THE MAGIC TOUCH

A SAP survey found that digital touchpoints influence up to 56% in-store purchases. Customers expect brands to allow them to browse and buy on their terms. This means that companies must provide a personalized, and digitally supported omnichannel experience.

E-commerce is no longer about just logging onto to a website to make a quick purchase. Customers are fast changing their online purchasing habits. And brands are eager to understand their digital shopping behaviors and expectations.
To help them in this endeavor, SAP undertook its Customer Experience research in January 2018. It reached out to over 20,000 global consumers, including 8,000 across Australia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and China.
Its survey found that digital touchpoints influence up to 56% of in-store purchases. Today’s customers expect brands to allow them to browse and make purchases on their terms – where, when, and how they want. This means that brands must provide a consistent, personalized, and digitally supported omnichannel commerce experience; whether it’s web, mobile, social, in person, or a combination of these. DON’T’ LOSE THAT CART
As part of the survey, respondents were asked about the kind of products or services they buy online, the reasons they abandon their shopping carts, and what would make their online shopping experiences better. What are the most popular online purchases across Asia Pacific? The research found that entertainment experiences, groceries, and travel top the list.

What are the reasons that people throughout Asia Pacific abandon their online shopping carts? However, in these two countries, consumers are more concerned with a lack of discounts and price comparison, respectively. Other top reasons for cart abandonment across all markets are price sensitivity, followed by stock availability and longer-than-expected delivery times.

According to Jennifer Arnold, Vice President, Marketing, SAP Customer Experience, Asia Pacific, reviewing cart abandonment data provides a starting point for retailers to identify areas of friction in the consumer journey and make improvements to the overall purchasing experience. Consumer behavior at the checkout stage, including items selected and discarded, navigation steps, time spent to complete specific actions, and the precise point of abandonment all provide valuable insight into ways the retailer can boost customer engagement and increase conversion.

Once brands know why shoppers are abandoning carts, they can capitalize on ways to better the customer experience and encourage follow-through on the purchase.

RIGHT TO DEMAND
Compared to their global peers, consumers in Asia Pacific are the most demanding when it comes to purchasing goods or services online, with more than half (52%) discarding their cart sometimes or all of the time, ahead of the Americas (46%) and Europe (43%).

The reason for this is primarily because they treat their cart as a visual display board to compare prices, and also because there are no discounts or promotion codes. This is slightly higher than global averages. Discounts or promotions seem to be the highest motivators for consumers in this region to complete their purchase online, followed by timely responses to queries about the item.

However, when it comes to what Asia Pacific consumers wish to see more of from brands to make great online shopping experiences, the list is longer. Customers are looking for more than competitive prices or an easy check-out process – they want tools and resources to help them compare products and make decisions. Comparison tools for prices and products specification within the same website; virtual or augmented reality technologies to help them picture how the product will look like in real life; information about the different types and sizes of the same product; and access to a physical store that they can go to test or try out products are all crucial to offering optimal online experiences.

And if you think that the list ends here, you have another think coming! Consumers also want positive after-sale experiences with an easy exchange process via free return labels or nearby lockers.