Half of online shoppers want better customer service

[January 23rd 2001]

After the most anticipated holiday shopping season in the history of the Internet, LivePerson, Inc an application service provider of technology facilitating real-time sales and customer service for companies doing business on the Internet, unveils its Post-Holiday Online Customer Satisfaction Monitor, a follow-up to the company's similar pre-holiday survey.

With an estimated $10.8 billion spent online this past holiday season (Jupiter), the LivePerson survey finds that online shoppers are recognizing the importance of customer service. When survey participants were asked what improvements they would make to the online shopping experience in the new year, half (50%) of all shoppers said they want better customer service or the ability to speak or chat with a sales representative.

Wilton, Connecticut-based Greenfield Online again conducted the LivePerson survey of 1000 participants, which were drawn from Greenfield's Internet-user panel of more than one million U.S. households. The survey was conducted the week after Christmas 2000.

Online Shoppers Want to Shop Their Way

Nearly a third (32%) of those polled said that customer service was either "extremely important" or "very important" to their online shopping experience this past holiday season.

Nearly a third (31%) of shoppers used online customer service to do such things as:

• Track the delivery of a purchase (54%),
• Get more information about products and services (24%),
• Verify shipping and handling charges (17%),
• Get help completing a transaction online (16%),
• Inquire about a site's return policy (15%), and
• Ask questions about billing or payment options (12%).

When asked to specify which online categories they would like to see a more customized, customer-oriented experience, survey participants responded that the following could benefit from such service:

• Personal technology and computers (45%),
• Travel (44%),
• Entertainment (27%),
• Healthcare products (27%),
• Financial services (25%),
• Personal care and beauty (24%), and
• Luxury goods (24%).

"Our survey confirms what we already know to be true - online shoppers want assistance with high-priced goods, such as computer systems or travel arrangements, that may involve complex purchasing decisions and transactions," said Robert LoCascio, CEO of LivePerson. "The report shows how all online retailers can benefit from having some form of real-time sales and customer service available on their sites."

The Holiday Season Alpha Shopper

During the 2000 Holiday Season, the Alpha Shopper - defined in the November 2000 LivePerson Pre-Holiday Monitor as the online shopper most likely to complete a purchase, spending more than $250 and rarely abandoning a shopping cart - continued to want and use customer service more than the average. Forty percent regularly use online customer service and nearly a third (32%) seek out sites that offer good customer service.

The overall profile of the Alpha Shopper, however, has changed since the Pre-Holiday Monitor. Whereas the Pre-Holiday Alpha Shopper was more likely to be a male between the ages of 40 and 50, the actual Holiday Alpha Shopper turned out to be female (52%), between the ages of 18 and 40 (56%). The shift in the sex of the Alpha Shopper can be attributed to the fact that, for the first time ever, women outnumbered men online, making up 55 percent of all online holiday shoppers (BizRate.com, January 2001).

Like the Pre-Holiday Alpha Shopper, though, the actual Alpha Shopper is likely to be married (59%). She is also fairly affluent, with 67 percent earning at least $50,000 a year, and she is likely to have no children at home (63%).

Additional Key Holiday Findings

• Over half (55%) of survey respondents made a purchase online this holiday season. Ninety percent made a purchase in a store and 22 percent bought something through a catalog.

• Twenty-five percent spent more than $100 online, 24 percent spent more than $250, 20 percent spent more than $500, and 12 percent spent more than $1,000.

• Online shoppers favorite sites for the holiday included Amazon.com (41%), Barnes&Noble.com (17%), Etoys.com (13%), JCPenney.com (13%), CDNow.com (11%), and Walmart.com (11%).

• Fifty-four percent abandoned their virtual shopping cart one to three times out of their last 10 experiences; 10 percent abandoned their carts four to seven times.

• In addition to more sites offering customer service, shoppers said they would like to see the following improvements in 2001: free shipping (81%), better prices (56%), more confidence in security (47%), and more selection (33%).

Links
LivePerson		http://www.liveperson.com
Greenfield Online		http://www.greenfield.com