19 Sep 2011, 4:15 pm
Head carried out research which assessed how closely connected retailers' shops, websites and apps were and measured it in what its research paper (34-page / 1.13MB PDF) called the 'integrated customer experience scale'.
"We reviewed 100 of the UK's best-known retailers to evaluate their offer and find out which companies are getting it right," said Head's head of design Paul-Jervis Heath in a blog post. "Oxford Economics analysed the retailers’ sales performance relative to their ICES score. Our findings demonstrate that there is a correlation between a strong integrated customer experience and sales growth."
Retailers could make sales growth more likely by working harder to connect online and offline customer experiences, Heath said.
"The key success factors for retailers are; enable customers to choose a purchase path which suits them best, create appropriate links between touchpoints, use mobile websites and mobile apps appropriately and treat customer support as an important part of customer experience," he said.
"Delivering effective, integrated customer experiences leads to growth in sales," said the report. "Creating this type of experience does not require large investment or necessarily any new technology. Rather, it requires retailers to apply what they already know about retail, buying and merchandising to their digital environment in order to create engaging moments."