NEW YORK, Jan. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- NRF 2019
-- People do not want to speak with robots while shopping
in-store or online according to a new study conducted by Oracle
NetSuite in partnership with Wakefield Research and The Retail
Doctor, a retail consulting firm created by expert consultant and
business mentor Bob Phibbs. The
global study of 1,200 consumers and 400 retail executives across
the U.S., U.K. and Australia found
a huge disconnect between shopper demands and what retailers
deliver in areas spanning the overall retail environment, social
media, personalization and the use of advanced technologies such as
chatbots, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality
(VR).
"These findings point to a clear and urgent need for better
customer service," said Bob Phibbs,
CEO, The Retail Doctor. "No retailer wants their customers to be
confused or anxious, yet more than half of respondents have felt
that way while shopping. Customers will feel confident when they
develop an emotional connection to the brand. This happens when
retailers foster positive, helpful in-store interactions; contrary
to popular belief, millennials want store employees to help them.
With nearly every respondent reporting that they value
brick-and-mortar stores, now is the time to craft every in-store
interaction to keep shoppers coming back."
Mind the Gap: Retailers and Consumer Are on Very Different
Pages
Despite significant investments in enhancing the
customer experience online and in-store, retailers are not able to
keep up with rapidly changing customer expectations and this is
creating a huge disconnect.
- 73 percent of retail executives believe that the overall
environment in retail stores has become more inviting in the past 5
years. Only 45 percent of consumers agree, with 19 percent stating
it has become less inviting.
- 80 percent of retail executives believe that consumers would
feel more welcome if in-store staff interacted with them more. Less
than half (46 percent) of consumers agree, with 28 percent noting
they would feel more annoyed.
- 79 percent of retail executives believe chatbots are meeting
consumer needs. Two-thirds of consumers (66 percent) disagree, with
respondents noting that chatbots are currently more damaging to the
shopping experience than helpful.
- Almost all (98 percent) retail executives think that engaging
with customers on social media is important to building stronger
relationships with them. Only 12 percent of consumers think it has
a significant impact on the way they think or feel about a
brand.
Personalization is Proving a Problem
Despite almost
half of consumers (42 percent) – and almost two-thirds of
millennials (63 percent) noting that they would pay more for
improved personalization, only 11 percent of retail executives
fully believe that their staff has the tools and information needed
to give consumers a personalized experience. The gap between
consumer demand for improved personalization and retailers' ability
to deliver is damaging the customer experience.
- 80 percent of consumers do not feel they are provided with a
personalized shopping experience both in-store and online.
- More than half (58 percent) of consumers are uncomfortable with
the way stores use technology to improve personalization in their
shopping experience and almost half (45 percent) reported negative
emotions when they receive personalized offers online.
- The majority of consumers (53 percent) felt negative emotions
the last time they visited a store; only 39 percent feel confident
in retail stores today.
Shiny New Technologies Are Not the Silver Bullet
While
retailers are aware that they don't have the tools and information
needed to meet rapidly changing customer expectations, the study
found that hyped technologies such as AI and VR are not yet the
answer.
- Nearly all (90 percent) retail executives are not confident the
use of advanced technologies to customize the shopping experience
is meeting consumers needs.
- 79 percent of retailer executives believe having AI and VR in
stores will increase sales; only 14 percent of consumers believe
the technologies will have a significant impact on their purchase
decisions.
- Almost all (98 percent) retail executives believe AI and VR
will increase foot traffic; 48 percent of consumers do not think VR
or AI would have any impact on how likely they are to go into a
store.
A Simple and Streamlined Future
Despite the popularity
of online shopping, physical stores aren't going anywhere. As long
as retailers keep the experience easy and seamless, consumers will
keep shopping in-store.
- Nearly all (97 percent) of consumers agree there is a need to
go into a physical store to purchase items and the majority (70
percent) believe the most appealing retail stores have features
that simplify and streamline the shopping experience.
- The top features attracting consumers to physical stores are
options consistent with online (36 percent), simpler store layouts
(35 percent), staff orders on a mobile device (29 percent) and
in-store kiosks that allow consumers to purchase products that are
unavailable in-store (23 percent).
- The top technology advancements that consumers want to utilize
when shopping in-store or online are self-checkout kiosks (38
percent), VR try-on (23 percent) and mobile payments (15 percent).
Only 5 percent of consumers selected robots and chatbots as the
technologies they most want to utilize.
"Consumer expectations are not only rapidly changing, but
exactly what expectations look like vary from person to person and
moment to moment. This makes it incredibly hard for retailers to
keep up," said Matthew Rhodus,
director of retail, Oracle NetSuite. "The results of this survey
show that while the retail industry is often considered to be at
the forefront of consumer experience innovation, there's still a
long way to go to meet shopper expectations. What this means is the
opportunity for retailers to improve the relationship with
consumers is tremendous."
To read more about NetSuite's insights into the report's
findings visit the Netsuite blog.
Methodology
For this survey, 1,200 consumers and 400
retail executives were surveyed around the overall retail
environment, in-store and online shopping experiences and advanced
technologies. Both retailers and consumers were surveyed from three
global markets including the U.S., U.K. and Australia with retail executives representing
organizations between $10-100 million
in annual sales.
About Wakefield Research
Wakefield is a full-service
market research firm that uncovers insights for brands to help them
solve problems and grow their business. Wakefield Research is a
partner to the world's leading consumer and B2B brands, including
50 of the Fortune 100. Wakefield Research conducts qualitative and
quantitative research in 70 countries. For more information, please
visit https://www.wakefieldresearch.com
About The Retail Doctor
The Retail Doctor is a
New York-based retail consulting
firm created by expert retail consultant and leading business
mentor Bob Phibbs. With over 30
years of experience in retail, Bob has worked as a consultant,
speaker, and entrepreneur, helping businesses revolutionize their
brand and grow their success. Bob is also the author of three
highly-praised books, including The Retail Doctor's Guide to
Growing Your Business (WILEY). His clients include some of the
largest retail brands in the world including Bernina, Brother,
Caesars Palace, Hunter Douglas,
Lego, Omega and Yamaha. For more information, please visit
www.retaildoc.com
About Oracle NetSuite
For more than 20 years, Oracle
NetSuite has helped organizations grow, scale and adapt to change.
NetSuite provides a suite of cloud-based applications, which
includes financials / Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), HR,
professional services automation and omnichannel commerce, used by
more than 16,000 customers in 203 countries and dependent
territories. For more information, please visit
http://www.netsuite.com
Follow NetSuite's Cloud blog, Facebook page and @NetSuite
Twitter handle for real-time updates.
About Oracle
The Oracle Cloud offers complete SaaS
application suites for ERP, HCM and CX, plus best-in-class database
Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
from data centers throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information about Oracle
(NYSE:ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com.
Trademarks
Oracle and Java are registered trademarks
of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
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SOURCE Oracle NetSuite