Online shoppers want automated checkout, sign-up processes

The GBG Australian Shopping Experience Survey has revealed that Australians are influenced by their environment when choosing how to shop, as COVID-19-related factors propelled many consumers to increase their online shopping. The survey found that three in five Australians are shopping online more due to COVID-19, even though 50% of consumers still prefer shopping in-store. With this shift, customers are notably seeking seamless sign-up and checkout experiences that optimise efficiency, convenience and accuracy.

Survey respondents claimed to shop online more when COVID-19 cases are high and had safety concerns irrespective of whether lockdown restrictions are in place (24%) and lockdown restrictions are imposed (27%). Even as states roll out plans to reopen, it is likely that online shopping trends will continue as 9% of respondents say they will shop online more for as long as there are active COVID-19 cases, regardless of whether the numbers are large or small. Carol Chris, Regional General Manager Australia at CBG, noted that the pandemic has prompted more Australians to opt for the online channel when they shop for groceries (34%), apparel (31%) and health and personal care products (28%). “Retailers in this category especially would be competing to get ahead in obtaining online mindshare and shopping cart conversions in order to maintain or grow their businesses,” Chris said.

Retailers and brands have the opportunity to approach customer experience in new ways to resonate with their audience. The survey revealed a growing preference for auto-complete address functionality at checkout as customers believe the option makes checkout faster (38%) and more accurate, with a lower chance of typos (30%). Additionally, consumers believe that merchants with auto-complete functions at checkout are more tech savvy (25%), more reliable (25%), better at prioritising the customer experience (22%) and better at building customer trust (17%).

The most painful parts of the online shopping checkout process for Australian shoppers are when there are too many fields to fill manually (34%), entering card payment details (33%), site malfunction losing all the details entered (31%), time taken to load (25%) and authentication steps (22%). Chris acknowledged that in the online world, consumers enjoy the convenience of contactless payment, where checking out a shopping basket takes just a few seconds to complete. Consumers are also burdened with repetitive data entry as they sign up to buy from a new website and when they complete their purchase.

“It comes down to the basics that retailers who are able to provide an automated process, such as address auto-completion, to help consumers minimise the tediousness of repetitive manual entry, gain preference with consumers. It is interesting to note that while it is basic functionality, consumers do remember using it. 63% of consumers reported that they had experienced using an address auto-complete function during cart checkout last year,” Chris said.

The survey found that 50% of respondents hold themselves responsible for getting parcels sent to the right address, while 30% believe merchants are responsible as they need to have the right technology to ensure delivery addresses are accurate, while 20% believe the duty is with the courier/shipping company. Additionally, 50% of shoppers claim to do the majority of their shopping in-store, while 24% mostly do their shopping online with home delivery and 19% use click and collect options as their main way of shopping.

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