Site traffic, Amazon approach top of mind for retailers – Retail Customer Experience

Feb. 10, 2022

Nearly all, 98%, of retail leaders are using or planning to use AI and machine learning in the next year and a half, and boosting site traffic and fashioning an Amazon approach are top of mind.

Those are findings of a RSR Research and Coveo report on how retailers are striving to compete with bigger online competitors and identify priorities for 2022, according to a press release.

Additional findings include:

• 83% named their most important priority as acquiring new site traffic, significantly more so than driving more onsite conversions (59%).
• 57% said the majority of their customers begin their shopping journey on either Google or Amazon, and 83% of respondents said that they have increased their interactions with Amazon over the past 12 months.
• 61% said digital experience has become an increasingly important part of their brand, followed by 56% saying their competition is doing a better job acting on customers’ expectations.
• 65% of retailers said more personalized offers and promotions are an important opportunity for an improved online shopping experience, and 61% said automatically suggesting relevant product recommendations would improve the online experience.
• Over half of the time, a mere 5% of shoppers log in to retailers’ sites while shopping, most opting to wait until checkout or simply using guest checkout.
• 77% of respondents are currently using AI and machine learning for search/product discovery and 21% said they are planning to do so within 18 months.

“The findings of this report surprised us in a number of ways,” Steve Rowan, managing partner at Retail Systems Research, said in the release. “Everyone knows COVID has turned the world upside down, but what we wanted to know going into this research was exactly what that means for retailers who’ve been trying to fill in every new gap (and the list of gaps in their businesses certainly keeps growing) with improved e-commerce. The very first thing they told us? Google advertising isn’t going to be enough anymore, and they’re starting to reevaluate the money they’ve been pouring into that channel for far more engaging tools going forward. It’s a true inflection point.”

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