ChannelAdvisor Catalyst: 10 real life consumers
by Chris Dawson
One of my favourite sessions at ChannelAdvisor Catalyst is the consumer panel. 10 real life consumers who are chosen at random are given no briefing on the Catalyst event tell where they buy online, what makes them use a particular site, and answer questions from retailers attending the conference. In no particular order other than as they were raised here’s some of the comments from the panel.
The consumers favourite websites are: Amazon (3), eBay (2), Google search (2), Play.com (2) and ASOS. Other websites mentioned were Argos (researched through Google), HMV and some independent retailers. The two consumers who shop at HMV previously made their purchases from Play.com however they’ve both switched to HMV as they’re offering a better price and now like Play.com have started to offer free delivery.
Interestingly 6 out of the 10 consumers use review sites to select a new product, but none of them have left a review. The one thing that would make them leave a review would be if the product was bad or failed to meet their expectations. What may persuade consumers to leave reviews is an email offering to enter them for a free draw, definitely phone calls or other followups are unwelcome.
When asked what would reassure them to buy the answer was “some reassurance that it’s not some guy working out of their bedroom”. They look for easy returns, free delivery (and return) and even which courier the company users. Having a phone number available is a must, being able to speak to the company and check general information is a must.
Things that scare buyers are payment methods – Western Union is a big scare, but interestingly websites that only offer PayPal also worry consumers – the perception appears to be that if the company only accepts PayPal they’re not big enough or reliable enough for a credit card merchant account.
One consumer said that on eBay they’d be happy to purchase from an eBay seller with at least 90% feedback, another say they’ll hone in on negative feedback prior to making a purchase.
Talking about Google search results there was little perception of the difference between paid and organic search results. Most of the 10 consumers appear to click organic results and ignore the paid search ads on the right of the Google search page.
The panels consensus is that a reasonable delivery time is 2 (maybe 3) days. As far as the shipping cost goes the perception is that you can offer wholesale prices and so adding in free shipping is reasonable. Being stung for shipping costs at the end of the transaction isn’t a good buying experience – buyers want to know the total cost of their purchase up front.
Disclosure: ChannelAdvisor advertise with TameBay
26 Responses on "ChannelAdvisor Catalyst: 10 real life consumers"
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Interesting read. However, I didn’t understand this part:
What does that mean? Does it mean they want wholesale prices and free shipping?
They meant they expect that retailers selling online will be selling at wholesale prices and so be considerably cheaper than the high street. Because of this adding in a few quid or a tenner for carriage into the item price will still be a bargain but will make it easier for consumers to see the total price they’ll pay.
Price transparency is (to these 10 buyers) more important than the total cost or having carriage added in at the end
Errr bear with me here. Consumers believe eCommerce companies sell at wholesale prices ?!?! Avatar is £17.01 plus VAT wholesale, Amazon sell it for £9.99 ….
Seriously though this is liking saying online companies make no profit, surely nobody is that naive ?
To be honest customers don’t give two hoots if you make a profit or not, that isn’t their concern!
Well that would be a very selfish, myopic and short term view wouldn’t it ?
No not at all, do you care when you go into tesco’s and buy cheap goods like a case of beer that their making a loss? Or that your local store could be a loss making one but they keep it open to stop anyone else opening there?
Unless maybe you work in that industry you don’t care what a company is doing as long as your involvement is good and you get the price you want for the goods or service?
Don’t assume you can understand what I do or don’t feel/care about retailers. In my case you most certainly don’t know. I can see beyond the selfish “me me me” mantra of “cheapest is best” and will regularly avoid the cheapest outlets.
I have a long term view on such things and I know that cheapest is best doesn’t do anyone any favours ultimately. Like the other Steve W said the other day “nobody wins in a race to the bottom”. I’ll add to that “nothing lasts forever”. Even Tescos will go under/be bought out/disappear one day, ditto eBay and even Amazon. NOTHING LASTS FOREVER. Cheapest is best can’t last forever either.
It might be selfish and myopic: it’s also the view of a LOT of buyers, online and offline, and yes, is particularly prevalent amongst eBay buyers (at least, if the 100,000 or so I’ve dealt with over the last decade are anything to judge by).
As one of my buyers said a few months back “eBay is supposed to be the cheapest”. Telling her “err, no” wouldn’t have made any difference: she believes what she believes, as do the people on the panel. It’s an attitude that retailers are going to have to deal with, or get out of retail.
The simplicity pricing issue is very telling: more than one of the panel said that they liked free shipping because it didn’t add anything in later. I venture that *seeming* the cheapest is more important than *being* the cheapest for a majority of buyers. Rather than argue about what buyers “ought” to think, I’m going to concern myself with how to achieve that impression.
As a retailer selling tangible products, you guys have it easy. Try being a developer where just over 90% of your potential customers demand your product be free.
One of my favorite examples of this: http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?AppIdea&page=sugdetail&sid=5000000736
I don’t disagree with you Sue, I’m sure that’s how a lot of people feel, and eBay customers can be the worst of the bunch (although carboot customers are another story). However, I do resent the intimation that everybody is like that, I know I’m not and I’m confident I’m not the only one.
Price transparency and inclusive shipping is fine if you operate your own website free of fees.
Until eBay come up with a solution that does not impose a fee of any type on shipping then no matter what eBay say it won’t work on eBay as eBay is all about the lowest price first and foremost and positioning yourself to offer that.
Sorry, but how can 10 people be a representitive sample to base anything on?
10 is a small number, but these are people totally unconnected with the world of ecommerce so their viewpoints are interesting even if not statistically valid. Also 10 is better than none
Trying to get any useful general overview or statistics from 10 random internet buyers is insignificant as far as I’m concerned.
Drag a different 10 internet buyers off the street and you may well have got completely different results. Make it a truly random across the board sample of a different types and ages and a much larger number then I might sit up and take notice. Until then the results are pretty much worthless IMHO.
I know far more about MY customers than CA will ever be able to tell me, for starters my average buyer is way older than any of those.
Even psychologists think 10 is too few
I wouldn’t undertake any research on under 100 participants, and then I’d prefer a lot more.
I thought this was excellent.
Expecting free shipping (within 2 – 3 days) and free returns shows just how demanding the average buyer is becoming.
Interesting that a portion (how many exactly?) of these 10 buyers percieved that offering more expensive to process payment methods (such as a cc merchant account) makes the seller/website more reliable.
Would have thought that keeping seller costs down would have been more acceptable as this will maintain the lower “wholesale” prices these buyers hunker after.
Paypal is often more scary for sellers than buyers.
The really bizarre part is that you can set up what looks like a merchant account with PayPal to accept their credit card and they’ll never know the difference. It was more of a sentiment that someone only accepting PayPal looks like they’re operating out of their back bedroom, so make your site look professional and offer a choice of payment methods, address, phone number contact details etc.
well we are not politicians trying to keep everyone happy, or win an election, we are in the business of trying to make a living,
looking to sell enough at the right price. make a profit and have a life.
we dont kid ourselves we are samaritans
I guess the answer is to have a checkout with a regular merchant account (ProtX or whatever) and Paypal as well. That would look “accommodating”, especially if you’re trying to appeal to your eBay customer base.
Ten buyers “chosen at random are given no briefing on the Catalyst event” – did they drag them in off the street?
Did we drag them off the street? Actually yes we did. The 10 members of the consumer panel were hired for the morning from a local temp agency and the only requirement we requested for joining the panel was that they must have bought something online over the past couple of months. We did not interview or brief the panel on possible questions. These were online consumers at the rawest.
OK, as seen on Jerry Springer (remember him?)
The only requirement was ….
I think it sounds like it was nice/good idea for an event like catalyst. Not that it is serious market research or that we should base our five year plan on the input of the magnificent ten. but I’m sure that there would always be somthing to learn from 10 (fairly) random online shoppers
I think it is very interesting to hear what these guys have to say and I often ask people I know about online shopping because when you work in online retail you do have a much better understanding of it, which to some extent makes you a better online shopper.
These guys don’t know the difference between a lot of what we do and are just ‘buying online’ the in’s and out’s don’t bother them.
For example the other day a customer phoned up, was unsure how to use the website so I talked them through it and the checkout process. It wasn’t until I did that did I realise just how much information was laking in our checkout! Plus it only took one customer, not 100 for me to see there was issues!
Stu
Talking of people “talking about eBay” I received a communication today from a research company looking for “participants” and their opinions on online shopping including eBay and Amazon etc. If anyone is interested just email me and I’ll forward it to you. If you register and participate they pay you £50 !