The latest findings by a Feefo survey on online shopping behaviour makes for some compelling reading for online business owners. Perhaps one of the survey’s starkest findings was the admission by over 60% of the online shoppers surveyed that when they abandon carts, they do so due to high shipping costs.
While improving profit margins is of high importance to companies, this survey points to the need for businesses to swallow some of the shipping costs – passing them all onto the customer appears to be doing more harm than good. By sharing the costs of the shipping, the survey implies that companies have a big opportunity to improve their conversion rates on their websites and reduce their volume of abandoned shopping baskets.
Furthermore, this is backed up with the data that shows 38% of customers start their shopping at Amazon. Given the popularity of an Amazon Prime subscription, which provides free next day delivery all year round, or their offer of free delivery when you spend £20, businesses must ask themselves a tough question. While swallowing shipping costs is an added expense, is that worthwhile to take away one of the integral advantages of shopping with Amazon?
Feefo’s Head of Digital, Richard Tank, says that ‘While the influence of the ‘big two’ [Google and Amazon] won’t be changing anytime soon, brands small and large must do everything they can to build relationships with their customers, to ensure they keep coming back for more.’ With so many customers choosing to go elsewhere due to shipping costs, the survey’s findings emphatically point to this area as one where small brands can, and should, try to compete with Amazon.
Additionally, there are other areas that smaller businesses can offer something different to Amazon. 55% of consumers claimed that they looked at a business’s brand values when deciding whether to purchase from them or not. Customer service was another big area that was of importance to consumers, where businesses could do better – with 30% of customers saying their biggest frustration was being passed around a call centre.
Ultimately, with a third of consumers saying that they will happily choose another brand after just a single bad experience, small businesses cannot afford to leave a sour taste in a customer’s mouth. Choosing to offer free shipping could be just one small way to sweeten the entire consumer shopping experience.
The infographic below displays all the results from the survey:
Source: www.feefo.com ![How do consumers think and behave across the purchase journey? [Infographic]](https://f.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/5707407/feefo-cx-campaign-customers-purchase-journey.png)
