Consumers demand unified shopping experience

Channel Biz reports.

According to a report by Capgemini, consumers are no longer loyal to one channel, and expect seamless integration across online, social media and mobile channels - as well as good old bricks and mortar.

Retail Times says Capgemini's Digital Shopper Relevancy study surveyed 16 000 digital shoppers across 16 developing and mature markets.

Sixty percent of respondents said they expect the convergence of retail channels to be the norm by 2014, when a unified shopping experience is expected to become commonplace.

However, achieving this will be a challenge, as more than half of shoppers said most retailers currently are not consistent in the way they present themselves across channels.

Digital shopping is growing faster in developing markets, the study found. Some 72% of Indian and 69% of Chinese respondents said they buy more in a single online transaction than in physical stores, Internet Retailing states.

Elsewhere, the research also found that some 43% of UK digital shoppers have bought food online, more than double the rate of their German counterparts. And 61% said they want online stores to remember their personal shopper history to speed up shopping; however, only 41% would want to be identified through smartphones when entering a physical store.