- 55% of consumers said they’d rather shop elsewhere if free Wi-Fi wasn’t available.
- 56% of shoppers say difficult-to-use self-service devices will cause them to abandon their basket instore.
While consumers increasingly expect slick digital experiences when they visit bricks-and-mortar stores, the moment tech makes an action or process more complicated customers say they will abandon their purchase and leave the store, according to research by Vodat International.
Research of 1,000 UK consumers by Vodat International highlights the technology pain points that retailers must avoid if they want to maximise both their conversion rates and their increasing investment in in-store tech:
Consumers don’t need any more tech complexity. Customers demand fast, frictionless interactions with technology with 56% of shoppers say difficult-to-use self-service devices will cause them to abandon their basket instore.
Retailers pay the price of faulty EPoS. Customers loathe having to wait in line at the checkout and nearly two-thirds (64%) would abandon their basket and leave empty handed if an EPoS was too slow or broken.
Weak Wi-Fi just irritates customers. Free in-store web access is a powerful sales tool, but it is easy to get it wrong and frustrate customers. Consumers top Wi-Fi complaints are: security fears (42%), complicated log-in processes (36%) and having to supply too much personal data needed for initial sign-up (36%).
No Wi-Fi? No sale. Wi-Fi is now one of the most mature forms of customer-facing technology with 86% of consumers saying they’re happy to use it, if it’s safe and secure. Shoppers rely on complimentary connectivity to do a wide range of things while they’re instore and Wi-Fi is so integral to this patchwork of activities that more than half (55%) of consumers said they’d rather shop elsewhere if free connectivity wasn’t available.
Poor connectivity drives customers away. An even bigger proportion of shoppers (66%) said they would simply leave a store if it suffered from general poor connectivity, causing frustrating Wi-Fi data speeds, slow EPoS and buffering digital screens.
Roy Reynolds, Technical Director at Vodat International, commented: “Shoppers have lapped up the technology unleashed by online retail disruptors such as Amazon and this has had a significant impact on shoppers expectations in-store. Of all the experiences technology can offer it’s clear customers still overwhelmingly want technology to enable fast and frictionless interactions.
Roy Reynolds continues: “Half of customers we spoke to say a retailer that invested in technology that increased speed and convenience, such as mobile EPoS, would actually encourage them to make a purchase in their store.”
