Hermes Germany has defined in its latest customer survey “success factors in e-commerce” sevensuccess factors for online shops including website design, user friendliness, product range, price
level, payment methods, shipping options and the delivery to the end-customer.In cooperation with the research- and consulting initiative E-Commerce Centre Trade, HermesGermany has investigated what the German citizens expect from a good online shop and which successfactors are decisive for sustainable customer loyalty.
Hermes’ biggest customer satisfaction study to date analysed 108 online shops from elevenindustries in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The shops were selected based on theirrevenues. The evaluation of the shops was carried out from the consumer perspective according tothe previously defined criteria. More than 10,000 German consumers aged over 16 were interviewedvia a consumer panel. The E-Commerce Centre Trade is led by the Institute for Trade Research (IFH)at the Cologne University.
“Online shops will only succeed in positioning themselves on the market in the long run ifcustomers are satisfied with these factors,” said Dr. Kai Hudetz, Managing Director of IFH Cologne.In addition to satisfaction, customer loyalty is also important for an online shop to besuccessful, Hermes added.
The survey results revealed that online retailers who take into account the most importantsuccess factors from the customer’s perspective increase the customer loyalty to their web shopcompared to providers who neglect it. Thereby, the success factor shipping options and delivery aswell as user friendliness have the greatest impact on whether a retailer succeeds in convincing thecustomers permanently binding them to the shop.
“Efficient logistics can be a key competitive advantage for the trader. Conversely, a poorlyfunctioning distribution process has a negative effect on customer loyalty. For example, if anarticle is delivered late or the customer receives the wrong product, he will chalk this up to thetrader and then probably won’t order from him next time, “said Frank Iden, CEO Hermes LogisticsGroup Germany.
A customer loyalty index was developed for the study evaluating the consumer attitude accordingto three criteria including overall satisfaction, the likelihood of choosing the shop again and thewillingness to recommend it to other people. Especially in the time of social media, the customerwillingness for recommending is becoming increasingly important and gives an indication ofconfidence in the particular online shop. Therefore, it is considered an important indicator forthe subsequent purchase behaviour and is relevant when it comes to winning new customers. Nearly25% of consumers surveyed admitted to have noticed an online shop through a recommendation.
The study also features a list of the TOP 10 online shops in Germany based on the online shopindex that was used for the survey put together from the seven success factors in e-commerce andthe customer loyalty index. The winner is the specialist shipper Musikhaus Thomann (thomann.de) whosucceeded the best to meet customers’ expectations according to the different criteria. Thomann.deis thus even ahead of the internet giant Amazon with a slightly better performance in the criteriaservice and value for money.
