E-retailing insiders feel better about their industry, says new survey
Online retailers’ opinion of themselves has gotten better in the past three years, but it still lags consumers’ opinions of the online shopping experience, says the latest Insiders’ View of E-Retailing survey from ForeSee Results Inc. and Internet Retailer.
“That’s a good sign of future success,” says Larry Freed, president of ForeSee Results. “It means e-retailers are still striving for innovation and breakthroughs.” Freed will present the results of the survey at eTail 2004 in Fort Lauderdale next week.
Insiders gave their industry a score of 65 out of 100, up from 58 in the first survey. Consumers give it a score of 84, up from 77 two years ago.
Freed characterizes insiders’ rising scores as “a little yellow flag” which could indicate that e-retailers are getting satisfied with themselves. “Complacency means failure in the future,” he says. “I won’t wave the flag yet, although I’ve got it in my hand.”
In the first two surveys, retailers ranked as their three highest priorities their brand image as communicated by their web sites, product browsing and product information. Brand image remains a top priority this year as does browsing, but product information fell as a concern, replaced by navigation. That means retailers believe that moving through their sites is becoming less smooth as they add products in ever larger numbers. “That reflects the rise of the super-retailing sites like Amazon where the amount of products is a whole lot more than it was,” Freed says. “In addition, a couple of years ago, traditional retailers didn’t put their complete line of products online and today they are. And so retailers are recognizing that the interface into that product mix has to improve.”
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