Leading online retailers on average delivered customers’ orders a bit more quickly during the recent holiday season and made returns slightly easier. And a few more added PayPal as a payment option, according to data compiled during the annual Mystery Shopper Study conducted by consulting firm The E-tailing Group Inc.
The firm collects the data by ordering items, contacting customer service, making returns and scanning the web sites of 100 leading online retailers. They include such giants as Amazon.com Inc., No. 1 in the 2014 Internet Retailer Top 500, and Apple Inc., No. 2, and such smaller firms as travel products retailer and manufacturer Tumi Inc., No. 409, and baby products e-retailer Giggle Inc.
The study finds the average order took 3.42 days to arrive via ground shipping during the fourth quarter, a 10% decrease from 3.80 days a year earlier. 66% of the retailers tracked offered a single return policy for all orders (as opposed to different rules based on the product or whether the item was opened), versus 60% a year earlier; 38% allowed shoppers to begin the returns process online, an increase from 27%, and 64% offered a prepaid return label, up from 59%, The E-tailing Group says.
PayPal, the online payment service owned by eBay Inc., was offered as an option on 68% of the retail sites, an increase from 62%. But in one area these 100 retailers collectively downgraded customer service: “Customer service hours are less frequently found onsite this year (77% vs. 83%), making it difficult for shoppers to conveniently get in touch with retailers,” the report says.
Excellent customer service is crucial today when “efficiency is an expectation and choice non-negotiable,” says Lauren Freedman, president of The E-tailing Group. “In today’s omnichannel climate amid heightened consumer expectations, customer service can serve as both an expected yet important differentiator.”
The study highlighted the seven retailers out of the 100 studied that passed seven tests of customer service. Those tests included delivering in no more than three days, correctly answering an e-mailed question within 24 hours and letting a consumer check out in no more than five clicks or providing one-click checkout.
The top score went to Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., No. 72 in the Top 500. The other six, in alphabetical order, are Kate Spade (No. 176), Office Depot Inc. (No. 9), Ross-Simons Inc. (No. 213), The Home Depot (No. 16), Williams-Sonoma Inc. (No. 21) and Zappos, which is owned by Amazon.com. The E-tailing Group did not disclose the scores of the other six merchants.
The study also tracked how long retailers took to respond to questions via e-mail, and how long it took consumers to get a question answered—from the time they made a phone call or began an on-site chat—via phone, live chat and “proactive chat,” in which the retailer initiates a text chat with a visitor to its web site.
The percentage of the 100 retailers studied that offered each service, the time it took to get an answer and the rating of the customer experience on a scale of 1 to 3 are as follows:
- E-mail: 89%; 21 hours, 2 minutes; N/A
- Call center, 99%, 6 minutes, 2.51
- Live chat, 75%, 11 minutes, 2.44
- Proactive chat, 34%, 10 minutes, 2.52