Buying online or in store?

A recent study carried out among German, English and French consumers reveals that:

â € ¢ 36% believe that in-store experience is better than online experience (in terms of developing and expanding customer experience) )

â € ¢ 27% consider it equivalent, while 21% deem the in-store experience to be late par compared to the online experience.

In Germany, the results are even more noticeable, with 47% of participants who believe that the in-store experience is better.

In the UK, 27% consider the in-store experience to be superior and 27% find it equivalent to the online experience.

Finally, in France, the majority of participants believe that the two experiences are equivalent (31%).

A confirmed observation par age group: while 28% of French participants from 18 to 24 years consider that the in-store experience is late, 34% consider it equivalent. The report also explored the reasons why consumers choose to visit a store, the most popular including the act of purchase, product demos and interaction with the store. the sales teams.

The role of technology in the customer experience

When it comes to which technologies consumers would like to see in their in-store experience, the results are similar for all three countries. The first response is the availability of real-time stocks for all age groups and in all countries (41% in Germany, 40% in the United Kingdom and 37% in the United Kingdom and XNUMX% in France).

It should be noted that for these countries, the youngest consumers are more eager than the national average for an increased presence of technology in stores. In France, the most popular technologies par participants, after the availability of stocks in real time, are access to Wifi (21%), self-service payment applications (21%) and virtual reality in store (18%).

It is interesting to note that the proportion of interested participants spar virtual reality is much higher in France than in other countries.

Benefits of e-commerce

One of the first advantages of buying on the internet is convenience: purchases are made from home or from the office.

Another advantage of buying on the internet is to have a much wider range of choices than in stores. The customer can have several online stores open at the same time and thus afford to make comparisons in terms of prices, delivery conditions, available stocks, etc ...

The customer, on the other hand, is not limited geographically. Going shopping in stores involves moving around, and therefore, the direct consequence is that in this case the purchases are made at proximitated from the customer's home, which limits the choice, but also the setting in "competition" of the shops at the level of the prices practiced.

Another of the positive points offered by online sales is the lack of store opening hours. The shops are accessible 365 days perar year, 24 hours on 24.