retail consultants

To state the obvious, the U.S. e-commerce market is the largest and most developed on the planet, but recent projections by Forrester Research suggest that the torrid double digit growth we have seen in the past five years will slow to 7-8 percent over the next three to five years.

While some sectors will fare better than others, many U.S. retailers will need to look elsewhere for growth opportunities for their online business.  This certainly begs the question of where that growth will come from and indirectly posits whether going international is the answer?

In a 2008 report by Jupiter Research, they predicted that one-half of all line users will come from Asia by 2012.  2009 projections by eMarketer for online growth rates around the world, supports the notion that Asia Pacific countries are poised to explode.  A sampling of 2009 growth projections for selected countries would be:

  • France 23%
  • UK  14%
  • China 66%
  • Australia 25%


To better understand the challenges, and solutions of companies who are conducting e-commerce on the international stage, J.C. Williams Group is undertaking a study with U.S. e-commerce firms who are currently engaged in or looking to commence e-commerce internationally.

One of the objectives of the study is to juxtapose retail executives’ perceptions with consumer actions.

At this juncture, we are able to provide a view of consumer behaviour through our partnership with  iPerceptions (www.iperceptions.com), a Montréal, Québec based analytics firm that specializes in tracking customer satisfaction for a variety of verticals’ (including retail) across a number of international markets.  Periodically, we will provide snap shots of two of their 4Q tracking study metrics to gauge the consumer actions. The 4Q survey is a collaboration between iPerceptions and noted web analytics author and blogger Avinask Kaushik.  It provides on-going benchmarks for corporate websites to continually refine their site’s usability through timely user feedback.

The two metrics, “task completion” and “satisfaction levels” are based on consumer evaluations of online retailers they have access to in their respective country.  The summary results below are based on a sample of over 700 consumers per country per quarter.

With the exception of France, overall Satisfaction ratings for the remaining countries over the two quarters are within 5 points of one another, suggesting a moderately satisfied group of retail consumer across these markets.  However, the “task completion” percentages show much more variance, with France once again registering the lowest levels.

Additional analyses of the results show that in the U.S. and China (including Hong Kong), the task completion levels and customer satisfaction are relatively in-sync with a 1:1 ratio.  The relative symmetry of both metrics is surprising when viewed through a variety of lenses such as market maturity; the online penetration levels as well as number of retailer selling online.

The table also shows that in both the UK and Canada, “satisfaction levels” are below the “task completion” ratings, suggesting that consumers in both countries may not be entirely content with the online retail offering.  In Canada, the lower satisfactions levels may be a function of the limited Canadian offering relative to the plethora of sophisticated online retailers south of the border.

In France, online shoppers registered higher satisfaction levels as compared to the task completion figures. 

 “When” as opposed to “if” will be the key question for E-commerce retailers who are pondering the notion of going international.   These results, provide insights into the respective market’s e-commerce maturity, consumer behaviour and attitudes for the respective countries; but also begs other questions.  As market benchmarks, it provides standards to manage your websites in various countries, and prioritize improvement efforts.
 
Of course you will need to conduct your “due diligence” for the respective markets to build your business case, and gaining a more complete understanding of some of the drivers of these two metrics would be part of that process.

As we look to the future, providing more insights into these results and looking at them from different perspectives will be the goal.