SAN FRANCISCO — The online shopping experience still leaves something to be desired, with slightly less than half of shoppers giving retailers an average or lower grade for their e-commerce discovery experience.
The 42% of U.S. and U.K. consumers who gave retailers a “C” or less were part of a survey from Constructor, which looked at the state of e-commerce search and product discovery.
With nearly 275 million online buyers in the U.S. in 2023, spending more than $1 trillion, shoppers continue to complain about clunky or slow searches and results that don’t match what they are seeking.
The survey of nearly 900 shoppers found 44% saying its takes at least three minutes to wade through search results to find the desired product. For one-fifth, that process takes at least eight minutes. Just 24% of respondents described the process as “quick.”
The need to reformulate searches to get to the right products is a problem for 41% of shoppers who said they “frequently” or “always” have to change queries to get search engines to understand what they mean. And just as many (42%) said while the results are “technically” correct, they aren’t bringing up the products they were hoping to see or ones that reflect their preferences.
This correlates with the opinion by more than 40% of respondents that even when they shop a favorite retailer, the site treats them as a stranger, providing generic recommendations and no personalization.
The outcome of poor product discovery, the survey shows, results in more than half (52%) leaving the site to shop elsewhere. On the flip side, 62% said they would shop at a retailer more often, and 42% said that retailer would be their first choice if excellent search and product discovery awaited them. A fourth of them would even pay 5% to 10% more for an item if the experience was improved.
“Good product discovery experiences literally pay off,” said Nate Roy, director of e-commerce innovation at Constructor. “The bar for a good digital experience continues to rise and successful retailers work to meet and exceed shopper expectations.”
Among the features shoppers said they wanted to see from retailers are results that better fit what they are looking for (45%), better filtering (33%), personalized search results (30%), autocomplete functionality (27%) and better integration of online and in-store experiences (24%).
The use of mobile devices for e-commerce also continues to rise, with 61% of respondents doing at least half of their online shopping through this means and one-fifth doing all of the online shopping via mobile. While 21% of Baby Boomers shop with a mobile device, at 30%, this group is also the most likely to shop exclusively from a computer.
Constructor’s survey polled 585 U.S. consumers and 311 U.K. consumers regarding their online preferences and experiences on e-commerce sites, excluding Amazon.com.
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