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Date:27 April 2012

Eccomplished Quarterly: April 2012

The connected consumer holds all the cards, and retailers are failing to connect early in the purchase process.

New report from Eccomplished explores the online purchasing behaviour of connected consumers who thanks to the rise of smartphones, tablets and connected TV are practically always online - so retailers never know when and where they will buy.

This report summarises insight from research of 2,000 consumers commissioned by Eccomplished between January and March 2012. A full copy of the report can be found here.

Social media failing to meet potential

Social media yet to have a significant impact – just 6% of shoppers draw on advice from their networks on social media sites when deciding what to buy.
Social is more important to the younger generation – the 6% rises to 11% for 18-34s.
Social also fails to persuade to buy, with just 1% of our shoppers claiming a recommendation through a social network persuaded them to buy.
And having completed a purchase, just 10% of our shoppers claimed they would be likely to ‘like’ or ‘follow’ the product or brand on a social network.

Online recommendation now more important than word of mouth

Over half of consumers visit marketplaces (54%)– with a huge range and associated recommendations and reviews as part of their research process
Just under a quarter (23%) of consumers speak to friends and family before making a purchase, but they value independent feedback more highly – 31% cite online reviews, whilst 18% are influenced by ‘Comments on online articles’
The importance of peer to peer ratings and reviews is further illustrated by post-purchase behaviour – four in ten (39%) consumers are likely to complete an online rating or review and 35% will recommend the product to friends and family.

Retailers are failing to connect with consumers when and where they decide to buy,

Lack of meaningful engagement early in the process is driving down price and purchase away from retailers sites.

Choices are driven by hygiene factors, with only the availability of product reviews and recommendations bridging the chasm between ‘what to buy’ and ‘where to buy’:

Price is an important factor in determining where to buy for 60% of consumers
Similarly, 28% of consumers cite promotions
‘The product was in stock’ drives 39% of choices
Convenient delivery options tip the balance 37% of the time
Ratings and reviews do the trick for 22% of consumers

Issue 1 of The Eccomplished Quarterly is published today, April 26 2012 with partners RichRelevance, SaleCycle and Ultimate Feed.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded here.

About the research
Survey Source: online omnibus survey of 2,000 nationally representative respondents. Fieldwork was conducted from the 4th-6th January, 2012 by SSI. SSI adheres to the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR guidelines.

Eccomplished is a free resource for online retailers, providing research and insight into how online consumers are behaving and retailers responding. Eccomplished is run on behalf of its members, leading ecommerce experts including RichRelevance, Ultimate Feed and SaleCycle.

For further information please contact Emily Cotton or Stephen Millard. Emily@eccomplished.com / Stephen@crackingmarkets.co.uk / http://eccomplished.com