Customers dislike the current shopping experience, despite the fact that they prefer it to shopping online.
41% of Americans responded to a recent survey, which was conducted online. shoppers said the quality of the in-store experience is less enjoyable than it was pre-COVID, with the undertrained or unprepared retail staff (64%) and insufficient staffing levels (60%) being the main causes of the dissatisfaction.
Although consumers are discovering that shopping isn’t as enjoyable as it once was, shopping in these two locations is less objectionable than other formats, which is good news for furniture and mattress retailers.
The three retail locations where customers said they were most likely to have a bad experience were supermarkets (38%), department stores (34%), and convenience stores (30%). Furniture stores and mattress shops were rated as the two locations where customers were least likely to have a bad experience (14% and 12%, respectively).
Long lines and crowds (71%), high prices (39%), limited product availability (32%), rude or difficult staff (29%) and uninformed or unhelpful staff (24%) were the elements that people found to be the most frustrating during their in-store experience.
“Consumers prefer physical retail for a lot of reasons,” said Theatro CEO Chris Todd, “such as the ability to see and feel products before buying them and the immediate gratification of taking a product home. However, they’ve also grown accustomed to the benefits of online shopping, such as avoiding long lines and having access to an almost limitless amount of product information. They grow more impatient with the shopping experience as a result.”
91% of respondents said they do at least half of their shopping in physical stores, with 37% saying they do most of their shopping in this channel and another 27% saying they do all of their business in stores, according to a poll of 600 U.S. adults conducted in early January by Pollfish for mobile communications platform Theatro.
87% of those surveyed spent some time in retail establishments, and about one-third went shopping there daily or frequently.
Consumers are spending less time in physical stores than they did previously; 39% report doing less shopping since the pandemic, while only 24% report doing more.
76% of people stated that they preferred the in-person experience because they could see and touch the product, while 44% cited the immediate gratification of taking their purchase home as their favorite part. It’s the social aspect that appeals to one-fourth of respondents. Making in-person returns (20%) and having access to employees for questions and assistance (21%) were also mentioned as reasons.
Convenience was by far the biggest draw for the 9% of consumers who did most or all of their shopping online, as stated by 62% of this group.
