UK online retailers could be losing millions of pounds worth of sales from customers who click away from a full basket and abandon their purchases, according to new research.
The study, from Aspect Software, found that 52% of retailers questioned claimed that they did not act on abandoned baskets with 12% saying that they had no plans to introduce a recuperation strategy.
Despite 99% retailers agreeing that recouping abandoned baskets on online stores would increase their sales, only 37% said they were currently employing technology in their contact centres, such as sending personalised emails, to address the issue.
On average, retailers claimed that sales increased, or were expected to increase, by 13% when doing so.
Of those that follow an abandoned basket recuperation strategy or who planned to do so, 81% said they followed up or planned to follow up with customers within 24 hours.
The study, which analysed the current and future customer engagement strategies used by UK retailers, also discovered that multi-channel retailing, better use of automation in the contact centre and home working for agents were all key trends to monitor over the next 18 months.
For customer engagement, the survey also found that mobile applications and SMS prove to be the most popular channels, with 27% of retailers currently using one or both and increasing to 34% and 26% respectively. By the end of 2014, 46% will purchase mobile applications.
Richard Piatkowski, head of retail accounts at Aspect said: “With nine in ten medium to large UK retailers trading through more than one channel by 2014 and eight in ten with an online store, retailers are increasingly investing in online technology and resources to battle the effects of the double-dip recession.
“Even for the smaller end of the sample surveyed, the average actual or expected increase in sales represents £13 million. The good news is it looks like things are changing – 36% of retailers did say that they were seriously planning abandoned basket recuperation strategy, or considering it long-term.”
Piatkowski added: “There are UK retailers using customer engagement technology in some pretty clever ways. In the past, I think it’s fair to say that retailers weren’t great at making the most of their online presence and using it for engagement and driving loyalty effectively, but today’s consumer just won’t accept bog-standard ‘we will get back to you within 48 hours’-type emails any longer. Those adapting and improving their service through seeking benefits from the progressing market are those surviving.”
