New Study Identifies Epidemic Consumer Disease: Post-Transaction Anxiety Disorder

[May 2nd 2000]

"Return to Sender," an international study of the success factors in online order fulfilment and post-transaction communication, concludes that symptoms of a new consumer malady can be traced to what Shelley Taylor & Associates have named Post-Transaction Anxiety Disorder (PTAD). The study has not only catalogued the symptoms -- shipping charges sticker shock and anxiety about whether items ordered online would actually arrive -- but has ascertained its cure.

"Return to Sender" analyzes 100 consumer e-commerce sites (70 US and 30 UK) representing a cross-industry sample. Sites were benchmarked against 200 proprietary evaluation criteria used to analyze the content and activities that support online shopping through the check-out process, post-transaction communication, receipt and return of goods. These proprietary metrics are destined to become the defining standard of successful electronic commerce and repeat business -- the key to elusive online profits. Sites that ranked highest in order fulfilment in the US include Amazon, Sports Authority, Pets.com, Outpost and Drugstore. In the UK Blackstar, HMV and Jungle.com were among the highest. Overall, UK sites fell way behind their US peers.

Amongst the main findings were:

• only 36% of sites indicate whether products are actually available before the customer has submitted his or her credit card

• 38% of sites fail to provide shipping options (e.g., next day, 2nd day, standard, etc.)

• only 16% of sites provide access to return policies on the check-out path

• less than half of online receipts inform the customer of the total charges that will be debited against the credit card

• only 57% of sites provide live online order tracking; only 7% of companies provide a link to order status on their Home pages

• only 48% of items ordered by Shelley Taylor & Associates during the study arrived when expected

• 30% of online stores provide free shipping; however, of those that don't, the average shipping charge amounted to 37% of the total cost of the order in the US and 20% in the UK (with a 2-3 day shipping option on products that averaged $25 in the US and (pound)20 in the UK).

• only 64% of stores include return instructions in the box with the items (75%in US but only 37% in the UK)

"Online vendors need to grow up," said Shelley Taylor. "They must stop thinking of their virtual stores as playgrounds in which all the other kids are begging to play. The game and the rules belong to the customer, not the retailer." She added: "I was astonished to find that some of the hottest online retailers have yet to adopt the rudimentary customer services practices of their brick-and-mortar counterparts. The success of online stores will depend upon bridging the gap between the purchase and delivery of goods and effectively managing customer expectations through post-transaction communication."

Links
Shelley Taylor & Associates		http://www.infofarm.com