Customers may love the convenience of shopping online, but many hate the complicated return policies and slow shipping options involved with online purchases. That’s the finding of new research that examined the attitudes that customers had when shopping online. In that research, it was found that 86 percent of consumers were satisfied with the experience they had when shopping online, but creating a simple return policy and offering more shipping options could improve those numbers even further.
That’s because for the more than 3,100 people polled for this survey, hassle-free returns were among their top priority when making a purchase decision online. Overall, 63 percent of respondents looked at the return policy before making a purchase online and more than half of the respondents said they would recommend a retailer to a friend and make another purchase from the same retailer if they had a lenient return policy.
"While free shipping has tended to dominate the discussion regarding what provides satisfaction to online shoppers, the study shows there are several other factors critical to a positive online shopping experience," said Susan Kleinman, comScore director. "Retailers need a holistic understanding of these drivers if they hope to stimulate sales while maintaining healthy margins in this competitive retail environment."
