News

Mobile retail lags behind Web-based in customer experience, index shows

September 14, 2012

Customer experience analytics provider ForeSee released yesterday the ForeSee Mobile Satisfaction Index: Retail Edition, which creates a benchmark for customer satisfaction with the retail mobile experience, including smartphones and tablets.

ForeSee found that the mobile experience for retail falls short in comparison to retail Web satisfaction. Websites appear more uniformly across PCs and laptops, but among mobile devices the different screen sizes, operating systems, hardware specifications, and loading speeds make it difficult for companies to provide a uniform experience to its customers across platforms, according to the release.

In the retail satisfaction index comparison of mobile satisfaction scores to web satisfaction, nearly all of the top retailers perform better on traditional websites, although some retailers maintain both fronts successfully. Amazon topped the list of mobile dominant retailers, with Avon and Apple rounding out the top three.

Overall satisfaction with the mobile experiences of 20 of the largest online retailers registers 79 on the Index's 100-point scale, with scores ranging from 76 to 84. Almost half of the measured retailers score 80 or above, which ForeSee considers to be a benchmark for excellence. Amazon sets the bar at 84, followed by Avon (83) and Apple (82), according to the release.

"The mobile platform is maturing much faster than the web in its early days, and more consumers are interacting with companies and brands via mobile devices every day," said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee. "Customers experience the Web differently on mobile devices, and companies that do not measure the mobile experience miss an opportunity to solidify customer loyalty and risk losing customers to companies that do."

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