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Shoppers vote for easy cross channel return
Archived article dated Thursday January 25th 2007
Consumers are taking to cross-channel shopping putting the focus on call and collect or return models linking store and online operations.
by Penelope Ody
Some two-thirds of shoppers want to buy online but return the goods to their local store if they are not suitable - and in the US more than 50% already say it “very easy” or “somewhat easy” to do that.A survey for Sterling Commerce of 1,000 US consumers found that cross channel shopping is now a way of life for many. Almost half (47%) felt that a choice of shopping in store, by telephone or online was “very important”, while 31% felt this was “somewhat important”.
However, when it comes to returns, taking goods back to the store was the clear preference. Only 16% found sending merchandise back to a pure-play online vendor “very easy” with 49% labelling the process “somewhat difficult” or “very difficult”. Of those taking goods back to a store 42% were “very likely” to spend time looking around while they were there, while a quarter were “very likely” to buy additional items during the “returns” trip.
Sterling Commerce argues that the results suggest that providing a cross-channel return option not only positively influences the initial buy decision, but can also bring additional sales. In all around 78% of respondents said they would possibly buy additional items when they returned goods to a store.
“Achieving cross-channel excellence is the next evolution in multi-channel retailing,” says Steve Poplawski, retail industry executive at Sterling Commerce, “and it is a difficult process to execute well because it often crosses internal organisational and process silos.”
While this US study shows significant support for cross-channel opportunities a recent UK study for Enterasys Networks of a similar number of random adults, suggests that as many as 43% of consumers are deterred from online shopping by security concerns. Consumers are even more worried, however, by local government's online security while only 35% of those questioned believed their employer's data was secure.
• Latest customers form Sterling Commerce's multi-channel systems include Cabela, a US specialist in outdoor equipment. It is using Sterling's Order Management suite - in part based on the Yantra products it acquired a year ago - to manage the lifecycle of customer orders across the extended supply chain. Cabela also hopes that the system will provide a unified shopping experience across all its channels regardless of the ordering or fulfilment method selected.
Tagged as: consumers
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