What’s next for online shopping as the high street bounces back?

Online shopping has been seeing strong and steady growth. It has been over 25 years since Jeff Bezos launched an eCommerce platform for selling books called Amazon, which, from modest beginnings has grown to a turnover of $469 billion.?

In 2010, internet sales were around 8% of all retail sales, growing steadily year on year so that by December 2019, pre-pandemic, they had reached 21%. Throughout the COVID pandemic, online sales grew faster, with UK online sales rising by an estimated 46.5% to ￡110bn in 2020, the equivalent of six years of growth in a single year.?

Did lockdown force a permanent change in consumer habits, with non-essential stores shut, masks, queues and one-way systems in supermarkets? Or has lockdown rekindled our love of the high street, with consumers only realising what they were missing when they were denied the choice of the in-store experience?

Return of the high street?

These are challenging times, with inflation at a 40 year high and the economy in danger of stalling, yet amongst the bad news, there are signs of life in-store. The proportion of sales taking place online has fallen steadily, from a peak of nearly 40% in early 2021, to a more modest 26% in March 2022, according to the Retail Sales report for the month from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The final COVID restrictions were only ended in February and there have been tentative signs of consumers returning to stores, browsing and buying in person preferring a real-world customer experience, rather than browsing, scrolling and ‘buying it now’ on a screen.??

The Financial Times reports that high street sales are now higher than pre-pandemic levels in around three-quarters of local authorities across the UK

Small is Beautiful

While people are replacing clicks with bricks, some areas are performing better than others. Suburban high streets have been less impacted than city centres and are recovering more rapidly. Cities Outlook 2022 showed that city-centre high streets lost 28 weeks of sales between March 2020 and September 2021; while in the suburbs, this was considerably lower at 9 weeks.

The shift to working from home led to changes in behaviour. Without the daily commute, it can be cheaper, safer, and more convenient than to venture into city centres. The small and independent stores provide a more personal and intimate experience that people crave after two years of being cooped inside. When it comes to the smell of sourdough or wanting to try it before you buy the overall customer experience (CX) provided by smaller stores simply cannot be matched by the online world or many of the larger stores

Online – where ‘good’ isn’t good enough

With online, expectations are high, having a fast reliable site, optimised for mobile and offering competitive prices doesn’t give you a competitive advantage, it just gets you a seat at the table. The stakes are high and nowhere are they higher than customer service.

Beyond technical functionality, what makes a great customer experience? Most importantly, a human touch - that is, creating authentic connections by making technology feel more human and giving employees what they need to provide better customer experiences.

The importance of CX in customer support

Customer service agents play a significant role in creating a personalised customer experience. Customer service agents must always be ‘always on’ 24/7 and ready to solve any problems that might crop up for customers.

Automation can ease the burden, but it’s not the answer, technology can help make processes consistent, and technology can support customer service agents, but it works best when designed to support a human-first approach in a digital space.?

Being where your customer is and wants to be

Omnichannel and omnipresent – businesses need to evolve to anticipate the needs of their customers – accessibility builds trust, and confidence and reduces frustration.

Designing for human first CX is cost-effective in the short and long term – adding live chat to a website can improve service and lower costs.? It delivers the near-instant dialogue and human connection that customers want, but a single agent can handle several chats simultaneously, delivering efficiency as well as the service that customers want.

Customers love a live chat too – they get the solution that they need, often with the benefit of being able to multi-task themselves. Chat is now the favourite service channel amongst many consumers with satisfaction levels of 73% compared to just 61% for email and 44% for phone. Customer retention improves as well, with 63% of consumers saying they are more likely to return to a website that offers a live chat function.

The popularity is understandable - Live chat connects customers instantly with an agent meaning there is no need to dial a number or craft an email. Minimal effort is required from the consumer. At the press of a button, they can speak to a customer service agent and resolve their problem.

The conversation transcript can be kept for future reference, making it easier for users and agents alike to discuss problems. It is far simpler for agents to guide users through issues when their previous interactions can be referred back to for context. All of this means that First Contact Resolution (FCR) is around 75% and with an email follow up it increases to over 90% without the need for further contact or escalation

Customer focus is just the beginning

As Jeff Bezos himself says “If there's one reason we have done better than our peers… it is because we have focused like a laser on customer experience.”

“We live in the age where the customer rules. You cannot interrupt customer experience to ‘push’ your agenda any more. You have to learn to add to their experience and ‘pull’ them in. To do this, understanding the customer’s point of view is imperative.”

In an era where customers have more choice, more information and more power than ever before, CX is a battleground where businesses can’t afford to fail.

For more information and services, head to our website link here:? https://www.callcare247.com/customer-services/customer-service-lines/