 51 percent say they would shop more at a store if the returns process were simple.
Arlington Research, an independent market research firm, conducted 6,000 interviews on behalf of SOTI using an online methodology, with adults aged 18 to 65, using nationally representative quotas for gender, age, and region established at the national level between December 21, 2020, and January 5, 2021. The 6,000 interviews were conducted in the following eight markets: the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, and Australia.
