Article

Research: E-commerce hindered by lack of human assistance

A large number of respondents to a new survey indicate a lack of assistance affected their online purchasing decisions.

August 27, 2009

Americans shopping online are missing the personalized experience of visiting a brick and mortar store, leading to a decrease in purchases, according to recent survey commissioned by Santa Clara-based IMShopping and conducted by Harris Interactive. The survey of 2,274 adults, ages 18 and older, measured consumer sentiment on receiving human assistance while shopping online.

The results found that:

• Nearly 3 in 4 U.S. online adults (74 percent) have purchased items online in the past 6 months. These adults are most commonly purchasing clothing (44 percent), books (38 percent), music (28 percent), health and beauty products (28 percent) and travel related items (28 percent). A few have even purchased things like sporting goods (9 percent), automobiles (4 percent) and real estate (1 percent) online.
• About 4 in 5 online adults who have purchased items online in the past 6 months (77 percent) say they would be interested in getting help from a real person before making certain online purchases. Of these adults, over half say they'd want help from a real person before purchasing things like real estate (56 percent), automobiles (54 percent), and insurance (51 percent). Many would also like help from a real person when it comes to purchasing things like personal computers (42 percent), computer hardware/software (39 percent), home appliances (35 percent) and mobile phones (31 percent).
• While the majority of online adults who have purchased items online in the past 6 months say they would be interested in getting help from a real person before making the purchase, over 4 in 5 (82 percent) say there have been times when they have not been able to get the help from a real person.
• Most strikingly, over half (52 percent) of those who have not always been able to get the help they needed from a real person say it's affected their decision to not purchase the product at least sometimes, while 16 percent say it's affected their decision not to purchase the product almost always or often.

"No level of automation can replace the human touch. The results indicate that shoppers still want real people to help them purchase products, even in a digital setting," said Prashant Nedungadi, CEO and founder of IMshopping, a social media shopping firm. "Many retailers have started taking steps in this direction and we believe it will be the single biggest push for the retail industry over the next several years."