It will come as no surprise that, more and more, the annual holiday shopping frenzy is happening online. Consumers continue to show a preference for online shopping instead of visiting traditional retail stores. According to the National Retail Federation as reported by MediaPost, 75 percent of omnichannel shoppers (shoppers who use multiple shopping channels) make a purchase online after shopping for an item in a traditional retail store.
That's why your online store has to be user-friendly and offer consumers competitive features. That includes liberal return policies. The NRF found that 75 percent of the holiday shoppers surveyed checked return policies before making a purchase. In fact, the return rate for merchandise is higher for online purchases than for in-store purchases.
Other interesting data points regarding holiday online shopping. Shoppers listed these reasons for deciding against a purchase (percentages of respondents):
- Lack of free return shipping (57%)
- Only store credit offered instead of a full refund (55%)
- An inability to return items in-store (43%)
- Too small of a return window (42%)
- Too difficult to return in-store (39%).
More insights can be found here.
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