A new study has revealed that European consumers are more
frustrated by online customer service than they were a year ago.
The latest benchmark study of 5,000 consumers in the UK, France,
Germany and Spain, conducted by ecommerce services provider
ATG, found that
43 percent of consumers rate online service as satisfactory or
worse–a rise on last year’s figure of 25 percent.
The results also indicate that more than half (51 percent) of
consumers find the most frustrating aspect of shopping online is
the difficulty they have reaching retailers by phone or online
chat to answer questions. The second most common frustration was
trouble completing orders at the checkout, cited by 23 percent of
respondents. Breaking the data down into specific territories,
more than a third (35 percent) of UK consumers would not describe
their experience of online shopping as anything more than
satisfactory. Brits are most likely frustrated by forgetting
their account information and difficulties with logging into
their customer accounts. A similar percentage of French consumers
shares that concern (29 percent), but the problem appears to be
nonexistent in Spain.
Drilling down further, the study reveals that the speed of
service (22 percent) and the option to shop via their preferred
channel (22 percent) is what consumers like most about buying
online. In Spain, the ability to compare prices and find the best
deals, is the top answer.
Forty-five percent of UK consumers wouldn’t spend more than
£50 online in a single transaction. This is comparable with
the rest of Europe, where overall, 43 percent are willing to
spend no more than €50 online in a single transaction. This
is down appreciably on last year’s figure of 53 percent,
indicating that Europeans are becoming more confident shopping
online.
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