Manhattan Unveils First Unified Commerce Benchmark for Specialty Retail in Europe
The Unified Commerce Benchmark for Specialty Retail in
Based on data from actual purchases, returns and customer journeys across digital and physical channels, the benchmarking reveals common attributes of successful retailers and opportunities for retailers to improve customer value and operations. Of the 50 retailers benchmarked, four brands emerged as overall leaders in Unified Commerce: Adidas, H&M,
Below are some of the key findings from each of the four categories assessed:
- Unified Basket: The biggest point of friction in today’s retail customer experience is due to the loss of context when transiting between the physical and the digital. Leaders in cart and checkout understand that a unified cart or basket is a foundational capability when it comes to that all-important connection across channels; 40% of leaders show personalised promotions and offers on product description pages and cart, compared to 6% of non-leaders.
- Guided Inspiration: Leaders in search and discovery help shoppers discover meaningful products, making shoppers feel good about their purchase decisions, with 100% of leaders publishing detailed content on sustainability practices. They offer capabilities such as product recommendations, back-in-stock notifications, and product sourcing information, while 40% of Leaders offered real-time inventory visibility on product detail pages and personalised recommendations on home pages.
- Flawless Fulfilment: Leaders in promising and fulfilment make sure shoppers’ product pick-up or delivery experience is as good as their shopping journey. Not only do leaders meet or beat their delivery promises consistently, they do also so while being more environmentally friendly too. Offering shoppers greater post-order flexibility, including complete or partial cancellations, and greater delivery/pick-up options are all areas leaders excel in. 60% of leaders offer shoppers the ability to cancel orders post-purchase compared to 28% of non-leaders.
- 360 Degree Service: Leaders in the service and support segment offer shoppers a wide variety of service options; from in-store assistance to call centres, social media support to live agents on their website and mobile app. Importantly though, they offer seamless continuity, consistent quality and always-on availability across channels and services. They empower shoppers to self-serve most of their service needs with 92% of Leaders supporting in order modifications, returns and exchanges via chat/call and 75% offering their customers the ability to return purchases to drop-off locations.
“Unified Commerce holds great promise for retailers and the key to it lies in not only seamlessly joining digital and in-person experiences, but also linking all the data and systems that enable them too,” said
“The European benchmark findings illustrate progress and investment are being made in addressing table stake capabilities such as channel integration, efficient search, payment options, sustainability choices and fulfilment. However, retailers are lagging in adopting many high impact differentiating capabilities and driving operational excellence,” said
Click here to view the complete 2024 Unified Commerce Benchmark for Specialty Retail in
Methodology:
Incisiv first developed a detailed parameterised list of Unified Commerce customer experience capabilities. Then, based on shopper insights, retailer executive surveys, retailer digital and store performance data, and segment-level KPI benchmarks, it organised key capabilities into Table Stakes and Differentiating Experiences.
Incisiv then developed an objective list of 50 retailers across five European countries and three Specialty Retail segments, choosing a mix of top omnichannel retailers by revenue, across apparel and footwear, home and DIY and luxury. All retailers had to be in good financial health, as determined by a combination of factors including their debt rating, and rate of store closures.
Incisiv’s team of customer experience analysts then conducted comprehensive shopping journeys, including real purchases and returns, across both physical and in-person channels. Assessed retailers were then scored based on the adoption of customer experience capabilities, the efficacy of each capability, and the consistency and quality of experience.
Based on their score, brands were organised into one of four performance categories - Leaders, Challengers, Followers, or Laggards - each with a statistically significant difference in capability maturity and impact on performance.
About
Receive up-to-date product, customer and partner news directly from
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240305822976/en/
For all media enquiries please contact
Source: