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 2: orientation experience in-store when shopping for a reliable winter coat

We looked at in-store orientation in the customer journey. This is the moment when a customer first enters a store and is working out where items are, finding or discovering potential purchases. This section of the customer journey includes CX variables such as Store Presentation, Way-finding, Discovery, Choice and Communication.

No retailer is currently winning at this point in the customer journey. All the retailers we looked at are doing a great job at reducing frictions during in-store orientation. But nobody is delivering high reward.

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

That means that all the retailers we looked at have low barriers to orientation. But they aren’t adding extra benefits that the customer gets out of coming into their store. Those benefits might be aiding discovery, clear layout, good communication.

Even the retailer currently winning in this space isn’t delivering a positive reward – they are just delivering less negative reward than everyone else!

Friction-reduction is important at this stage in the customer journey – making it easy for customers to navigate stores, access choices and find what they want. But with no retailer going for gold on reward here, there’s a big opportunity for someone to steal the lead.

Most important variable: Search/Way-Finding for friction, Discovery for reward

Way-finding is the dominant friction variable for impacting customer buying behaviour in this area of CX. The way to excel here is through better signposting and progression - clear signage across the store and having enough staff to guide customers. None of the retailers is currently excelling at this, so there is clear room to grow.

Other key variables

Discovery, Fitting Rooms, Store Presentation, Entrance and Layout.

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.