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All I want for Christmas...
Consumer faith in shopping online is clearly increasing but so are consumer expectations.
by Ian Davis
While shoppers are becoming highly active online, they are also adopting increasingly high standards - not just when it comes to the overall purchasing experience, but also the subsequent service and support that a company provides. Online retailers need to realise, despite the fact that their 'behind the scenes' operations
A returns management strategy is crucial for anyone wanting to sell online and something worth careful consideration. Customers frequently underestimate the complexities behind orders which are placed on the web. When someone wants to return a purchase to a bricks and mortar store, the process is clear cut: the customer will have a physical receipt and is able to return to the high street store which, in many cases, will have its own store room on site. However, when looking to return something bought online, consumers are often not mindful of the processes and technologies which have to work together in order to make that return possible. Unlike the physical process of travelling to a high street store, the ecommerce customer touch point is confined to a website on their own PC in their own homes. While this, of course, can make the shopping experience far more convenient and personalised than in the off-line environment, when it comes to returns during the hectic festive season, the customer reaction is almost to want to push the product back into their computer.
The e-commerce site, which could once be regarded as a silo that stood alone, must now be a highly integrated application that touches many other systems and processes. The team that develops and supports it contains a mix of technical and business professionals who drive an important part of the corporate strategy. As businesses become more imaginative about how they mix their Web channel with other customer touch points, clean and easy integration is mandatory. Just about every element of an e-commerce application may be either self-contained or driven by other systems. The key question to ask is: how can the Web application integrate with in-store systems for in-store or warehouse pick-up or returns processing? If a third party supplier makes an error, the customer will associate it with the etailer. To ensure customer loyalty in 2008, customer service across the entire purchase lifestyle and supply chain must be the imperative for etailers.
Ian Davis is head of OnDemand at ATG
Tagged as: atg | online shopping | fulfilment
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