Consumers go for service when buying online

Seven out of ten young people want to post wish lists
Two out of three customers rely on other people’s advice

Top 10 services in online shopping

Every tenth consumer is not completely happy with service on the Web  
The number of online shoppers in Germany rose last year by seven per cent to a total of 27 million. At the same time, customers’ expectations of virtual department stores also rose. Yet only around one in every ten consumers says that service on the Web has improved since 2004. So the list of what end consumers would like to see is long. Top of the list is the desire, expressed by two out of three online shoppers, to be inspired by other consumers’ experiences with individual products. Customers also want to be able to inspect the articles close up as they cannot actually touch them. That’s why more than one-third of all online customers are demanding virtual shopping aids, such as magnifiable product shots, for instance. These were some of the findings of the latest E-Shopping-Trend 2006 study conducted by novomind in collaboration with wiwo.de and handelsblatt.com. 
  
Customers value other consumers’ advice  
Consumer demand for service when shopping on the Net remains unbroken. At the same time, prospective customers of all ages rely largely on advice from other people. This was revealed by nearly seven out of ten 14 to 50-year-olds, who said that when browsing in online shops they based their purchase decisions on other customer’s recommendations. This is true of half of all 51 to over 60-year-old online shoppers. Even in the choice of shop, practical tips play a decisive role. More than one in three consumers stated that they shopped at virtual department stores of which they themselves or someone they know had already had good experience. Young people especially rely on their friends’ advice. Over half of 14 to 20-year-olds buy at an online shop with which they are familiar from their own good experiences or those of people they know. 
  
Young people want to post wish lists on the Web  
Virtual wish lists are also a hit with the younger generation. In fact, 70 per cent of the 14 to 20-year-old consumers would like to post a list of their favourite products on the Internet so that their friends and family will stop surprising them with the wrong presents. They also feel that the effective friendship service should cost the company something. Nearly one in five customers expect to be rewarded through a bonus system for helping to attract customers—and in the 31 to 40-year-old age bracket, nearly a third of customers hold out their hand. Also popular with the more mature online shopper are visual shopping aids, such as magnifiable product photos. 
  
Consumers want to take a look at the articles close up  
While only four out of ten of all online consumers would like a zoom photo function, this is something more than 50 per cent look for in the 41 to 50-year-old age bracket. Four out of ten consumers up to the age of 40 expect an all-round view of the goods. Individual search profiles and order tracking, by contrast, are not such high priorities (15 per cent). 
 
Background information  
The latest E-Shopping-Trend 2006 survey was conducted by novomind in June 2006 in collaboration with wiwo.de and handelsblatt.com. The main focus of the survey was to determine the current trends in e-shopping and virtual marketplaces. The online questionnaire was completed by 506 end customers. 
  
novomind AG: innovative software for professional customer communications  
novomind is a software developer in Hamburg and the fastest-growing company in the field of electronic customer communications and mail management. As the leading provider of innovative solutions for digital customer communications, novomind AG provides software for service-oriented and personalised customer dealings. The software not only optimises efficiency in customer administration significantly, it also gives the user a faster return on investment. The portfolio of the Products division includes the novomind Self Service Suite™. The software package contains all the communication modules necessary for a customer service centre on a central knowledge basis: e-mail management, virtual customer consulting and systems for interactive, real-time communication. The novomind AG Services division implements complex e-business applications. More than 40 major companies have already decided in favour of novomind technology, among them Citibank, Otto, Yello Strom and the German pension institution Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund. Club Bertelsmann, EnBW and Mexx as well as public-sector users, such as the German Bundestag (parliament) and the German Department of Trade and Industry, have already successfully introduced novomind systems to optimise their customer communications, turnover and PR. 

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