UK consumers look for price and good service online

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 09:03 by Simon Crisp

New research suggests that consumers in the UK value high quality service from online retailers when making purchases, while bargain basement prices are also very important.

A report published by eCommera found that the number of Brits making regular purchases online is still on the rise, with 42.6 per cent of the 2000 people who participated in the survey, claiming that they buy goods from e-commerce sites at least once a week.

The average online spend per month was found to be £71 and over 60 per cent of consumers confirmed that they were lured to online retailers because they would be more likely to offer better prices than their high street competitors.

Almost 40 per cent of respondents said that they preferred to shop online because of the variety and choice of products on offer, while more than half cited the importance of home delivery as the deciding factor in their online shopping habits.

The respondents were asked to list the things which would cause them to ditch an online retailer in favour of high street shopping and topping the list was the issue of badly designed websites with inadequate or inaccurate product descriptions.

Nearly 20 per cent of respondents said that event if safe shopping online was assured by a retailer, the late arrival of their order would have a negative impact on their experience.

UK consumers are apparently more easily convinced that an online retailer is worth visiting if they receive a recommendation from friends and family, with less than a tenth of respondents claiming to be influenced by email marketing campaigns or other social media.

eCommera's Andrew McGregor explained that a multitude of factors, including the promise of safe shopping online, would be required by retailers before consumer interest and customer loyalty could be guaranteed.