As feedback fanatics, it’s no surprise that we’re always curious to know about how different businesses are collecting feedback. In this article, we investigated some top-grossing e-commerce giants in the UK, with the hopes of understanding the current state of feedback in the marketplace, as well as what the future holds for the UK e-commerce market.
The acceleration of e-commerce throughout the world over the course of 2020 was hard to ignore, as customers shopped online out of necessity, and brands scrambled to change their strategies as a result. Therefore, it’s no surprise that online retail spend in the UK was expected to be a whopping £132.43 billion in 2021, according to Statista.
The reason for spending to be so high is no real surprise, we’ve noticed the digitalisation of retail for some time, leading to a natural increase in online spending. However, it would be pretty naive if we excluded the pandemic as a possible cause of this surge in online shopping. Whatever the reason may be, it’s good to note that the UK is the most advanced e-commerce market in Europe.
That’s why we thought we’d investigate some top e-commerce retailers and find out firstly what varieties of feedback they collect. We also wanted to search for gaps in their websites, and, finally, we wanted to suggest some ways for these e-commerce giants to improve and capitalise on their website traffic.
Let’s think about this practically, and say that you have a physical store. If you are doing things right, your store is easy to navigate, you make sure that the store itself is tidy, well presented and generally pleasant to be in. Not only that, but your staff engage with the customers, they ask them how their day is going, what their experience in the store is.
And if all goes well, that customer will go about their day with a smile on their face, recommending your store to whoever asks.
Humanizing your CRO efforts with soft data
An episode with CRO Specialist Tim Thijsse on 360 Digital
Unlike the physical store, e-commerce sites are missing the human element, you don’t really have any face-to-face contact with your customers. Sure, hard data will let you see how many people come and go, but it doesn’t fill in the gaps for all the people who leave your site with no obvious reason for dropping out of the funnel. So, how can online retailers make up for the missed opportunity for customer interaction? Well, the answer is quite simple: collecting customer feedback.
Status Quo: E-commerce in the UK
Let’s take a look at the top three major players in the UK e-commerce market and dive into how they’re collecting customer feedback.
Amazon
As I am sure you’re well aware Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, with a market cap of nearly 1,735 billion U.S. dollars. So it’s no surprise that they are the top e-commerce website in the United Kingdom.
But how does this retail giant collect feedback? After purchasing a product, customers can leave a handy review, either on site or via the follow-up email. You can also provide seller feedback when purchasing from a marketplace seller, rating your experience from one to five stars.
If you’re looking to leave some feedback on the Amazon website in general, about some issues at the checkout, for example, they have a full list of FAQ’s to help answer a host of issues. But, if this fails, then you can use the chatbot to help you solve any issues in real time.
Argos
Argos Ltd is one of the UK’s leading digital retailers, offering more than 60,000 products online and in-store. The business was established in 1973, but now, Argos is the UK’s number one toy retailer and a market leader in furniture, homewares and electricals. With an estimated number of 13.44 million monthly visitors, 90% of Argos sales originate online.
Unlike many e-commerce retailers in the UK, Argos makes use of a few different options for customers to leave feedback. Of course, like most e-retailers, they still make use of product reviews. After you’ve bought something online, they’ll email you asking you to review your item and your shopping experience in general.
Not only that, but the website has different feedback surveys customers can use to provide feedback on their experience, which are found via the feedback button on the side of the webpage. Argos utilises CSAT surveys to gauge customer satisfaction with their website and their FAQ articles, while the retailer also has a live-chat system to deal with complaints or feedback in the moment.
ASOS
ASOS plc is the UK’s largest independent online fashion retailer. The website sells over 850 brands as well as its own range of clothing and accessories, and ships to 196 countries from fulfilment centres in the UK, USA and Europe. Founded in 2000, ASOS has very quickly become a prime example of the UK’s successful e-commerce industry. Along with great shipping and return options, ASOS focuses on distribution efficiencies, and e-commerce localization.
Not unlike the other leading e-commerce websites, ASOS leans on product reviews for customer feedback. Upon purchase, customers are asked to take a short survey to rate their experience, or they can review the product post-purchase via the email receipt they receive. ASOS also has a chat option for support, but in general the business adopts a modern strategy by using social media, especially Twitter, to deal with complaints and feedback from its customers.
Free White Paper: Increasing Online Sales with Customer Feedback
Looking for new ways to boost online conversions and increase sales on your websites and apps?
Takeaways
Product reviews reign supreme
E-commerce sites in the UK love product reviews, not unlike the rest of the world. It makes sense, though. When you go to purchase something online, what’s the first thing you do? 90% of customers read online reviews before buying a product. In our e-commerce-driven world where customers miss out on the physical experience of products before purchasing, many consumers rely on online product reviews to gauge what the product is really like.
Social media allows immediate responses
Did you know that 80% of Instagram accounts follow at least one business, and an average user on Twitter follows five businesses? No matter what you’re selling, a social media presence is a great investment for your business. Social media monitoring can help you and your team gather customer feedback and respond to their posts immediately, and hopefully, solve any issues easily. However, this approach is like a double-edged sword. The whole world can see your customer’s issues, but they can also see how well or, how poorly you respond to them.
Missed Opportunities
Collecting feedback during the customer journey, at multiple points, ensures that you can find out any issues, before it’s too late. From our investigation, we noticed that a lot of e-commerce giants in the UK are not collecting user feedback throughout the customer journey. Collecting feedback post-purchase is a great step, but these giants don’t seem to want to find out why people might, for example, abandon their shopping carts at the final moment of purchase.
”If you want to improve your service offerings and provide visitors and customers with more inspiring and targeted content, it’s critical to ask them what they think of your website. While this is quite exciting and confrontational, it’s the only way to really improve.”
Joris Herremans, Manager Digital and Insights at Grand Vision
Here’s a few ways that the UK e-commerce market leaders could collect useful insights through customer feedback.
Relevant Targeting
Part of attaining good feedback is knowing how to ask the right questions, at the right time. In other words, a smart question routing strategy is key. With a more in-depth understanding of your customers’ pain points, you’ll be better equipped with the knowledge to improve those areas and, in doing so, enhance the customer experience. Mopinion offers a wide array of targeting options so that your timing is always right, and our product offers a good deal of feedback form templates, so you can always ask the right questions, at the right time.
Elodie Janse, Customer Experience Manager at Omoda reflects;
“Our online customers have had no personal contact, so we believe that they have less of a need to supply feedback, for example. These online customers also only receive the feedback form by email once they’ve received the product they ordered. We think it will be much more effective to ask them for feedback in ‘the heat of the moment.”
Check out the customer story to find out more about how Omoda uses Mopinion to deliver a seamless experience for their customers.
Email Feedback
One massively overlooked area in the UK e-commerce market is email feedback, and newsletters. Mopinion for email helps you gain insight into what your audience truly values, giving you the means to bring positive change to your email campaigns. By adding a feedback option to your emails and newsletters, you can start understanding how your readers perceive your emails. Find out more about email feedback and how you can gauge your audience’s preferences here.
Chatbots
Another somewhat underused method of feedback collection is chatbots, or conversational AI. From our research, we noticed that not a lot of e-commerce sites in the UK utilise this method. Conversational AI allows businesses to have two-way communication with the customer. Not only are businesses able to answer queries and issues faster, but the AI can also learn and build a relationship with the consumer. The advantage is clearly there, as stores using conversational AI in the right way are increasing annual revenue by 7 to 25%. Spoiler: Mopinion will release Conversational Feedback quite soon.
What are you waiting for?
Hopefully by now, you’re aware that collecting customer feedback is the best way to find out why people are dropping out of the funnel. According to a survey, British shoppers abandon online baskets worth almost £30 a month, potentially resulting in more than £18bn in lost sales every year.
Want to find out how Mopinion helps retailers like Calvin Klein and Sportscheck to increase conversion rates? Book a demo or try our free trial to find out what your online visitors and customers really expect from you.
Are you eager to read more about feedback in connection with e-commerce? Then visit our blog, full of handy tips and tricks on how to optimise your online shop at all stages of the customer journey.
Ready to see Mopinion in action?
Want to learn more about Mopinion’s all-in-1 user feedback platform? Don’t be shy and take our software for a spin! Do you prefer it a bit more personal? Just book a demo. One of our feedback pro’s will guide you through the software and answer any questions you may have.
