GeoDirectory was delighted to join forces with Dublin Chamber to host a webinar that focused on online shopping behaviours and attitudes during the pandemic and to identify key factors for winning business online.
Opening the event and acting as MC for the day was Marian O’Donnell from Dublin Chamber. Marian introduced us to panel members Karen Hall, Account Director at IPSOS MRBI, Dara Keogh, CEO at GeoDirectory and Jeff Sheridan, Founder and Managing Director at Matrix Internet.
Having conducted Omnipoll research on behalf of GeoDirectory, Karen was first to speak and went through the findings of the survey. Just over 1,000 people nationwide, aged 15 years and over, took part in the survey in August 2020, post first lockdown. Questions asked were all around online shopping behaviours and the experience people have when placing an online order. In addition, the survey explored the attitudes towards using an automated service. Some findings include:
- 3 in 5 shoppers shop at least monthly online
- 1 in 3 weekly shoppers have frustration in completing the address fields
- 3 out of 5 shoppers believe an automated address facility would make shopping line easier
- 3 in 5 online shoppers claim they would stop shopping online if they had difficulties in completing their address in the required format
- 4 in 5 shoppers would have a confidence in service with an automated address
To hear about these findings and many more in detail listen back here.
Dara Keogh was next up to speak and discussed the online explosion that is taking place at the moment with an enormous amount of data in the cloud. Dara took the audience through online spending during the pandemic and the two lockdowns, with grocery, electrical and hardware winning in the retail sector. Unsurprisingly, the biggest losers are those operating in the transport sector with travel greatly impacted by Covid-19. While we’ve had to cancel our dinner reservations, it seems that restaurants that took the initiative to offer a take away service have done pretty well too.
The focus of Dara’s presentation was on how to evolve the customer experience to win and what you need to do to avoid a fractured customer experience. Dara provided lots of top tips with insights on what Irish people want from their online suppliers and why investing online is worth it. All research points to the very good news that Irish people want to buy local and support Irish businesses. When added to the unprecedented growth in online shopping, Dara presented a case that a huge opportunity exists online for SME’s.
To hear more about how you can provide a top class online shopping experience for your customer, listen back here.
The final speaker of the day, Jeff Sheridan, helped us to understand shopping carts and why people abandon them and offered some take away’s for instant fixes.
Jeff talked about the biggest challenges Irish retailers faced in 2020 with their doors closed and what they did about it. They survived, many thrived, online sales grew between 200 – 400%, and they found new customer and markets.
With 67% of online carts abandoned, Jeff pointed out non negotiables for online businesses in 2020. All signs indicate that people have been digitally transformed and are going to stay online, even after lockdowns are over for good. Jeff covered the reasons why people abandon their carts and how retailers can make things better so customers continue through the checkout to make a sale. He used IKEA and other well-known retailers as good and bad examples of online shopping and how carts have evolved over time to make it easier and clearer and how to avoid a fractured online shopping experience.
For more information on what is possible for your business with small investment listen back here.