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What makes online shops sexy
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Contact with the customer service agent is a top priority with online buyers
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Product reviews from other customers are also very popular
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Hamburg, June 19th 2007 –
Customers have high expectations of virtual shopping worlds and the list of services they would like to be offered is accordingly long. This means that online shops that do not have a well-organised e-mail customer service are at a disadvantage. Few customers are prepared to do without professional advice when questions concerning e-shopping crop up. That’s why the opportunity to contact a service agent is important to some 87 per cent of online buyers. These are the findings of the trend survey "Vernetzte Kunden - Wie Web 2.0 das Online-Shopping verändert” (Online consumers - how Web 2.0 is changing online shopping) conducted by novomind AG in collaboration with wiwo.de and handelsblatt.com.
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Online shoppers would like to have a direct line to their service agent.
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In order to meet customer requirements, companies need an efficient e-mail management system like iMailTM, which was specially developed by the Hamburg software company novomind to help customer service agents with the selective processing of incoming e-mails. The software independently retrieves electronic post from several accounts, analyses the contents and distributes it by category. For some categories, the system then automatically sends out confirmations of receipt to the customers. The software additionally suggests specific text modules to the service agent, who can then add to or adjust them as individually appropriate. This cuts response times considerably.
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In addition to a good e-mail customer service, e-shoppers also especially want to see product reviews from other customers. With nearly 80 per cent of respondents in favour, this requirement comes in second place. Weblogs, on the other hand, arouse far less interest. Only around a quarter of surfers are really keen on these - and most of them are male. When it comes to products, too, women’s and men’s needs differ. Women consider it far more important to be able to influence the range of products on sale in online shops. Unlike male shoppers, women also attach greater importance to second-hand goods being available in online shops.
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Online shopping preferences vary not only according to gender, however, and the study also reveals age-specific user wants. In nearly all criteria, it becomes clear that young surfers expect more from their shop platform than older ones. In the age group 21 to 30, the desire for dealer recommendations that refer to other customers’ purchases is greater than with buyers over 50. Whereas the younger generation rates this criterion as important, it is less so to the 50-plus group. The opportunity to chat with the customer service agent also receives a greater response from twens than from over-50s.
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The report on the trend survey "Vernetzte Kunden - Wie Web 2.0 das Online-Shopping verändert" presents the findings of an online survey conducted for novomind AG in collaboration with wiwo.de and handelsblatt.com. The survey investigated where the latest trends lie with Web 2.0 applications and how customers use them. The survey was conducted during the period from 30 January to 28 February 2007. Altogether 374 end consumers took part.
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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 SuiteTM. 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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