The Most Common Online Shopping Frustrations Revealed

The most common online shopping frustration among today’s consumers is being unable to find answers to any questions on their purchases, new research has revealed.

This is the number one grievance for more than half of 2,000 UK adults surveyed by Feefo. The report asked consumers a series of questions about their buying behaviours, including their top gripes with online shopping. Almost a third (30%) said being passed between call centre operatives was their biggest annoyance, while 21% said automated voice systems were their main bugbear.

The survey also showed how a nearly a third (30%) of consumers are no longer loyal to a particular brand if they suffer poor customer service. The findings revealed that online shoppers would choose to switch to a rival retailer after only one negative experience; highlighting how online businesses need to work harder to retain customers in this environment.

Source: www.feefo.com

Richard Tank, Feefo Head of Digital, said developing consumer confidence and trust is essential to online business success. ‘Brands small and large must do everything they can to build relationships with their customers, to ensure they keep coming back for more. Listening, learning and developing more personalised customer experiences is key to long term success. Technology as an enabler must be fully utilised in order for online businesses to achieve this.’

The results also showed that the majority of online shoppers choose to visit Google or Amazon when looking to make a purchase – over 40% of respondents said they use Google, while 38% choose Amazon as their first stop on their shopping journey. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they purchase there, but these tend to be their initial ports of call when buying online.

More than 80% of respondents said price is their biggest deciding factor when making purchases online, with a similar number saying that they use Frequently Asked Questions to inform their decisions, and a further 43% preferring to communicate directly with businesses via email. Elsewhere, 79% of online shoppers have abandoned their cart before completing an order with almost two-thirds (63%) attributing this decision to high shipping costs.

Further findings from the report revealed how 64% of consumers trust review websites in 2020, with almost half (49%) of online shoppers are more likely to trust closed review platforms over open review platforms when it comes to researching their online purchases. This broad range of customer insights from the Feefo study should help any eCommerce store take control of their strategy in 2020 and beyond.

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