skip to main content

2,634 shops listed | Last updated: Thursday, March 28, 2024

Monitor Add a site

Online Personalisation Trends Impact High Street Store Expectations

Thursday, January 26, 2017 - 08:56 by Simon Crisp

Share on

Consumers are increasingly used to the idea of being presented with a highly personalised experience whenever they shop online, and the flexibility of modern digital retail platforms makes this fairly simple to achieve.

Customers can be presented with deals, offers and suggestions that are tailored to their tastes when they visit sites like Amazon. Now a new study from iVend Retail has shown how this is convincing people that in-store visits should be similarly adaptable.

27 per cent of respondents to the survey said that they believed the personalisation features of e-commerce sites should be reflected by real world outlets. This is up from just 13 per cent in an earlier report, suggesting that this may soon become a view held by the majority of shoppers.

59 per cent of Brits said that they got a better bespoke level of service when enjoying safe shopping online than when visiting bricks and mortar stores. 86 per cent said the web was unquestionably a more convenient platform for retail.

In spite of this apparent swing towards e-commerce, analysts noted that only 16 per cent of those questioned said that physical retail was an archaic anachronism. This is lower than in last year’s survey, indicating that people are actually warming to the idea of multiplatform retail which combines online and in-store experiences more closely.

In short, there is a growing demand for stores to offer just as much convenience as their online equivalents, with customers expecting to be able to find what they are looking for and pay for it quickly, rather than being held up at any point.

Queuing is still an obstacle that needs to be overcome, whether waiting in line for the checkout or to pick up items ordered online via click and collect.