Uncrowd collected objective CX data from nine mainstream UK apparel retailers and compared the results, revealing who is winning and losing throughout the customer journey. In this series we zoom in on three specific comparisons, uncovering gaps and opportunities to improve customer experience strategy.

Customer story 1: price-sensitive customer doing online research for a reliable woman’s coat

This data comparison is at the pre-purchase stage of the customer journey, focusing on online research for a reliable coat, from the point of view of a price-sensitive customer.

Of the nine retailers we compared, two are dominating pre-purchase research. Our data shows exactly how they are winning – they have nailed delivering reward at the same time as reducing friction.

• Friction: anything a customer must push through to achieve an outcome
• Reward: anything a customer gets out of shopping a particular retailer

This is interesting because it’s the combination of friction reduction and reward boosting that makes the difference here.

Other retailers are doing a better job at busting friction (making it easy to navigate online research), but they don’t do so well on reward (making online research a positive experience).

The effect of that imbalance on customer buying behaviour is an overall negative. The winning retailers do an average job on friction-busting, but crucially they beat the competition on reward.

Most important CX variable: Price Offers

So how do those two winning retailers come out on top? The reward variable that has the biggest influence on performance in this space is Price Offers. The Price Offers variable here isn’t about the final price of the garment, but about how retailers influence the customer perception of value. A price offer that brings a £200 coat down to £100 feels better value to a customer than an offer that brings a £100 coat down to £80, despite the final price of the first offer being higher.

Remember that our data here is filtered for a customer story of a functional shopper who has value as a priority. Retailers who score well here have good offer clarity and communicate offers effectively, and the offers themselves promise good value.

There’s still plenty of headroom to grow in this area, even for the two dominating retailers. To catch up or pull ahead in this space by improving the shopping experience, retailers need to be running regular promotions at high value and communicating that value well. Sales messaging around BOGOF and reduced-to-clear also resonates well.

Other key variables

Other key variables in the area include Promotions (an important variable in this space with plenty of headroom for all retailers we analysed to grow), Brand Value, Curation and Personalisation.

No retailers are currently excelling in this space, and that means there's opportunity to lead, dominate and become 'famous for' doing something brilliantly.

Find out what we know - get in touch!

Chris Heap
chris@uncrowd.uk
LinkedIn

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Uncrowd is on a mission to improve every customer experience on the planet and we're doing that through a unique combination of CX observation, quantitative measurement and comparative results. Our data collections are objective and empirical, and our analysis always shows your next best action.