Customer surveys in all retail environments have been vital to the long-term success and survival of some of the world’s leading brands, and yet they are not seen as a constant necessity to continually improve experiences or understand customer expectations.
In this blog, we’re going to reveal the power of customer surveys and the benefits fashion and apparel businesses are missing out on. The statistics included have been collected from 3 global markets by Purple for the ‘Retail. Not Dead, Just Different’ research paper, and additional resources
Where are consumers shopping for fashion & apparel?
Before we jump into the benefits of customer surveys, let’s take a look at how consumers are choosing to shop for fashion & apparel retail over the past 12 months.
US
Shopping preferences of consumers in the US over the last 12 months were almost an exact match with 60% of shoppers making a purchase in-store and 61% having made a purchase online. This split could have been influenced by a variety of lockdown measures across the United States.
UK
In the UK, shopping preferences have indicated that a higher number of consumers are looking to use multiple channels to make purchases. 75% of consumers had shopped in-store while 81% had made purchases online.
Mexico
Despite the majority of US and UK consumers favoring online shopping, respondents in Mexico favored offline channels with 66% of shoppers having made in-store purchases while only 52% utilized online shopping channels.
How important is it for fashion & apparel retailers to utilize customer surveys?
As 63% of retail consumers believe that being asked to provide feedback is critical to their experience, let’s find out if regional fashion & apparel retailers are delivering against consumer expectations.
How many consumers received a request for feedback in the last 12 months?
US – 36.6%
UK – 25.8%
Mexico – 37.8%
From this data, we can see that retailers are greatly missing out on understanding their customers’ experiences, and with 39% of consumers avoiding brands for over 2 years after having a negative experience, retailers must find a way to stop losing customers’ loyalty and find a way to encourage feedback.
How can retailers collect more customer feedback?
From the results of Purple’s latest research paper, we have identified the incentives which would encourage consumers to fill in a survey, and how those incentives differ between regions. More than 25% of all consumers are willing to provide feedback in return for no reward at all.
US
In the United States, we found that 35.9% of consumers are willing to fill out a customer survey with no incentive.
Personalized experience – 49.6%
Prizes – 66.9%
Special offers – 76.7%
UK
Consumers in the United Kingdom revealed that 23.6% of shoppers are willing to provide feedback with no incentive.
Personalized experience – 37.1%
Prizes – 64.7%
Special offers – 73.9%
Mexico
In Mexico, we found that 28.6% of consumers were willing to provide retailers with feedback with no incentive or reward.
Personalized experience – 60.8%
Prizes – 83.2%Special offers – 84.8%
Make the most of your existing WiFi offering
Engaging with customers can be a challenge especially when it’s not the right place or time, and what better way to increase the chances of collecting feedback than when customers access existing in-store WiFi?
What percentage of consumers log in to free in-store WiFi?
- In the United States 62.1% of consumers access WiFi when in-store.
- In the United Kingdom 61.1% of consumers access WiFi when in-store.
- In Mexico 80.8% of consumers access WiFi when in-store.
Research by Retail Dive has shown that “The average engagement rate of campaigns using three or more channels was 18.96% across all channels, while single-channel campaigns earned only 5.4%.”
By enhancing existing WiFi offerings with Captive Portals to collect customer data as well as in-depth WiFi Analytics, retailers are able to reach out to consumers directly with personalized messaging at the right time via automated marketing.
What’s next for fashion & apparel retail?
From the results we have collected we can see that consumers want physical stores to remain as part of their shopping experience, however, in order to survive retailers must adapt to combine online and offline channels to provide the best possible customer experience
Retail customers are looking for a digitally inclusive experience
The results of consumer shopping over the last 12 months are showing that in-store retail is still as equally as important to the consumer experience and buyer journey. Additional resources show that 72% of digital shoppers consider in-store experience as the most important channel when making a purchase, and 73% use multiple channels during their shopping journey.
Unified commerce is the next step for retailers to create a hybrid shopping experience and put the customer experience first. By linking online and offline channels retailers are able to personalize customer journeys and grow their data collection over time to improve operational efficiency and get ahead of competitors, and with 84% of consumers feeling that retailers should be doing more to integrate their online and offline channels, it can’t be ignored.