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Extracts — Books & Research
2020 South African Digital Customer Experience Report

Are South Africans satisfied with their online shopping experience?

  •   3 Aug 2020
  •   0
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by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) If South African consumers are happy with their online shopping experience, they’re likely to tell their friends and family about it. But this potential brand advocacy hinges on retailers being able to provide an exceptional customer experience — something which doesn’t happen often enough.

Digital CX report

This is according to the 2020 South African Digital Customer Experience Report, the second annual collaborative research effort by marketing and advertising agency, Rogerwilco; market research provider, ovatoyou; and customer experience (CX) professional, Julia Ahlfeldt.

Online trends — 2020 Digital CX reportWhere online fails — 2020 Digital CX report

For Charlie Stewart, Rogerwilco CEO, the willingness of local customers to share positive online shopping experiences is the standout insight from the research. Of the 2 000 respondents, 75% indicate they would tell their friends and family, while 43% say they would share their experience on social media (an increase from 37% in 2019). In comparison, just 56% say they would share negative online shopping experiences with friends and family, and 32% would post about these experiences on social media.

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“Surprised”

“This concept of advocacy is something brands have spoken about for years but I was surprised at the level to which people are willing to share news of good experiences,” says Stewart. “Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of emphasis on people’s willingness to share negative stories, and social media has become a sort of echo chamber where we only talk about the bad things, so that made [the result] particularly surprising.” He speculates that the change could be related to the covid-19 pandemic, and an increased propensity to share good news in a period that’s understood to be challenging for all. However, this would only be able to be confirmed with the 2021 report.

More demographics — 2020 Digital CX reportDemographics —2020 Digital CX report - Rogerwilco

For brands, better advocacy hinges on being able to provide a digital experience which is smooth and pleasant. According to the report, more than R1bn in local programmatic advertising is likely being lost to fraud and service fees; redirecting this to improve the digital customer experience could be far more profitable in the long term, increasing brand loyalty. This would involve addressing pain points in the shopping journey, which commonly include slow websites or apps, a lack of customer support, inadequate product information, unreliable payment solutions, and delivery issues.

Fixes

Stewart breaks down the fixes for retailers looking to enhance their online customer experience: “There are two different elements here: the first is making sure you get your housekeeping right. Having a fast website is essential and it’s very easy, in these days of elastic cloud-hosting services and hosting optimisation products, to deliver a seamless user journey online — yet brands continue to get that wrong.” Accurate, detailed product information is just as important, he adds. “People are doing 90% of the job; they’re providing the basics but they’re not delivering the detail.”

The second element is a broader, structural one. “I think this is where there’s real complexity with ecommerce,” he says. “We still have difficulties with shipping, for example, making sure that we’re able to get products from A to B, and then there are challenges with inventory management. Although there are algorithms that should enable brands to predict with a fairly certain degree of accuracy what demand will be, which will allow them to replenish stock, we’re still not at the point where we’re able to accommodate surges, or able to accurately understand where demand is coming from.”

Cart abandonment — 2020 Digital CX reportCustomer frustrations — 2020 Digital CX reportOnline trends — 2020 Digital CX reportActions after poor experience — 2020 Digital CX report

Mobile-first

The very first thing that a business should focus on, though?

Making its ecommerce mobile-first, says Stewart. “Across Africa as a whole, we’re seeing about 80% of ecommerce payments being handled on mobile devices. This isn’t news to anybody; we’ve been talking mobile-first for a long time. But it’s still incredibly frustrating when you get to the checkout section of a website and suddenly the screen resorts to this tiny series of boxes that you need to insert information into. That, for me, is a fundamental breaking point.”

See also

  • #OnTheResearchRadar
  • Columns | Extracts — Books & Research

 

Carey FinnCarey Finn (@carey_finn) is a writer and editor with over decade and a half of industry experience, having covered everything from ethical sushi in Japan to the technicalities of roofing, agriculture, medical stuff and more. She’s also taught English and journalism, and dabbled in various other communications ventures along the way, including risk reporting. She is a contributing writer to MarkLives.com.

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Columns

  • #AdChamps, #AdOfTheWeek & #AdOfTheYear
    #AdChamps, #AdOfTheWeek & #AdOfTheYear
  • #AgencyLeaders – Most Admired Poll
    #AgencyLeaders – Most Admired Poll
  • #CoronavirusSA – Special Section
    #CoronavirusSA – Special Section
  • #CustomerFirst – Craig Hannabus
    #CustomerFirst – Craig Hannabus
  • #NotSoOrdinary – Taazima Kala-Essack
    #NotSoOrdinary – Taazima Kala-Essack
  • #TheInterlocker – Emma King
    #TheInterlocker – Emma King
  • #Transformers Transform 2020
    #Transformers Transform 2020
  • #WritersBlock – Tiffany Markman
    #WritersBlock – Tiffany Markman
  • An Accountant in Adland – Siwe Lawrence
    An Accountant in Adland – Siwe Lawrence
  • Big Q – MarkLives Panel
    Big Q – MarkLives Panel
  • Big Reads on MarkLives
    Big Reads on MarkLives
  • By Invitation Only – Motive
    By Invitation Only – Motive
  • Campaigns – MarkLives
    Campaigns – MarkLives
  • Circulation Data – ABC Analysis
    Circulation Data – ABC Analysis
  • Clicks ’n Tricks – Charlie Stewart
    Clicks ’n Tricks – Charlie Stewart
  • Curiosity – Marguerite Coetzee
    Curiosity – Marguerite Coetzee
  • Dear Radio – Paulo Dias
    Dear Radio – Paulo Dias
  • Extracts — Books & Research
    Extracts — Books & Research
  • Fair Exchange – Erna George
    Fair Exchange – Erna George
  • Hard Relate – David Alves
    Hard Relate – David Alves
  • Herding Words – Wendy Shepherd
    Herding Words – Wendy Shepherd
  • Hermaneutics – Herman Manson
    Hermaneutics – Herman Manson
  • Masterclass Notes – Johanna McDowell
    Masterclass Notes – Johanna McDowell
  • Media Redefined – Martin MacGregor
    Media Redefined – Martin MacGregor
  • Mission – Tom Fels
    Mission – Tom Fels
  • Press Pass – Carey Finn
    Press Pass – Carey Finn
  • Q5 – Carey Finn
    Q5 – Carey Finn
  • SA TV Ratings – MarkLives
    SA TV Ratings – MarkLives
  • Spotlight – MarkLives
    Spotlight – MarkLives
  • The Martini Shot – Bobby Amm
    The Martini Shot – Bobby Amm
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    The Power Report – Megan Power
  • The Suit – Jason Harrison
    The Suit – Jason Harrison
  • Thinking B2B – Warren Moss
    Thinking B2B – Warren Moss
  • Watched – Richard Lord
    Watched – Richard Lord
  • WTF?! – Leigh Tayler
    WTF?! – Leigh Tayler
  • Young, Gifted & Killing It – Veli Ngubane
    Young, Gifted & Killing It – Veli Ngubane
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