February 26 2008

UK shoppers stick to trusted sites?

Trust Index research reveals shoppers only buy from five or less e-tailers

Eighty four percent of online shoppers trust only a handful of e-commerce websites when buying goods, according to research from Avail Intelligence.

The Avail Intelligence Trust Index has revealed that almost half (48 percent) of internet shoppers browse between ten and 20 websites before making a purchase. However, more than three quarters of us only buy regularly from five or fewer trusted websites.

More than half (52 percent) of those questioned rated Amazon.com as the most trusted site, followed by ASOS (20 percent).

According to Avail building consumer trust remains a critical element for e-commerce success and that e-tailers must ensure their customer strategy centres around improving the online shopping experience through relevant product searches, therefore increasing the ‘trust’ a consumer builds up with a site.

“The e-commerce market is extremely crowded, however our research shows that there are a golden few sites that people will return to again and again to make their purchases,” said Dr Rolf Elmér, CEO, Avail Intelligence. “Today’s e-commerce customers expect more from sites than cheap prices and home delivery – tailored searches, related purchases, personalised recommendations and trusted reviews of products are essential to the buying decision. If the products they are presented with don’t match their preferences, shoppers will quickly move on.”

“The critical goal for any e-tailer is to get into a shopper’s site shortlist, and stay there,” Elmér continued. “Get it wrong and sites will remain out in the cold for a very long time.”

Here at IR we’re not hugely convinced that it’s trust that makes consumers go to just a handful of sites, we’re of the opinion it’s down to convenience and price. Most people are happy to wander aimlessly around 10-15 different high-street shops on a Saturday afternoon when they have time and money to spend, but if you’re looking for one particular item and it’s mid-week the number of shops reduces to a handful, and we think the shopping patterns are no different on the web; you tend to go to a search engine and then delve into the top five or six results from there on. We think trust only comes into it when it’s a big purchase, otherwise we wouldn’t have the huge number of internet retailers, and the IMRG wouldn’t be showing record online sales month on month.

by Marcus Austin (Web Editor)