As internet shopping has enjoyed incredible growth in recent years, retailers have invested heavily in enhancing the customer service of their online offerings, but traditional concerns from consumers still pervade. The most common causes for complaint identified are complaint handling and communication in finding a course of redress as well as the more widely recognised late or non-delivery of goods and faulty or damaged products.
Whilst the online retail sector reflects on the finding of the report and seeks to enhance the customer experience provided one segment of the online retail sector escapes criticism. Online comparison sites offering information and resale through price and product comparison are viewed more favourably by the customer. Sites such as Dial-a-Phone shun the direct sales approach of the more traditional online retailer and provide a more customer centric approach to product display. Recent surveys and reports suggest that this greater degree of interaction and impartiality is beneficial to reseller and comparison sites as opposed to their direct retail counterparts.
In the personal finance sector this is perhaps more true than in any other with credit card and loans sites revealed to be a particular source of dissatisfaction. Comparison sites which resell to retail sites again come out favourably with sites such as Moneynet providing additional information and services than the credit card or loans vendors.
But for the majority of online retailers the challenge is to reciprocate the customer interaction and course of redress that the more traditional high street retailers offer. Indeed, organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau are calling for more stringent consumer laws for online shoppers to obtain redress. Whilst there is no doubt that the convenience and choice offered by the online retail sector provides many consumer benefits and the sector will no doubt continue to show significant growth over the forthcoming years, the need for increased customer satisfaction indicates that the online retailers can perhaps learn a thing or two from comparison sites.